Cassie Davis's Arc

Chapter 2 of 4

Cassie ran toward the apprentice's tower, the wizard's notes pressed to her chest. She rounded a bend in the path and skidded to a stop. A sleek changing room stood in the middle of the trail, gold trim shining, plants in pots beside the open door. Mia Chen stepped out of it. Cassie's stomach turned. Mia. Here. Eleven years of quiet watching, and now she stood on a forest path in another world like she had been waiting all along. In her hands was Cassie's favorite swimsuit, the pink and blue one Cassie had lost two summers ago. It was frayed now, torn at the edges, faded by water and sun. "You kept that," Cassie said. Her voice cracked. "You took that." "Put it on," Mia said. She held it out. "The dam is breaking. We need to swim." Behind her, past the trees, Cassie heard it — a low groan of stone. Water hissed through cracks in a great wall upriver. A thin waterfall poured from a split down its center. The dam was failing. Cassie's throat closed. She had hours until the portal shut. She did not have time for this. But the ground was already trembling. Mia did not move, did not beg. She only held the swimsuit out and waited, the way she had always waited. Cassie grabbed it. She stepped into the changing room and slammed the door. When she came out, the dam burst. Water roared down the slope toward them, and Mia caught her hand and pulled her into the flood.