Quick water swept them downriver.
The bodh was huge.A distant part of Adam’s brain clocked it at roughly thirteen feet.The rest of him focused on trying to wrap his legs around it for a better grip.
Ellie cried out with pain—and then choked as the river swamped over her face.
The sound was like a siren screaming through Adam’s brain.
Catfish liked to drag their prey under to drown.
The bodh whipped beneath him, furious at having acquired a two-hundred-pound anchor when it had been aiming for an easy lunch.
Adam released half of his grip on the fin, freeing a hand.He yanked his machete from its sheath and drove it into the creature’s flank.
The catfish thrashed with pain and outrage.Ellie compounded the problem by smashing her boot into its face.
Between the pain up front and eighteen inches of steel in its side, the damned thing finally let go.
Ellie surfaced with a gasp as the river pushed them past a massive boulder that split the stream.Her mouth twisted with pain, she flailed for some of the weeds trailing out behind the rock.
She managed to grasp them, halting her flight down the river.
Beneath Adam, the catfish pivoted back for her.
Adam fought to keep hold of the thing, gripping both the slippery fin and the handle of his knife.The damned fish was easily strong enough to push against the current, even with Adam clinging to its back.It quickly gained on Ellie as she worked to keep her hold on the slimy fronds.
A machete in the side ought to have been a deterrent.The bodh was more stubborn than Kalb going after a sausage.
That didn’t leave Adam with a whole lot of options.
He found himself with even fewer as the catfish dove.
Adam had only a moment to haul in a breath before he was under the water, the fish writhing furiously in his grip.He forced himself to open his eyes despite the burn.
He would have been happy to let the monster go, but he could see Ellie’s legs kicking frantically above him as she tried to keep her tenuous grip on the weeds.
Adam couldn’t risk the bodh going after her again.Ellie wasn’t that strong a swimmer.If the catfish got hold of her, it’d haul her under the river before Adam knew what the hell was happening.
Lungs screaming, Adam hauled against the machete, using the leverage to pull himself further up the catfish’s body.He snagged his left arm around the pectoral fins, putting the bodh in a chokehold—not that chokeholds mattered to something with goddamned gills.
The fish lurched for the surface, dragging Adam with it.
They broke through the water, and Adam hauled in a desperate breath.Biting out a curse, he yanked the machete free and slammed it into the soft spot behind the bodh’s skull.
The monster convulsed in Adam’s grip—just as the current slammed him against a slick, solid surface hard enough to drive the wind from his chest.
The twitching body of the fish pinned him there.Adam shoved it back, fighting the frothing pressure of the water, and bought himself just enough space to roll up onto whatever the hell he had just run into.
He brought the machete with him, yanking it from the catfish’s head with a jerk of his arm.
The hell was he going to lose his knife to that thing.
Flopping onto his back with the bloody blade in his hand, Adam stared up at the heavy gray sky as he gasped for breath.
“Ellie…” he croaked out.
The word was both a reminder and a prayer.
Adam forced himself to roll over, hands pressed against a slick platform of rope-lashed logs—which jarred under his knees at another impact.With a muffled gasp, Ellie hooked her arms over the edge of the wood.
