Total pages in book: 169
Estimated words: 156210 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 781(@200wpm)___ 625(@250wpm)___ 521(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 156210 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 781(@200wpm)___ 625(@250wpm)___ 521(@300wpm)
At times, I move against the wave as it tries to push me back, but right after, I’m sucked toward the beach. As the water keeps rising, I’m dreading what awaits me outside, because the currents feel more violent with every passing moment.
With no reference as to how far I still need to go, I decide to do the only sensible thing in this situation and hurry down the path. Focused completely on dealing with the rising water level, I trudge across the cave, my legs fighting the water with every step. I try not to think about all the monsters Kyranis pointed out to me in the sea yesterday, but they’d surely be too big to enter this cave system, wouldn’t they?
I’m exhausted by the time I reach a wall on the other side of the cavern and see a passage ahead, but there’s a chance the ground rises beyond this narrowing of the path, so I pet the bat when it squeaks with worry, and step into a corridor with smooth black walls and a naturally vaulted ceiling. The air here is warmer than in the vast space I’ve just left behind, and I feel like the meal of a monster passing from its stomach into the intestine, which, hopefully, means I’ll soon emerge on the other side. Let’s not go there with the digestive metaphor.
My arm aches from holding the lantern up, but there’s a glimmer of moonlight in the distance. My heart leaps, and I speed up as much as the rising waves allow me.
I do wonder if I shouldn’t have turned back and waited things out on the tall stairs, hidden from Kyranis, but it’s too late to ponder that now. I have to finish what I started.
Something slides against my thigh in the water, and I yelp, chilled to the bone.
“Just seaweed, just seaweed,” I tell the bat, but it’s myself I’m trying to calm down, because that was definitely something capable of moving on its own.
The next wave reaches all the way to my chin, and I freeze when it pulls my feet off the ground, bringing my head dangerously close to the low ceiling.
The reality of my situation sinks in when I need to hold the bat up in order for it to still have access to air. I’m inside an unfamiliar cave system that’s being flooded, and if I find no way out, I might just… drown.
Would Kyran even be sad over losing me or annoyed that I spoiled his big day? He did say he could get another Companion if I died.
I check on the bat when I get a second of reprieve, though the lowering tide means I’m getting pulled toward the exit. That’s either good, or terrifying, depending on what’s actually out there.
I don’t have time to feel sorry for myself, but I can’t help it. What did I do to deserve this? My mother hates me, but I didn’t ask to be born. I’m just trying to do my best in life, keep my head above water, and now, what used to be a metaphor, is turning into my reality, because I’m about to drown, and there’s no one here to help me. I’m on my own, as I’ve always been.
I suck in air when another wave shoves me against the wall. I raise my hand to protect my head.
“Luke!” Someone yells right before a wave covers my head.
Chapter 15
Luke
I’m underwater by the time I recognize Kyranis’s voice, but while I’m drowning, terror still penetrates my heart when I consider a future at his side. He might save me for his personal gain, but then keep me prisoner.
At least you’d be alive, a little voice whispers while another reminds me about Bonnie, who tried to kill herself so many times while stuck as Lord Nightweed’s Dark Companion.
When I open my eyes, I’m stunned to realize that the water didn’t extinguish my lantern. It casts an eerie glow under the surface, and in the murky green waves filled with bubbles I spot a creature the size of a massive pufferfish. At first glance, its pink color and irregular shape make me believe it’s a floating chunk of flesh that used to be a part of something much larger, but then it emerges, revealing… a human mouth filled with crooked teeth. The jaws close on the lantern, glass shatters, and the last thing I see before water drowns the golden flame is blood spilling where the lantern’s shards cut into the creature’s mouth.
Water once again pulls me toward the mouth of the cave, and I see a glimmer of light from the full moon, but all I can think about is that insane-looking beast, which surely still drifts close by.
I cough, searching for Kyranis’s towering form, because right now, he is my only hope, and I no longer care for dignity.