44

 

I felt him before I saw him. His arms encircled me and we swirled in circles, tossed against the rocks. The wind whooshed out of me, and I clung to his broad chest as I shook.

“Grab hold,” he shouted and his voice echoed in the shadows. “Grab hold of the rocks.”

I lashed out, gripping an outcropping of jagged stone. I did not remember seeing them here, and then I realized they were near the ceiling. In the black of the cave, he wrapped his arm around my waist, and then I was facing him, my sobs in the crook of his neck. We hung onto the side of the cave, braced against a low hanging spire.

“I’m sorry, Siyah,” I cried. “I’m so sorry.”

“Shh,” he soothed.

We had floated further from the entrance where the sound and the pull of the waves were not as strong.

“We will be fine. Thompson has divers coming. They will be here any moment. With their air tanks they can keep clearing the boulders even under the water.”

I clung to his words despite the worry in his voice. “The tide is rising so fast.”

“I’m diving down,” he said. “We need to be right next to the entrance when they clear a gap. We may not have much time to get through before the ocean shifts the stones again. Do not let go of the rocks.”

I nodded even though he could not see me in the pitch dark, and then he was gone. I felt the churn of water as he swam down. I waited, counting out the seconds, the painful grip of fear at my throat.

44…45…46…

He sputtered next to me, his breath coming in hitches.

“T–trying to make a space. It looks like they are almost there.” Siyah breathed and his lips brushed my ear. “We will get out of here soon.”

Dull thudding sounded below and a shaft of light cut through the water.

I realized I had stopped trembling and wondered if I should be concerned. The sea around us swelled, and I had the sensation of rising higher. I hit my head on something and cried out. “I hit the ceiling,” I said and heard the panic in my voice. “We’re at the ceiling and there’s no way out.”

“They’re coming,” Siyah said again and held me to him.

“Hurry,” I whispered.

His body shivered against mine and he hissed out a shaking breath.

I held my hand over my head, my palm pressed against the rock above. Ocean water poured into my mouth and I spit it out, tilting my face to the ceiling gasping. I heard Siyah choke and cough, and I reached for his face. The air above us was so painfully scarce. I felt for him in the cold, cradled his jaw with my shaking palm. “There is no other for me,” I said through gasps. “I know it to my bones.”

Siyah’s arm tightened, his heart racing against my chest. “Raven—”

An upward surge robbed us of the air bubble and we floated free of the rocks, Siyah’s hand grasping mine.

Lights below wavered back and forth. The divers were searching for us.

Siyah dove for them, pulling me with him and we neared the dark forms just outside the wall. There was a gap, and they motioned with their arms, they would pull us through. It looked barely big enough for me if they pulled without thought of my bones. What about Siyah?

They seemed so far away, and it took too long to get to them. My eyes stung and overwhelming heaviness encroached. My lungs burned as bubbles escaped my lips with silent pleas. Vision graying, I squinted as a shaft of light floated over me, a hand grasped out from the gap in the wall. Listless, I tried to reach out, but my arms drifted at my sides. My thoughts muffled, sleep slipping over me.

In the wavering light, Siyah’s face was in front of mine, his hands framed my cheeks and then his mouth was on me, forcing air into my lungs as he pushed me towards the divers. His face calm, dark curls floated around his beautiful eyes as they fluttered closed.

I tried to grab him, tried to keep him with me, but they pulled me through the rocks. A diver motioned and shoved something in my mouth. He and another swam, dragging me upwards.

I struggled, suddenly able to move as I inhaled greedily on the diver’s regulator. At the surface, I thrashed, sobbing and trying to turn back.

“Siyah,” I screamed, my voice quavering as Thompson held me down in the rubber boat. “Siyah!”

“We’ll find him,” he said through clenched teeth. “We’re looking.”

“Please…” Rain plummeted down onto my face as I wailed at the sky, my arm and legs bound in a blanket.

A flurry of movement and shouts echoed

As I fell down into unconsciousness, a jagged fissure of light burned out everything around me and was gone.