Undercover Royals

18: Let me go

My hands flail upwards, hoping to latch onto something.

The rumbling of the rocks as they take the dive and the air churning below... it's like everything is suspended and I can't get a grasp on reality. My heart palpitates as a shadow is cast over my last glimpse of the azure sky.

Almost falling in with me, Ruspin clasps mine, anchoring me.

"Angelica, you have to grab me with your other hand. I'll pull you up."

My shoulder is seconds from being displaced when I zero in on a sound. I had dismissed it as air before, but now, it's as distinguishable as my own face: flowing water. If it's flowing, it means that it's probably in the middle course. Flowing water, with such swiftness means no eyots for me to collide with, all I have to worry about is being caught in an escapable current.

"Angelica!" he yells, sliding in further.

"Let me go."

His grip tightens, "No."

I scowl. Then I swing my legs, trying to dislodge him. The bugger is immovable.

"Angelica, I'm not taking you to him. That was never my plan!" he grits. I involuntarily glance up, only to see his drawn face, the strain he's enduring to keep me from falling. Further back are his men, holding guns. They're probably waiting for him to pull me up, then we can all skip back to my homeland.

"So you're telling me that your men won't bind me as soon as you yank me out of here." I demand, still struggling against his hold.

"I'm not falling for that."

It's such a extraneous feeling. Practically floating in mid-air after sending your entire life walking on the ground. But, as I'm now finding out, dizzy spells aren't just confined to the land and sea.

"They're behind you." I rasp.

He shakes his head wryly.

"Ruspin, I'm serious. If they aren't your men..." I trail off and swallow, finally stilling in his grasp. "There's water below us. We have to fall."

He shakes his head vigorously, « Je ne permettre pas à qan de fait tombe. »

"You know I don't know what you're saying." I say, noting that I can hear the hollow thud of the footsteps growing closer. "But can't you hear the footsteps, they're getting closer. Just trust me. I don't want to die like this."

"But you would have shot yourself." His voice brokers no argument. It's hard, cold. He's too clouded by rage to hear the footsteps, but he can't even turn... because of the precarious position he's in, even the slightest movement means that we'll both fall.

My breath clogs my throat.

I grab his hand in an instantaneous motion and swing my legs upwards, not to push myself out, but to knock the ground from beneath him.

It's like a flashback of the crash, except this time there isn't a parachute.

I glance at Ruspin who is falling next to me, the clumps of dirt scattered around him. I yell his name as the river comes into perspective but he doesn't look at me. If he falls into the river at this velocity he could shatter every bone in his body. I try to wriggle closer to him by air swimming... sort of. I end up ploughing into him. Whoops.

He stares at me eyes wide and I motion to my feet, which are pointed and then his. He gets the message, or at least I hope he does, because what comes after is a world of mist and foam. Thankfully, the river is as deep as I had suspected and we didn't die... at least, I didn't die. Ruspin is nowhere. I try to see him through the water in my eyes and the spray raining down from every breaking wave. He isn't anywhere in my line of sight and due to the current there isn't even any way to go back for him.