My knee crashes into something hard, but my limbs are too cold to feel it now. Then my back collides with another mass, this one juttingout from the river. My plank slips from my grasp, and I claw at the rock I’ve slammed against, hooking my arm over the top and hugging myself around it. The seconds of relative stillness feel like heaven, even as the river churns around me. I gather in heaving lungfuls of air, then try to lift myself higher. If I can just climb up on the rock, I can get a view of the shore, take a fighting chance at getting out of this fucking river. For a second, I see it. Only one eye remains uncovered by my sideways mask, but it’s enough. A silhouette of trees bobs over the rapids. I heft myself an inch higher and catch sight of rocks. A snowy bank. Shore. That’s the shore.
My arms begin to loosen, my strength draining with every breath I take. I cry out as I’m nearly wrenched off the rock. My godsdamned waterlogged cloak has caught on something, or perhaps it’s been pulling downstream this whole time and I’m only now succumbing to its tug. I can’t fall back into the current. I…I won’t make it back out. I know this like I know my own heartbeat. My only option is to release one hand to unhook my cloak. But if I let go, even for a second, I’ll lose my grip on the rock.
Gritting my teeth, I fight the weight dragging me down the river. Pull my arms tighter. Lift my body higher—
My strength gives out and I surrender to the current.
Surrender to death.
Surrender to…the strong arms that close around me. I don’t know how it’s possible, but I know it’s him. Dominic. His arms are clamped around my waist, his legs braced against the rock. Then he shifts his grip, securing me in one arm. The rushing water batters us as he navigates us around the rock, to the side nearest the shore. We pause there, and I realize he’s speaking to me, whispering into my hair.
“Breathe. You’re going to be all right. Are you ready?”
I don’t know what I’m supposed to be ready for, but I nod anyway.
The next thing I know, I’m moving again, dragged by the current. But I’m not alone this time. Dominic’s hold doesn’t let up, and there’s something else here too. A canine face keeping my head above water. Paws paddling beside me. Two dark shadows filling the space between us. Dominic fights the current while somehow working with its pull until we’re closer to the shore. Closer to safety.
My feet slam into the rocky riverbed, but it’s a welcome sensation. I kick out, doing my best to gain purchase on them, to aid our progress, until—finally—I collapse on the riverbank, gathering shuddering breaths. Everything hurts now. No, it doesn’t hurt. I can’t feel anything. Sensations drift from pain to numbness, and I realize my eyes are no longer open.
My consciousness is fraying at the edges.
Maybe I’m dying, even after all of that.
Again, strong arms come around me, and I sense the world falling beneath me. Or perhaps it’s only that I’ve been lifted up. My face feels lighter, and I realize I’m no longer burdened by my mask. Instead, something warm—so delightfully, deliciously warm—presses against my cheek. I whimper at the relief it brings.
Then a voice in my ear, so soft and kind, and I wish I could remember whose it is. “You’re going to be all right, love. You hear me?” His lips graze my temple as he speaks again. “You’re going to be all right.”
That same warmth floods my hand; it must be pressed against the same surface my cheek is. I spread out my fingers and let that warmth soothe me, along with the heavy beat that thuds against my palm.
The next thing I think isDying isn’t so bad.
The holy texts are wrong. Hell isn’t at all what we’ve been led to believe. It isn’t some endless void crawling with Shades and demons. It isn’t a pitch-black hole filled with the stench of rot and the perpetual burn of icy air. If anything, it’s the opposite. It’s warm, peaceful.
Come to think of it, maybe I’m not in hell.
Maybe I defied the odds and made it to heaven.
That would explain the glittering sunlight that wraps around me. I’m not sure when I opened my eyes, but my surroundings take shape, piece by piece. Honeyed sunlight, sheer curtains blowing on a wind I don’t feel, an opulent bed beneath me—a bed unlike anything I’ve ever experienced, layered with pillows and the softest blankets my skin has ever felt. If this is to be my eternal grave, then perhaps the gods like me after all. The scent of cedar, snow, and smoke fills mysenses, so at odds with my surroundings, but as I roll onto my side, I discover the source.
A man lies beside me, eyes closed, lips parted in slumber. His dark hair spills over his pillow, and I find myself entranced by his beauty.
Then I remember his name.
Dominic.
Confusion tangles the back of my mind, sending visions of cold water and a flash of terror, but it’s gone before it can grow. I blink, then study him again, and I’m no longer confused by his presence. Of course he’s here.
And…where is here again?
Dominic stirs before I can ponder the question too long, his eyes fluttering open, led by those long black lashes of his. He turns toward me and wraps a muscled arm around me. I’m shocked at first, by his touch and my realization that we’re both fully naked—weren’t we covered in blankets a moment ago?—until my mind slips back into contentment and I can no longer recall why I was surprised.
He pulls me into his chest, and I press my palm over his pectoral, luxuriating in his warmth, his heartbeat. He kisses the top of my head, and I nestle deeper into him.
“Tell me a story, love.”
The voice is low, deep, and guttural, thrilling in its sleep-drunk beauty. But there’s something about the words he said that sends a shock of fear through me. I pull back, expecting a different face to look down at me. Because Dominic has never said those words to me. It was someone else. Someone who…
Dominic meets my eyes with a frown, and I’m torn between the vision before me and the one that haunts the edges of my mind.
