First Magic by Raven Steele (ebook reader screen txt) 📖

the cold had seized up my body like an engine in water. And what little current there was sucked me under. The last thing I heard before my head dipped below the dark water’s edge was Christian yelling my name.

My body drifted slowly beneath the ice, carried by the gentle flow of water. I attempted to claw at it, searching for any weaknesses, but my hand could barely open, let alone close down upon anything solid. The tips of my fingers simply grazed slippery ice.

I should’ve tried harder, but all I could focus on was the color of my nails. They were rapidly changing to a grayish blue that looked eerily familiar. Then I remembered. They were the same color as my father’s when I was asked to identify him at the morgue.

I’m dying. This sure was unexpected and not at all how I envisioned my death. I was supposed to die gardening in a flowerbed as a hundred-year-old woman, not as a seventeen-year-old trapped in a lake beneath inches of ice.

After a moment, my hands were no longer able to move, and I became like a statue, completely still, arms outstretched. I thought a death like this would be painful, but when my lungs began to burn, and I instinctively sucked in a breath, I suffered very little. There was only the initial terror of feeling the icy water slide into my lungs, but then all I felt was peace. Even my mind was completely calm. And, for the first time since coming into this watery prison, I realized how beautiful it was underwater.

The light from the full moon just barely lit up my liquid grave, giving the water a dark, mystical look. It wasn’t such a bad place to die after all. The color was a starry, navy blue, reminding me of the comforter on my bed at home. And the occasional fish I passed seemed to be hanging from the ice like a mobile above a baby’s crib. I tried to smile but my face was frozen.

I stopped drifting. Barely still able to move my head, I turned slightly to see a fallen tree on the bottom of the lake. Its branches had captured me in its grip. Just as well. It might be easier for them to find my body this way.

I waited patiently for my eyes to close and for darkness to claim me, but it didn’t come as quickly as I expected. Why was it taking so long? I thought once water filled your lungs that was it. The end. Roll the credits. At least that’s how the movies always portrayed it.

While I waited for death to overcome me, I hummed a song I’d listened to earlier that day. It seemed appropriate for the moment and also helped me to pass the time.

I was only a few bars into the song when two shadows appeared above me on the ice. One of them pounded hard against the frozen surface. Probably Christian, but I couldn’t be sure. Just before my eyes closed, the second figure bent down and smashed through the ice with one impressive blow.

Moments later, I had the sensation of being lifted and then dragged, yet I couldn’t feel anything. Several chaotic, muffled voices spoke all at once. I tried to make sense of their words, but my mind-numbing nausea made me feel like I’d been riding a roller coaster for hours on end. Maybe if I could throw up, I’d feel better, but I couldn’t even open my eyes, let alone stimulate regurgitation.

This new sensation was worse than being underwater. At least when I was trapped in the water I could see. Extreme panic set in as I tried to see or feel anything. I half wondered if I was dead. Why else would I not be able to open my eyes or feel myself breathing? I attempted to quiet my mind so I could try and make sense of what everyone around me was saying, but that was like trying to calm a bull after he’s had one of those tight rubber bands put around his most sensitive parts.

A bright, violent flash of red tore through my brain. This is it. I’m going mad. My body was gone and soon my mind would be too. I longed for the peace the underwater prison had given me, for I felt none of that now. Only chaos.

But then I heard it.

As clear as a town’s siren at noon, Christian’s voice somehow broke through the madness. “Llona! You’ve got to hold on. Do you understand?”

I wanted to tell him that I didn’t understand, but I couldn’t move or do much of anything.

“I can’t find a pulse.” That was May’s voice.

Christen whispered in my ear, “Llona. I know you’re in there. Just hang on.”

“How soon until the ambulance arrives?” a female voice asked.

“Not soon enough. We need to take her to the hospital now!” This from the unmistakable Mr. Steele.

Again the female voice, “I don’t think it’s safe to move her. We should wait.”

“She hasn’t broken anything. She’s only frozen,” snapped Mr. Steele.

“He’s right,” Christian said, and my body was being lifted again. “Let’s take my car. She can lie in the back.”

“I’m coming with you!” May called.

“I’ll drive,” Mr. Steele added.

I heard the back door of Christian’s truck open. My body was hoisted up and then laid carefully down. The car started.

“I hope you don’t mind that I break any speed limits,” Mr. Steele said. I’d never heard his normally cool and confident voice so anxious before.

“I don’t care,” Christian said. “Just get us there fast.”

I still couldn’t feel anything. Shouldn’t I at least feel myself breathing? I heard what sounded like fabric tearing.

“What are you doing?” May cried.

“I’m taking off her wet clothes,” Christian growled. “I need to get her body warm.”

“At least leave her bra and underwear on,” May suggested, for which I was very grateful.

“I will. I’m just trying to save her life, May, not cop a feel.”

“Do you have to be undressed too?” May asked, again.

“She needs body heat. Now will you lay off?”

May sniffled.

“What are you doing?” Christian asked.

“I want to hold her hand,” May said.

“Hang on!” Mr. Steele yelled.

We must have swerved sharply because May grunted and something like metal crashed nearby.

Christian whispered again, “You’ve got to hold on, Llona. Please. You’re too strong to go out like this.” He paused when his voice began to quiver.

After a deep breath, he continued, “I never told you, but the first time I saw you, I thought I was looking at an angel. You were walking to school wearing a white t-shirt and jeans. You’d taken off your hat when you thought no one was looking and your hair fell down your back like wings unfolding. I think this was one of the rare times I saw you as your true self.”

If I could talk, I would’ve been speechless.

“Do you feel a pulse?” May asked.

“Um, I think so,” Christian said, but the way he said it made me nervous. His tone was that of a grown up telling a child a cut isn’t that bad when in actuality, a bone is sticking out their flesh.

“We’re almost there,” Mr. Steele called back.

“Come on, Llona, don’t let go of your Light,” Christian breathed into my ear.

I froze. Or I should say my mind froze; my body couldn’t have been more frozen. Christian had used the word Light. And he hadn’t said it in a weird spiritual sort of way either.

I heard the screeching of tires. “We’re here!”

This is when things really became crazy. Car doors opened and closed. My body was being jostled around and then Christian barked orders to hospital staff. There were lots of voices I didn’t recognize, asking all sorts of questions. I tried to listen to them all, to distinguish one voice from another, but something strange began to happen. The only way to describe it is I felt my body begin to separate, followed moments later by a bright light that slowly began to fill the dark space in my mind.

A slice of the conversation reached me: “She’s surprisingly warm for being pulled out of a frozen lake.”

“I agree, but I still can’t find a pulse. Ron, can you?”

“No. Is the defibrillator ready?”

“Almost.”

“Ready.”

“Clear!”

A strange humming sound, followed by a loud thump.

“Again,” someone shouted.

Someone cursed.

“Clear!” Thump sound again.

“Nothing, Doctor.”

Silence.

“What? No! She’s still alive,” Christian yelled. He sounded further away than the others.

“Get him out of here,” a deep voice said.

There were sounds of scuffling, and then the sound of something crashing into a wall.

“You have to believe me. She’s still alive!” Christian said again.

I wanted to scream that he was right, but even as I thought it, the Light in my darkness grew dimmer. That, coupled with the sudden feeling of floating, had me worried.

“I’m sorry son, but there’s nothing else we can do. By the looks of her, she’s been without oxygen for too long.”

“No!” Christian was furious. “Try again. She’s still alive!”

Then Mr. Steele, “How do you know, Christian?”

“Because there’s still Light,” he blurted. “She doesn’t