The instant I try to move my head back, I’m unable to, and it’s because my horn’s stuck.
It’s then the tightening of my lungs begins, strangling me as the natural instinct to try and draw air into them hits.
No, no, no. I’m so close.
Ignoring the blistering pain, I jerk quickly back, and feel the point where my horn meets my forehead tear from its place. It’s a raw, agonizing feeling that is immediately worsened by the salt water. It at least draws me away from my throat constricting.
It’s now the sensation around my wrist gives, and the full, round cuff shifts. I press it between my thighs and yank my arm back.
My hand comes free, but I don’t savor the victory. Because, deep down, I know I’m losing. The hypoxia has kicked in, disorientation of which way is up and left or right, hits me hard.
Black creeps across the edges of my vision and I know I’m going to die soon.
I reach out for my blood that is floating around me, but as before when I try, the water dilutes it too much for me to grab onto it fully. Either that, or I’m just that weak right now.
Swallowing water, I look up through the bars of my enclosure like I’m some type of animal. Then, I close my eyes and reach out high, as if grabbing onto the bars will do anything.
I’m bound at my feet, and now my left arm. I can do this three more times, and then I can try and break myself through the bars… just as long as that Shifter doesn’t come for me during my death.
A violent jerk of my body tells me I’m fading.
As I had in my dream, my fingers twirl around, as if stretching to somebody that is here to save me, when there is no one. The dead can’t come for me, and Sinnix wouldn’t even lie to give me hope that she’d return.
The pain of suffocating has ebbed away, my brain only functioning enough to make me aware that I’m spasming. It’s like I can feel my heart slow.
Thump.
I can think between the beats.
Thump.
I won’t stop fighting.
Thump.
A promise to that eighteen-year-old me it all wasn’t for nothing. That my suffering wasn’t fornothing.
Thu—
Chapter 21
Kairhyse
I’m not sure what I expected being dragged through the water at this speed would feel like, buthowshe’s holding onto me is an incredible feat. We’re propelled forward with such velocity that the pressure on my body is overwhelming… and we haven’t even begun our descent yet.
“We are diving now,” she says, and while I won’t be able to communicate verbally with her, I can at least do so in other ways.
Squeezing her forearm to confirm I’m ready, we plunge. The weight pressing down on me becomes nearly unbearable almost instantly. My ears pop—once, twice—and on the third, I’m shaking my head. I keep my free arm tucked as best I can, while also aligning my body to Sinnix, as to not hinder her swimming.
Minutes pass, and only then do I truly take in my surroundings. If I was terrified of not seeing the bottom before, now, darkness like a void surrounds me entirely. The surface is so far above that the sun is no longer visible. It’s as though I’m in the Beyond, with no sense of up or down, unable to tell five feet from thirty.
I know my body can’t go any further, so I squeeze Sinnix’s arm. She quickly comes to a stop. Our bodies angle toward one another, and she looks down before turning back to me.
“The cage is about thirty more feet. Give me the necklace.”
I unwrap it from around my fist and gently place it into her webbed hand. I want to ask if she can see her, because I can’t—not even with my heightened vision. The darkness surrounding us isn’t just from a lack of light; it’s something deeper, and I’d be lying if I said it isn’t terrifying. The thought that Xeraphine has been here alone for who knows how long,before Sinnix ever showed up, twists my stomach into knots.
“Slowly begin to rise straight up, don’t swim about.”
