“You’re not really in a position to negotiate.” Having come up with a plan, Raina seemed more cheerful. She leaned over the side, looking down over the festival. “I’d say you probably have about a minute to make your decision.”
“Do I have a choice?” Amie looked out over the dark lake in front of them, finding its quiet stillness more comforting than looking at the people below.
“Sure. You can leave here with me to do my plan, or I can … oh! Perfect. Look at that.”
Amie kept her eyes on the lake.
“Amie. Look.”
Not wanting to disobey the woman holding a knife, Amie reluctantly looked over, following Raina’s gaze to the ground. At first she thought Raina was looking at the magician introducing himself to a small crowd, and wondered if she was going to volunteer Amie to be sawed in half. Then she saw Ziya and David making their way through the crowd toward the Ferris wheel.
“Come with me,” Raina said, “or I’ll stab whichever one gets to us first.”
“You’re not gonna do that,” Amie said shakily. “Come on. You’re a planner. You created this whole scheme to kill Savannah. This can’t end with you just stabbing someone out in the open.”
“No,” Raina argued, “this can’t end with me getting caught. But if it does, I’m taking one of them with me.”
She turned to look Amie in the eye. “You can’t sit here forever. Either way, we’re walking off this Ferris wheel. I’m offering you an easy choice: Sacrifice one of them to take me down, or leave with me, give me what I want, and we can all go on with our lives.”
The Ferris wheel began to move again, this time in the opposite direction. The lake rose to meet them as they descended.
“You’ve got one and a half more rotations to decide,” Raina said, settling back into her seat. “I feel like the easy choice is obvious.”
“Neither of them are easy,” Amie murmured. She looked over just in time to see Ziya and David reach the line for the ride before she was lifted past them back up into the sky.
“But one is easier.” Raina was beginning to sound impatient. “I’ll help you. Pick option one. Happy ending. Everyone lives.”
“Except Savannah.” A small glimmer of an idea had appeared in Amie’s mind. Like a tiny flame in the middle of a dark lake.
“Oh mygod.” Raina reopened the pocketknife as they reached the top and began their final descent. “Time’s up, Amie. Decision time.”
“Okay.” Amie took a deep breath. “Decision time.”
She fell silent for several seconds, waiting.
“Well?” Raina demanded. “What’s your de—”
Amie pulled her legs up from under the lap bar and lunged for the knife. Raina clearly hadn’t been expecting Amie to make a move while still on the ride, so her light grip on the weapon made it easy for Amie to grab it. The blade sliced her hand, but Amie held on, standing up on the seat.
Before Raina could fully react to what was happening, Amie leapt off the Ferris wheel, screaming, into the dark waters of the lake.
Chapter EighteenFell
Day 6 A.L.
Not that Amie had wanted the Ferris wheel ride to be longer than it was, but if it had been, she would have had some time to ask herself a few questions. Like, “How deep do you think this lake is?” or … no, that would have been the primary one, probably.
Amie crashed through the surface of the water, her scream cut off as she clamped her mouth shut to preserve oxygen. A lightning bolt of pain shot up her ankle as her left foot hit the lake bed. (That answered that question.)
The sudden quiet under the water was startling, even more startling than the pain in her ankle or the freezing cold of the lake. For a moment, Amie floated in place as the water shielded her from the dull thrumming of the world above.
Her survival instincts checked in as her chest began to tighten. Limiting movement in her throbbing ankle, Amie kicked with her other leg and swam upward.
The noise felt almost deafening as she broke through the surface, gasping for air. The din grew even louder as onlookers spotted her and began shouting.
“—over there!”
“I see her!”
