Forgotten Love: An Action-Packed Adventure Romance (The Forgotten Chronicles) by Kameron Scott Read Free Book Online

from his eyes. He had to save his own life first, if he was going to be any help to Gillian. He was coming around again, for a third time, and he didn't know how long the current would hold him in this eddy before kicking him out and sending him shooting further downstream. He tried the same trick again, raising his feet up, bracing for the impact with the wall.
    When it came, he pushed as hard as he could.
    And his one foot slipped along the rock, leaving him floundering. Some days he wondered if maybe he should just stick to being a professor. His head went under, and when he came up again it was to the sound of Gillian calling his name. The rock ledge hit him hard against his shoulders and his back and he desperately grabbed with both hands at the slippery smooth rock, finding nothing to grab onto, nothing to hold, nothing...
    Until Gillian grabbed him with both hands and tried to hold him against the current.
    She was down on her knees still, and as he tried to pull himself up he only succeeded in pulling her down flat onto her stomach against the cold, hard rocks. But she pulled, and he pulled, and then he got his feet braced and he was climbing up, climbing out, and then they were both out of the water and she kissed him hard on his lips. He was so surprised that he couldn't do anything except feel the kiss, the smoothness of her lips, the force she put into it. And then she suddenly pulled away.
    "I'm sorry," Gillian whispered to him, sheltering herself within his arms, shivering violently.
    "Don't be," he said. "It was an in the moment sort of thing."
    "I mean... I said...some very...nasty things to you...in the water."
    "Don't worry about it, Gillian, I've heard worse. In several languages."
    So they were just going to ignore the kiss then. Fine. It was ill-timed and ill-advised. Theo could feel himself shivering. His teeth clacked together when he talked. He figured he probably had the same ice crystals forming in his hair as she did in her damp and tangled red strands. But he could tell that the frigid temperatures were affecting her more than they were him. The water dripped off her hair and her jacket and her skin. They couldn't stay here. They'd freeze to death if they didn't move.
    "I didn't...mean...it," she stuttered.
    "Mean what?" He was rubbing her back now, trying to work some comfort into her body.
    "I didn't mean...that I...hate you."
    "I know."
    "You...know?"
    "No way you could hate me. You kissed me."
    "Did...not."
    "Yes, you did." He wouldn't let her try to say it didn't happen now.
    "What...ever. Can we just get out...out of here?"
    Fantastic idea, Theo thought. But, how?
    He aimed the flashlight back up the river, the way they had come. The current flowed strongly, water stirring and churning. "Can't go that way," he decided out loud. And there was no way he was going to chance riding the river further down. Not in their state.
    So he turned the flashlight back and forth around them into the darkness. He could see how on this side of the water, the rock ledge continued on, forming a cavern of sorts. He couldn't see the other end of it. But it went in a direction that was away from the river. Good enough for now.
    "Come on," he said to her. "This way."
    "Is it the way...out?"
    "Do you want the honest answer or do you want me to lie?"
    "Just...shut up."
    They started out, carefully placing their steps on the rock that was slick with spray from the river and from thin patches of ice. Theo felt the water dripping off his clothes, felt the bite of the cold on his skin. And he knew Gillian felt it worse than he did. This way had to lead them somewhere.
    It had to.
    Their breath misted in the air. The temperature was well below freezing. The water kept from turning into ice only because of how fast it was moving. If he and Gillian didn't move, they'd be in danger of turning to ice themselves.
    The cavern turned into a passage with walls that were tall and curving. The surface was rough and uneven and broken