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Chapter19
If I believed in signs, I’d believe that I was meant to drown.
To die with water crushing my body from all around.
What other explanation could there be for facing another destructive body of water? I’d been slammed with a bruising force into a current that was as vengeful as the royal guard on this would-be witch hunt.
The force in which Nicole and I fell took the breath from my lungs once more and the burning that welled from inside of me was unmistakable. I knew it far too well now.
My wrist had been jostled, but I’d protected it as best I could. Now, I clutched it to my chest as I frantically moved my good arm in an upward motion. At least I thought it was up. I kicked my legs, desperately trying to find the surface of the water I’d sunk into.
If I made it out alive, swimming lessons needed to be added to my training. I wasn’t a strong enough swimmer to endure this. Add in a bum arm and my chances at survival had been cut drastically.
The water was still around me, and I knew I was deep down in its depths. And in danger. I tried to turn, looking around me, but the water was somehow darker than the unlit corridors Nicole and I had been stuck in before crashing into this new hell.
I panicked. My arms and legs flailed as I cried out in anguish. The last air my lungs held bubbled out of my mouth and I clamped it shut again. Stupid. It was stupid of me to waste anything I had.
I was flailing and getting nowhere. At least I didn’t think so since I couldn’t see anything.
Suddenly, a strong current swept me sideways. I must have made it closer to the surface if I could feel a current now. The depths had let go of me.
Keep moving.
I needed air. I needed to breathe or I’d die.
Die? I’d die. Here, in a strange world. After almost feeling like maybe I could settle into living in this new life, and it was being taken from me before I had a chance to ever live.
Hell if I’d let the royal guards take this from me. I’d withstood Darryl, I’d withstand this. I survived a knock on the head and falling in the damn pond that brought me here only to die here in the dark because I couldn’t fucking see? No. This was not how I was going to go.
Another current shifted me and instead of panicked flailing, I concentrated my legs and good arm into upward motions. There was no additional light, no path, no guidance. But if I felt the current I had been heading in the right direction and I had to keep going.
My arm reached up again and my hand caught air. I kicked hard one more time, worrying momentarily that I wouldn’t be able to stay afloat even if I did make it to the surface.
Air hit my face and I gulped in a breath of air. Glorious air.
Another current crashed into me and my body spun in a circle as water gushed into my mouth. I choked and shook my head, not knowing where the water was moving from or how to avoid its anger.
I was swallowed by the water again. I moved my arm around, strength filling my limbs by sheer willpower and the hope that I’d make it out of this whirling nightmare alive. And as if a cruel joke from this Faerie universe, my arm connected with something solid.
Letting shock and confusion overcome now would be useless, so instead I turned my body, steadily keeping my arm pressed against the solid matter in the water. When I felt closer I attempted to grip whatever it was. I slipped immediately on a slimy layer of algae. It had to be a rock.
I kicked my feet as another current came and threw my arm sideways to brace myself against the rock. The thing I was now basing my salvation on. I used what little strength I had in me and pushed my arm down, repositioning my body in front of the monstrosity in the water. Again, I shoved upward and my head broke through the current.
Air.
I gulped in as many breaths as I could take, my lungs feeling like they may never fully recover.
“Nicole!” I yelled into the nothingness around me.
No answer.
I cried out again, “Nicole!”
I took another heavy breath again, inhaling as much air as I could. I tried to turn on the rock, yell in another direction. But the algae I’d felt below was all over the rock, and while for that brief moment I was able to hold on, my good hand was starting to slip. The current was strong, and despite my desperation, it pulled me away from the rock. I clawed at it, reaching out with my bad arm, cursing as my bad hand could barely curl to grab let alone hold my entire body weight.
The current tugged me away from the lone lifeline, but it wasn’t so bad this time. Even with my limp arm I could stay afloat on top of the moving water. On top was okay. I can do this. I’m okay, I repeated to myself.
I barrel rolled, attempting to not panic. Knowing how to swim did me no good between the constant current and the violence of the water; with all my attempts to steady myself, my head simply bobbed up and down. I spit out water continuously but was able to keep enough of my mouth above water to breathe.
