Page 102 of The Hunter's Empire

My hands never slow as I continue the compressions, refusing to surrender to the silence stretching between us.

"Not like this." I don't know whether I'm talking to her or myself. Maybe both.

"You don't get to die here." I say through clenched teeth, forcing another breath into her lungs before returning to the compressions. "Not by drowning."

"I decide when this ends." The words are harsh, almost angry. "You still owe me, Zora. I still have my revenge to take, and I'll be damned if you rob me of it by dying like this."

I press down harder.

"So stop making my life difficult..." My voice cracks despite myself. "And wake the hell up."

The words have barely left my mouth when her body suddenly convulses beneath my hands. A violent cough tears through her as water spills from her mouth onto the stone floor.

Relief hits so suddenly and so violently that it almost knocks the air from my lungs.

I immediately roll her onto her side and support her as another coughing fit wracks her body. She struggles for air, dragging in ragged breaths between coughs while seawater continues spilling onto the rock.

"It's alright." The words leave me before I can think about them. "Easy."

My hand remains against her back, keeping her upright as another violent coughing fit tears through her. Water continues spilling onto the stone floor while she struggles to draw a proper breath, her entire body trembling from exhaustion. I don't rush her. I simply stay where I am, supporting her weight as her breathing slowly begins to steady.

One breath. Then another. And another.

The realization settles quietly inside my chest, loosening a tension I hadn't even realized I'd been carrying. I close my eyes for the briefest moment and draw a slow breath of my own before opening them again. She's breathing without my help now.

When she finally lifts her head, confusion clouds her expression. Her eyes wander around the cave, taking in the rough stone walls, the damp floor, and the narrow opening overlooking the jungle before settling on me once more.

"Where..." Her voice breaks beneath the strain. She swallows hard, wincing before trying again. "Where are we?"

For a moment, I simply look at her. The fact that she's asking questions at all is enough to tell me she's going to be fine.

"An island."

Her brows knit together despite her obvious weariness. "That's not exactly specific."

A tired smirk pulls at the corner of my mouth. "No." I admit. "But it's all I've got."

She rolls her eyes and leans her head back against the stone wall. For a moment, neither of us says anything. The silence isn't uncomfortable, exactly. It's just heavy with everything neither of us wants to think about.

Then I see it happen. The confusion slowly fades from her expression, replaced by something far heavier. Her eyes lose that distant, unfocused look as memory begins piecing itself back together, one fragment at a time. I watch the exact moment she remembers.

"The plane..." Her voice is barely more than a whisper.

I don't answer. There isn't anything I can say that she doesn't already know.

Her gaze drifts toward the mouth of the cave, where the fading daylight spills across the rocks, and I can almost see the realization settling over her. The attack. The gunfire. The crash. The ocean. Whatever hope she'd been clinging to dies quietly behind her eyes.

A shiver suddenly runs through her body, followed by another. She immediately folds her arms across herself, trying to hide how violently she's trembling, but it's useless. Her soaked clothes cling to her skin, and the cold is only getting worse as the evening air creeps into the cave.

"We should light a fire."

I follow her gaze toward the entrance before shaking my head. "No."

Her head turns sharply. "No?"

"No."

She stares at me for a second, clearly waiting for an explanation that doesn't come.