I didn’t get to finish my thought. In a blast of magic, we were knocked to the ground.
CHAPTER30
Krew moved my body over his, so he would take the brunt of falling into the nasty water. I landed on his chest near the shore. The top portion of our bodies were out of the water, but the lower halves were in the process of getting soaked.
The blast knocked the air out of me but had also knocked my concentration on my magic too. I had successfully avoided burnout though, as I felt no blood falling from my nose or ears.
But realizing the last time we had been knocked to the ground like that, it had been because of our bonding, I turned for Krew’s hand that had been around my back. “Do you still have all your magic? Are you okay?”
“Yes,” he said while beaming at me. “Look, love. Look.”
That was when I noticed we weren’t covered in tar-like water and nasty muck. The water Krew had fallen in wasn’t black at all.
It was clear.
The water was clear.
I slowly spun and looked across the lake. Where no light could penetrate before, I now saw the reflections of the tree’s branches dancing across the top. I saw logs on the lake bottom that I hadn’t ever known were there. And I saw pebbles and stones mixing in that sandy bottom. Even the sea at the shore wasn’t this clear.
I scrambled off Krew to stand up. It wasn’t just the water at the shore either. It was the water all the way across.
There wasn’t a trace of dirt or muck. There was no black at all. It was pure.
I was gasping and kept looking from one side to the other, not expecting it to last. How many times had I tried that? How many times had I wanted to turn the lake but not been able to? But our magic together had done it.
Our bond had done it.
“Unbelievable,” Krew said softly as he stood next to me.
“I—” Owen’s voice cracked as he gave his head a shake. “I never thought I’d see this day.”
Seeing the lake finally fixed, that I had managed to heal it at last, and knowing that the king had only given me this challenge because he thought I couldn’t accomplish it... it was all too much.
Tears of joy overwhelmed me as I slumped to the ground. “It,” I gasped out, “worked.”
Krew dropped to the ground with me. “I never doubted you.”
That had the tears flowing even faster, trekking downward in record speed.
I looked at Owen, who was still standing there, unable to take his eyes off the lake.
“Owen?”
He looked at me, his green eyes sparkling with moisture.
Without warning, I launched myself at him.
Stunned, he caught me with one arm, hugging me gently.
“You,” I gasped out, “were the one who stood here and allowed me to keep trying day after day while protecting me from burnout.” I was getting tears and likely a little snot on him, but I didn’t really care. “Thank you.”
He spun me around and laughed. “You did it, Jorah!”
As he put my boots back down, I looked at Krew, “No.Wedid.”
None of us wanting to leave, we walked around the lake, taking in all the different angles and the way the sunlight would bend around the thick branches of the trees and reflect off the water. Then we sat at the shore, Owen on one side of me, Krew on the other, our boots touching the edge of the water. Theclearwater.
The Dead Lake was dead no more.
