Chapter Fifteen
Kari stood at the top of the ramp that would lead to their watery deaths if they didn’t find a way out of the room quickly. She watched Bryon pull a small boulder from the rock pile in front of the blocked door and toss it aside. That would work . . . about an hour after the room filled.
She turned back to the scale. It had started when he’d touched it. Maybe that was how to stop it also.
Next to the bowl side of the scale sat two other bone bowls: one slightly smaller than the bowl on the weight and one just over half the weight bowl’s size. A large pile of pea gravel sat at the other end. The solution looked rather obvious to her. She had to fill the big container on the weight so the sides balanced again.
She scooped handfuls of rock into the small bowl and dumped it into the big bowl. Two scoops filled it a little over halfway. When pouring in the third batch, the half of the bar that held the bowl twisted, letting the bowl slide off and spill. What the hell? She repeated the same process, and again, when she poured out half of her third deposit, the bar twisted and dumped.
The water was at her knees. Bryon was still throwing boulders into the middle of the space from the door. The ten-foot-square room was quickly filling.
Alright. The small bowl didn’t work, so she filled the middle-sized bowl and dumped it in. The weight bowl was almost full, but not completely. She put several scoops of pebbles in the middle bowl and poured it in. Again, while filling it, the bar turned and emptied the contents. Damn. What was the issue?
Bryon hollered behind her, “Having fun playing with the rocks?”
“Yeah, I am.” Jerk. “Seeing how this is the way out, I’m having a fucking blast.” With that statement, he waded to her.
“What have you got?”
“I have to fill this bowl on the scale so it balances with the rock,” she said.
“That looks easy enough,” he smirked.
She stepped back and motioned for him to try. “Go for it, genius.” He went about the procedure that she did and came to the same conclusion.
“It doesn’t work. Maybe it’s broken.”
She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, that’s it. Then we’re dead. This has to have a solution that will stop the water flowing. We just have to figure out what it is.”
Bryon kept filling and refilling the bowls while she treaded water. She could solve this problem. The answer was on the edge of her brain. Maybe she could use math to work numbers.
The water had filled the room enough that she couldn’t touch the ground without going under water. Since the ceiling was so high, they had several minutes before they would drown. Her mind spun into a panic making her start to hyperventilate. Bryon pulled her to him.
“Hey now. Everything is going to be fine.” He pressed her against his chest and rubbed the hair away from her face.
She snorted. “I’m not stupid, Bryon. We’re going to die very painfully, very soon.” He just sighed and held her. “Because I had to pee, this is the last day of my life,” she said.
He pulled back from her. “What?” he asked. Going back to try different bowl combinations, she recalled her misadventure of trying to find a bathroom. They laughed about it. She could now that it didn’t matter.
Once the shelf with the weight was under water, she stopped trying since the rocks floated in the water and took forever to settle into the big bowl. Their heads were nearing the rock ceiling.
Bryon wiped hair from her face and met her gaze. He was inches from her. The heat from his gaze melted her insides. She wanted him badly, but he was so . . . much. Clearly an alpha male, she wasn’t used to someone so big and sexy giving her his full attention. It was overwhelming and dizzying. Her body heated and her hormones danced like she was a teenager in her first date.
“May I kiss you?”
Instead of a reply, she wrapped her hands around his neck and pulled herself closer, her lips meeting his. The sensation was electrifying. The intense pull from him made her press herself as close to him as possible. She couldn’t get enough of his touch. This was new and intoxicating.
Suddenly, the answer to the three bowls was in her mind. “I got it,” she gasped, pulling away from their kiss. “Stay here.” She gulped down a big breath, dove under the water, and pushed off the ceiling. She picked up bowls, filling and dumping. The process took much longer than originally as the pebbles floated in the water, but did eventually settle.
She had reached the point where she’d either found the solution or would have to go back to the top for a breath. There was so little air left when she came down, she doubted any remained now. The water had squeezed its way into every crack and crevice. She stay and finished for Bryon. Maybe there was a chance he would go on if he hadn’t drowned already.
She was amazed how quickly he’d wormed his way into her heart. She hadn’t even felt it. Anger seemed to be the dominant trait in her when he was around.
As she poured pebbles into the final bowl, the air in her lungs depleted. She watched to make sure the big bowl lowered and balanced with the round rock on the other side. She hoped that did something to save Bryon. She fought to get into the position she needed to swim up. There was no way she could get all the way back to the top in time to breathe. Her body couldn’t move that fast.
Her short arms stroking through the water, barely moving her along, she closed her tearing eyes. Her lungs burned so badly, she could no longer fight the need, even though she knew it would be a long, painful way to go. Kari smashed her lips together refusing to give in to what her body demanded she do. Her body convulsed, needing to suck in what wasn’t there.
She could stand it no more. Her mouth opened and she pushed the built-up carbon dioxide from her lungs.