Page 73 of Lifeline

My head was higher, and I grunted. “Got you. I got you, just⁠—”

That was the tricky part. The hardest part, especially as I was losing the use of my fingers. I needed to bring it around to the loop on both of our belts so I could tie us together. The entire trip and fighting against the river’s pull, the cold, and our bodies bumping together was going to make it nearly impossible to⁠—

Holy shit, first try!

It was all I could do for the moment, and I realized I was completely out of options or plans. Reno’s grip loosened on the tree root, and I clung tight to him as we slipped further down the river. I swore I heard a heart-wrenching scream of fear and panic that shouldn’t have been possible, but if it was, it was drowned out by the cold water rushing over my face as we were slammed down.

Pain exploded in my side; a line of fire opened up on the side of my face; my ankle bellowed in agony and my knee gave me a whole new reason to cry out, even though I was submerged. And then we were jerked up, and I held tight to Reno, who groaned in my ear. He was still out of it, and even with the hook tying us together, our lifeline, I hung onto him. It was getting hard to think clearly; I felt more cold and pain than I felt human.

Got you. I kept repeating to myself as I stared into the face of a man who shared it with the man I loved. I got you.

Oh God, I loved Mika.

I got you, Reno; I got you.

Fuck, we were going to die. In front of Colin and Mika, stranded on the other side, who could do nothing but watch us die a slow death.

I love you, Mika.

I got you, Reno.

I couldn’t breathe; it was being ripped out of me, and I knew the rope or the hook had given up, and we were doomed to be sent cascading down the river. God, what a fucked-up present we would make for someone to find, the two of us bound together even in death.

I hoped it wasn’t Mika who⁠—

Pain.

Holy shit, so much fucking pain it was like⁠—

Water was dropping into my eyes, filling them, and I was covered in ice; I had to be. The river wasn’t as cold as it had been, and it was harder than it should have been.

A face, Mika’s? Reno’s? I couldn’t tell. Maybe Reno was dead, and he was coming to get me, to take me with him because I had been wrong about gods and afterlives. That there was a place that was a lot warmer and softer than the river I had drowned⁠—

“Don’t you dare!” I heard someone command.

“Too late,” I thought I said.

Maybe I didn’t.

But the darkness came all the same.

I love you…I got you…I’m sorry.

12

MIKA

A hand shoved me back, and another held me down as Colin snapped, “Let me work!”

I yanked at Mav’s grip on me, not as hard as when Colin had held me earlier, but I pulled all the same as I stared at the cold, pale, unmoving faces of the man who had taught me what love was, and the man who had taught me what love meant.

I couldn’t lose both of them.

“No, no, no,” I moaned, slumping as Mav wrapped his arms around my chest and held me on the ground. “Please, let me go, please, no.”

“Let him work,” Mav said in my ear, his rough voice calm. “Let him do his job, Mika. I know, I know.”

“You don’t!” I bellowed and thrashed again.