novelraw Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty
The growl of angry water roared all around her, paralyzing her with fear. Emma hugged the steering wheel, pressing her forehead against the cold rubber tubing clenched against her chest. She couldn’t bear to open her eyes. If she did, she’d see the taunting onslaught of the foaming torrent battering against the glass. Voices. She heard the unmistakable beasts chanting she’d soon be theirs. The water echoed with cruel, laughing taunts that soon they’d chase the air from her lungs and fill it with the burning brine of the sea. Death hissed through the darkness of the cab.
The vehicle slid sideways and shifted against the muddy banks with a rough jolt. The grate of metal scraping against jagged rocks closed her throat with knotting terror. Coughing for air, Emma grappled the steering wheel harder against her body. Her hands cramped around the bit of rubber-covered metal as she curled her legs up into the seat to escape the level of water quickly rising inside the truck. Why had she come this way? With a hiccupped sob, she eased her eyes open the barest crack, just to squeeze them shut again to block the sight of the collapsing banks of mud washing away with the rushing water. A sense of irony snorted through her fogged, hysterical mind. This time her stubbornness would be her death. She’d finally lose her battle with the water demons just because she’d wanted to avoid Torin.
Torin. When they’d made love, he’d promised her he’d never let the water take her. “Where are you now, Torin?” Emma whimpered against the cold steering wheel without opening her eyes.
“I’m right beside ye, lass,” a deep voice echoed through the murky darkness of the truck. “I promised ye I’d always keep ye safe and here I am.”
Strong hands gripped her by the upper arms and sloshed her across the seat. Emma kept her chin tucked and her eyes squeezed shut. Surely, this salvation wasn’t imagined. Please let it really be him. Please don’t be a hallucination.
“I’m here, little Emma. Open your eyes and look at me. Yer going to be safe verra soon.”
Emma kept her eyes shut and shook her head. “No. I don’t want to see the water. If I see the water, I’ll see them.” He didn’t understand. The gurgling water rang out with the cries of her drowning parents. Their pleading voices grew louder with every lurch of the truck. The swooshing current hissed and taunted her with suffocating memories waiting to be unleashed.
A hard, wet chest pressed against her skin; a soaked T-shirt rubbed rough and clammy against her face. Arms of iron curled around her body, cradling her close against a solid heartbeat drumming beneath her cheek. Safe. The beating heart chanted beneath her jaw. You are safe. It repeated with a steady rhythm.
Curling tighter inside his embrace, Emma nuzzled her face against the warmth of his throat. With a shuddering breath, she inhaled his familiar scent. Security. Trust. The strength of his touch and his tantalizing male spice stroked and calmed her. Her terror abated and the paralysis ebbed as she anchored her senses to Torin’s presence and wrenched herself out of the hysteria.
Emma sank her fingers into the drenched cloth stuck to his body and yanked herself closer against him. She’d crawl inside his skin if she could. He offered refuge from the demons. “Don’t let me go,” she mouthed against his salty-sweet neck. “Please don’t let me go.”
Scooping her out of the truck, Torin pressed his lips against her squinched-shut eyelids. “I’ll never let ye go, Emma. Never again. I promise.”