Spell Bound - Kelley Armstrong [122]
“So that’s how it is?” he said. “Your boyfriend might be dead so you give up? I didn’t think you were that kind of—”
“Adam is not my boyfriend,” I said through clenched teeth. “He’s my friend, okay? The guy I’ve known since I was twelve. My coworker. My partner. My best friend.”
“Okay, I’m sorry, but you don’t know he’s dead—”
“The fucking building collapsed!”
“You don’t know for sure. And even if you did, are you going to just stay down here? Swim until you can’t stay above water and let yourself drown?”
I glowered at him.
“I take it that’s a no,” he said. “Good. Let’s get out of here.”
I made Bryce stay afloat while I dove. Otherwise, he was liable to go down and not come up. I could hear him coughing from under five feet of water.
I did a systematic search around the perimeter. I was about to repeat it when my hand reached out and didn’t touch concrete.
The drain was about two and a half feet wide. Completely submerged. I resurfaced and told Bryce.
“I’ll go,” I said. “It could be too far to hold your breath—”
“I’m fine.”
“Umm, no, from the sounds of it, you’re about to start hacking up lung tissue.”
“Anita wouldn’t have tried swimming out if she didn’t think she could make it.” He paddled over to the side. “She’s more than twice my age and not exactly an athlete. Anyway, at worst, we’ll find out whether their experiment works. A test of my immortality. You wait here.”
“I’m not—”
He dove before I could finish. I went after him, but his foot caught me in the gut. Accidentally? I’m not sure. It was enough of a blow to have me swallowing water again, which meant I shot back up, sputtering. I spat out, took a deep breath, and went under.
Bryce was already in the drain and out of reach. I kept going until my brain started screeching that I should turn back, that I’d barely make it back and—
I plowed into him. I rose into a dimly lit pocket of air to find him standing in front of me. A light ball hovered overhead.
“That was your spell back there?” I said.
“It wasn’t yours, that’s for sure. Mine you can actually see by.”
“I’m having some trouble.”
“So I saw.” He coughed. “That’s about the extent of my witch magic, though. Dad taught it to me. He learned it . . . he must have learned it from your—” Another cough. “Anyway, catch your breath here and follow me if you must. Just don’t get in my way.”
“Thanks a helluva—”
He went back under. I followed. We’d gone about ten feet when he stopped. He kicked and I thought he was in trouble, so I grabbed his ankle. He managed to reach back, grab my hand, and motion for me to retreat. When I hesitated, he put it into reverse himself.
There wasn’t room to turn around, so we had to back up. Slow going, and I was gasping when I surfaced. Bryce came up just behind me.
“It’s Anita,” he said. “She’s dead. Something blocked her way and she must have panicked, trying to clear it instead of retreating. I’m going back in. Stay here.”
“No, you’re half-dead yourself. If anything’s wedged in there, you’ll never get it out.”
He hesitated, but agreed and let me go. I was able to pull Anita’s body back past the air hole and went up for a breath, then down again.
The blockage was another corpse, this one bloated so badly it was like pulling a cork from a bottle. I managed to get it back to the breathing hole. I came up for air and told Bryce, and I couldn’t say another word before he dove and started out. I followed.
Just past where the corpse had been wedged, there was another breathing hole. Or so it seemed. The last had been a dead-end pipe, probably filled in at some point. When Bryce lit his light ball, I could see that this one was indeed another pipe . . . but not a dead end.
There was a ladder of rusted bars up one side. I said I’d go first—whatever was up top probably wasn’t easily opened. He agreed.
It was a tough climb. Some of the bars were rusted right through, and I broke more than one. When I checked to see if Bryce was getting hit by the falling metal, he told me to just keep going. I finally made it to the top.