Bounty Hunter [REWRITTEN VERSION]

Chapter 46: Gone

MAIZE

As Maize launched herself off the cliff, she felt the air around her surge forward and her eyes shut against the blinding pressure as plummeted down into the icy submerge below.

She plunged into the chilling water, her boots pitching in first before the rest of her followed.

The cold hit her with a shock, and in an instant, she was forcing her sodden shoes to kick forward against the drag of her weighted clothes and push herself to the surface. When her head finally broke through, she took in gasping breathes of air into her lungs to make up for the breath that had escaped her throughout the fall before she hit the water.

It was a struggle to keep her above the surface with the weight of her clothes fighting to drag her down with each kick, but she maintained her treading water until she heard the next two came up for air.

Alec and Ryder's head broke through the surface at the same time, water sopping their hair and each breath coming in as rough pants.

Together they all began swimming towards the edge, where Kota was already waiting on land and shaking out matted wet fur. They let the flow of water carry them until they were close enough that the sides of the ravine to latched onto the rocks, and then they pulled themselves up enough to catch their breaths on the sturdy strip of hard earth.

"That was...we're never doing that again," Alec breathed, still reeling with shock.

"You're welcome," Maize replied dryly as she began to pull herself fully out of the water.

"I'm not a religious man by any means...but hallelujah...we didn't die instantly," Ryder said.

"I'm glad you two have so much trust in me," Maize replied with a touch of distilled sarcasm at each of their dramatics. It hadn't been so bad, right?

"You just told us to jump off a cliff, you're lucky I'm not calling you crazy!" Ryder dissented.

She shot him a look. "I just saved our lives. And if I don't recall, you jumped too." Neither of them had anything to say to that, and she smiled wryly. "Looks like we're all crazy."

"Crazy stupid," Ryder muttered.

"Great," Alec replied with an exasperated roll of his eyes.

"Ryder, how long do we have before the gang can catch up to us from here?" Maize asked quickly.

He pulled his lower half out of the water, shaking out a drenched pant leg begrudgingly as he considered it. "If I had to guess I'd say a good while. If they chose to go around, which they probably did since we didn't see them come splashing in after us, we have some time to get a head start before they even make it down here."

She nodded at the confirmation. "We'll be gone by then." They and a bit of time to catch their breaths.

There was a beat of silence where the air around them grew still.

"How did they find us?" Alec questioned, his voice staggeringly low as he glared up from under the lids of his eyes. "I thought that was impossible."

"It should have been," Maize murmured.

Ryder was quiet.

"What's wrong?" she asked slowly, reading the tension in his shoulders that hadn't been there a moment ago.

Without answering, Ryder stood abruptly and began fumbling with his jacket, eyes growing more furious as he dug around and finally pulled something out from the inside of a coat pocket. The small device seemed to be buzzing in his fingers.