Page 52 of A Girl and HER Prince
His hand went to her Velcro and cross straps and he started to work off the vest. She gave him an “okay” sign, and he hoped that meant she knew what he was doing, and was preparing by taking in as much air as she could before she lost it.
She shuffled out of the vest with his help, and released her weight belt next. She snatched her charm bracelet before wriggling through the opening. His heart expanded with gratitude. She’d cleared it without a hitch. Seeing her feet disappear as she rose to the surface on the other side, he shoved her vest along with the tank after her. He went through the opening next, feeling his shoulder scrape against the rock and then stick.
He was caught. He wasn’t going through.
The alternate air source ripped from his mouth. The tubes attached to Livvy’s vest floated up and out of his reach, along with the tank and the rest of her equipment.
After all this? He was going to die? He’d thought the opening would be long enough for him, but his shoulders were too broad to get through the limestone. He’d been too confident and now it would kill him! Out of pure desperation, he rammed his shoulder against the side, feeling something shudder out of place. A rock?
This opening wasn’t as stable as he’d thought. He threw his arm against what he’d believed was a wall of hard limestone again, using the bone in his shoulder like a hammer, hitting it over and over.
There was a crack. A shake.
Another push and the rocks making up the whole partition to his side crumbled like a falling wedding cake. It left a hole big enough for a giant.
He didn’t wait another second. Venice shot up to the surface, his head clearing the water. He sucked in a gasping breath, clearing his eyes enough to search for Livvy.
She was by his side, inhaling air. He drank it in too! Blessed air. Her hand found his back as they stared up at the dark sky rumbling far above them.
They were in a lagoon surrounded on all sides by limestone bluffs overgrown with oak, beech, and pine trees. They’d made it to the island, though he doubted that this was the way that Achilles knew. And no way was a boat reaching them at the bottom of this fishbowl.
His eyes traveled over the rocky walls and branches hanging down, seeing that therecouldbe a way to get onto the island, but that would put them in the middle of the forest where they’d have to travel to the other side of the island to even get close to the top of that mountain where those structures thatmightcontain human life were built.
A physically challenging feat even if he hadn’t been stabbed.
The tank had enough air to take them back into the underwater caverns and also possibly to take the right turnoff where the boat could pick them up, but Livvy was right. They couldn’t chance crossing paths with that assassin again. In Venice’s weakened state, the trained killer would easily dispatch them this time.
Even now, they were in danger. They were out in the open, and if they were followed? The consequences were unthinkable. They had to get out of here.
Venice swam to the edge of the lagoon to the rocky shore, then chucked his remaining fin onto the side. He slid her tank and vest onto the bank next to them. Her fins quickly joined those, so that both of them were barefoot.
Concern clouded her expression when she turned to him. “You’re bleeding, and your arm…” He pulled out of the water and her eyes widened at his stomach. She swallowed. “You stay here,” she rushed to say. Her arms broke through the water. “I’ve done some rock climbing before—this shouldn’t be too hard. I’ll climb out to get help.”
He must look pretty bad. Still, there was no way she could find help before the assassin came for them again. The storm they thought they’d slip past was almost on them, and the waters down here would rise. Achilles and the others would find a corpse if he stayed behind. Venice didn’t want to tell her that. “Let me try.”
She made a sound of discouragement, but he was already approaching the bottom of the bluffs, looking for a pathway out. The rocky walls were jagged, but if they climbed over the water, they’d just fall right back in if they made a wrong move. And if they fell on the rocky banks instead?
The odds weren’t good.
And he couldn’t think that way. “Livvy, what rock climbing have you done?”
Livvy came out of the water, still carrying that flashlight. Her wetsuit and cute little spandex shorts that he’d found so alluring earlier dripped with her long dark hair as her bare feet padded over the rock.
She grimaced as she stared up the rock wall. “I’ve gone a few times at the gym.”
So, she was about as experienced with this as she was with diving… and they were barefoot; no depending on the rubber on their shoes for grip or protection. He sighed and began his rock climbing instruction: “We’re looking for depressions and protrusions in the wall—keep your feet directly below you and hips close to the limestone. Rest when you can. Let’s get to these lower hanging trees and use them for our grip… but make sure they can hold your weight.”
He found the first depression in the wall with the tips of his fingers. He’d have to boost her up to get her that high, but the trees weren’t too far above that. They could do this.
“Wait!” she called out. “We’re not going anywhere until we make you a bandage to bind up those injuries of yours!”
“With what?” He wasn’t wearing a shirt. His shorts were his only protection against that rock wall.
She steadied herself as her eyes went to her swimsuit. There wasn’t much fabric to spare there, either. “My wetsuit sleeves,” she said finally. She tugged at her shirt and he saw that it was long and reached past her hips. “Maybe the end of my shirt could work for your stomach.”
“No!” he argued.
She found a jagged rock and tried to cut at the strong material.
