Something was happening to me. Something magical.
I pulled Julian closer, laid my palms against his chest, and I shoved him with every bit of strength I had until he rocketed up through the waters and broke through the surface above. The blur of his shadow was the last thing I saw. Julian’s muffled cries reached me from another world. From the surface.
Ididhave magic inside me, and it saved him.
I was going to break the curse, and Julian was going to live. Make a change.
Relief settled in my heart as I closed my eyes and surrendered to Death’s gentle embrace.
Julian
Saltwater stung my eyes. Endless waves crashed against my face! My muscles were spent, my heart was still strong. I couldn’t see anything as I dove back down, only continuing to hit a barrier. I pounded against it. Tried to punch through it. It was like plexiglass. Impenetrable. I screamed underwater, a fire in my chest. I couldn’t see her!
And then the sandstorm settled.
The barrier snapped.
Swimming against the ocean was like swimming through mud. Pressure built in my ears the farther I descended. Though the salt was burning my eyes, I forced them open and waved my arms around to connect with her. I couldn’t hear her heart beating anymore. I couldn’t think. It was black down here, but I could see in the dark. And now, I could see her.
Fallon’s eyes were closed. Her lips were blue. Her body swayed with the sea as if she were a part of it. My chest tightened, my lungs ached, telling me I didn’t have any oxygen left. I grabbed her limp body and kicked off the ocean floor, lunging for the surface.
I will never stop fighting, Fallon. That was the point of us. Our love was a tenacious thing buried in deep, dark places. And I wouldneverstop.
We were both onshore now. I could barely walk. I could barely see anything. I didn’t know how I was able to get us to the beach, but I somehow did.
Fallon was in my arms, not breathing as tears plummeted from my eyes. My hands shook, her white hair tangled in my fingers.
“No, no, no,” I laid her on the sand and crawled over her body as sand shuffled around me. I pressed my ear to her chest, hearing nothing! “No!”
It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. I tilted Fallon’s head back, pushed air into her lungs, beat against her chest.I was supposed to die with you. You were supposed to live with me. Come back!
“Fallon!” I cried, pumping my palms against her chest. My arms were locked. My soul, my heart, my screams were all fucking desperate for her to come back to me.“FALLON, COME BACK!”I tilted her head back, held her nose, pushed air down her throat again. It was as if I’d left my body, watching myself from the outside, remembering this moment. As if we’d been here before.“FALLON!” Take me with you!
People were trying to pull me away, ripping at my wet clothes from behind, and a monstrous scream barreled through my windpipe as I slammed my fist down against her chest one last time!
Then Fallon gasped.
My girlgasped!and her heartbeat pounded in my ears at the same time a singleboom!shook our souls—an echo. An invisible, fierce wave slammed against my chest, took me in the air, and my back hit the cliff. It rolled through Weeping Hollow like a bright beam of pearlescent light.
For a brief moment, it was as if our hearts had been restarted.
A quietness swept across the beach, not even the waves that were crashing made a sound. It was so calm, so peaceful.
As I looked around, the town’s panicked eyes surrounded me, the collection of gathered breaths. But all I wanted to see, hear, feel was Fallon. Instinct kicked, and I shuffled back through the sand and rolled her onto her side.
“Fallon, b-b-breathe,” I said through shaking lips, pushing my palm up her spine as she spewed the wicked sea.
Fallon’s chest heaved, and every muscle inside me collapsed with relief as I took her cold and trembling body into my arms. Dropping my head into her neck, I squeezed my burning eyes together as my knees dug into the sand.
And I held her for a while, feeling her heartbeat tap against my fingers, her chest hitting mine, never wanting to let her go. She was alive. I was alive. We were here, together for the time being, and it was all that mattered.
“Julian,” she whispered, pulling away and taking my head into her hands. Fallon’s gaze scanned over my face before her eyes hit mine again. And the way she looked at me was as ifshefoundme, and we didn’t need to be lost again. “Julian, you did it!” she cried out, gripping the back of my head and cradling my head in her palm, touching over my face. New tears rolled down her cheeks, and her smile was faint but real.
I shook my head, my eyes sliding between hers when it hit me.
My mask was gone, and she was looking at me, smiling.
I touched my cheeks, my mouth. I pushed my hand down my face. “No,” I whispered, unable to believe it.
