“Follow us!” I shouted over the noise.
Christian bolted to the doors while I continued to shake the helicopter by swinging my legs, hoping that would do something to ground them. Unfortunately, it wasn’t one of those rinky-dink aircraft.
When I looked down at the building moving away and the city far below, I realized there would be no surviving that drop. My body parts would be all over the city. Panicked, I hooked my leg around the lower skid and reached for the bar above it, which I presumed was a step. I clung to it for life, my leather gloves making it easier to grip.
The whirring blades were deafening, and the icy wind took a bite out of me.
I clutched the upper bar while straddling the skid. Because the wind created a drag, I hooked my left foot on the skid behind me as I faced the rear of the helicopter. We made a sudden descent through the city, and my hair tangled in front of my face, forcing me to look over my shoulder. When I did, I realized we were rapidly approaching the river.
The door slid open like a van door. Fletcher poked his head out and saw me. He flashed an irritated look as he stretched one leg out to the rail, but he must have had a seat belt on.
“You incompetent fool!” Lenore shouted from what seemed like a distance. The effects of Christian’s blood had mostly worn off, but I could still hear her over the helicopter noise.
The water below drew closer and closer, reminding me that I couldn’t swim. Terror sank in.
Fletcher appeared again, this time holding on to something inside and stepping on the first platform. He kicked his foot in my direction.
My stomach dipped as we descended even faster, the helicopter sailing over the river and following its path.
Fletcher stepped down to the lower skid and then stomped on my knee, trying to break my hold.
I smiled at him.
That pissed him off.Good.He gripped part of the door and tried stepping closer, but the wind threw him off-balance and his foot slipped.
When Fletcher kicked me twice more, I lost my grip. Swinging from beneath the skid, I held on with both my arms and legs like a sloth. With my right arm hooked tightly around the skid, I quickly reached for my dagger with the other hand.
Fletcher stomped my leg until I was swinging with one arm painfully bearing all my weight. Before I slipped, I reached up with my left arm to secure my hold, the dagger in my grip.
“Do it!” Lenore shouted.
Fletcher inched closer, and when he did, I stabbed him in the shin.
He stood like that for a frozen moment before free-falling like a skydiver.
The helicopter had nearly reached the water. When my feet skated against the surface, I flipped back and let go. The chopper tumbled out of reach as I skidded across the water. An explosion of pain struck my head, my neck, my hips, and my back.
Somehow I had the wherewithal to reach out my hand and pull in healing light before I sank into the murky depths.
The waves undulated around me, and I felt like a boulder trying to swim. Water lapped against my face. I did everything I’d seen in the movies—moving my arms and trying to straighten out my body and kick behind me. Maybe I could trick myself into swimming… And it worked.
For a while.
Each time I turned my head up for air, I choked on water. I was close enough to the riverbank that I could taste it. The frigid water numbed my extremities until I could no longer feel my body.
Darkness swelled around me as I sank. Though my mouth opened for air, I held my breath until my lungs wanted to explode. Frantically moving my arms to find the surface, my body fought against death. It also fought for air until I couldn’t resist the urge to breathe any longer.
I opened my eyes, frantically looking around. No one was there to save me. I drew in a deep breath, and icy water filled my lungs. I tried to cough it up before succumbing to the horror that the air would never come.
Suspended in water for a peaceful moment, I saw flashes of sunlight glimmering above. Had I died in that moment, it would have been a peaceful transition.
But I wasn’t dead. My heart refused to stop. Because of my immortal light, it didn’t have any other instinct than to keep beating even with the lack of oxygen. I remembered my time in the coffin and the moment I had run out of air. All I could do was lie there in the horror of it all, and my mind went someplace else.
I refused to go to that place again.
I swam toward shore, fighting against the pain in my chest. I couldn’t die by drowning, and I’d be damned if I was going to float around until some fisherman found me in the spring. I knew from past experience that my body didn’t react the same way a human’s did when oxygen deprived. It didn’t affect my consciousness or cause brain damage.
I hurt everywhere from the cold, especially in my chest. I still craved oxygen, and I had to fight every second against having a complete panic attack that I was dying.
