I was already laying flat on my back over the big shield of my warrior, gasping for air that tasted like river silt and ozone.
The shield wasn't that huge, but it was just enough to take the three bodies of us sticking side by side in a cramped, desperate heap. Alex and Karoline were still dead to the world, their pale faces slick with the cold Hudson water.
Once I laid there, I had closed my eyes for just a second, trying to gather up my dwindling strength. My only concern at that moment was to prepare for the upcoming fight that was inevitably waiting for me on the other side of the river.
I expected a welcoming party on the Jersey shore—archers, maybe some low-level monsters. But it never crossed my mind that the moment I opened my eyes, I would be met with another challenge entirely. And this one was deadly enough to scare the sh*t out of me!
