“You hellion!” Ares cursed right before he hit the churning water.
Zak and Paxton roared my name. I looked up in time to see them jump after Lucifer.
I plunged into the rapids, sinking instantly from the momentum of the fall. I flailed and kicked, struggling to go up to the surface. Just as I almost made it, a flood from upstream swept me under again. I cried for my mates. Icy water pumped into my lungs instead of air.
It hurt.
The powerful currents dragged me down, and then there was a fucking whirlpool underneath. I fought against the rapids and vortex, paddling with all my might to swim up, but something kept pulling me in the opposite direction.
Blackness surrounded me, and panic lumped in my throat.
I wasn’t a swimmer!
Where were my mates? Where was my hound? Where was everyone?
Something grabbed my left foot. I kicked, twisted enough to yank out the dagger in my boot, and slashed it all around like a maniac.
Then I broke free from whatever had gripped my ankle. The rapids swept me away as if I were a tea leaf, dragging me forward at a bruising speed. I even flipped a couple of times in the current, not by my choice, while the frigid water filled my lungs.
Where was the swimming boy when I needed him?
Dread and black panic choked me as my lungs burned. I needed air! Then I remembered that I didn’t need to breathe. My mind was so conditioned by my twenty-years of human living that I forgot to rely on my survival instincts.
I heard a sound like a voice, but it was distorted through the water. I couldn’t answer or call for help. Nor could I reach my mates telepathically, since our powers were muted in the Void.
A strong hand seized my arm, and I turned to drive my blade toward that person, assuming it was Ares. I pulled back my dagger right away as Héctor’s handsome face came into view. I sobbed in relief. Of all of my mates, it was my mortal lover who had found me under the rapids.
I tried to call his name, and more icy water poured into my mouth, burning my throat.
Héctor pulled me to the surface with unbelievable strength for a mortal, and I gasped for air.
“I gotcha, love,” Héctor said in his deep, soothing voice.
I vomited the water from my lungs into the rushing river. Disoriented from the near drowning, I rested my head on Héctor’s shoulder. “Gotcha?” I croaked.
Zak ran around the riverbank, shouting our names frantically, his wild eyes searching. Spotting us, he jumped into the current toward us. Together, he and Héctor carried me to the bank, and I let them.
I wasn’t proud of being a damsel in distress, but I had also learned that showing my vulnerability in front of my mates was totally okay. When I was weak, I found strength in them and through them. That was what equal partnership and trust were about. Right?
I clung to Zak and Héctor, my eyes searching for my missing mates.
“Axel! Pax!” I shouted—or tried to. My voice cracked in a hoarse whisper.
“Axel! Paxton!” Zak yelled. “Show yourselves!”
Only the roar of waterfalls and rapids and the howls of the monsters above the cliff answered us. The beasts milled around, trying to get down, but we were out of their realm now.
Héctor pulled me onto his lap to warm me and wrapped his arms around me protectively, brushing a tender kiss over the tip of my nose. Zak kept searching for my other two mates.
“Paxton jumped at the same time I did,” Zak said. “He should have been out already since he’s a sea demigod.”
“He probably dived deep into the water to search for my Lamb when he didn’t see her,” Héctor said. “But Axel should come out any time now. He leapt off the cliff before me. We were fending off the beasts, and then they suddenly halted their attacks.”
My heart pounded. Had the monsters actually obeyed me? I made a mental note to be firm in my command if we encountered a monster horde again.
Then fear grasped me again. “Where’s Angel? He was forged from hellfire. He might not be able to swim. How could I not think of that?”
Just then, two heads broke out of the upstream a few yards away.