Conall swam up towards Molly. Her eyes were closed, her hair swirling around her head as she floated limply in the dark water.
He wrapped his hands around her waist and kicked for the surface with all his strength. His muscles screamed and his lungs burned, but he kept kicking, knowing that if he stopped now, they would both be lost.
The surface seemed impossibly far away and the chain around Molly’s ankle was a weight that kept threatening to drag them both down.
No, he told the waves silently.You won’t have her. You won’t!
He had never fought so hard in his life. He had thought himself a seasoned warrior, but nothing had prepared him for this fight.
Up, up, up, he struggled, his lungs afire, his muscles straining.
Please let me make it,he thought frantically.Please don’t let me fail her.
But it was no good. He could feel Molly slipping from his grasp. His lungs were bursting and his mind was swimming in darkness. His arms were going numb and his vision was starting to blur. But just when he was about to give up, he spotted a glimmer of light above them. Hope flashed through him and he kicked with all his might, feeling the last of his strength leave his body as he broke the surface. He coughed and hacked, seawater exploding from his mouth and nose, and heaved in great gulps of air.
He heard a cough beside him and Molly’s eyes flickered. He clung to her desperately, trying to keep her head above the surface, fighting the weight of the chain and the power of the waves that kept trying to drag them both back under.
“Help!” he screamed. “Over here!” He didn’t know if anyone could hear him.
And then hands were reaching down, grabbing him under the arms, and hauling him and Molly over the side of a rowing boat. He flopped onto his back on the rough boards and then crawled over to Molly. She lay lifeless in the bottom of the boat. He tilted her head back and breathed into her mouth, hoping that somehow it would be enough.
Nothing happened for one, two, three heartbeats and then suddenly Molly spasmed, rolled onto her side and coughed up water before gasping several deep breaths. Conall wrapped his arms around her and held her close, his heart pounding with relief.
“Thank the Lord,” he whispered.
“Conall?” she said in a voice scraped raw. “Conall? Is that really you?”
“It’s really me,” he replied, crushing her against him. “Ye are safe now.”
Despite their exhaustion and soaked clothes, they were both alive—something that seemed almost miraculous now as Conall looked out across the raging sea.
The storm was finally beginning to subside, though it would be some time before its fury passed away entirely. He clung to Molly and she rested her head against his chest. One of the men used a pick to unlock the manacle from around Molly’s ankle and she kicked the hateful thing away, glad to be free of it. They were rowed back to his father’s flagship and pulled aboard.
Conall was so weak he could hardly stand as they reached the deck, but he forced his knees to lock and his legs to steady as he supported Molly, unwilling to let her go for a second. His father was waiting on the deck, his face a mask of worry and relief.
He stepped forward and rested his hand on Conall’s shoulder. “Well done, lad.”
Conall nodded at his father, a father, he suspected he was only now beginning to know. “Thank ye for saving us,” he said tightly.
His father’s grip on his shoulder tightened. “That’s what families do, Conall,” he said gruffly. “We protect each other. Even though we might not always get along.”
“What of Snarlsson’s ship?” Conall asked.
“Look over there,” his father replied with a nod.
Conall turned his head and saw Snarlsson’s flagship half submerged in the waves. Even as he watched, it sank the rest of the way.
“Then it’s over?” Conall said, hardly daring to believe it.
“Aye, son,” his father said. “It’s over.”
He squeezed Conall’s shoulder once more and then strode away to give him and Molly some privacy.
Conall turned to her, brushing a strand of hair from her face. “How do ye feel?” he asked softly.
Molly gave him a weak smile. “Alive,” she replied. “Thanks to you.”
He smiled back, feeling a warmth spread through his chest. He had never felt so alive as he did in that moment, knowing that he had saved the woman he loved. He looked down at her now, her face still pale and drawn, and felt a fierce protectiveness settle over him. He would do anything to keep her safe. Anything at all.
