Embers in the Sea

by Jennifer M. Eaton

  He nodded and I grabbed his hands. Ruby’s red glow swayed within the swells as green, blue, and yellow brilliance joined hers. At least three more rift dwellers had slipped through the hole in the floor.

  We were out of time.

  18

  One hand on David, I reached up with my good arm and tried to grasp the flap above. I kicked, lifting myself as high as I could, but my fingertips barely brushed the edges. David slipped beneath the water and I dropped down, shoving my hand under his arms and raising him to the surface.

  He coughed. “It’s too hard.”

  “It’s not. And you aren’t giving up.”

  A flash of blue light surrounded us. I spun; praying for a sign of red, but green joined the blue.

  David cried out before he disappeared beneath the surge.

  “No!”

  Something squishy wrapped around my ankle before tightening and yanking down. A green glow seared my pupils. The salinity stung, but I couldn’t close my eyes. I bent my knee and floundered in the water, clawing at the flashing green tentacle drawing me further and further away from the air. The creature furled around my torso, constricting. I had to break free. But how?

  A shiny black disc on the side of the creature passed near my face, the circle pulsed, centering on me. A pupil? I punched the dark shape with what energy I had left. The monster reeled back, its grip loosening, and I managed one kick upward before she dragged me back down again.

  To my right, David and the blue creature rolled, sinking to the ground. David kicked and thrashed against hundreds of pin-like protrusions and blue octopus tentacles. A blow to the rift dweller’s center sent a piercing shriek echoing through the depths before the creature let go. The beast’s gazillion tentacles waved peacefully as the motionless rift dweller drifted away.

  Wrestling the tangle of limbs from his legs, David looked up just as my attacker’s tentacles wrapped around my throat. I clawed at the slimy appendage and kicked. I had to be able to hit this thing somehow!

  The creature arched its slimy frame and rolled me through the sea. I grunted, thrashed, and punched. I was not going to be something’s dinner!

  The waters around me dimmed and faded. I hung upside down, clawing at my neck and kicking madly. I was losing. What chance did a human being have against an animal the size of a car and totally in their element?

  David crouched on the rocky floor and pushed up from the bottom, hurling himself toward me like a bullet. I ducked as his fists throttled over my head and bashed into Green Goon’s center. The animal buckled and released me.

  My vision cleared, and I grappled for David, twisting my fingers in his shirt, but I slipped as Green Goon seized me again.

  David grasped my waist. His fingers dug into my skin as we both sunk back toward the beast below us.

  Air. Need. Air.

  My hip banged against the rocks, and David gripped my face, bringing his lips to mine. I tensed, before he forced a puff of oxygen into my lungs. How did he still have extra air?

  A few bubbles escaped his nose as he spun and snatched the tentacle wrapped around my ankle. A shriek blasted through the ocean as David ripped the tendril in two. Green Goon retreated through the hole with a dark cloud fouling the sea behind her amputated member.

  David cast the limb to the side. The severed tentacle drifted to the rocks as he grabbed my hand. We swam up from the bottom, but David lost momentum halfway to the top.

  No. No way. We were not going to drown after all of that!

  I slipped my arms around his chest, clenched my teeth against the blazing sting in my injured shoulder, locked my fingers, and kicked with all my might. My temples throbbed. My chest burned. Kick. Kick.

  Help me, David. Kick your feet!

  He kicked. How could someone with such long legs have absolutely no propulsion underwater?

  We broke into the air. I inhaled, choking on the salty tang that ran into my mouth. Every inch of me ached. My toes tingled. I’d never take oxygen for granted again.

  “Get out!” Standing on the edge of the water above, David reached down to me.

  I stared up at him like a blithering idiot.

  When did he get up there?

  I raised my good arm and he hoisted me from the sea like an oversized fish on a hook. The swells sloshed along the edges of the rocky floor before shimmering to a still brilliance, perfectly mirroring the illuminating sparkles of the stalactites above. I took four labored breaths, waiting for the water to flare with green or blue light, and for monstrous limbs to lunge out and tug us back into the sea. Thankfully, I was disappointed.

  A leathery flap buckled above—once again, our only defense against the pressure of the ocean. I flopped onto my back. We’d escaped one prison only to land in an identical one hiding above it. And what was beyond this new flap, another chamber like this, or seven miles of frigid sea waiting to crush us?

  David wrung a stream of clear droplets from the hem of his shirt before slipping his arm around my shoulder. A tingle soaked into my skin from beneath his hand, tickling and embracing me from within.

  Was he serious? I gave him a mental slap, forcing him out of my psyche. “I’m not really feeling all that affectionate at the moment. A giant calamari just tried to rip my head off.”

  He puffed out a laugh. “I wasn’t suggesting the kissing thing. I just thought it would be better if we could keep each other at ease.”

  At ease? He’d spent waaay too much time with Dad before he left for Mars two years ago. But maybe he was right. God, I was tired.

  I cuddled into the soaked cotton covering his chest. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be a jerk.”

  His fingers wove through my hair, and for a fraction of a second, we were back in the woods. I felt safe, just like I had then, even though the army was chasing us.

  Wait. What? Safe?

  I lifted my face. “Did you just do that … give me the safe-feely thing?”

  “Not intentionally, but does that mean you’re okay?”

  “I don’t know if anything is ever going to be okay.” I smoothed back my dripping hair. “We lost Silver, and now Ruby. We don’t have a ship. We’re stuck in another cave, and God knows what’s going on in the real world.” A painful ball formed in my throat. I swallowed it down. “I’ve never felt so helpless in all my life.”

  David squeezed me tighter. “We’re going to get out of this. We always do.”

  That was true, but as the damp, foreboding stone walls shimmered around us, I had to wonder if that luck had finally run out.

  Leaning against his shoulder, I closed my eyes. Maybe if we could rest a moment, we’d be able to get our bearings and come up with a plan.

  David’s david-ness soaked through me, easing the throb in my shoulder and erasing some of the worry. A deep fog settled over my thoughts, easing me into a vacant stupor.

  Until the soothing, artificial calm shattered with a crash. My eyes sprang open, and my pulse slid into the familiar vein of overdrive. The roar of rushing water echoed through the chamber, bolting me upright.

  David jumped to his feet. “Jess!”

  I grabbed his hand. Water funneled through the hole in the ceiling and seeped through fissures within the walls. My bare feet splashed as I took a step.

  We were in a perpetual loop. Run, rest, run. But never really enough time to rest in between. Why we both hadn’t lost out minds by now, was a miracle.

  David’s grip on my hand tightened. His head turned from left, to right, and up. He stared at the deluge falling from above.

  Goddammit, sometimes I hated it when I was right.

  His gaze lowered to me. I wished I could strip away the terror hidden within his eyes. He deserved better than this. Maybe we both did. But stewing over what could have been wouldn’t change anything. We were both going to die.

  19

  His hands shot to the sides of my face, and his lips covered mine. A taint of salt melted to s
weet, undeniable perfection. A kiss goodbye?

  David’s grip on me tightened. A swirling, desperate anger channeled through our bond, pulsing before softening as his tongue parted my lips.

  The swell lapping my ankles seemed distant, unobtrusive. Did it even exist? Did we exist?

  The roar of the flood echoed off the walls in a deafening thunder.

  Yes, it all existed, but melting into David ceded the horrors to the background, blocked them from the now, and shoved them into the later.

  I twisted my fingers through the hair behind David’s neck and pulled him closer. A pressure inside me grew, squeezing out the rumble of the torrent beside us and the soaking sting of the water nearing our knees. We mattered. Nothing else.

  David drew away. His kiss still tingled the edge of my lip as his eyes darkened. “We are not going to die.”

  I blinked. Of course not. We were getting out of here. Just like always. I squinted, checking the base of the column of water rushing in from the ceiling. Maybe when the chamber filled we could swim through, just like last time—as long as there was another chamber up there.

  Dread slicked over my newfound confidence. Confidence I probably wouldn’t have had unless… I turned to David. Had he just manipulated me?

  “Don’t,” he said. “We need to keep positive if we’re going to have any chance of surviving.”

  I shook my head. I knew that. And deep down I also knew we would get out. Failing was not an option. Too much depended on us.

  A glossy, glass-like figurine stepped out of the bubbling column, shimmered, and became Maggie. Well, Ruby looking like Maggie.

  “They let the water in,” I said.

  Idiot. Way to state the obvious.

  Ruby walked toward me. “They didn’t release your air. I did.”

  David and I froze, agape.

  “We need to leave quickly. They are below, not expecting you to move further up.”

  “Why wouldn’t they expect that?” David asked.

  “Because this is the last chamber.”

  David’s expression didn’t change. I needed to hire him as a poker partner, because I nearly peed myself.

  “You mean if we leave this room we’ll be out in the open sea?”

  “Yes, until we swim to your ship. I am waiting above to assist you.”

  But how far away was our ship? And wasn’t it filled with water?

  “We’ll drown.” Okay—stating the obvious again, but stoic-boy just stood there. One of us had to say something.

  David’s face finally paled. He shifted his weight as he stared at the rising water. For a second I regretted being so blunt. His passive stare was easier to take than the hint of fear now trickling through our bond.

  “We will deal with drowning momentarily,” Ruby said. “It won’t take them long to realize someone is helping you. It would be foolish of them to backtrack through the chambers below. They will wait for this hollow to fill and come for you as soon as the water is deep enough to support them.” She pointed to the hole in the floor. “We need to cover the aperture so my people don’t enter when the sea has gained a safe height.”

  Cover a hole the size of a Volkswagen. Sure. I’ll just sit on it.

  David sloshed toward a glistening column. “This pillar is cracked along the ceiling.”

  Yeah, and?

  He flicked his gaze to me. Had I thought that aloud?

  “We’re going to push it over.”

  My brow furrowed. “That thing must weigh a ton. Ten tons. We can’t—”

  David threw his weight against the column. The edges ground across the floor, revealing a second crack along the base. Okay, maybe we could do this. Or, umm, maybe he could do this and I could stand right over here and cheer him on.

  The ocean soaked through the denim at my hips.

  “It is only shifting,” Ruby said. “You need to work faster.”

  “A little help would be nice,” David said.

  She held up her hands. “I’m made of water.”

  I guess that left me. I pressed my hands against the cold alabaster and pushed. Pain knifed through my shoulder. I was barely any help with two good arms. How could I help with only one?

  “Don’t think that,” he said. “That actually did help.”

  But maybe not enough. A blue glow shimmered up from the hole, illuminating the water around the opening like some sort of attack beacon.

  “They are coming,” Ruby said.

  One hand still on the pillar, David stared at the glowing opening. Sweat beaded his brow. We need to find another way.

  Yeah, I figured, but what?

  He peered up and smiled. There.

  There what?

  David propped his feet against the wall and held his hands against the column. Lifting himself, he spider-crawled straight up, poised between the pillar and the wall.

  What are you doing?

  The column leaned toward the wall closer to the ceiling, leaving David in a crouch. He grunted as he heaved, and the column started to teeter. Another shove and the gargantuan mass splashed down about two feet from covering the hole. Dangit.

  My ninja alien dropped to the floor, landing on his feet with a splash.

  Show off.

  I jumped back as a glowing blue tentacle flounced through the air above the opening.

  David darted toward the column. “Help me roll it!”

  Turning my injured shoulder away, I threw all my weight against the column. David grunted beside me. It didn’t seem possible, but the column began to roll. Damn, maybe he had yanked those helicopters out of the sky two years ago.

  The area above the opening began to stir. The lights grew brighter.

  “You must hurry!” Ruby walked across the top of the water. “The sea has attained the correct depth!”

  A swirling emerald glow overtook the blue, as if Green Goon whacked the blue rift dweller out of the way. Someone must have been itching for payback.

  “David?”

  “I see him.”

  Or her, technically.

  We shoved, pushed, and rolled. The swells lapped my chest. I started to float. “I can’t get any more traction.”

  David growled and the pillar rolled another few inches, settling over the hole.

  We did it!

  But the flood surrounding us still flashed a brilliant green.

  One had gotten through.

  20

  David gasped as a tentacle swirled around his waist and pulled him beneath the surge. The splash slapped my cheeks.

  This wasn’t happening. At least not if I didn’t let it.

  I took a deep breath and dove. The salt barely stung, but a haze of dark particles mottled the green glow beneath the water, swirling in infinite circles that masked the creature’s light.

  I lurched back as a foot flailed past my face. Bubbles rolled from David’s clenched teeth as he held back the twelve-inch, snapping beak gnashing at him from Green Goon’s core.

  Dang, that thing was huge!

  Springing up from the bottom, I breached the surface and took a gulp of air. I nearly choked when Maggie’s face appeared before me.

  “There are rocks on the floor,” she said.

  “Yeah, so?”

  “A hard blow to the top of her mouth will be enough to stun her. It will be some time before she regains consciousness.”

  Her mouth? The beak, I guess. Could it be that easy?

  “That is why we keep our mouths internal, unless needed for defense or feeding. They are our hardest extremity, but our weakest point if we are struck.”

  “Good tip. Thanks.”

  I dove once more. A bulky stone lay just below my feet. I grasped and hefted with both hands, but goliath-stone barely budged.

  How about something a little smaller?

  Swimming up to take another breath, I noted two grapefruit-sized rocks near the wall on the other side of David. I grit
my teeth and mustered up an image of banging Green Goon on her beak and the creature sinking to the floor. I curled the thought into a mental ball and flung it at David.

  He spun to the side and tried to hold her back while scrabbling for one of the stones. She snapped, and David flinched. Dark fluid ribboned through the sea in a continuing trail from his biceps.

  He snatched a stone, shoved with his injured arm, and hurled his burden with the other. Green Goon sucked in her beak and the rock sunk to the ground.

  He missed.

  How the heck did he miss?

  Goon’s tentacles whipped out, wrapping around David’s arms and legs. He struggled. The skin around his mouth darkened as he looked up toward the water’s surface.

  Crap. He was out of air.

  I shot up and inhaled before darting down again. Green Goon had grown a few extra hundred tentacles, and most of them wrapped around David, driving him closer to her ivory beak.

  Okay: rocks.

  I swam down and grabbed the stone that David had thrown. I kicked, angling myself around until I hovered behind the thrashing creature.

  Boulder to the beak … like hitting someone on the head. Just like in the movies.

  You’re okay. You got this. You totally got this.

  I angled my legs up, turning myself into a sinking torpedo and kicked to gain momentum. Swishing around five tentacles, I curled toward the blazing green behemoth. I reeled back, ready to fling the rock, but a tentacle twirled around my waist, hoisting me backward.

  She lifted me high in the water, away from the fight. I smacked the tentacle with the rock, but Green Goon didn’t even flinch. Below, David thrashed and twisted in her grip.

  No. No way. We weren’t being taken out by a Technicolor squid!

  I bent my knee, bringing part of the tentacle holding me closer, then proceeded to beat the green flashing member repeatedly with the rock. Frustrated, I grasped the soft flesh with my free hand, shoved it into my mouth, and bit. Revolting, fishy goo oozed over my tongue. I spit as the creature thrashed and dropped me.