“Yeah, it does,” Lachlan admitted, his Irish brogue thickening in his excitement. “But it hasn’t. It’s still floatin’. Sure, the outside is charred, but it must have some kind of magic on it just like the river bank. It hasn’t burned up on the river.”
“Holy fucking shit.” Trace’s eyes went wide, and he leaned forward a little, trying to get a better view of the small, dark boat. “I think you’re right.”
“’Course I am.” Lachlan nudged me just to make sure I caught his cocky smirk, and I rolled my eyes. Gods, he really was impressed with himself.
Not that he didn’t have some pretty solid reasons to be.
He had the body of a rugged male model, green eyes that would make emeralds look dull, and he was smart and resourceful on top of it.
And in this case, he was right.
If the boat had truly been burnt by the river, it would be no more than ash. The fact that it still held any form at all meant that it must be repelling the fire of the river somehow.
And we were talking seriously about getting inside that thing and paddling down a river made of flame.
Dammit, this might actually be the stupidest thing I’ve ever done.
“Yeah, okay,” I said grudgingly. “But how do we get it? Anybody volunteer to swim over there and bring it back?”
Merrick stepped up, shooting me an amused and only slightly worried look, like he wasn’t one hundred percent sure I was joking. “I don’t think it’ll come to that, Ari. Help me.”
With that, he extended his hands, sending out lines of energy that crept in a slow arc over the surface of the river. I caught on to what he was doing quickly and mimicked his action. My lines of energy weren’t nearly as strong or steady as his, but they reached the boat only a few moments after his did.
Focusing hard, I convinced the electric rope of magic to latch onto one end of the boat. I had no idea if it was the bow or the stern—or if those were even the right terms for the two ends of the craft. I’d never been on a boat of any kind before.
“Good. Nice work.”
Merrick’s voice was tight with concentration as he wrapped his ropes around the other end, and I felt a flush of pride rise up in me. This kind of shit would’ve taken me a lot longer to master a few weeks ago, if I could even do it at all.
I appreciated the fact that Merrick had asked me to help him, giving me the chance to try my hand at the magic without mansplaining the whole thing to me or bypassing me entirely by recruiting one of the other guys to do it.
He was surprisingly thoughtful like that.
And even when he’d hated me, I was pretty sure he’d never thought I was weak.
The two of us began to pull, and the boat slowly pulled away from where it was wedged into a nook by the shore. As soon as it reached the middle of the river, it got a lot harder to keep my magical grip on it. The current tugged at it, trying to rip it away from me.
I could feel the two other men standing tense and alert nearby, magic at the ready in case they needed to help, and the second the little blackened boat bumped against the bank on our side of the river, Trace leaned down to grab onto the middle with one hand.
“Trace!” I released my magic, stepping forward to help him before he fell in and shooting him a look. “You really are gunning for a fire bath, aren’t you?”
He chuckled. “Nah. Not my thing.”
Lachlan had been right. The inside of the boat was only blackened in a few spots, as if sparks or small licks of flame had singed it here and there. But there were no holes in it anywhere, and it bobbed gently on the surface of the water-like flames.
Merrick and Lachlan grabbed onto the boat’s edge too, and I glanced over at them with a shrug.
“Well, this is insane. But we don’t really have any other choices. I’m pretty sure this river of fire probably runs the entire length of this jungle, if there is even an end to the thing. If we’re hoping to get closer to the gem, this is the way we need to go.”
They all nodded, but none of them looked happy about it.
I wasn’t thrilled either. I hated fire, but I also hated the thought of what might happen if we tried to cheat by walking alongside the river or something. Either some worse threat would ambush us, or the contestants brave enough to dare the flames would beat us to the prize.
Neither of those options were acceptable.
We all climbed in the boat, which was both terrifying and awkward as fuck. I would’ve laughed at the sight of Merrick trying to keep his balance as he stepped inside the small craft—if it weren’t for the fact that going overboard would mean a painful, nearly instant death.
A little less funny in that context.