Camila snorted.“You two need to stop talking like you’re in some church movie.”
Desi ignored her.Sunlight gleamed off the cross around Ethan’s neck, nearly blinding her.All these years, she’d never seen him without it, but honestly, she’d never given it much attention.Until now.The sway of the boat sent bright rays back and forth over the gleaming silver.luring her with its familiarity.Without asking, she flipped it over.
His Kingdom will Never Endwas engraved on the back.Her heart seized and she stumbled.This was Caleb’s cross!
“Where did you get this?”
“From my father.”Ethan gave her a curious look.“And he got it from his and so forth and so on.I hear it goes back in our family hundreds of years.”He fingered it, grinning.
Around four-hundred to be exact.Desi shook her head, her thoughts spinning with impossibilities.Ethan was Caleb’s descendant!That’s why he vanished when she’d made up her mind not to return to the past.If she never went back and things stayed the same, Caleb would die and never have children.Did Ethan’s presence mean that Caleb would survive?That she could return to him?
“You okay?”Ethan studied her.
“Better than ever.”
Ethan tapped her nose, then turned back to the helm, wind tugging at his sun-bleached hair.
Camila spat lightly into the mask and rinsed it, while Daria stood barefoot on the deck, hands on her hips, smiling through the sunlight.
And Desi remembered the dream she’d had aboard theSentinel.This moment.This exact scene.The same light, the same people, similar words.
What did it mean?
She thought to ask the sea, but she no longer prayed to waves or whispers.Now she knew the voice of the One who ruled them all.This is what You want, isn’t it?she asked silently.The warmth blooming in her chest was answer enough.
With steady hands, Desi slipped into her gear—BCD, tanks, straps, regulator.Camila passed her the mask and fins.
“Have a good dive, amiga.See you soon.”
Desi managed a nod, then turned to her sister.“You know I love you, right?”
“Always.”Daria’s gaze shone with a peace unearthly in its calm.“Go with God, dear sister.All will be well.”
Desi kissed her cheek, then seated herself on the edge.Taking one last look at the three dearest souls on Earth, she whispered a prayer, and fell backward into the sea.
The sea was deceptively calm as Desi slipped beneath its glassy surface.Sunlight split the turquoise water into silvery threads.Her heart thumped hard against her wetsuit as she swam deeper, bubbles spiraling past her face.
At fifty feet, she switched on her dive light.The murk gave way to shadowed forms—the sharp line of a hull in the silt, the shadows where masts once stood.TheSentinel.
It had to be.
But something was wrong.Three gaping mast holes yawned from the silt, not two.She swam lower, the truth unfurling before her as she went.Her pulse raced.This was no brig.
It was far too large.The outline of the wreck sprawled across the sea floor like a sleeping leviathan.She drew closer, sweeping her light across the vast wreckage.Flashes of iron gleamed and she closed in, batting away silt from atop a cannon.More than one.At least twenty, maybe more as her light jumped from one to another down the line.
TheSentinelhad only twelve guns.
Heart thundering, she finned around the remains, peering into cracks, wiping sand from pieces of iron and rot.Something caught her eye, something flashed in her light, and she dug in the spot, finally pulling out a plaque.She rubbed it with her thumb, then focused her light on the details.
Twin lions flanking a shield beneath a crowned knight’s helmet.
Montverre’s coat of arms.
A shiver coursed through her despite the warm tropical water.
Not Caleb’s ship.
Not theSentinel.
