I kicked toward them, panic tightening my ribs. “We are running out of time.”
She slapped his cheek.
Hard.
He startled, coughing, eyes snapping back into focus. Rage flickered there, then fear, then confusion.
“Air,” she said again, relentless. “Point to it.”
His hand lifted, trembling, and jabbed upward toward the ceiling. One glyph stood out now that I was looking for it. Curved lines intersected like flowing currents, lighter than the others, and repeated at exact intervals.
Shedidn’t thank him.
She released him and turned immediately, swimming for the hub at the center of the chamber. I went with her, my hand closing around her wrist, anchoring us together as the water surged and bucked.
The golden spoke gleamed dully beneath the surface.
She reached it first, fingers locking around the metal. The water was above her neck now.
“Arthur,” she said, calm in a way that made my chest ache. “We have to do this underwater.”
I nodded, then we both dived under water.
The world narrowed to pressure and dim light and the sound of my own pulse roaring in my ears. I wrapped my hands over hers on the spoke. The metal was slick and unyielding. It resisted us like it had resisted centuries of erosion.
We pushed.
My lungs burned almost immediately. My vision edged with black. Above us, the ceiling felt impossibly close, the last pocket of air already gone.
She adjusted the angle by a fraction, precise even now, even here. Her eyes met mine, steady, apologetic, and fierce.
“There,” she mouthed. “Now.”
We heaved together.
The spoke shifted, then clicked.
We had no air left.
I pulled her into my arms as the last of my breath fled, pressing my forehead to hers. Her hands fisted in my shirt. We held each other, suspended in the water, waiting to seewhether we had guessed correctly—or whether Atlantis would finish what it started.
I couldn’t tell if tears were leaking out of me or if it was just the water my face was submerged in, but everything inside me was breaking loose at once.
My lungs screamed.
Then the chamber answered. A deep, resonant groan rolled through the stone, vibrating through my bones like the world itself had finally taken a breath. The pressure changed instantly as the water surged away from us with violent force.
Light split the darkness.
A seam tore open in the wall opposite the hub, and the water rushed toward it, dragging us along. I kicked hard, keeping my grip on her, and we burst through the opening together just as the current released us.
We spilled onto solid ground in a tangle of limbs, gasping as water roared past us before vanishing into unseen channels. The floor steamed faintly as the chamber drained.
Lungs burning, heart hammering, I rolled onto my side. Artemis’s eyes met mine, wide and shining, and she laughed breathlessly.
Without thinking, I pulled her against me, holding her like the stone might still try to take her back.
We had been seconds from drowning.
