The Forsaken

falls to his knees, turning the ice around him red as his eyes roll up in their sockets.
    I can’t believe it.
    Sinxen.
    Another death—and for what?
    Gadya races to his side. I follow right behind and see that she’s bleeding too. Deep slices from the tentacles run down both her arms, cutting through the down of her jacket.
    I gaze around wildly. The drone is back at the Monk’s side, hoisting him up. He’s recovered his secret blade, but it’s gnarled and chipped now. Markus is crawling across the buckling ice. He was closest to the impact site, yet looks relatively unscathed. David is also on his feet, swaying unsteadily.
    But the crash has set off a slow-motion chain reaction—a destabilizing effect that is now cascading across the surface of the frozen lake.
    We start sprinting and limping toward the bank ahead of us. All except for Gadya, who is trying to drag Sinxen’s body along with her.
    “We have to run!” I scream at her. “The ice is breaking!” The cracking noises are deafening under our feet. A jet of water suddenly sprays up between us. I feel the ice shift and move, like sections are about to break apart and give way. I know that if we tumble into the water, we’ll be swept under the ice and trapped there.
    I turn back to see Rika lagging even farther behind me, along with the drone carrying the Monk.
    “Faster!” I yell.
    Gadya finally lets go of Sinxen, because there’s nothing she can do for him anymore. The life is gone from his body.
    I feel a weird sliding sensation underneath me. Suddenly, a sheet of ice breaks free right in front of me. I veer sideways in panic.
    While I avoid the ice, I get slapped in the face by a wall of freezing water. I stumble and fall, hands slapping onto the ice. Then I pick myself up, blinking ice out of my eyes, trying to see clearly.
    Maybe the feeler is going to be victorious after all, I think, as I start moving again. Maybe I’m going to drown. I stare at the bank ahead and tell myself that I have to make it.
    Water slams against the side of my head again like an icy wave, stinging my ear. Large chunks of ice are breaking up everywhere. I struggle to outrun them as water seeps and surges between moving slabs of ice.
    Ahead of me, I see Markus reach land, sliding onto the frozen mud at the shore. He stands at the edge of the lake, yelling for us to run. David is hopping and jumping over chunks of ice, desperately trying to make it too, despite the splint on his foot.
    I ignore the terrifying cracking and snapping noises, and just focus on the edge of the bank. My eyes fix on an icy crystalline oak tree, its frozen boughs shimmering in the gray light. If I can make it to that tree, then I’m going to be okay, I tell myself. I just have to keep moving.
    But my body is barely responding to my commands anymore. I try to move my feet, but I’m so cold, it feels like I’m running in molasses.
    I glance back to see the others struggling forward. The lake has claimed Sinxen’s body already. I see his pale hand slip off a slab of ice and into the water.
    Gone forever.
    The feeler has completely disappeared too, its tentacles sucked into the ever-widening hole created by the impact.
    Now there are only five of us left, plus the Monk and his drone.
    I keep my eyes locked on that icy oak tree. I’m getting closer as I dodge ice chunks and dance over pools of water. Underneath the ice, the lake is far from placid. It’s roiling and dark, like an ocean. I feel its currents wanting to suck me in and pull me under.
    Then I hear frenzied screaming, and I chance a final look back.
    While Gadya is practically alongside me, and the Monk and his drone are off to my left near David, Rika is now lagging badly. She’s trapped on an ice floe, with water spraying up all around her.
    “Rika!” I yell. I don’t want to stop moving, but I pause for an instant as the ice cracks around me.
    “Help!” she calls back, too scared to move in any direction. More water cascades upward, and she almost loses her balance. The piece of ice she’s stuck on tilts sideways and she screams again.
    My survival depends on getting to the bank. I spin around and see that Gadya and Markus haven’t heard Rika’s screams. No one else is going to save her.
    Suppressing my fear, I realize that I don’t have a choice. Not if I want to live with myself. I’m only alive because Gadya brought me to the village, with David’s help, and because Liam saved me during the feeler attack in