Maybe I’ve finally gone mad.
Because one moment I was plummeting to my death in concrete monotony, and now I’m standing on an exotic beach that looks like no place I’ve ever seen, beneath an unrecognizable sky.
“Jamie,” I begin hesitantly, turning back to the boy and attempting to keep my voice from shaking. “Where, exactly, are we?”
For a horrifying moment, I expect him to say something ominous—like we’re dead and this is where we wait to be ferried to the underworld.
But Jamie only gives me another curious look and replies, “The lagoon, miss.”
I open my mouth to insist he be more specific, when his eyes flick nervously to the foliage once more. His gaze has followed the same path more than once, the movement so surreptitious, I doubt a normal person would notice. But I’ve honed my observation skills, always on alert for the smallest sign that it’stime to run. Something has made Jamie jumpy, and for some reason, it isn’t the idea of murderous mermaids in the water.
My breath catches in my throat as I follow his gaze to the lush greenery. Nestled between towering verdant trees is the most exquisite array of plants I’ve ever seen, the beauty of their color and variety drawing me toward them like a magnet. Wide petals of deep blues, creamy pinks, and vibrant yellows glow against the velvet night. Sunset tangerine, deep vermilion, aubergine, all cradled in wide leaves of seafoam, emerald, and forest greens.
The colors evoke something aching in me, and unable to resist, I pluck the nearest one. A beautiful shade of crystal-clear turquoise, like I imagine this very bay would be in the sunlight. I stare at it for a long moment, feasting on the sensuous color like its sustenance and I’m starving. And I suppose I am—malnourished of anything beautiful, ravenous for even the smallest morsel.
Jamie comes up behind me, watching me cautiously like I’ve lost my mind. He’s probably not far off. “Miss, it’s best we not linger on the beach too long.”
His anxious tone drags my attention from the flower in my palm. He dances on the balls of his feet, wringing his hands nervously in front of him. His gaze flits from the flowers to the shadows of the trees, never settling for more than a moment.
“Why? Because of the sirens?” I mean it as a joke, but Jamie doesn’t laugh.
He chews his lip and pops one of his knuckles. “I’ll give you all the answers you could ever want, but we must get off the beach first.” Jamie’s words come out clipped. With the sudden darkening of his eyes and the sharp press of his mouth, for a moment, he doesn’t sound like a child at all. But then he shoots me another disarming grin, cocking his head in manner that reminds me so much of Zenni, my chest wrenches. “If you’d be so willing, miss, that is. It’ll be safer to talk away from here.”
He gestures to my nightgown, the thin material so thoroughly soaked, it clings immodestly to my body. “You must be freezing. We should get you to shelter before you catch your death.”
I glance down dumbly, having nearly forgotten all about being barely clothed and almost drowning. But Jamie’s right, Iamfreezing. My skin’s gone numb, my limbs are achy and sore, and my teeth have begun to chatter wildly. But still, something tugs at my brain—a hesitation, one borne of a lifetime of lies and betrayal. Something about this feels wrong.
I shake my head in an attempt to rid myself of the ridiculous paranoia. Jamie is only a child. Like Zenni. Like Celie. And he saved my life. “That would be—that would be nice, thank you.”
He grins in relief and gestures to a small path leading up into the forest, through the flowers and away from the beach. “It’s this way. Not a far walk from here.”
I nod, tucking the flower behind my ear and following him into the trees. We’ve only made it a few steps when something in the air shifts. It tightens and loosens at once, as a foreign power reverberates over the beach, so cold, I swear, the shadows themselves shudder in fear.
Jamie whips back to me, his pale face twisted in horror and his hand stretched toward mine. I grapple toward him as the reverberations of power still, and suddenly, the night sky crawls down from the heavens to wrap around me like iron vices. The world is plunged into darkness as the tethers of sky coil around me. I can’t see Jamie—I can’t seeanything. It feels like I’ve gone blind, like I’ve been plunged into nothingness.
Reaching out my arms in a disoriented panic, I stumble toward where I last saw the boy.
“Jamie!” I cry out, terrified for him. It doesn’t matter that I hardly know him. It only matters that he’s a child; that I’ve already failed to save Zenni and Celie, and I won’t be able to live with myself if I fail him, too.
“Jamie!”
My pleads are met with silence. Thick and disorienting. I can no longer hear the birds of the forest or even the soft lap of the waves against the sand. My toe catches on something sharp, and with a yelp, I lurch forward face first into the sand, even the sound of my fall muted to my own ears.
The darkness slithers around my body, and though none of it touches me, I feel its pressure against my eyes, its icy presence caressing my skin. Like the night has become sentient and burrowed down into the marrow of my bones, it vibrates behind my heart and tugs violently at my blood.
Is this the end stages of the plague? Is this the madness that drove all those poor souls to hurtle themselves off buildings, slit their wrists, tie nooses around their own throats? Was it all to stop this unending night, this horrible madness?
“Jamie!” I shout as fear slices through me. Fear that if it’s finally taken me, it will take him, too. That it will kill any hope that grows inside him, starve his childlike wonder and mutilate his inherent innocence.
The shadows brush against my ears, their dark whispers sending chills over my skin and heat down my spine.
Death,they say.Rot. Decay.
Carrion.
The whispers are harrowing, but even as they beckon dark waves of horror, they are edged in seduction. Drawing me toward the madness of the shadows, teasing me with their wicked promise.
For the second time tonight, I am drowning. Before, there was no air, and now, there is no time—there is only pure chaos. I try to claw my way upward, to somehow swim through the never-ending dark.
