Oh gods. I attempted to look up, to lunge ahead, but no matter what, I couldn’t seem to find the surface.
And I was running out of breath.
The current tugged at my heels, and I resisted all I could.
Yet it yanked me forward.
The last thing I caught in my shaky vision was a blackened blur rushing toward me at top speed.
Then everything turned dark.
Chapter 3
My body ached.
I was pretty sure my soul ached too.
Brightness hurt, even with my eyes closed, and each ragged breath that passed my throat sliced like swallowing shards of glass.
Solidness lay beneath me.
The last thing I remembered was getting battered around from the waves and the sea swallowing me whole. Was I dead? Was this the afterlife?
A low, sonorous hum sounded, a sweet melody that resonated inside me. Heat warmed through me from inside and out, and I didn’t try to move, didn’t try to open my eyes, just listened to the song that awakened me.
The richness of the voice, the precision, the firmness of the tones sent a thrill up my spine as the melody cast a spell over me. I existed in a nebulous sphere of reality and imagination, like a waking dream.
When the song ended, my heart ached.
My breath hitched, and I tried to open my eyes. They felt crusted shut, and when I managed to force them open, the bright, blinding sunlight made me shut them again. Ouch.
“Ah, he stirs.” That voice again.
Fingers carded through my hair, and my body sparked to life, like the ignition of a car. I tried to open my eyes again, catching a glimpse. Someone hovered over me—a flash of paleness, light blue, silver—and the shift of something around me caused a pleasant, comforting reaction. The scent of brine overwhelmed me, though I caught threads of darkly sweet as well.
I sucked in a ragged breath, and those fingers continued to coax me into a sense of calm as I shut my eyes again, the sunlight too harsh and disorienting.
My mind dizzied, like I’d stepped into a centrifuge, and I didn’t try to open my eyes again. I couldn’t explain the implicit trust I felt, the safety here, but the fingers through my hair were sure, and the melody filtered through the air again, their low, resonant voice lulling me back to oblivion.
“Hey, are you okay?” a voice sounded. This one was different from before.
I blinked again, my whole body aching, but this time nothing braced me except the warm sand beneath me. The loss hit me acutely, the comfort gone. I pushed up, my bones creaking, my body stiff from being battered around in the ocean. The sun wasn’t as bright, which must’ve meant it was late afternoon. I wiped the crust out of my eyes and looked over at who had spoken.
A redhead stood only feet away in her bathing suit, staring at me. Two guys trailed a bit behind her, as if they were keeping an eye out.
“Uh,” I murmured, wiping my face to see if I could make myself function. My throat was wrecked, and it hurt as much too,corroded by the gallons of salt water I must’ve chugged down. “Got stuck in the storm.”
“Wow, how lucky to get washed up on shore,” she said, shaking her head. “Normally if you get stuck out there, you’re a goner.”
I didn’t think my survival was luck, though. Whoever had been there when I first stirred…I had a feeling they’d saved me. With how far out I’d been, how strong those currents had become, the ocean would’ve dragged me to its depths.
One of the monsters lurking in the waters had to have been my savior.
I only wished I could thank them.
“Yeah, some sort of luck,” I muttered. “What time is it?”
“Early evening,” she said. “The storm raged for maybe half an hour but then rolled away. It was a fast and furious one.” The woman who stood in front of me had flowing red hair that glittered in the sun, a bright infectious smile, and looked polished in a way I was familiar with, given my family’s pedigree.
