Jude realizes what I’m aiming for, and he swims faster, too.
Altamaha-ha lunges, but we fall over the other side of the spillway a second before his jaw closes around us. I pull Jude into my arms as we fall. We slide over a giant concrete waterfall before being sucked through a dark tunnel as wide as theFirefly. We’re dragged underwater once again.
For the longest minute of my life, we’re taken away by the underground man-made river. All the while, I never let go of Jude. I hope that he had time to take one last breath before we got sucked under. I hold him tight as my back hits the concrete walls more than once.
When the tunnel finally releases us into the river, Jude is motionless in my arms. I swim to the surface as fast as I can to reach the shore. We traveled some distance with the current, leaving behind the structure.
I drag Jude to the rocky shore, where he lies unresponsive.
“Come back,” I order him.
When he fails to open his eyes, I slap him. To no avail. His chest doesn’t rise and fall.
He’s dead. Jude is dead. He has drowned.
“Don’t you fucking dare!” I scream. “If you were to die, it would be by my hands!”
I rip his shirt open and place my palm over his chest, focusing. I can’t mess this up. Too much, and I could kill him. I send an electric shock to restart his heart. He convulses for a second before opening his eyes. He vomits a copious amount of water to the side.
I feel like I can breathe again, too. I rub his back while he coughs and expels all the water from his lungs. When he finally settles down, I hold him in my arms.
“Did they…push you over…too?” Jude asks between raspy breaths.
“No,” I say.
His eyes find mine. They’re wide and unsettled.
“But—”
“Oh, your brother is dead,” I cut him off. “I might have taken him down with me. The old god made a meal of him.”
Jude’s laugh takes us both by surprise. “Bloody hell… I wanted to kill him even more than Malcolm. He was one of the worst ones growing up.”
“Sorry. Or, not really,” I say. “In the end, he had his use.”
Jude snorts. “So, you can breathe underwater?”
I nod. “I have gills behind my ears.”
“The more you know…” he wheezes.
The dam stands tall behind us, a behemoth of concrete and steel. The river on this side is much lower, and the canyon surrounds us as an insurmountable barrier.
I hold Jude a while longer before announcing, “We need to go before they send search parties. They must have seen us go over the spillway. The river is the best option. We’ll let the current take us.” Jude grimaces. “I’ll keep a hold on you. Don’t worry,” I say.
I was loathe to get back in the water as much as he was. But we’re out of options. And after our plunge through the dark spillway, the river seems almost easy.
Jude gets up on shaky legs and walks into the river. I pull him over my body, and we both let ourselves float downriver.
I was right. It’s fairly easy, which gives us time to relax and catch our breaths. His body fits perfectly in the curve of mine. I bury my nose in the wet hair at the back of his head and breathe in the smell of him mixed with the river.
“Why did you jump after me?” Jude asks at some point. His voice is rough from his close encounter with death.
I’m glad we can’t see each other’s faces in this position.
“I don’t know,” I say.
And it’s the fucking truth. Why did I risk my life to save my captor? I plunged to an almost certain death for him. I’ve been losing my mind since the day he dragged me out of Bunkertown.
