Chapter 105
Evelyn's POV
The water was still rising, but I was above it now. Chest-high. Waist-high. I kept climbing, my entire body shaking, my breath coming in ragged gasps that sounded nothing like the controlled breathing I'd been trained to maintain.
I reached the hatch. Grabbed the wheel-lock with both hands and tried to turn it.
It didn't move.
I tried again, putting all my weight into it. Nothing. The hatch was sealed from the outside.
I was trapped. The water was still rising. And I was having a full-blown panic attack in a flooding corridor with no way out.
I pressed my forehead against the cold metal of the hatch, trying to force my breathing to slow, trying to think through the terror.
There had to be another way out. There had to be. Systems like this had emergency protocols, backup exits, safety measures. I just needed to calm down enough to find them.
But the water was at my waist again, rising past where I clung to the ladder. And all I could think about was Vorkuta, about drowning, about the certainty that this time there would be no one to pull me out before I died.
The clutch was still somehow in my hand, Isabella's ring still safe inside.
At least I'd kept my promise about that.
Even if I was about to die keeping it.
The water was at my chest now, rising relentlessly. I clung to the ladder with one hand, the clutch still somehow gripped in the other, my entire body shaking so violently I could barely hold on. My breath came in short, panicked gasps that echoed off the metal walls, mixing with the sound of rushing water until I couldn't tell which was which.
This was how I was going to die. Not in some dark alley with a target's blood on my hands. Not in a firefight or a chase or any of the hundred ways I'd imagined my end might come. But here, in a flooded maintenance corridor, drowning while a party continued obliviously above.
The irony would have been funny if I could breathe.
I tried the hatch again, wrenching at the wheel-lock with desperate strength. It didn't budge. My vision was tunneling, dark spots dancing at the edges. The water was at my shoulders now. Soon it would reach my chin, my mouth, my nose—
A metallic clang echoed through the corridor.
Not the automated system. Something else. Something closer.
I turned my head, trying to focus through the haze of panic, and saw light spilling into the corridor from somewhere behind me. Not the dim emergency lighting—bright, white light from a phone or flashlight.
"Evelyn!" Julian's voice cut through the sound of rushing water like a blade. "Where are you?"
I tried to answer, but all that came out was a choked gasp. The water was at my chin now. I tilted my head back, trying to keep my face above the surface, trying to breathe—
"There!" His voice was closer now, urgent. I heard splashing, the sound of someone moving fast through water. "Hold on, I'm coming!"
I couldn't hold on. My grip on the ladder was slipping, my fingers numb from cold and fear. The water reached my mouth and I tasted chlorine and salt, felt it trying to get into my nose, my lungs—
Strong hands grabbed me. Julian's arm wrapped around my waist, pulling me against his chest, holding me above the water line. "I've got you. I've got you, you're safe."
I couldn't respond. Couldn't do anything except shake and gasp and try not to drown in his arms.
"The hatch is sealed," he said, his voice tight. I could feel the tension in his body, the way his arm tightened around me. "But there's another exit. The one I came through. Can you hold onto me?"
I managed a jerky nod, wrapping my arms around his neck. The clutch was still somehow in my hand, pressed between our bodies.
"Good girl." His voice was steady despite the situation, despite the water that was now at his chest too. "Don't let go."
He moved through the water with powerful strokes, one arm holding me against him, the other pulling us along the corridor toward the light source. I buried my face in his neck, trying to block out the sound of the water, the feel of it against my skin, the memories that threatened to drag me under faster than the flood.
"Almost there," Julian said. His voice was close to my ear, grounding. "Just a little further. Stay with me, Evelyn."
I felt him grab onto something—metal, a ladder maybe. Then we were moving up, climbing out of the water. Fresh air hit my face and I gasped, sucking in breath after breath like I'd been underwater for hours instead of minutes.
Julian didn't stop climbing until we were completely clear of the water, until we reached some kind of upper platform or access point. Only then did he set me down, keeping one arm around me as my legs threatened to give out.
"You're okay," he said, his hand moving to cup the back of my head. "You're safe. You're out."
I was shaking so hard I could barely stand. My teeth were chattering, my breath still coming in ragged gasps. I could feel tears on my face mixing with the water, could feel myself falling apart in a way I hadn't allowed myself to fall apart in years.
"I couldn't—" The words came out broken. "The water—I couldn't—"
"I know." His voice was gentle in a way I'd never heard it before. "I know. But you're out now. You're safe."
He pulled me closer, wrapping both arms around me, and I collapsed against him. The clutch fell from my numb fingers, hitting the metal floor with a soft thud that I barely registered. All I could focus on was Julian's warmth, his solidity, the steady rhythm of his heartbeat against my ear.
He was here. He'd found me. I wasn't going to drown in the dark.
"How did you—" I tried to ask, but my voice wouldn't work properly.
"Later." His hand moved to my back, rubbing slow circles. "Just breathe. You're okay. Just breathe."
I tried. Focused on matching my breathing to his, on the feel of his chest rising and falling against mine. Slowly, incrementally, the panic began to recede. The shaking didn't stop, but I could think again. Could process where I was, what had happened.
We were in some kind of equipment room, dimly lit by Julian's phone lying on the floor a few feet away. Below us, I could still hear the water, but it sounded distant now. Contained. We were safe.
"The ring," I managed to say. "I got the ring."