“Kyra!” Hiram’s desperate cries followed me into the tempest.
I plummeted through the freezing blackness. A scream built in my throat, then escaped before the wind snatched it away with greedy fingers.
Seconds later, I collided with something hard, maybe one of the airship’s wings. A sharp pain went through my middle, but my hands skidded over the smooth metal searching for purchase.
I started to slide off.
My hand caught on a cord running across the metal. I clung to it, though the weight of my body and my dress pulled at me with a slow, inexhaustible drag. Despite the ache, a laugh or sob of relief escaped. I’d stopped falling. For now.
Icy rain pummeled every inch of me, soaking my hair and making my dress cling to me like a second skin. Every breath hurt my chest, and moving brought tears to my eyes. The wind whipped at me, trying to pull me off my precarious perch with violent, grasping fingers. I flattened myself against the surface as much as I could and hid my face from the pelting rain. The cold from the metal seeped through my soaked clothes, stealing the warmth and strength from my body.
Thunder rumbled again followed by a flash of lightning. I squeezed my eyes shut, and my breath came in short, painful gasps, fear making every detail come alive. The sharp touch of the frozen metal, the soggy embrace of my soaked gown, and the vibration of the engine humming through the metal beneath me.
This was my worst nightmare come to life.
The roar of the wind mixed with the ping of the rain, and my hand started to slip as my fingers lost their strength. I wrapped my entire arm through the cord so I didn’t have to hold on. I hadn’t survived this long to die from being pushed out a window. I refused to let this be the end. The one upside was that the cold somewhat numbed the pain in my hand.
The world blurred into a dizzying swirl of clouds and sheets of rain while the cold continued to leech the strength from my body. It seeped through my clothes, penetrating my skin and settling into my bones until my teeth chattered.
“Kyra!” A faint voice called over the sound of the wind and rain.
Hiram.
Though it took altogether too much effort, I turned my head to the side so I could look up at him. Raindrops stung my face, mingling with my tears. The silhouette of a head poked through the window I’d fallen from. Even through the pouring rain, the light behind him haloed his head with a warm glow that made him look like a rain-blurred angel.
“Kyra, if you’re there, please say something!”
The panic in his voice helped me to focus on the task ahead—saving myself. He’d thought he’d lost me forever, and he still might if I couldn’t find the strength to let him know I was here.
“Hi-Hi-Hiram!” His name escaped on a choked sob as relief bubbled up my throat. Crying tore at my ribs, and I was shivering so violently I could barely speak. The wind snatched my sound and carried it away. I waited for a lull, but it never came. Desperate, I tried again. “Hiram, I’m here.” Each word scraped its way up my throat, but even still, he didn’t hear me.
I was going to die out here.
Unable to keep my eyes open, they fluttered shut. Pain racked my body, teeth chattering as if they might shatter. The night was as frigid as it was dark, the stars cold points above. My muscles ached from the fall, my chest burned with effort, and all I wanted was to sleep—to let the cold take me and stop the pain.
But I couldn’t do that. Not when Hiram was still looking for me. I rested my cheek on the frigid metal again, fighting to keep my eyes open.
“—yra! Kyra!” Hiram cupped my cheek and looked at me with worried eyes.
I blinked, then it registered that he was down here with me. “Hiram?”
“I need you to hold on to me so we can lift you back to the ship.” His hand still hadn’t left my cheek. His fingers scorched with a heat I could happily drown in. “Can you do that?”
“I don’t kn-kn-know.” My chattering teeth made it hard to speak, and I wasn’t even sure if I was in control of my hands anymore. They felt like two frozen lumps of ice.
“I’ve got you.” Hiram moved closer, blocking the wind. He wore a harness of some kind with leather straps going across his chest and around his legs. “I just need you to put your arms around me.” But even as he said it, he didn’t seem to expect me to move. Instead, he tied a rope around my waist, then connected it to his harness. Once I was secure, he gently untangled my arms from the cord and pulled me against his chest.
I relished the heat as he nestled me snug against his body. I nuzzled my head against his chest and let my eyes drift closed.
Hiram wrapped one arm firmly around me and tugged on the rope with his other.
“It’s all right,” he said in a soothing tone as we ascended. “You’re safe now.”
With my ear pressed against his chest, his voice was a deep, warm reverberation. Hiram’s grip around my waist tightened.
I couldn’t stay awake any longer. Inside the safety of Hiram’s arms, I succumbed to unconsciousness.