“Artie, stop!” Derek’s voice brought her out of her panic, and she turned her head to look at him. His normally cheerful face was stern, almost fierce. “If you go out there, it won’t help. You’ll go through the ice, and then we’ll have a second victim.”
She stared at him, breathing hard. Although she understood his words, it seemed wrong not to run across the ice, to pull Chase out of that freezing water. He was one of her students, one ofherkids, and she was supposed to keep him safe. She couldn’t just stand there and watch as he drowned.
“Do you want to help him? Do you?” Derek demanded, giving her a little shake. She nodded, her chin trembling. “Then promise you’ll stay on shore and let me get him. Don’t distract me by putting yourself in danger.”
“Okay.” Her voice was harsh and raspy. “I get it. I’ll stay here. Just go save Chase.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
After a final hard look, he nodded, releasing her, and ran toward the dive van. Lou was already helping Callum Cook don a dry suit similar to the one Derek was wearing. Their efforts were hampered by Callum barking orders into a portable radio. The men exchanged a quick word, and then Derek moved back toward the ice with Callum and Lou holding the end of the rope.
“Stay back, kids!” Callum warned, and his crisp order snapped Artie out of her useless daze. A glance showed that Marnie had returned to the group and was lining up the children. Betsy and Lorna, the two parent chaperones, were just gaping at the rescue preparations. The small corner of Artie’s brain that wasn’t completely overwhelmed with panic made a mental note never to ask those women to chaperone again.
“Students,” Artie barked, clapping her hands. “Everyone back to the bus. Let’s go!”
With Marnie herding them, the kids moved reluctantly away from the shore, watching over their shoulders as Derek carefully made his way closer to the broken ice. The two other chaperones finally tore their own horrified gazes from what was happening on the reservoir and began helping Marnie usher the children toward the parking lot.
As Artie nudged the stragglers farther away from shore, she couldn’t help but turn to check on Derek’s progress. When he was ten feet from the spot where Chase had disappeared, he lowered himself to his hands and knees and started to crawl. The ice cracked beneath his knee, the far side of a slab rising out of the water under his weight, and his lower body slid into the water.
Artie sucked in a breath, her feet freezing to the ground. Even though she knew he was in a dry suit that would keep him warm, the sight of him dropping into the frigid depths made her heart thunder in her ears.
Bracing his gloved hands on the edge of the hole he’d just created, Derek boosted himself out of the water. For a moment, Artie thought that he was in the clear, but then the ice folded, dropping him back into the reservoir. Air hissed between her teeth as he was submerged up to his neck.
“Adults!” Callum’s bark was loud and commanding, dragging her attention away from Derek’s struggle to reach Chase. “I need you on the line.”
“Betsy, stay with the kids!” Artie ordered as she hurried over to join Callum and Lou. “Marnie and Lorna, you’re with me.” She was relieved that she would be able to dosomethingto help. Her gaze kept moving to Derek. On his next attempt, he managed to slide across the ice on his belly for several feet before it broke apart beneath him. As she watched him drop into the water, Artie’s own insides froze with cold, as if she were being dunked along with Derek.
“Kids!” Callum snapped. Every student clustered next to the bus stared at him with wide eyes. “If any of you takes even a single step closer to the water, I promise that you will regret it.” He sounded like he meant it. The children froze in place.
Derek broke through the last section of ice separating him from the spot where Chase had fallen through. His head disappeared, and a small sound escaped Artie.
“He’ll be fine,” Callum said. “Derek knows what he’s doing.”
His confidence eased the churning acid in her stomach slightly, and she gave him a pathetic attempt at a smile.
“Everyone take a place on the rope,” he ordered. “Help’s on the way, but we’ll most likely get everybody out of the water before the rest of the team arrives.”
Artie found herself in front of Lou.
“This is my first day,” Lou muttered. “I haven’t even passed the freaking dive-team interview yet. I don’t know what I’m doing!”
The scary thing was that none of them—except for Callum and Derek—knew what they were doing. A little boy’s life depended on them, and Artie could do nothing to help. She hadn’t even been able to keep him from going into the water. What kind of horrible, irresponsible teacher was she? How could something so awful have happened on her watch?
Artie’s gaze was drawn inexorably back to the reservoir, and she stared at the dark water, the broken ice floating in miniature icebergs above where Derek had gone under. It seemed like forever since he’d disappeared. How long could he hold his breath? What if he got disoriented and couldn’t find his way back to the opening in the ice? The horrific image of him trying to surface but being blocked by a ceiling of solid ice filled her mind, and she bit the inside of her cheek hard enough to draw blood.
“Artemis.” Even Callum’s commanding tone couldn’t mute the nightmarish scene playing in her brain. “Artie!” His hand closed around her forearm, and he gave her a shake, jerking her out of her thoughts.
“Sorry.” Squeezing her eyes closed for a moment, she dragged in a deep breath. When she met Callum’s gaze, he looked at her closely and then released her arm.
“I’ll need you to pull soon. You with me?”
Derek suddenly popped out of the water. As he took a breath, he tapped his fist against the top of his head in some sort of signal and then dove under again. The sight of him, alive and not trapped under an impenetrable sheet of ice, made her next breath easier.
“Yes.” She grimaced. “Sorry. I’m usually calmer in emergency situations.”
“You’re doing fine.” Callum’s attention turned to the radio chattering on the ground by his feet. “Fire and Med will be here in less than five minutes.”
