I fall to my belly and crawl close to the edge, then I reach out and grip his fur. Fuck, he’s heavy. “Kel,” I cry.
My arm brushes against the biting cold water and I hook my fingers around a tuft. With a grunt, he crashes against the edge. I need to get his face out of the water.
Carefully, I position myself on the rim and sit up. I grip his fur with both hands andpull. He doesn’t even budge. I lose my hold and fall back, cold water splashing over me.
“No, no, no,” I say, crawling back and grabbing his fur. I can do this. I have to. I scream, the muscles in my arms straining, but he doesn’t move any more than before. My grasp loosens on the silky fur and he splashes back down.
I try again, soaking my whole front body in the water, trying to hook around a paw or his middle. He’s not moving. And I’m running out of time.
Desperate feral cries escape me, and I try again only to fall back with momentum, smacking my head hard on the ice. I roll over and, with a hopeless cry, curl into a ball.
I can’t lift him out. He’s too big. I’m just a weak human who doesn’t belong here.
And he’ll die for me.
He’ll die for nothing.
I shake with sobs and the cold feels like it’s slithered into every part of me.
Something soft lands on me, more velvety than snow, and I reach up to brush it off. I blink as it comes into focus. A black rose petal. Another one lands on my arm. The briars above me have bloomed a single beautiful black rose.
The briar patch is a rosebush.
Slowly, I stand up and reach for the rose, and the thorny stems curve toward me.
Just like when they wrapped around my body when I’d fallen off the cliff the first time the goblins attacked.
How they created the ladder down from the dungeon.
And helped me save the enchanted roses in High Tower.
The cage they created for the goblins when I was trying to run away.
What if Caspian isn’t the only one who can control them?
As the briar with the black rose lowers, I reach out and grasp it, feeling a connection shock through me. My consciousness springs out into the web of surrounding briars.
And into the web I pour my anger, my frustration, my desperation, and my love. I will save him.
The branches shudder and begin to move. They reach down into the water, carefully wrapping around the giant wolf and lifting him…
My heart stutters in my chest, and I grip the stem tighter, feeling my connection loosen.Not yet.
The briars lower the white wolf to the side of the river. I gasp out, dropping my hold on the black rosebush. My legs shake. I feel like I’ve been running for a thousand years…
I collapse, vision blurring. But I can’t stop now. Just a little more strength. Slowly, I crawl over the ice. My fingers sift through fresh soft snow on the riverbank.
Almost there…
I touch cold, wet fur. Keldarion shudders beneath me. Heshudders.
He’s alive. With great effort, he raises to his paws and coughs up water. His blue eyes peer down at me.
I throw my arms around his neck, finally feeling that insistent tug slacken, having brought me right where I belong.
55
Rosalina