We reached the control panel, still hanging ajar, and I set to work, neatly slicing the wire, and carefully stripping it back with my knife. Please don't electrocute me. I reattached my knife, threaded the two wires back together, and turned back to motion to Dagger—

— and barely saw the spear headed straight for my chest.

I jerked sideways.

Metal ripped into my shoulder.

Bubbles streamed from my mouth in a silent scream of pain. A lean, pale figure swam forward; not a beast, but not friendly.

Blue. The thin man with long fingers.

He had some sort of contraption over his mouth and something strapped to his legs helping him swim. He slammed me up against the panel, and fire coral cut deep into my back, burning lines of fire. I thrashed and pounded against him, each hit weaker than the last. A stream of bubbles from his face mask fled for the surface—too late I realized it was giving him air.

I reached up to rip off his mask, and was rewarded with a sharp hit to the stomach. The darkness crept into the edges of my vision. My body jerked and twisted as Blue held me in place.

All I needed was to do was flip the damn switch!

In an explosion of bubbles, he was gone. I didn't care to understand how: my chest was going to explode. Darkness bled into the edges of my vision, each heartbeat throbbing black.

My hands and arms jerked. The lever.... the lever... I watched as my hands, disembodied, reached out and flipped the switch.

The whole world exploded.

The panel rocketed upward, carrying me up with it. I had no strength left to care. I was falling into a black hole.

Hands wrapped around me. Dagger? He was holding me, gripping the chain, holding me in place as we rose through the water.

The darkness fought harder, pressing against everything.

My body began to jerk.

Pain pushed into my eyes, my brain, my eyes. My ears screamed and popped.

Light grew and grew. Just when I thought it was over, the light was heaven and I was dead, we crashed into the surface.

Images came in flickers: water rushing away from me, air burning down my throat, cold metal beneath me. I coughed and choked up water, desperate for more air.

Air. Oh god, air.

My senses slowly reformed. I finally managed to turn my head. There, collapsed next to me, lay Dagger. His eyes were closed, but his chest rose and fell.

Bloody Beast, we did it. We survived. I smiled, half-laughing, half-crying, my body spent and exhausted but also somehow high on the fact that we actually did it.

There was a roaring sound in my ears. I must have broken something or burst an eardrum, but I didn't care because I was alive. Dagger was alive. I'd done it.

Finally I raised my head, looking beyond the platform, and then froze. Across from the tank, rising in stands that seemed endless, was a mass of humanity all screaming, roaring, cheering.

All watching Dagger and I.

The growing roar wasn't my eardrums. It was the crowd. A strange tingling numbness filled my body at that realization. Around us the other boxes hung suspended over the water, returning to their original positions. Skull stood triumphantly in his box, pumping his fists and waving at the crowd as if he had done it all himself. The bottom of his box hadn't even been opened.

Between the boxes and the crowds were the massive screens that I'd seen before. Unlike before, all the screens showed the same thing. A young woman with a jagged cut above her brow, on her knees, a dark-eyed man laying beside her. And, finally, the crowd's words unified into a single, deafening syllable, chanted again and again, the water rippling with the roar.

"Z! Z! Z!"

Did they realize that they were screaming out for the lowest of the low? I should have been exhausted, but somehow each time my name ripped through the air I felt stronger.

"Dagger," I said slowly. "Get up."

His eyes flicked to mine, and I couldn't help it—I grinned. I stood and held out my hand, waiting for him to take it. He hesitated, but when his hand took mine, when I pulled him up, I felt the strength between us—a partner I never would have expected. 

I fought, Yaneli. We fought.

The crowd screamed, so impossibly loud nothing in the whole world could have been louder. Then I thrust both our hands into the air.

I was wrong. 

(YAYAY!!! SO, what do you think??!! How was that for a trial?!

Let me know how you are enjoying the book. And if you have any fun plans for the weekend ;D

Thank you, as always for reading! If you are enjoying the book, please don't forget to vote and share it with a friend. 

All the best,

H.J.Nelson)