With every step she took away from me, it felt like my heart was tearing from my chest, as she had said. I took off in a sprint after her. This could not be the way our story ended. “Circe!”
The ocean felt like it was pushing me away from her. However, I pushed forward, determined to reach her and tell her I did not mean to say all the things I had said. Once the sea clapped against my waist, I dove in.
She was only a few feet ahead of me when I came up for air.
The saltwater burned my eyes and the walls of my throat.
“Circe, stop.” I wrapped my arm around her waist, but a wave slammed into us, tossing me to the side and ripping us apart.
Seconds kept passing as I tumbled with the wave, my lungs burning.
My head slammed into the ocean floor, and then a current swept me away. It lasted like this for longer than my body could handle.
What if she were trapped in the current, too? What if she didn’t make it? I fought to regain control to make it back to her and finally was able to catch my footing.
My head broke through the surface, and I gasped for air.
But only for a moment.
There was no Circe.
I dove back under, sweeping my hands all around, hoping it would catch on to any part of her.
It’s been too long,my thoughts cursed. She would be out of breath by this time. I was under for too long too, but the image of her dead body floating with the current propelled me forward until I caught a glimpse of blonde hair. Like a sun in the sea’s night sky.
But another wave came and dragged me down deeper.
I remembered the view from down here as my body jerked for air.
When you died a thousand deaths, somehow the ache was just an ache.
I scraped the sand, searching for oxygen, and when my fingers raked the ocean floor, they hooked on to something unusual.
Then Circe surrounded me. Salt burned my eyes, so I couldn’t see her. But I could feel her as time stretched and choked me. She grabbed my face and pressed her lips to mine, breathing into me. I closed my eyes until our heads broke free from the water.
We clutched on to each other, and I was full of breath, inhaling and exhaling. Water droplets clung to her lashes as the two of us bobbed in the ocean.
“You were under for too long,” I said above the sound of the waves, stunned. I took another bitter breath as droplets fell from her features and slid down the bridge of her nose.
The sea sprayed my face. I wiped the mist away with my forearm as my body trembled and my teeth chattered.
“It had to have been at least five minutes, Circe,” I said, and she narrowed her eyes as though I was discovering a secret she’d never shared with me. “How long can you hold your breath?”
She looked at me for what seemed like an eternity.
Then— “For as long as it takes,” she said.
All I could do was look at her.
Circe pushed off of me. “Don’t come after me, Stone.”
She dove back underneath the water.
She didn’t stop swimming or return for air until she reached the boat.
When she climbed aboard theFinneuma, the ocean slipped off her flawless bare body like she’d been wearing it. She looked right at me one last time, and I was afraid this would be my last sight of her. So, my eyes never left her.
They followed her all the way to the other side.
