Page 21 of Rupture

He altered his tone. “Luca. This is Finn. Radio check, over.”

Silence taunted him.Fuck this. Finn angled his body, checking the dive computer on his wrist. Liev’s icon was rising, retracing his steps, ascending toward Luca and Harris. “Liev?—”

A screeching whine tore through the comms. Finn flinched, clenching his teeth against the pain stabbing his eardrums. Beside him, Rose clutched her hands to her head, her face contorted in a grimace of agony.

Then, as abruptly as it had begun, the noise cut out.

Fuck. What the hell?

His blood slowed to an icy trickle. Something was very wrong. He turned to Rose. “Rose. We’re going down to check on Luca and Harris. Stay close to me. Copy that?”

MARV swam lazily behind her, its tail sweeping perfect arcs in the water. Rose circled her fingers. “Copy that.”

Finn rotated his body, streamlining his form as he dove deeper, his fins propelling him toward Luca’s location with efficient strokes. Rose kept pace beside him, her long legs flexing.

Respect flickered in his chest. Fuck, she was impressive.

Static spat in his ears. “…Harris, calm the fuck down. Slow…breathing. Slow…” Luca’s voice was barely audible, the words distorted and broken.

Finn shook his head, thumping the side of his helmet in frustration.

What the fuck was wrong with the comms?

Light beams skewered the darkness ahead, the beams jittering in a chaotic rhythm. A glance at his dive comp confirmed he was ahead of Liev, that he was almost on top of Luca.

“Luca, this is Finn. Where the fuck are you?”

More iridescent bubbles rushed past him, obliterating his line of vision and jostling against his faceplate in a dizzying swirl of motion.

Primal instinct lanced in his gut. This was too fucking much.

“Rose—”

She wasn’t beside him anymore.

Shit.He grabbed the guide rope that tethered her to him, needing to have her by his side where he could keep her safe from whatever the fuck was happening.

Vibration thrummed against his palm, the rope quivering like a plucked guitar string.Fuck.

“Rose!” He yanked the safety line, his pulse tripping into overdrive.

Too late.

A gritty cloud hit him, sending him tumbling head over heels in a dizzying, disorientating spin.

“Finn!” Her scream, sharp with terror, pierced his eardrums, but the water had him in its grip now and he was powerless against its fury until it released him. He forced himself to relax, to go limp and boneless even as every instinct screamed at him to fight, to struggle against theraging water. He clutched Rose’s safety line close to his belly, his fingers locked in a death grip around the rope.

The current slammed him against a spiny rock face, the impact driving the air from his lungs in a painful whoosh. Sharp edges pierced his dry suit, icy water rushing into the breach and sending a shock of cold through his leg that made him gasp.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

He scrabbled against the rock, his gloved hands searching desperately for any crevice or protrusion that might halt his tumultuous descent.

“Fuck. Yes!” His voice was a hoarse shout of triumph as his fingers closed around a narrow ledge, the rock biting into his palm even through the thick neoprene of his gloves. He clung to the outcropping with all his strength, his muscles screaming with the effort as the current tried to rip him away.

“Rose, can you hear me?”

The rope connecting him to her was taut, vibrating with the violence of the underwater landslide, but there was no answer.

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