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Glancing down between my legs, I gasped before plummeting into the icy darkness. Frigid water pierced into my throat and wrapped around my entire body, as I became completely submerged in the frozen liquid.
Kicking my legs, I reached for the blurry surface, strong fingers wrapped around my numb wrist, pulling my head into fresh, icy air. I coughed, spitting out water that had burned my lungs from swallowing and tried to entangle my own hand around Weston’s arm.
“Don’t let go!” Weston commanded, his belly flat against the ice. A small crack began to splinter beneath his chest as my weight and the current pulled at my ankles.
Fear washed through my veins, prickling like needles at my body that was rapidly becoming bitter cold. I gripped tighter with my fingers, desperately splashing against the water as it lapped across the hole that was beginning to form a new, thin layer of ice.
“How did the ice—” I spluttered out, and then swallowed another mouthful. My teeth stopped chattering, too cold to exert any energy as Weston was attempting to drag me out of the pond. My fingers and body were excruciatingly painful. But his effort was becoming fruitless. I felt trapped in a paralyzed state, unable to move. His endeavor only increased the depth of the crack beneath his stomach as he continually slid across the ice, nearly falling in after me himself. The current tugging at my legs was increasingly growing as my weight became denser and denser.
“An air bubble must have been caught beneath—” Weston began, and then my head slipped under the surface of the water. All feeling escaped my body, the soaked clothing dragging me deeper into the water. My fingers loosened from around him. The only thing I could still sense against my skin was Weston’s hand still desperately clinging to my wrist.
My mind wanted my body to try and force my way back to the surface. My muscles convulsed, desperate for warmth and fresh air, but my limbs refused to move. I felt my lungs tighten from the lack of oxygen, and I watched as his face began fading into a blur. The icy surface above me was drifting away, and his touch was now waning as the numbing bitter cold of water engulfed me. Weston’s mouth was moving, the muscles in his entire body straining as I was being sucked farther and farther away.
This was the end for me. It was nearing as Weston began pounding against the thin layer of ice that had solidified around my arm. Red stained the surface that splintered and cracked, but it was of no use. My arm began to slide through his hand.
Black clouded the edges of my vision, my body and lungs falling into a blissful state of nothingness. Water pierced into my burning lungs as my body involuntarily attempted to fill them with oxygen.
The shadows that were surrounding Weston’s blurry figure above me were darkening as he ferociously tried once more to raise me from the water, refusing to let go of my wrist. But his fingers were as numb as my entire body was, and instead I slipped another centimeter away, edging closer to the bottom of the icy pond.
A muffled roar vibrated through the ice and rippled the water that had become my tomb. Weston, fighting to keep me with him, crying out for me. Begging that I stay with him, but there was something dragging me down and away from the light that was dimming above me.
The last thing I saw before succumbing to this blistering cold darkness, was Weston’s intense blue eyes.
Those beautiful blue eyes.
And then my wrist slipped entirely from his hand.
Chapter 20
**WESTON**
No.
I slammed my fist into the ice once more as Tenley slipped from my grasp. One moment she was in my arms, gazing at me with the most adoring emerald eyes. Her sweet face flushed with rosy cheeks. The next, she was plunging into the cold abyss below.
It had nearly pulled me in as well, but I’d managed to dig the toes of my skates in and collapse onto my belly, stopping her from becoming lost in the water. Millie was sobbing, terrified, and Keaton had dived onto my ankles, holding me tightly with Annie.
Yet, I still lost her. The water had been too cold and my fingers lost their strength.
Her body drifted deeper into the water below the ice that I hit once more with desperation. My knuckles turning red with the blood that oozed out of every cut from the layer of frozen death that had entombed Tenley.
“No,” I hoarsely cried out, angry. Then a small hand tapped me on my shoulder, and I shook my head, unable to look away from her fading figure. So petite, so feisty.
“Uncle Weston.” Millie’s voice trembled beside me, and I bit back the rage that was roaring through me. I knew I shouldn’t blame myself; it had been an accident. No one could have guessed that there was an air pocket in the exact spot Tenley would fall onto. No one could have known that the single area that needed to be thick was compromised and caused Tenley’s weight to break through entirely. But I was angry.
She’d looked at me differently today. A way no one had done. And the woman that I had quickly fallen for was fading fast beneath a wall that seemed impenetrable despite my desperate attempts.
I was also angry about losing my grip on her. The current that had tugged at her legs combined with the ice-cold temperature turning my own hand numb had ripped Tenley away. Someone who was becoming more than just a friend was disappearing from my life. I’d never felt the pain that was shooting through my heart at this moment before.
“Uncle Weston,” Millie said again.
“What?” I snapped, swinging my head towards her, and she blinked in fright. Her big eyes swallowed her face. I was filled with immediate regret and opened my mouth to apologize when she lifted one little mitten and pointed to the hole.
“You’re going to save her, right?” she whispered.
Something zapped into place. Everything I’d ever learned sent a fiery fuel racing through my veins. Yes, I was going to save her.
“Oh, you sweet girl,” I said and then slammed my fist once more into the thin layer of ice freshly blanketing the hole. I increased my speed and strength, and the hole widened. Large enough for me to fit through.
