Page 24 of A Sea of Secrets
At least I tried to follow, but the others lifted me out. I’d conclude that without them I’d definitely be dead by now.
Above, the interior of the ballroom was a mess. The walls still stood, clearly holding strong thanks to whatever magic existed here, but everything within had been thrown about. Furniture was embedded in walls, some pieces high up in the branches of the large trees. Smaller trees were now on their sides, torn from the ground and scattered in pieces about the room.
Then there were the surviving Potentials, who were bruised and beaten bloody. Of the 24 of us who’d entered the room, 19 remained. That number was likely to drop again any minute.
Still soaking wet from the rain, I stood with my hands on my hips and looked towards the exit. We were close. Painfully so, yet I doubted we were in the clear yet.
“This is it,” Kayden said with a hand on my shoulder. “We get to that door. No matter what they throw at us, we’re finishing this right now.”
His tone brokered no argument. I could see why so many people followed him back in the early days of the trial. Kayden had an undeniable authority about him.
Without waiting for a reply he took off, hurtling himself over fallen tree trunks with a surprising amount of grace as he went. I ran too, reminding myself the entire time that the sooner I got out the sooner I would be healed. I ran awkwardly behind Ace and Zane as we followed the path Kayden created for us. He was right. It was time to get out of this hellscape of a ballroom.
But as I ran, swallowing became harder and my throat dried out. Each intake of breath grew raspier than the last until I wasn’t sure I’d still be breathing by the time I reached the exit. I figured whatever venom the slug that bit me with had finally made itself known. Until Zane clutched at his gills ahead, and I glimpsed a pained expression on his face.
“The air is too dry,” he gasped, his steps slowing to match mine. We tumbled over a pile of rubble together, only for Zane to trip on a cracked floorboard and face plant.
“Son of a barnacle!” he howled and lifted his head slowly, revealing a very broken nose.
Kayden and Ace hurried to his side, hoisting him to his feet before I could even attempt it. Not that I would have been much help, seeing as I could barely hold myself up with my leg. Dragging in a rough breath, I placed my hand over Zane’s beaten face, blood seeping through my fingers as I clicked his nose back into place with my healing magic.
“Just do enough to stop the bleeding,” Ace said, fluffing his t-shirt. It was bone dry. Come to think of it, we all were.
“It’s getting hotter,” I stated, taking my hand from Zane’s face. Blood no longer fell from his nose, though what remained on his face was now crusted.
“Can’t stand the heat?” Kayden chuckled as we set off again.
“Not at all, dude. I was born for the cool sea,” Zane replied, stepping carefully over the rubble. “The ocean calls to me. The waves beckon for me to slide through their wet folds and taste their salty goodness.”
I caught Ace rolling his eyes and I grinned. What a little group we made. We moved slower now, the heat continuing to rise. The door was less than ten metres away, yet each step was becoming harder and harder to take. My body sagged as my limbs became heavy.
Every weather event had an answer, a way to survive. My gaze dragged over my surroundings, searching for clues. We were in a heat wave, so what did we need to do to survive it?
Get indoors, usually. But that was out of the question. We were already in a giant room and there was very little shelter beyond the trees and the crawlspace we’d just been squeezed into. I wasn’t eager to return there and I doubted the same answer would do for two weather events.
I glanced up at the ceiling, the sun nowhere in sight. The heat was clearly magical, so finding shade wouldn’t help. That just left water. The puddles left from the rain were drying up quickly, the heat evaporating the precious liquid. My dry mouth tingled with the thought of its fresh taste as I searched. There had to be a larger source somewhere.
My eyes snagged on torn curtains to my left, the fabric hanging from a fallen rod and draped in a pool of water. I dragged myself over to them, tugging until the fabric tore free. Dropping the pieces of the curtain into the pool, I fully submerged the bits of fabric as best I could before dragging it back towards the guys.
“Here,” I said, handing them a piece of the curtain. “This should help for a little while.”
We took off again, the wet keeping me cool for a time as I draped it over the back of my neck and held it over my mouth, letting droplets of moisture wet my lips.
The relief didn’t last long.
Once the curtain was dry, I discarded it, as did the others.
Zane took the heat the hardest. He dropped back a few steps, his strides more of a shuffle as he struggled like a literal fish out of water. Even Kayden, who was used to dry desert air, wasn’t immune to the effects as he trudged along. “Almost there,” he declared, only a step ahead of the rest of us.
Out of everything the room had thrown our way, this was the hardest. The slow and painful suffering as we neared the exit.
“Fuck,” Ace hissed, wincing as he held his bionic arm away from his torso. The skin where the metal met flesh was a bright angry red, as if he’d been sunburnt. “Fuck.”
“The faster you get through that door, the faster I can heal you,” I rasped.
He grunted a reply, his steps quickening. I kept pace, his newfound speed spurring me on. Behind us, a thud drew my attention, and I turned to see Zane had collapsed to his knees.
“I’ll get him,” Kayden said, trudging back towards the merman. He hooked a huge arm around Zane and lifted him to his feet.
