Page 22 of Rupture

With painstaking slowness, he wound the rope around his wrist, dragging her closer, inch by agonizing inch, his chest heaving with the effort of holding onto both the rock and the rope.

“Finn, this is Liev. Have you got her?” Liev’s voice fractured over the comms, the words distorted by static.

“I have the guide rope. Bringing her in now.” But even as he spoke, the rope jerked in his grip, before sudden slackness sent a bolt of fear through his heart.

Fuck. No.

The turbulence eased as he wound in the last few feet,his fingers flying over the slick, red fibers as he spooled the last of the line around his forearm.

And then, with a sickening lurch of his stomach, the end of the rope came into view, taunting him with its severed end.

12

Rose was trappedin an underwater maelstrom. The world no longer had edges or an up or down. Her scream echoed lonely in her ears as turbulent water hurled her around as if she weighed nothing.

A hand grabbed her with a viselike grip, locking onto her forearm.

Finn. His hand slid down her forearm, found her fingers. It took all of her strength to heave toward him, to clasp her own hand over the hand that gripped her.

She gasped. His hold verged on painful. “Finn…”

The diver holding her arm came into view, his faceplate smashing up against hers. Eyes bugging with terror stared at her.Not Finn. Harris.

Fear coursed through her veins, made real by a surge of potent adrenaline. Her heart crashed against her ribs and her blood thickened in her veins. What the hell?

His grip hardened, the whites of his eyes bright against the all-encompassing dark of the water as he grabbed her safety line, winding it around his fisted fingers.

"Harris, wait?—"

The water current snatched her, twisting her in the opposite direction. The safety line that connected her to Finn snapped taut across her throat.

"Wyndham. Help me—" Harris's voice was a whined plea in her ear. He yanked on the line as the water spun her, inadvertently looping it around her neck until she was snared like a rabbit in a trap. The rope dug into her throat, crushing her windpipe.

Can't breathe.

White stars exploded across her vision, shocking her leaden limbs into action. She stretched for the dive knife sheathed at her hip, popped it free from her holster as her pulse throbbed bloody and red across her eyelids.

The rope was unyielding against her skin as she pressed the knife edge close, attempting to gain some purchase to wedge the tip underneath. Heat bloomed in her throat as she nicked her skin.

Then she remembered—Finn had tied the other end of the safety rope to her waist.

She dropped her hand lower, relief flushing hot and cold through her system as she found a little more play around her waistline. She wiggled the knife under the rope and yanked upward with the last of her fading strength. The knife was sharp and sliced clean through. Instantly, the pressure on her throat released. Rose gagged, fighting for breath as the cut end of her safety line, the one connecting her to Finn, disappeared into the stormy silt.

She was alone, untethered. Swimming free in a freezing midnight abyss.

Panic bubbled up against her throat, but she swallowed the scream. If she lost it now, she’d be dead in minutes.

“Rose. This is Finn. I’m coming for you.” His voice was assured in her ears.

She squeezed her eyes tight, locking the tears in. She would not cry.

Breathe. Keep breathing.

Light filtered against her eyelids.

MARV.

The snakelike bio-hybrid bumped up against her, its tail locking around her in a gentle clasp.

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