Of all the ways Ethan could die, he truly never thought he’d drown.

Stillrock was over a thousand miles from the nearest ocean, and the rivers and lakes found throughout the Lavender Mountains were far too cold to swim. In fact, the only time Ethan ever entered a body of water larger than his bathtub was when a friend would invite him to their pool, and even that had been a rarity after high school since everyone with any sense had either gone to college or taken a job in the city.

Ethan, of course, had done neither of those things, and that was just one of the many reasons he found himself slowly sinking underneath a frozen lakebed.

He could regret those decisions later, if he lived. With what little breath he had, he allowed himself a moment to assess his limited options. The way he saw it, he only had two.

He could try to swim up, back to the surface, and hope Hailstone had stayed around long enough to help pull him up. That part wasn’t likely, but if he made it to the surface and flailed around enough, Raz might be able to see him and call Alex for help. She would be here in a second if she knew Ethan was in trouble.

Above him was dark, the unnatural ice forming a shadowed mosaic of the lake’s surface, blocking the light save for the hole he crashed through, allowing a beam of dull sunlight to filter through. His eyes followed the light down, and he saw what he had driven up to Basin Lake for in the first place.

Below him was the breach, a jagged fissure scarring the lakebed. Beautiful, multicolored light poured out of the breach, crackling and popping as it came into contact with the water, washing away with the gentle undercurrent. It called to him, like a siren to a sailor, beckoning him to forsake the shadows above and just sink a little further and slip into its light.

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It was everything he had hoped for, just a fifteen foot swim down.

If he didn’t drown first, that is.

The summer heat had yet to fully wane, and the water wasn’t as cold as he expected, but it was still frigid, forcing his muscles to contract painfully, but not immobilizing them just yet. Given he was forced under the ice, he didn’t have time to take a deep breath before it broke, and he knew he only had a few moments before his muscles tensed up and moving became impossible. He had enough breath to make a push to the surface, or to sink to the breach, but he knew he didn’t have enough time for both.

After being told time and again by Alex that they did not exist, Ethan had found one, a breach point, nearly within his grasp. If he really wanted powers, to become a Protector and leave his old life in the nowhere town of Stillrock behind, it was now or never. There was no telling if he’d ever get this opportunity again, an opportunity he had already missed out on once.

For the first time, his future was finally within his control, within his grasp, and all he had to do was sink.

Instead of pushing up, towards the sunlight and the fresh air his chest was screaming for, Ethan’s eyes drifted downwards.

It was now or never, and Ethan was choosing now.

No matter what it might cost him.