He looked up at the sky. The drizzle was becoming heavier now, and showed no signs of ending soon. “That could be a while. Days, maybe.”
“We don’t seem to have a whole lot of choices.”
“That thought has occurred to me.”
She stepped to the edge of the erosion-carved ravine and looked down, watching the increasingly heavy rain merging into the surging flood waters. The temperature was falling again; or maybe it just felt that way because she was so wet and tired. She shivered and wrapped her arms around herself in a futile attempt at warmth.
Donovan stepped beside her, placing a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry,” he said, his voice calmer now. “I shouldn’t have snapped at you just because I’m frustrated.”
She offered him a tentative smile. “You deserve to blow off steam sometimes.”
“Still, I shouldn’t have—”
Their combined weight must have been too much for the waterlogged ground at the edge of the gully. Before Donovan could finish his sentence, the earth gave way beneath their feet.
Chapter Twelve
Maybe they could have caught themselves if they hadn’t already been in such weakened condition. Or maybe not. The ground literally fell from under them, tumbling into the hungry stream which took them with it.
Chloe went into the water on her back. She was immediately swept downstream, crashing against rocks and the dirt sides, struggling to get her face above the surface. Her first gasp for breath ended with a mouthful of water. Choking and gagging, she went under again.
The water was no more than four feet deep but running so fast she couldn’t keep her feet beneath her when she tried to stand. She slammed hard into another large rock, tried to grab it, but had her grip torn away by the force of the water. The current was too strong, the ground too uneven and slippery to give her a grip. All she could do was go with the flow and try to gulp air whenever her face broke the water.
Something snagged her shirt, jerking her to a stop. She scrabbled to catch hold of it, her hands closing around something hard and slick. Tree roots, she realized as she gulped air, trying to focus through water, rain and tears. The flood had washed the dirt away from the bottom of a large tree, leaving long, bare roots extending out into the water.
It took all her strength to cling to the roots and keep herself from being swept away again. She didn’t know how far she had been carried by the flood-waters, or how long she’d been battling them. The heavy gray sky pressed down above her and rain fell in windswept sheets around her. All she could see was the forest and the bluffs rising around her.
She couldn’t see Donovan.
Whipping her head from one side to the other, she searched desperately for any sign of him. “Donovan?”
She could barely hear her own voice over the sounds of the rain and rushing water. She called louder, “Donovan!”
She couldn’t help thinking of his injured leg. What if he’d been pushed under the water when they were first swept in? Even now he could be trapped, struggling to get his head above water, slowly losing consciousness…
“Donovan!”
She tried dragging herself out of the water, but her hands kept sliding on the slick roots. She lodged herself firmly into a notch among them and rested a moment, panting.
Her head was spinning now, and she felt as though she could very easily faint again, but she fought off the dizziness. She had to find Donovan.
She tried calling him again. “Donovan!”
“Chloe?”
She jerked her head around so quickly that dizziness almost overwhelmed her again, loosening her grip on the roots. She scrambled to regain her hold, clinging so tightly her hands ached.
“Donovan?” Had she only imagined she’d heard him? Was it only desperate, wishful thinking?
“Chloe—where are you?”
It was definitely his voice, she thought with a choked cry of relief. He was all right. Somehow he’d gotten out of the water.
She tried again to pull herself out, but she was unsuccessful. She called out to him again and waited, hanging on while Donovan made his way to her. She could hear him now, crashing through the brush, his occasional muted curses drifting to her on wet gusts of wind.
It took him a while to reach her. When she finally saw him, she understood why.
The left side of his face was c