“Give us the boulder!” His voice was shrill with desperation.
“No. Fuck you!” someone else screamed.
Fists flew. A knife slashed across someone’s thigh, blood mixing with the rising water. Another woman tried to climb the boulder, slipping, screaming as she was yanked back down into the flood.
The vines spread at an alarming pace, wrapping around the ankle of a nearby man. He jumped, trying to slash them away with a knife. The vines weren’t just attacking. They were watching. The moment someone slowed down, or a foot faltered or a breath hitched—they struck. A man to my left screamed as a tendril wrapped around his throat instead of his leg this time, yanking him up like a slaughtered animal.
“Solric’s balls,” Ciaran breathed, kicking a vine away as it lashed toward him.
I set Seren down between us. I hadn’t taken off my belt yet like Ciaran had and it might be the closest thing I had to a weapon right now. “Stay here,” I ordered Seren, yanking the belt from my waist.
“I can help, Rykr.”
I stood once again.
“Not right now you can’t.” I snapped my belt in the face of a woman who came at me with a knife. She fell back, swallowed immediately by twisting vines that pinned her to the ground.
“I’m not helpless.” Seren’s voice sounded tired through the bond. Seth must have known what she’d be facing. I was going to cut that man’s heart out if it was the last thing I did.
“Just stay there.” I whipped my belt at a large man with a sword, aiming for his wrist, rather than his sword. He paused, surprised. But the belt had done nothing, either.
I let him come.
The moment he swung, I ducked low, slammed my elbow into his ribs, and drove my fist into his throat. He gasped, staggered, and I kicked him backward into the rising water, snatching his sword out of his grasp.
A vine lashed out and impaled him instantly.
I had no time to register the horror of it as another vine shot out and coiled around my leg. Fuck. I wrenched my leg forward, cutting the vine before it could drag me down, but more were coming, lashing out like striking vipers, hunting, wrapping around anything they could take.
The doors above our heads opened fully now, and a giant torrent of water headed straight toward us. I cut down the remaining survivors in front of me, then dove toward Seren as I released the sword.
As I caught her in my arms, I gasped for a breath, then let myself be swept under the surface of the water. Water closed over us, and the world became cold and dark.
I had Seren. That was all that mattered. I expelled a few bubbles from my nose, trying to hold tight to my breath. “Hold on to me. Whatever you do, don’t let go.”
My words were nothing more than thought, carried through the bond, but I felt her answer—a faint squeeze of her fingers.
The current was brutal, yanking at us like a beast trying to rip us apart, to tear us from each other. My lungs ached, burning. Seren struggled—I felt the spasms in her body, her instincts fighting to gasp for air that wasn’t there.
I kicked us forward, doing my best to fight against the current. Without the use of my arms, though, swimming was impossible.
“Rykr, I don’t know how long I can hold my breath.” She was clearly trying to stay calmer than she felt.
I tugged her face into mine. “Seal your lips to mine. Tight. As tight as you can. We can exchange breath.”
As I set my lips against hers, she followed my instructions, her lips pliant. Our mouths molded together, and I dug my hands into the hair at the nape of her neck, giving her the breath she so desperately needed.
The exchange of breath had to end, or we’d both end up lightheaded and deprived. “Pull back now.”
A burning feeling rose in my chest.
Somehow, I could see the outline of shadows around us in the dark water, my superior vision at night both helping and terrifying me. But I couldn’t see anyone else. I just hoped Tara and Seren’s friends had gotten away from the vines.
“We can’t swim holding on to each other like this. Hold on to my shirt and we’ll swim together, to the surface.”
We started forward then I stopped, a sharp tug at my leg.
Not a tug.
