Chapter 17 Until Water Do Us Apart
The river didn't give them time to decide. One second, Skylar stood at its edge, her chest still rising and falling too fast, her mind trying to catch up with the word jump. The next, Enida’s hand tightened around her wrist—and the ground disappeared beneath them.
The cold of the water stroke them first before any suffer. Then it came; the strong current washed over their bodies and take them into far.
Sharp and immediate, swallowing the breath from Skylar’s lungs as the water closed over her head. The current seized her body without hesitation, dragging her under, twisting her sideways before she could even think to fight it.
She kicked instinctively, her limbs heavy, her body still weak from everything she had endured, but panic forced movement where strength failed. Her head broke through the surface with a gasp that tore at her throat.
“Enida—!”
The name barely left her mouth before another surge of water crashed over her. The current was stronger than it had looked from above. It didn’t flow—it pulled, relentless and wild, dragging them downstream with a force that made resistance feel pointless.
Skylar struggled to stay above it, her arms thrashing, her breath coming in sharp, uneven bursts as the river carried them toward something she couldn’t yet see—but could hear.
Enida appeared beside her again, her grip unyielding as she fought against the same current. “Keep your head up!” she shouted, her voice strained but steady.
She forced her chin higher, her legs kicking harder, but the exhaustion weighed her down, every movement slower than it should have been.
The sound ahead grew louder. Skylar’s stomach dropped as she realized what it was.
“Enida—” her voice broke, panic slicing through her chest. “There’s a—”
“I know!”
The current shifted suddenly, dragging them sideways toward the riverbank. Enida lunged, her free hand reaching blindly until her fingers caught something; tree roots—thick, gnarled, half-exposed from the earth where the river had eaten away at the bank.
The jolt nearly tore Skylar from her grip, but Enida held on, her body slamming against the current as she anchored them both in place. It pressed against them, relentless, trying to rip them free, dragging at Skylar’s legs, pulling her downward.
“Hold on!” Enida called. Skylar reached for the roots with her free hand, her fingers slipping against the wet surface before finally catching something solid.
For a moment— they held. The roar of the falls thundered just ahead of them now, close enough that Skylar could see the drop through the shifting water, the edge where the river disappeared into nothing.
“We can climb—” Skylar started, her voice shaking as she tried to pull herself closer to the bank. But the current surged again, stronger this time. Her grip almost slipped, making her body jerked downward, her fingers tightening desperately around Enida’s hand instead.
Enida’s hold didn’t falter, but Skylar could feel it. The way Enida’s arm trembled under the weight of holding both of them.
Skylar tried to pull herself higher, tried to shift her weight toward the roots, but the current fought her at every movement, dragging her back, forcing her down.
“Let me—” she said, breathless. “Let me take the root—I’ll—”
Enida didn’t move. instead, she looked at her. And something in her expression softened; not fear or hesitation, butsomething that didn’t belong in a moment like this. Like a peaceful look before someone sacrificed themselves.
“I see you, Skylar.”
The words cut through the roar of the river. Skylar froze, her grip tightened instinctively.
“What…?” she breathed. The way Enida said her name echoed in her ears, louder than the water, louder than her own heartbeat. She had never told her, nor anyone after she arrived at this city. So how’d Enida know her name?
When Skylar tried to find the answer in Enida’s face, all she saw just her peaceful and wise smile before she said, “That’s why I helped you,” her voice steady despite the strain in her body. “You have something in you that hasn’t been broken yet.”
“What are you talking about? Don’t—don’t say things like that, just—pull me up, I’ll grab the root—”
“You need to stop running,” she said; Skylar’s breath hitched. “From him. From yourself. From what you’re meant to be.”
“Please, Enida, don’t say that. We’ll leave that place—you and me.”
“No, Skylar. I can’t leave that place. That’s my curse.”
The words came gently. Something cold slid down Skylar’s spine. Enida’s smile didn’t fade. But it changed. There was pain in it now. And something else.
“But you can,” Enida continued, her voice quieter now, almost lost beneath the water. “She hasn’t marked you yet. You still belong to yourself.”
Skylar’s vision blurred.
“Enida—!”
“Run faster than your fear and go home,” she said. “May the Moon Goddess stay with you.”
Enida let Skylar’s hand go and for a split second, Skylar didn’t understand what had happened as her hand reached instinctively at empty water where Enida had been with her.
Then the current took her, took her scream to vanished as the river dragged her forward, over the edge of falls— the world dropped. The roar swallowed everything as Skylar fell, the water crashing around her, pulling her under in a violent rush that stole the last of her breath.
And in that final moment before the river consumed her completely— A realization struck, sharp and undeniable.
Enida was a werewolf—she was her kind too.