Flipping on her light, she swam deeper.Questions chased her bubbles.If she retrieved the Ring, what then?Would Caleb’s fate still hold?When she’d left, he had the Ring in his possession.What then had caused theSentinelto sink?Did he drown, or was he saved?So many unanswered questions.
But one blazed above them all.If she could return, could she change his fate?
The reef below loomed gray, its colors leeched by the storm-darkened water.Over the lip of the drop-off, she descended until the skeletal outline of theSentinelemerged from the gloom.Her heart clenched.Ghosts swam here—Caleb’s laughter, Alden’s voice, Liam’s Irish lilt, the creak of rigging in the sun.Now, only ruin remained.Divots and ditches where timbers fell, masts dissolved.Cannons pointing at nothing.Rot and Ruin.Caleb’s favorite curse, now fulfilled.
Blinking back tears, she moved toward the spot where she’d found the Ring before.Brushing away sand, she swept her light over the spot.
There.Just like she’d never touched it, never traveled through time, never lived another life, never loved a hero of old.
A sob rose in her throat.That tiny circle of gold bound her to Caleb through time, through death, through eternity.
She swallowed it down.Don’t be a fool, Desi.You need this Ring.
Daria’s life depended on it.
She drew the tweezers and hovered them above the relic.Her pulse thrummed.Would touching it send her back?Would the metal even recognize her touch through steel?She couldn’t risk it.Not now.Not when her sister’s life hung in the balance.
She wedged the tweezer tips beneath the Ring and pried it loose.The artifact broke free, slowly descending with a glint.Quickly, she guided it toward the open collection bottle.It slipped inside.Relief flooded her—
—until a shadow crossed the light above.
Her head jerked up.
A massive marlin drifted through the gloom only inches away, its spear-like nose cutting the water like a blade.Startled, Desi’s hand faltered.The current caught the Ring and swept it from the bottle.
“No—no!”she mouthed through the regulator.
The Ring spun downward, glimmering faintly, drifting toward the sand.If it vanished into the muck, she might never find it again.She lunged forward, arms slicing the water.
Her fingers closed around it.
And in that instant, everything changed.
♥
Thunder boomed so close it rattled her bones.The sea’s lull had vanished, replaced by a tumult of shouts, stamping boots, and the groan of timber under strain.Something solid shuddered beneath her.
She tore the regulator from her mouth, choking as her lungs filled with acrid smoke.Rain lashed her face like a thousand icy needles.
Blinking through the sting, she looked up.And her heart lurched.
TheSentinel.She was back!
Gun crews swarmed like bees around the twelve-pounders lining the deck.“Run out the larboard guns!”bellowed Keg, his voice sharp as cannon fire.“Powder monkeys, fetch the charges!Hands to the braces!”
From above, Liam’s Irish brogue pierced the din.“Haul taut, ye sea dogs!Aloft, ye lubbers.Reef the tops’l ’fore she tears herself apart!”
Alden strode across the main deck, a whip of command in human form, shouting orders through the gale.“Belay that line!Brace up the foreyard.Quickly now!”
He was alive!He’d survived the gunshot.
The ship pitched hard, and Desi clung to the rail.A mighty blast erupted behind her, echoing across the dark, churning sky.Uncinching her tanks, she shimmied out of them, tugged off her fins and twisted around, her breath catching as a ghostly outline of another vessel loomed through the rain.
“All hands down!”The voice…Caleb’s.
Deep.Resonant.Unshakable even against thunder’s roar.
Her gaze found him at the helm, coat flaring, spyglass raised, boots braced wide against the tilting deck.The sight of him flooded her with dizzy elation and aching sorrow all at once.Her sister’s pale face flashed before her mind.
