The men continued cursing.
A shadow crossed her vision.She turned—and froze.
A man pushed his way through the startled crowd.Broad-shouldered, coat flaring in the wind, he moved with the effortless grace of command, boots echoing on the planks.Sunlight caught the bronze hilt of the sword at his hip as he halted a few feet away.
His crew muttered behind him, forming a wary circle, but he raised a hand and they stilled.
His eyes met hers.
The world shifted again—but inward this time, as though a long-dormant chord inside her had been struck.Recognition flared between them.Not of the face, but of the soul.She saw something in his eyes, something that sped past time and space.
She felt it.
So did he.
A glint of surprise flickered across his features, yet it wasn’t the shock of a man seeing the impossible.It was wonder.Certainty.Like a long-lost melody heard once more.
“You found me,” he said, voice low and rough with awe.
Desi’s lips parted, but no sound came.
The Ring burned.She opened her palm.It glimmered in the sunlight, no longer covered with grime.The ship leapt over a wave.
Then—
Her fingers loosened.
The Ring slipped from her grasp.
It hit the deck with a soft clink.
Desi broke through the surface with a gasp.The saltwater was warm, but she was shaking.Her breath hitched in her chest as she spun to look around.Her dive boat rocked among the blue waves in the distance, but the ancient ship was gone.
She ripped off her mask and yanked her regulator out.Her heart hammered.Her hands trembled.
“What, what was that?”
She opened her gloved hand again.The Ring was gone.
Spinning in the water, she looked down, searching.Nothing but the endless deep.
Even so, her pulse still carried the sound of sails snapping in the wind.And her heart still burned with the memory of his eyes.
Eyes she had dreamed of.
Eyes she had known for only a breath.
And already missed.
Chapter 2:Ocean’s Echo
“What happened to you out there, Des?”Ethan finished securing the bow and stern lines of theSea Starrto the dock of their slip while Camila adjusted the fenders.
Desi glanced at her captain but then returned to spraying down the deck and rinsing her tank and equipment.How could she describe what happened to her, what she saw and experienced, when she had no idea herself?
“You sure looked terrified when you climbed aboard.”Yanking her long brown hair from its ponytail, Camila fluffed it in the breeze before spearing Desi with a questioning look.“Come on, tell us.What did you see?It’s not like you to be so rattled.”
“I don’t know.”Turning off the hose, Desi began coiling it up, trying to hide the tremble still evident in her hands.“Stow the equipment in the dive locker, Camila, and grab the computer and camera.I’ll meet you in the shop.”
