Walk on Water

by September Thomas

  “Ok.” I didn’t know what else to say.

  “That’s not all.”

  Because of course, things could get worse.

  When I thought I’d hit rock bottom, turned out there was a whole other basement level, some more dirt, and then more awfulness.

  “Only one organization on Earth possesses Anisra. That’s the Order.”

  The Order. The most powerful religion in the world. The religion that was supposed to guide me. The religion that… Geoffrey. He’d said he was my Hand. He said he was the leader of the Order. But he hadn’t seemed malicious when I’d talked to him. Was that a ploy?

  It hadn’t felt like a ploy.

  “Why would the Order try to kill me? It’s supposed to protect me, right?”

  He looked away from the water and squeezed my hand again. The lines in his skin hardened into mixed expressions of guilt and frustration. I didn’t understand his inner turmoil. Didn’t know if I really wanted to.

  “I don’t think so, Zara.”

  Nope. I didn’t think I’d like what I was about to hear.

  Geoffrey’s green and grey eyes flashed before me. I recalled the primal expression on his face, the hunger for something, a desire I didn’t understand. Until that moment when he’d launched himself at me, he’d seemed fine. Normal, considering the circumstances. A little intense, but who wouldn’t be when you controlled an organization like the Order. But after what had happened, with what Finn was saying now, someone that powerful would know how to manipulate.

  Wouldn’t they?

  “What do you think?” I asked Finn.

  “I don’t just think. I know. I know seventeen years ago the Air Temple fell from the sky and its ruins burned on the ground. I know seventeen years ago the Palace of Water slipped beneath the waves, everyone inside dead or dying.” His jade eyes darkened to a shade that was almost black. Rage filled his voice and his jaw trembled with the emotion. “I know seventeen years ago it wasn’t terrorists that attacked like you’ve probably read in your history books. I know the Order was behind the whole thing.”

  That couldn’t be right.

  The Order wouldn’t do that.

  Not to their Gods, not to their reason for existing.

  I didn’t want to believe it, couldn’t believe it.

  I took a shaky breath, scrubbing my hands on my forearms. “How do you know that? How do you, out of everyone on Earth, know that?”

  His knuckles swished in silent contemplation. “I know the Order tried to kill you the first time. If they already tried to kill you once, they wouldn’t hesitate to try and kill you again.”

  “Finn—”

  He stood, not hearing my pleas. The boy who I’d felt a connection with beside that pond, the boy who’d pulled me from a room of death, slipped farther from my grasp than ever before.

  “We need to get going.”

  “What aren’t you telling me?” I stood with him, pushing into his personal space by putting my hands on his solid chest. “What’s going on?”

  “That’s a story for another day.” He tried to smile, but failed miserably. “You need to trust me.”

  “I don’t trust you.” I countered. “I don’t even know you.”

  “Then trust Lucy. We’re going to see her now.”

  13

  Zara

  “I need to talk to my mom. I need a phone.” I gripped Finn’s arm, forcing him to feel my urgency. “Or my coach. If I can’t talk to her, I’ll talk to him. He can then call her for me. I’ve been missing for an entire day. They must be sick with worry.”

  “I understand.” He nodded, face set in grim lines, and braced his hands on my shoulders. “I’ll see what I can do in town. No promises because I’m not sure what I’ll find at the hotel. But I’ll do my best. Now you stay here and wait for Lucy.”

  He was leaving me. Actually leaving me on a beach in the middle of nowhere minutes after he’d admitted to keeping secrets from me. I threw my arms in the air but didn’t try to follow. The pull of the ocean was too strong. And, though I wouldn’t admit it to him, going back to the hotel scared me a little.

  I flopped down on the ground. Thick grains of sand ground painfully into the backs of my legs. I didn’t mind it. The pain meant I was still alive. I was still alive and my friends—and my best friend—weren’t. I would never swim with them again. We’d never grab meals between intense training sessions, never find cute guys to flirt with.

  They were gone. And I wasn’t.

  A breath shuddered out of me. It was all too much. I’d never seen a dead body before. I’d never even lost anyone particularly close to me. And now both had happened simultaneously.

  A sharp chunk of shell jagged across my hand, and I realized I’d been clenching my fists too tightly. Blood welled around the cut. I examined the blood closely as it spread over the webs in my skin. Even my blood didn’t look the same anymore. It was still red, but it had an odd gold, glittery sheen to it.

  Someday you will be able to heal that yourself. It’s one of the gifts with which the God of Water is blessed. The Kraken’s voice was soft against my mind, like a paintbrush moving through watercolors. One of Its huge tentacles threaded delicately through the low tide and wrapped around my foot comfortingly. The cut healed as I watched. But until you learn, Finn and I can help heal your physical wounds. The pain in your mind and heart though, that isn’t so easily handled.

  Thank you, I responded and left it at that. If I thought too much about what I’d lost, I feared I would collapse in a puddle of guilt, unable to get back up again. The tentacle gripped my foot tighter for a moment, similar to how my mother would hold me close as a child, before slipping back under the swells of water.

  I understand you aren’t ready to talk. If it’s alright, I’d like to work with you on your training.

  I’ll try, I replied. But don’t blame me if I find it difficult to focus.

  I have faith. Remember, this is only the beginning, The Kraken responded, Its easy patience grating on my tender nerves. A lot is being thrown at you. You’ve experienced incredible loss. But you’re strong. You’ll get past this. As long as you focus. And focusing on your training is what’s important right now.

  I threw my hands in the air and scooted away from the edge of the sea, my heart twisting painfully as I broke the easy bond between me and the Great Beast lurking beneath the waves. I shook out my ill-fitting sweatpants, turned around, and stopped. I couldn’t act like this. I wasn’t five anymore. I walked back into the shallows, the water lapping around my ankles and calves.

  What would you have me do?

  You’ve already established a connection with the water. In fact, it rocked the sea in its intensity. It’s a strong bond, possibly the strongest I’ve ever felt. Now you need to see what you can do with it.

  So, what? Make a wave? A hurricane? Create a new geyser? What?

  Have some fun.

  That froze whatever tirade was on the tip of my tongue. Have fun? I knelt in the water, my clothing immediately saturated.

  Have fun? I repeated back to the Kraken.

  It didn’t answer.

  Okay. I clenched and unclenched my fingers a few times, rolling the pads over the fabric covering my thighs. How to have fun? What would be fun? Everything felt so bleak. How could I even think about magic, about using it, especially for my own enjoyment, when my friends were all dead? When Kaz was dead?

  Tentatively, I reached for the bond I’d created with my element. I sighed in relief when I found the fluid rope connecting us. I tugged the rope and felt my element eagerly respond to my request, tripping over itself to see what I wanted. Colorful light flashed, the liquid pooling and moving around me like a lava lamp.

  Hey there.

  We’ve been worried.

  I know. But I’m here now. And I’m not going anywhere. The blue strands of whatever “we” were swirled around me in a mini-tornado touching my clothes, my skin, my hair, my soul, before settling down. I could still f
eel the electricity pulsing inside and out. I took that as a good sign.

  I need something from you.

  Anything. It, we, they, didn’t hesitate.

  I want to have some fun.

  They giggled, a rich and tinkling sound similar to chimes. My spirit lifted and a smile touched my lips for the first time in what felt like weeks. It was such a freeing noise.

  We are good at having fun.

  My fingers flexed as an idea spun through my mind. My jaw popped as I exerted pressure on my molars, trying to figure out how to make what I wanted to happen, happen. Something hot and thick welled up in my veins. First, it flooded my feet, then my calves and upward, the dense, fluid substance spinning up inside me. Soon the heat filled my fingertips, and the chattering of my magic hit a fever-pitch, their excitement filling my chest with love and anxiety and nerves.

  I lifted a hand. What I saw made my knees buckle. The world had shifted. It was like seeing it through a different lens, a new filter. Metallic bands of bluish-silver energy laced through the waves, darted under the surface of the water, threaded through the birds overhead, and the shellfish hiding under rock and sand. As the ripples of energy approached me, they grew hotter, whiter, until it pooled in a liquid puddle inside of me.

  I was electric.

  I was a blazing beacon awash in a sea of green and blue and white.

  You’re seeing the world as it truly is. It’s called Iridescence. The Kraken’s voice touched my mind. All we are, all anything is, is energy and essence. As the God of Water, you are connected to all living things, for water flows through everything to survive. It’s an incredible but a deadly ability, one you will learn to master in time.

  Curious, I searched for the thread connecting me to a seagull preparing to dive into the waves. It slid into my fingers like the line to a kite, and I tugged. The bird twitched, its balance thrown off enough to miss whatever it had been aiming for. Shocked, I released the thread, and the bird shot back into the blue skies overhead.

  I had done that.

  I had influenced its behavior.

  You see. A truly dangerous ability it is. The other Gods will have similar influences. But your tie to living creatures is the strongest. You must always be aware of the consequences.

  Even though I’d done something bad, I felt giddy. My thoughts were as light as campaign bubbles.

  Now, show me what you were going to attempt, Zara.

  The use of my name snapped me from my state of reverie, and I pulled the threads of energy back to my fists. I concentrated on the smooth surface of the water about twenty feet away and imagined movement, imagined the creature in the forefront of my mind. Energy trickled from my body; the water rose up in a small hump and immediately flopped over.

  Not what I had in mind.

  Try again, the many voices of the water chimed in my head. Try again.

  Like with swimming, this wouldn’t beat me either.

  I grounded myself in the waves lapping around my thighs. The rhythmic movement helped stabilize my thoughts, and I plunged my hands into the clear, cool substance; my fingers dug deep into the sand, begging the water to give me all it had. The same warm, thick sensation bubbled up in my body, faster than before, and soon it sparked in my hands, flooding the backs of my eyes.

  Once more I pictured movement, imagining a liquid hare skittering across the surface of the sea, and demanded it happen. The voices in my head cried out, and when I opened my eyes the water rose up and a creature formed: first a strong set of back legs, then a textured, fat body, two more legs, a wiggly tail, and a large set of ears later, and a hare perched on the water, sniffing and twitching.

  Go, I called, and it rocketed forward.

  Mind-blown, I rocked back on my heels as the hare skittered over the water, directing it back and forth, acutely feeling its connection to the water, to me, and to everything as if it were an extension of my own body.

  Something heavy touched my shoulder, and I jerked like I’d brushed against a live power line.

  My concentration shattered. The hare exploded in a firework of droplets.

  As my concentration broke, part of me broke away with it. My mind, my being, my essence retreated behind something else. No, that wasn’t right. Someone else rose from deep inside of me and pushed me back behind it. I felt my control over my body slip as something else took over. I could only watch helplessly, trapped behind my own eyes.

  Whatever It was pulled my powers together, throwing up measures of self-defense I could barely comprehend. Water and energy soared toward me, rising in a massive wall of water between me and the attacker. It summoned an undertow, one so strong that even the most adept swimmer wouldn’t stand a chance against it. Then It tugged at the water relentlessly, dragging at whoever or whatever was threatening me, us. A second, imposing wall of water rose at my back, arching high over my head, sucking in the massive amounts of water. A tsunami.

  Someone was yelling.

  The noise registered on some level, and I felt part of me shake free, pull away from whatever was holding me back. But as I gained the small foothold, I was shoved back. This time It landed on top of me, holding me down. Vivid purple eyes sparking with lightning and anger glared down at me, enraged at my feeble attempts to shake it off. Energy wrapped around my throat, choking me, and another tendril slid through my ears into my brain.

  And I was gone.

  I was It. And It was me.

  We were one of the same.

  Not human.

  Beyond human.

  God.

  I embraced the feeling, the power, the energy. The rawness of it.

  Whoever dared combat me would live to regret it.

  More energy swirled and I embraced it. I loved the swirl and pull and twist, the burn of white and blue. They were going to pay.

  Enough. The word rippled through me, a force of nature I couldn’t ignore.

  It robbed me of my abilities. One moment I’d fully embraced my element, and the next it was gone, leaving me gasping.

  It retreated, pulling its tendrils of tempting, all-encompassing power back with it.

  My body collapsed, caving in on itself, the stillness of the water a shock from the frothy anger and aggression that I’d fueled it with earlier.

  I struggled to drag oxygen into my lungs, each movement burned. But it wasn’t a good burn like earlier. This was the fight to survive. Salty water dripped down my face into my mouth, slack in open shock. Rivulets streamed down my lank hair and over my skin, sticking to my shirt and soaking into the sand as I braced myself on hands and knees. Raising my head felt like lifting a hundred-pound weight, but I made myself do it, made myself look at whatever had come at me earlier. Finn fought to his feet, my shock and awe reflected in his face as he stared at me. Had I hurt him?

  “What was that?” Finn asked.

  He was OK.

  Thank the Gods.

  14

  Zara

  “Are you ready to talk about it?” Finn asked.

  I shook my head slowly. After reassuring me multiple times that he wasn’t injured, Finn and I had returned to his cave in silence. He’d allowed me to brood with my back against one of the walls for a solid ten minutes before getting impatient with the whole ordeal.

  “You lashed out at me using an incredible amount of power. Do you want to talk about that?” Finn asked. He sat on the bed, elbows braced on his thighs as he leaned forward.

  “Not really.”

  I remembered the white-hot burn.

  I remembered the unearthly high.

  I remembered the tsunami and the satisfaction of seeing it rise for me.

  And I remembered not knowing what in the stars was happening; I most certainly didn’t want to talk about it. It was bad enough being a slave to my own body without reliving it. I motioned instead to a canvas bag Finn had dropped at my side. I tentatively touched the fabric.

  “I’d rather talk about what’s in the bag.”

  “Some clo
thing. Food. A few other odds and ends.” Finn fanned his arms wide. “A phone.”

  “What?” I jolted, my arm already in motion as I ripped the bag open. My fingers floundered around the clothing and locked around a familiar-shaped box. I tugged the flip-phone out and opened it, stroking the raised keys reverently. “Why didn’t you say something earlier?”

  “There were more pressing issues,” he drawled. “And then you decided to sulk, so I figured you needed a minute.”

  “Next time, get right to the good stuff, no matter how I’m feeling.” I muttered, already keying in my mom’s number. She’d forced me to memorize it among several other emergency numbers when my competitions first took me overseas. I paused. “This is equipped for international calling, right?”

  Finn quirked a brow. “I may have been asleep for seventeen years, but I’m not a complete idiot.”

  Ignoring him, I pressed the little phone button on the keypad and thrust the speaker against my ear. It was silent for a few seconds, then started ringing. I was shaking, nerves rattling with apprehension. She had to answer. She had to—

  “Hello?” Relief coursed through me, from my toes to the top of my head. “Who is this?”

  “Mom?” I called, my voice high and small like I was a little girl again.

  “Zara? Is that you? We heard from your coach…” A static burst interrupted the call. Then “…we’ve been so worried.”

  “I know, Mom. I know.” I sighed shakily. “I promise I wanted to call sooner. I’m OK. I know what happened at the hotel. I know about the team and… Kaz. Everything has been crazy and I had to run, but I’m figuring it out.” The words tumbled over one another in a rush to escape my mouth. “You won’t believe what I’ve been through, what’s been happening. I’m with someone who—”

  “—hard time hearing you, honey.” Something metallic clicked on the line. The tiny hairs on the back of my neck raised. “But I need to know if—” More static.