FLOOD

Still as Water

When I whirled around to look, to face it, to see what I'd done, my heart stopped in my chest. The wave was the size of a building, of several buildings, and the sound it was making, a low roar, made my chest tighten and my heart drum in my ears.

All around me the soldiers were fleeing, kicking up sand, screaming. Cain was the only one who didn't move. He wasn't even looking at the wave, his eyes were still locked on me, his thick brows drawn down. He looked furious.

I turned back to the wave, my heart lodging in my throat. I hadn't known it would get so big, I hadn't meant it to, it had built up on it's own. If I let the wave hit it would wash away half the beach, maybe kill some of my own people.

It was ten feet away now, closing fast, towering over me. I could see the white curl on top, it was so close.

At the last second sheer panic made me throw my arms up, pushing back against it, desperate to stop what I'd started. To my shock the wave slowed, and then finally...stopped. Now it was towering over me, a solid wall of water, so dark blue it was almost black.

Even the spray was suspended in midair, and the moonlight glittered off the wave and shot beams of light through the wall of water.

I was holding it. Incredible.

But it wasn't going to last long, the way it felt was like a muscle holding up too much weight, like my arms were shaking from holding a heavy load. It was wearing on my body and something inside was about to snap if I kept this up.

On the edge of the beach, among the trees, the soldiers had stopped. And now there were more joining them, jotun and humans alike. There was still the crack of gunfire in the woods, but it was dying off now, farther apart and more distant than before.

I kept looking back at the wave, and then at the treeline. There were more soldiers each time I looked. They weren't even fighting one another anymore, humans stood next to jotun soldiers, faces slack and white with shock. They were all staring up at the wave I'd created, at the wave I was barely holding back.

They were all looking at me, waiting for me to say something. Even the queen appeared, emerging from the thickest part of the forest, King Loki behind her. When she saw the wave her eyes went wide, and she whirled around and said something to her husband. King Loki turned and barked orders at his general, orders that were passed down the line. Soon the jotun soldiers began to moving, all the Niflheim jotun.

What were they doing? Couldn't they see I couldn't hold this for long?

I couldn't look, I had to turn back to the wave. I was drenched with sweat now, and my entire body was shaking. There was movement around us, but I wasn't sure what. Someone was at my side now, talking in a low, soothing voice.

"Hey, Vee. It's me, it's Eli. We're guessing you're not really able to let this wave go without some help, so...that's coming, think you can hold it for a little bit?"

I clenched my teeth, nodding once before turning my full attention back to the water. He stayed behind me though, I could feel him. "What's going on back there?" I ground the words out between my teeth. "Where's Cain?"

"They have him." Eli's voice was surprisingly steady, at least in contrast to mine. In front of us, movement had begun. Incredibly, jotun soldiers were running up the beach, straight towards the wave.

The sweat was practically coming off me in sheets. My arms shook as I held them up, like I was actually bearing a physical weight. At this point it felt like I was. "No! Where are they going?"

"It's okay." Eli's voice was closer now, and he reached out and gripped my shoulders, like he could somehow anchor me there, lend me his strength. Somehow it was comforting, even if he didn't actually have a way of physically helping me. Just knowing he was there, that he wasn't running from me in terror, seemed to help. "Just hang on a few more minutes. The queen has a plan."

The queen, to my horror, was there now too, right in front of the monstrous wave I'd created, stooping down to place her hands in the water. There were hundreds of them now, a line of jotun soldiers that spread out all along the length of the beach, like they were facing off with the water itself, like they could stop the unstoppable force of nature if I unleashed it.

When I unleashed it.

I wouldn't be able to help it soon.

My eyes were watering. "Eli, please. What are they doing?"

"They're doing it now." Eli's voice sounded awed. "She's doing it, I think they're just helping her. That's incredible."

My eyes snapped back to the queen. She was kneeling in the water now, hands stretched out, her long white hair hanging over her face. The water was...moving. No, not the water, ice...ice shot out from the queen's fingertips and traveled impossibly fast, slowly freezing the center of the wave from the wide base to the tip. The froth on top crackled as it changed from liquid to solid, freezing in a dusty burst of powdery snow.

All down the line the frost jotun soldiers were doing the same thing, hundreds of them standing side by side, trailing their hands in the water, stooping to thrust their arms in up to their elbows. As I watched, the wave slowly but surely turned to a solid mass, a wall of ice that could have surrounded a city, it was so tall.

Of course. Of course the queen would think of something like this.

Finally Queen Megan turned around and waved at Eli, and he squeezed my shoulders, keeping his voice low beside my ear he said, "You can let go now."

I tried, only tried at first, my grip on the wave was so tight, so panicked, that I couldn't seem to release my grasp on it. Eli's hands tightened on my shoulders momentarily, and then he was right next to my ear again, his voice low. "You're okay. Everything is okay now. Cain is gone, we've got him. Grandfather is gone. Kalda is avenged. It's over, Vee. It's over."

And then suddenly I was done, all my muscles were like water, the wave slid out of my grasp like oil and I couldn't hold it if I wanted to. At first I tensed, but...nothing happened, the wave stayed frozen. The sound of water crashing into the wall of ice startled me, and some of the soldiers jumped back, and then....nothing.

When I turned to look back at the trees Cain wasn't there anymore. There were still guns and swords out but now they were on the ground at the soldier's feet, the human soldiers had their hands on their heads, and every single one of them was looking up at the wall of ice, their eyes wide, mouths hanging open.

It's really over.

And suddenly my legs weren't holding me up anymore, and the sky, dark and dotted with pinpricks of stars revolved overhead. The moon, a sliver of silver in the center of the black canvas above me, blurred in and out. When I slumped back Eli was there, holding me up, half laughing with relief.

"You did it, Vee. God, look at that at thing."

But I didn't want to look at the wave anymore, I tipped my head back and looked at his face instead. So much like Cain's, dark and handsome, square jaw and bright eyes, but not twisted with the same hate. His eyes crinkled at the corners when he smiled, as he looked up at the wave towering above us.

And I let my head drop back for a moment, for just a moment, to rest in the crook of his arm and shoulder, I let myself lean on him for just a minute longer.

It's finally over.