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Sariel nodded, and turned away, putting her mask on with no further argument. Alastor’s injuries had clearly rattled her. For me, I was with Alastor, I just wanted her up on dry land, safe andhealthy, and I didn’t care what I had to do to make that happen. My stomach churned at the memory of her disappearing back into that churning water, and I shoved it away, feeling sick again at the thought I could have lost her. Not that she was even mine to lose. I wasn't sure if that made it better or worse, but I knew the relief I’d felt when she was in my arms. I’d been surprised she’d let me do that, but something told me that despite the ice queen exterior, she’d needed it too.
I strapped the last buckle of my full-face mask into place and glanced over at the others.
“Final checks,” I said, inspecting the equipment quickly but thoroughly. Alastor did a quick check of my own gear, and we moved over to the edge of the water.
“I'll lead and then Alastor…”
“I’ll go last,” said Alastor firmly. I nodded. There was no point in arguing with him. I had wanted him second for Sariel to keep an eye on him as we went, but it was clear he would be taking the rear. I had a hunch he was worried about an attack from another serpent. Even though we’d seen no sign of any others on the way back to the first cave, that didn’t mean there weren’t more in these tunnels. Alastor was taking no chances.
This time, we needed a leap into the water, away from the ledge we stood on. Once we were all in the water, and with a nod from Alastor, I took the lead, starting our swim back into the tunnel we’d come through what seemed like an age ago. The water, dense and alien, seemed to resist our intrusion, pressing against us, as though it meant to keep us down here. It was not a welcome thought, and I pushed it away with thoughts of food and a cold beer once we reached the camp. And sleep.
We finned through the tunnel, slowly but steadily and I flicked on my dive light, its beam cutting through the briny darkness. I kept the pace steady and as speedy as I could. We hadn’t mentioned it to Sariel, who from her lack of general diveexperience seemed to have forgotten about our time limits, but we were over it by several minutes. Now I had the difficult task of balancing the risk of decompression sickness by ascending too quickly with the real risk we could run out of air before we reached the surface. Added to that, every minute Alastor spent with his skin exposed to the salt water, was causing him severe pain, and I didn’t even want to think about what could happen to him if he was exposed for too long.
I breathed a sigh of relief as the entrance of the tunnel opened out into the wide expanse of the sea. Quickly checking my depth gauge and compass, I gave a thumbs up to the other two, and we began a painstakingly slow ascent. Now side by side, I could sneak a glance or two at Alastor without him noticing. He was the epitome of grim determination. His movements were stiff and although he was fighting to keep his breathing steady, it was uneven from the pain. My light passed over him briefly and I winced at the sight. Completely naked other than the BCD vest, his skin was red raw and peeling, with whiter bubbles where viscous fluid had risen to the surface.
I knew he was in agony, but Alastor's stoic facade never wavered. He kept his gaze forward, refusing to show any sign of weakness. Glancing over at Sariel, I saw her concern mirroring my own. Her eyes darted between Alastor and the surface above, a silent prayer on her lips.
I took a breath and checked my measurements again. The pressure gauge needle crept downwards as we rose, and bubbles from our regulators trailed upwards, a visual reminder to ascend no faster than the slowest of them. As we ascended, the light above grew brighter, filtering down in shimmering rays. The pressure lessened with each stroke upwards, but my worry for Alastor only intensified. His resilience was admirable, but I could see the toll the saltwater took on him.
As we reached the top of the cliff face, I looked over at Sariel. “Not far now,” I said, though it was meant more for Alastor than her. Her eyes flicked quickly over to him, then back to be and she gave me a thumbs up.
The anchor rope from the boat came into sight with a bright yellow dive line that Lily must have sunk for us and we gathered around it. The swim along the seabed from the cliff edge had given us the rest we needed and we were good to move up a little further. The ascent was a delicate balance, a dance with physics and physiology. I checked my dive computer for our depth and no-decompression limit, ensuring we stayed within the safe range to avoid the bends. We paused at fifteen, ten and five metres, allowing our bodies to adjust to the lessening pressure.
Decompression sickness was no joke. Ascending too quickly would cause the nitrogen absorbed by our blood and tissue during the dive to form bubbles in the body which could lead to sickness, numbness, and even long-term bone and tissue damage, or cardiac arrest. I doubted there was a hyperbaric chamber in this side of the Dead Sea to deal with it, and there was no way we had survived a fucking sea serpent to be taken out by the bends.
As the shadow of the boat materialised above, relief washed over me. The water was becoming uncomfortably hot and when we finally surfaced, the bright sunlight was utterly blinding. We bobbed there for a moment, our eyes adjusting to the dazzling light after so long below. Our boat bobbed gently in the water, a welcome sanctuary after the alien world below, and Lily’s voice calling us was like birdsong in the cool forest.
“No.”
I looked up from my second cold beer and Cole’s computer at the sound of Alastor’s voice from inside the med tent.
“You said, when we got back-”
“I said, Carlisle would give me something for the pain. Which he has. And that I heal fast. Whatever you thought you heard, you were wrong.”
“Dammit, Alastor, you are the most stubborn, infuriating person I have ever met! Why won’t you let me heal you?” Sariel’s voice rose to meet his and I grinned at the sound of her frustration. As much as I liked and respected the guy, he did have one hell of a stubborn streak. Mind you, most people wouldn’t dare stand up to him like Sariel was and I was totally there for it.
“I don’t need healing, woman! I will heal on my own, like always. Why are you pressing this?”
“Because you’re in pain,” she shot back.
“What the hell do you care, angel? I’m a hellhound, why would you even give a shit?”
I paused. He was baiting her now. He knew damn well she gave a shit; she’d shown that a few times down in the depths of that salty hellhole. Despite his determination to not even mention their fated connection to Sariel, it appeared that the ever-stoic Alastor Hawke was fishing for an admission that she felt the same way.
“I… I don’t. I don’t. But it will take days for you to heal, and that’s days we’re sitting around waiting for you when we’ve found what we were looking for.”
“Hang on, what’s this we? I thought I’d said you were strictly desk duty?”
“Yes, you did, I put it down to the pain you were in and the trauma of the situation we were in,” Sariel added dryly and I snorted with laughter.
“You deliberately disobeyed my orders-”
“In order to save your life.”
“That’s not the point, you were reckless and… where are you going?”
“I refuse to continue this conversation while you’re clearly under the influence of whatever drugs Carlisle gave you. We can talk more about it later when you’re feeling better.”
