Jayden checked her gear the way she always did—regulator, BCD, weight belt, mask. Everything looked right. The tank felt full; the air tasted clean when she tested the regulator.
She stepped off the platform and let the ocean swallow her.
The water was warmer here, the visibility even better than the morning dive. She could see the reef stretching out below her, a landscape of alien beauty that made her feel small in the best way. Dakota splashed in beside her, and they exchanged okay signs before descending together.
They swam away from the boat, following the dive guide’s instructions to explore the outer edge of the reef. The sounds of the ocean wrapped around her—the crunch of parrotfish on coral, the distant whine of a boat engine, her own breath echoing in her ears.
The fish were bolder here—larger groupers, a spotted eagle ray that glided past with the lazy elegance of royalty The Napoleon wrasse turned out to be a massive, curious creature with thick lips and a face that somehow managed to look wise and goofy at the same time. It followed them for ten minutes, seeming genuinely interested in these strange bubble-blowing visitors to its reef.
They found a garden of sea anemones, all swaying in the current, clownfish families defending their territories with fierce little charges at anyone who came too close. A reef shark cruised past in the distance—blacktip, maybe four feet, completely uninterested in the divers. A manta ray, impossibly graceful, glided by, with a wingspan wider than Dakota could reach.
And through all of it, he stayed there, within reach. Pointing things out. Sharing the wonder. Moving through the water like they belonged together.
Above them, the surface shimmered and danced, sunlight fractured into a thousand shifting patterns.
This was the underwater equivalent of walking through a cathedral, and she’d forgotten how sacred it could feel.
She glanced at her air gauge. Wait—what? The needle had fallen to the red.
Her air was nearly gone.
Her heart slammed against her ribs. She kicked hard and grabbed Dakota’s arm.
His head whipped toward her, eyes widening behind his mask when she showed him her O2 level.
He didn’t waste time on questions. Just pulled her close, shoved his backup regulator into her hand, and pointed up.
Surface. Now.
She nodded. Switched to his air. The first breath tasted sweet, precious, and she fought the urge to gulp it down.
Steady. Don’t panic.
They ascended together, Dakota’s hand gripping her arm, his eyes locked on hers. Calm. Easy. The kind of easy that said I’ve got you without speaking a word.
Thirty feet. Twenty. Fifteen.
They stopped there for a safety stop. Her air gauge read zero, just his to keep her alive. But there they stayed, waiting for five minutes, his eyes on hers, holding her gaze.
And in that space between breaths, somewhere in the blue twilight of the ascent, a voice surfaced from the depths of her memory. Not her own. Her sister’s.
“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.”
The words arrived unbidden, unwanted—a fragment from one of Skylars’s endless Sunday school lessons, recited across the breakfast table while their parents pretended to listen. Jayden had rolled her eyes then. Had called it a fairy tale for people who couldn’t handle reality.
But here, suspended in the ocean with borrowed air in her lungs, the words felt different. Less like a fairy tale. More like a lifeline she didn’t know how to grab.
She shoved the thought away. Focused on Dakota’s face. On the surface just a few meters above. On survival.
But the words stayed. Lodged somewhere beneath her ribs like a splinter she couldn’t quite reach.
The surface shimmered above them, tantalizingly close, and Jayden forced herself to exhale continuously, to rise slowly, to not panic even though every instinct screamed at her to kick hard and fast toward the air.
They broke through together.
Jayden ripped the regulator from her mouth and gasped, sucking in warm tropical air that had never tasted so good. Beside her, Dakota surfaced with a splash, already reaching for her.
“You okay?” His voice was rough. “Jayden. Are you okay?”
