Secrets of the Sea | Finnick Odair

- chapter 30 -

CORDELIA

Dorian moved to jump down, landing so loudly, that Cordelia swore she could hear his bones cracking. But the cracking continued, and Cordelia knew she shouldn't be able to feel someone else's bones cracking. No, instead she was forced to watch as the ground around her split, revealing ice under the thin layer of snow that sat on top.

Ice. That was not good.

Cordelia didn't know much about the cold and snow, but she did know that solid ground didn't usually have ice layers coating it, and it certainly didn't break the way it was now. The only reason it would be here, breaking like this is if there was water underneath. Water. Cordelia gasped and her eyes widened in fear. The continued cracking and now shifting ice was her only warning as both she and Dorian were plunged, screaming, beneath into the freezing water.

If given the opportunity, Cordelia would've gone back to fifteen minutes ago, when she was fighting the careers. When complaining about the cold was just about the freezing temperatures and occasional snow in her face. She would give anything for the career's to be the worst of her problems.

But that wasn't possible, instead, she was left to the current under the ice. This was a whole new level of cold. One where she couldn't breathe, couldn't see, her clothes stuck to her body and there was no way of knowing when she would surface again, if she ever would.

Muffled, she heard a cannon go off. Clearly District One didn't believe swimming to be a necessity.

There was no way she would die here, in the water. She refused. Cordelia could hold her breath, she knew that. She also knew that with the shock of a sudden plunge into the icy water her limit would be significantly shortened. Opening her eyes Cordelia tried to figure out where she'd fallen in. It would have to look different from the rest, they'd fallen through the ice after all. But it all just reflected back at her, completely the same. The current had dragged her further downstream than she'd first thought. There was no swimming back. Not when she didn't even know what direction she'd come from.

Think Cordelia, think.

She had to do something. Her bag had been lost in her fight with the careers, not that she would've kept it once falling in. She could swim well enough with clothes on, but the bag would've been too much extra weight. Her mind raced. She was going to drown. In this stupid arena, in these stupid games. She'd have learnt all those skills from Finnick for nothing. A thought. Maybe not for nothing. Reaching towards where she thought her feet were, her body long since numb, Cordelia fumbled around until she reached her boot. One of them had been emptied of its dagger, which was stabbed into Dorian's shoulder and discarded on the ground. But the other- it should still be there. With little to no feeling in her fingers, the difference between a dagger and not a dagger was so small that Coredlia was sure she had grabbed at her pants more than once.

Finally finding the handle, she pulled it out and swam towards the darkest part above her. Stabbing it relentlessly into the ice above her. Cordelia prayed to anyone who could hear her that this would work. She had no backup plans and if this didn't work then she was truly dead. Her vision was vignetting it was becoming harder and harder to stab at the ice above her. Just as her head lolled back, her hand broke through the ice brittle enough to shatter and create a hole big enough for her to pull herself out.

With her head now safely above the water, Cordelia greedily took in air.

She couldn't stay in the water, not if she planned on staying awake. Pulling herself up to the top layer of ice was easy enough, but pushing herself out didn't have the same ease. As soon as her clothes were out of the water, the true weight of them was revealed. Cordelia knew how to swim with clothes on, Finnick had made sure of that. However, there was a distinct difference between the winter clothes in District Four and the arena-approved items in the Capitol. Her game clothes were thick and warm and now that they were soaked, extremely heavy.