"Luke what the hell?" I screamed, the rope burn starting to ache.
"Luke, I swear to god." Kieran said calmly. If he were furious, you wouldn't have known.
"Lucas, don't do this to Elodie. You know full well she'd never forgive you."
"She doesn't forgive me anyway! And you know full well what she's like with trust. It's too late."
"That's not true." Kieran shouted. "You made a mistake; don't you think Elle has made plenty of those?"
At this something seemed to change in his eyes, he blinked hard and furrowed his eyebrows.
Luke's petty antics would not have been a problem if we had time. But at current, there were hundreds of members of the kingdom on our trail with guns that would surely be our demise.
"Kieran." I said anxiously.
He turned to me.
"I already gave the signal to Elodie, and the fuse is in view of Cara."
"You did what?!" He screamed.
"That was the plan!" I shouted back. "Luke, please."
This time something seemed to click, and he grabbed onto the belay device, pulling the top rope up and threading the bottom through the device, Allowing us up.
When we finally reached the top, I threw my hands over the ledge and watched as Luke helped Kieran to pull himself up onto the bank. He reached a hand to grab mine, urgency and panic in his eyes.
I let go of the ledge with one hand. My fingertips inches from his.
I was too late. Something whizzed through the air and landed bullseye, dead on the bundle on the ground.
"Oh god." Luke whispered. Beginning to back up slowly. Unclipping the carabiner and dumping it on the ground.
"Kieran, run!" I screamed, a fire emerging from the ground, setting alight the fuse and running down the moat.
"No!" He shouted. "Grab my hand."
I tried, stretching my body further than I should. Closing my hand around his. But we were too late, I had not been strong enough, because only a millisecond later the air was filled with loud explosions erupting from the castle, travelling closer and closer towards us.
It was that moment precisely that the wet ground under Kieran's feet became his shortcoming. With my arm around his hand, he fell. Dragging me down with him.
***
Cara's POV
"Cara never misses." Elodie smiled, pulling me into a hug.
"Thank you."
"Where are Arya and Kieran?"
Luke appeared round the corner at that moment, panting and collapsing on the ground.
"Luke? What happened?" I said, running over.
"Kieran he-"
"What?" Elodie interrupted. "Kieran?"
"He couldn't get pull Arya up, they fell into the moat."
Elodie's mouth dropped open, tripping on her own feet as she collapsed against a tree stump. "Into the… empty moat?"
Tears ran down Luke's face, shaking and throwing a hand over his mouth to mute the screams that threatened to crawl out.
I turned to Elle. "Elodie, listen to me. You need to stay calm."
But she was long gone, fire filled her eyes and she turned to run in the direction of the small explosions that still lingered.
***
Arya's POV
When the darkness scattered, the first thing I could make out was that I could not breathe. A luxury I did not think I would be having much longer. But I did not expect it to be water preventing that. I was swept around softly, realising I was submerged and kicked up, propelling myself upwards to the surface.
"Kieran?"
No response. With a deep breath, I ducked back under and winced as the salt water burned my eyes.
Then I saw him.
His lifeless body wading in the water, somewhere in between the surface and having fallen to the bottom altogether.
With all the strength I could muster up, I wrapped my arms around him and kicked up again, placing a hand under his neck to allow any air flow possible to his mouth when we reached the surface.
But he wasn't breathing.
While I had landed in the water, I was shocked but overall, perfectly healthy, he'd been dragged along the moat wall as he fell and in the process his skin was torn to shreds on his left side. He had lost too much blood already, not to mention losing consciousness in the water. I screamed as I reached the surface, holding up his head and hauling him to the break in the moat where the waterfall still stood, somehow.
I had no time to figure out how the water had appeared at the bottom, the upmost of importance on my mind saving my best friend.
I placed a hand on his neck, sighing with relief to find that he still had a pulse. It was faint, but there. I knew what I had to do, but I did not know if I withhold the power to do so and I could not risk messing up the incantation.
But my only option was to try. Otherwise, I'd be the one to watch him die.
"voazo
rhafz noi
fo vlolsom
holo."
Kieran groaned, slowly returning to consciousness.
"hia
mazo
farhol."
His body shook for a second, I rubbed my hands together anxiously. Nothing, for thirty seconds.
Suddenly, he snapped up and spluttered, water falling out of his mouth. I sighed with relief and allowed my head to collapse into my hands. I had no way near the power to heal his wounds yet, but he was alive and conscious and for now that was a better start than I could have ever imagined.