Unspoken: The Lynburn Legacy by Sarah Rees Brennan Read Free Book Online Page B

touched her lips and filled her mouth with bitterness.
    Kami clawed for a higher handhold, but her palms found nothing but wet stone. She did not know if she could have grasped a handhold if she had found one. She was losing hold of everything, it was all being wiped out, panic and fury and Jared. She knew nothing but the coldness of the well water and the heaviness of her own limbs dragging her down as blackness flooded her mind and she sank.

    Kami. Kami
.
    “Kami!”
    Kami coughed well water down Jared’s back, spluttering,the taste of stale water and bile thick in her mouth, her lungs filled with searing pain.
    “Oh, thank God,” Jared said. “I couldn’t work out how to hit you and hold on to you at the same time.”
    “Hit me?” Kami croaked. “I’ve had enough of this abusive behavior. And we’ve only just met! You’re making a terrible first impression.”
    She coughed and her throat came up dry this time. She was distantly aware that she was still up to her neck in well water. She felt mostly numb, as if part of her mind was floating about halfway up the well. Kami figured that was probably a good thing, since what she could feel of her body, her head and lungs and the chill in her bones, felt so awful.
    Something else she felt was Jared. He was holding her against a wall for the second time today, but as this time it was keeping her from drowning, Kami thought she might let it go. “Jared?” she said, weakly questing for information even though her mind felt pretty numb as well. She lifted her arms and locked her hands behind his neck.
    “Yeah?” said Jared.
    “What are you doing here?”
    “Well,” Jared said, his voice sounding strained, “I don’t really understand it myself, but I was in this elevator—”
    “I remember that,” Kami said. “Honestly, Jared, one thing at a time. Why are you in the well with me? This is a really bad rescue!”
    “You lost consciousness and slipped under the surface of the water!” Jared pointed out. “There was no time.”
    “But now we’re both trapped! Now we’re both going to die!”
    “No, we’re not,” said Jared. “I called the police as I was running to the well. I’m sure they’re coming.”
    “Did they say they were coming?” Kami asked suspiciously. “Or did you shout ‘Kami’s in the well!’ and then jump in the well too, thus losing your phone and making sure that the police think it was some kids playing a dumb joke?”
    Jared paused. He was breathing quickly, the dreamy part of Kami noticed, his chest rising and falling hard. She wasn’t sure if it was because he’d had to run so fast, because he’d had to dive to grab her, or if it was panic.
    “Alternate plan,” Jared said. “Do you have a very intelligent collie who might communicate through a system of barks to your parents that little Kami is in the well?”
    Kami closed her eyes and leaned her cheek against the wet planes of Jared’s collarbone. “We’re going to die.” Something else dawned on her. “And where is your
shirt
?”
    “Let me explain,” said Jared. “I had just gone to bed, like a reasonable person, when you decided to get tossed into a well like a crazy person. And then it was a matter of some urgency to reach you. You’re lucky I tripped over my jeans on the way out the door.”
    “You leave your jeans on the floor?” Kami asked, horrified. “You’re
messy
on top of everything else? This day just keeps getting worse.”
    Jared had nothing to say to that. Perhaps he was overcome with shame at his slovenly habits, she thought dimly. The well water seemed to be getting warmer.
    “Kami, keep talking!”
    Jared’s shouting hurt her head, which was inconsiderateof him. “You’re so mean,” Kami marveled. “You have a leather jacket and you are just so mean!”
    “Keep talking,” Jared commanded. “Stay awake.”
    “If you were in bed, what did you do with your pajamas?”
    “I don’t own any pajamas.”
    “That is so sad,”