TimeBound (Time Tells #1) (COMPLETED)

Chapter Twenty One

When the car slams into the water, I feel the impact straight to my bones.

For one quiet second, our car stands on its head, neither breaking the surface nor floating. That's when I hear a soft mechanised sound, synchornized clicks and the sound of something like air against rubber. I don't realise that my hand is curled around my husband's leg until my fingers flex in reaction to the water that had begun to climb the sides of the car. We dip into the water body.

With a start, I look to my window, remembering I had had it opened. I realise with a jerk of relief that the windows had raised, the locks had released and air bags had inflated along the edges to keep the water out and the car afloat. I let out a relieved breath and turn to look at my husband.

His hand had dropped to my seatbelt and he was just about to release it when something crashes against the back of our car and I let out a shriek as whatever heavy mass had slammed into us, pushes us into the water further. My panicked gaze meets my husband's swirling icy blue. I clutch the material of my husband's pants and the side of my door as water hurtles past us on the outside, sending us further into the surprisingly deep water body.

Darkness spills into the car and I notice very minor cracks spiderwebbing at the very edge of the windshield. But I don't worry about it, able to see the thickness of the glass. But when I hear a groan of metal from behind us and then a crunch, I whip around the same time my husband does.

Our gazes find the car that had landed on us...and trail down to the part of our car it had crashed into.

The edge of the back windshield that met the metal body of the car. The metal had crunched into the glass, creating a gap in the frame...

A gap that water was leaking through.

And the pressure of the water was pressing against the glass and cracks began to form along it. I whip my head to my husband when I hear a snick. The seatbelt slides off of me and I brace my hands against the dash and my feet against the floor to keep myself from sliding off my seat.

"Alanna."

I turn around to my husband's voice, my hair falling around me. The sound of the glass crunching adding to the water that I could hear spilling almost silently onto the seats was sending my panic into a frenzy. I wanted my husband out of this car. I wanted him out now.

"Look at me."

The silent command in his voice has me whipping my gaze to his. His eyes bore into mine, glowing in the darkness.

"When I break that door open, the water will rush in. You'll feel the pressure of it and in the beginning you won't be able to control your body." His calm voice has my mind focusing once more, "But once the water has filled the car, you'll be able to swim out. We're deeper than you've ever been in water and you'll feel the pressure."

"All you need to do is swim up. Swim towards the light."

He catches my jaw in his fingers.

"Swim to the surface, Alanna."

I nod at him, letting him know I won't panic. I had this. We could escape. We would escape. His gaze warms from their previous cold hard determination. His releases my chin and he runs the back of his hand along my cheek, down over the side of my throat.

"A lifetime." He says, "Sounds miraculous, doesn't it?"

My brows furrow, "We have that, Kri. We're going to get out of here."

I want to look back, at the water and the loudening crunch of the glass, but I keep my gaze on my husband.

"Yes, Alanna. You will get out of here." He says and I feel the weight of his will behind his words.