These Twisted Bonds (These Hollow Vows, #2)(114)

I take a deep breath and dive, swimming down to the rocks around Finn’s feet. The icy water rushes around me in a powerful current, and I have to swim hard to stay in place. One second of weakness, and it will tear me away from him.

I loop one arm around his thigh, then use my other hand to tug the rocks trapping his other leg.

They’re too big. Too heavy. I have to use both hands, kicking against the current the whole time. My fingers are numb and won’t work properly, but I keep pulling away the rocks that keep magically reappearing.

A keening cry rips through the water, and when I open my eyes to look, I see eerie white eyes coming straight for me. I pull and pull until this strange place recognizes my persistence, and the rubble trapping his legs falls away.

Hands slide under my arms and Finn’s yanking me to the surface. “Go!” he shouts, shoving me forward, toward the portal—toward the monster.

I gasp for breath, shaking my head. “Something’s coming from that way. We need to go around.”

“We don’t have time.” He wraps one arm around me and pulls through the water with one arm.

“I’m fine.” I wiggle free and swim beside him. My legs and arms are numb, and every instinct says we should be swimming away from those eyes, not toward them, but I force myself to keep moving toward that ever-dimming portal light.

“We’re almost there,” Finn says.

Pain slices through my thigh and I’m dragged under.

Deeper, deeper. Until the pressure’s building in my ears and my lungs burn.

Deeper.

I can’t see the creature that has me, but judging by the mouth around my leg, it’s massive. It weaves around rocks and into the current until we’re entering an underwater cavern. I search with my hands until I find a rock with sharp edges and I slam it right into one of those creepy white eyes.

The creature releases me, and I waste no time following our path back out of the cavern. Finn meets me halfway, wrapping an arm around me and dragging me toward the surface.

The air burns when I pull it into my lungs—burns like poison, burns badly enough that I can’t force myself to take another breath.

“I’ve got you!” Finn pulls me onto a rocky ledge above the churning water. He lays me down and stares into my eyes.

“Breathe, damn it!” he shouts, those silver eyes too full of anguish.

And I do. I breathe. And it’s utter agony. I want to sink back into the water and go to sleep. It hurts so much.

“Again!” Finn commands.

I obey, once, twice, three more times. Each breath hurts a little less.

Only then does he tear his gaze off me and look around.

The world spins, but I try to follow his lead, to see what he’s seeing. The sky above us isn’t dark.

I can see in the dark. This black is nothingness. It’s a void.

Water laps onto the rocky ledge, and the glowing portal in the distance— “Where is it?” My voice is raw, my words more choking sounds than words, but he doesn’t need me to explain.

“It’s gone,” he whispers. “The portal is closed.” His gaze drops to my thigh, and his expression turns grim.

Only when I see the deep, bloody gash in my leg do I feel the pain of it. Numbness and adrenaline had masked it, but now it aches and burns and throbs, and there’s so much blood.

I’m going to die here.





Chapter Twenty-Seven

When the water rises, you need the white-eyed monster. Don’t hide from him.

That creature that almost drowned me—was that the one Lark foresaw?

Don’t give up until the monster takes you deeper, Princess.

“I think there’s another way,” I whisper, blindly reaching for Finn’s hand. “The white-eyed monster has the path out—there must be another portal deep beneath the surface, another way.”

Finn’s eyes glow in the darkness. “Did Mab tell you that?”

“Lark,” I say softly. “In my dream.”

He takes a breath and looks at my leg again. “Can you swim with that?”

I shake my head. “Go without me.”

“The hell I will,” he growls.

“I will only slow you down. I don’t know how deep the cavern goes or how far you’ll have to swim. You can’t make it if you drag me along.”

He yanks off his jacket and tears it apart, making one long strip. “You have a choice: you can swim or I can drag you,” he says, wrapping my thigh. The binding is tight, painfully so, but the blood stops flowing.

The rocks around us tremble and crack, as if the world itself is falling apart.

“Go!” I shout. “And keep swimming, even if you lose me.” I nudge him toward the water.

His eyes blaze as they connect with mine. He cups my face in both hands. “Don’t you dare die on me, Princess. We are going to find that portal together, and we’re going to come out the other side.

You understand?”

The rocks beneath us quake again, and more water gushes from the cracks. “Finn . . .”

“Do you understand? ”

He’s not going anywhere until I agree, so I nod.

“Good. Let’s go.”

Standing, he leads me to my feet. Then he takes a deep breath and dives in. I follow, and it feels like diving into a sheet of ice. Every sense is assaulted by the sharp cold, every inch of my skin feels like it’s being stabbed with tiny frozen needles, and every instinct tells me to resurface.