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I heard a crash behind us that sounded like the platform had given way. “Let’s go before this place collapses, or blows up,” he said.
I hurried up the ladder to the top, then down the other side. Vic was right behind me. The clear water didn’t look that deep, maybe chest level, and I slid into the depths. But the second I did, my breath was sucked from my lungs when I felt the freezing cold water.
Vic jumped into the water, not reacting to the cold. But I remembered him in the cold shower. He’d done that for years. God, he’d watched his brother drown in a sewer. I had no idea how he was keeping it together right now, because my mind was grappling with what we were doing. What we had to do if we wanted to survive.
“I need to find the opening.” He put the flashlight between his teeth and disappeared beneath the surface.
I rubbed my arms, shivering as I watched the beam of light and the ripple on the surface of the water.
A minute later, there was an abrasive grinding sound, and then a clang before a metal grate fell to the bottom of the cistern.
Vic emerged beside me and curled his arm around my waist. “Okay, baby. We’re going to swim through the shaft to the other end.”
I nodded. “How far?”
His jaw flexed and his eyes hardened. “To the main house.”
Oh my God. I shook my head, my lips quivering. “Vic, I can’t hold my breath that far.” It had to be almost the length of two football fields. It was impossible to swim that far under water.
“Look at me,” he said, taking both my hands in his.
Tingles spread through my arms and legs as I stared at the mouth of the tunnel beneath the water. “I can’t. I’ve never held my breath that long.” My entire body was trembling now, likely a combination of the cold water and the fear descending over me.
“Look. At. Me,” Vic demanded.
I did and was met with steady eyes. Calm. He wanted me to be calm. He needed me to be calm.
I slowed my breathing.
“Good girl,” he said. “I’m going to be straight up with you, Rainbird. We stay here, we die. If the smoke doesn’t kill us, the fire will. No one can get to us in time. We got to save ourselves. Saint and the others know this is where I’ll go if there is no other way out.”
My teeth chattered incessantly. “Vic. No one can hold their breath that long.”
“I can.” It was almost like the shield lowered over him, blocking everything out. His eyes turned cold and impenetrable. “It’s the only way out, and I’m not leaving you here.”
He released me and reached into his vest, grabbing a thin cable and a knife from his pocket. He dipped below the surface of the water for a second, then came back up. He cut the cable with his knife and looped the other end around my waist and tied it.
He put his knife away. “You’re tied to me. We do this together. No matter what.”
I swallowed and nodded. My mind was scrambling for another way out. Another possibility. But this was what Vic did for a living. He knew our chances, and he knew what had to be done.
“You need to be calm, Macayla. When your lungs scream for air, your instinct will be to get above the surface and breathe. But you’ll lose more oxygen if you aren’t calm.”
I nodded. But panic was already swirling through me.
He cupped the back of my neck. “Jackson needs you. I need you. You do whatever it takes to survive, Macayla.”
I bit my lip and tried to keep my breath even like his. “If I die…. Jackson. Don’t let him be taken away. Promise me you won’t let him go to a foster home.” I didn’t ask him to promise me I wouldn’t die because I knew he couldn’t make that promise, and I didn’t want to hear him say it.
His fingers squeezed my neck. “I gave you my word that would never happen, Rainbird. But you won’t die. I won’t let you.”
I inhaled a ragged breath. “Vic?”
“Yeah, baby.”
“I love you. God, I love you, Vic Gate.”
He kissed me. It was hard and fast, but it was everything in that one moment. “Rainbird, I’ve loved you from the second you held my hand when you were an annoying little five-year-old who wouldn’t shut up.”
