I don’t see anyone, though.”

“F-Faith?”

Behind me, I hear Yulenna’s voice. Oh. I turn around and there she is, clinging to the side of the capsized raft. I swim toward her, even as I hear Markos yell something and Solat responds. I move to the raft and hold onto it. “Where is everyone?”

She shivers and just huddles against the raft, not answering.

I look around, and Kerren is thrashing in the water. For a split second, I think he’s drowning, and I start to move toward him, but then I realize he’s stripping off his armor as quickly as he can. Markos’s shoulders are bare as he stabs at the water with his sword, and Solat dives under with a flash of bare leg.

“Has anyone seen Vitar?” Markos calls out.

“Where’s Aron?” I ask a split second later, realizing I don’t see him anywhere. “Aron? Are you here?”

I count heads in the water. Yulenna. Solat. Markos. Kerren. No Vitar.

No Aron.

“Aron!” I bellow out again, terrified. He can’t die. We’re tied together, I remind myself. I’m his anchor. He’s stuck in this world with me. “ARON!”

“Get the women on the boat,” Markos calls out, swimming toward us. “Hurry, before it surfaces again.”

“What is it? Where’s Aron?” I cry, even as they crawl onto the floppy raft and haul Yulenna up. Kerren reaches for me and I splash at his hand. “I’m not leaving without Aron!”

Another person grabs at me—Solat—and I’m hauled into the raft. “He’s here somewhere,” Solat says. “I promise this, and he’ll be mad if you die on him.”

“Vitar?” Yulenna asks in a pitiful voice.

“Gone.” Markos sounds hollow. “Just…gone.”

She sobs, and I crawl to the edge of the raft, staring into the water. Aron doesn’t need to sleep, so maybe he doesn’t need to breathe, either. Maybe he’s just waiting under the water for us to notice him—

Something white flashes under the boat again and I feel it ripple underneath the flimsy raft.

“Oh shit—”

The raft capsizes again, and back into the water we go.

My mouth and nose fill with water. Coughing, choking, I claw to get to the surface again, but something snags my heavy skirts and tugs me back under. I sail through the water, dragged along by my hem, and I realize dimly even as I claw for the surface that I’m being pulled away from the others.

I’m going to drown. First Vitar, now me.

Then Aron.

Something flashes all around us, and a jolt rockets through my body. The charge rushes through me, like prickling heat, and then it’s gone, leaving nothing behind but an intense, throbbing headache.

Everything goes still.

Something brushes against my legs, but I realize it’s floating past me, toward the surface.

My lungs burn and I swim forward, desperate for air. Darkness swims at the edges of my vision, but then I make it to the surface and gasp, sucking in deep breaths.

The air above strangely feels as heavy as the water below.

“He’s losing his mind,” Solat screams, and he sounds very far away.

Who? I want to ask. Who’s losing his mind?

Something crackles again, even as pain lances through my head. Lightning streaks across the surface of the water, and thunder crashes overhead, so loud and fierce that it feels like it’s right on me.

I know who’s losing his mind. I’m filled with relief even as I’m filled with fear.

Aron. My Aron.

A floating object bumps up against me and then bobs against the surface. It’s a tentacle of some kind, pale and unearthly and made of the same material as our boat. All along the surface of the water, other dead, limp tentacles are gently bobbing to the top, motionless and still.

Lightning crashes overhead again and I fight back a moan. It feels like my brain is being squeezed dry, and I nearly black out with the pain. Red and black dots swarm through my vision, and I struggle to stay conscious, desperate to focus. Something hot runs from my nose and ears. I swipe it away in irritation. Aron.

Where’s Aron?

Hands grab me, fishing me from the water even as the sharp pain racks through me again. What’s happening? Have I been bitten? Electrocuted?

“She’s bleeding,” I dimly hear Solat say, and someone swabs at my face. “Where’s she wounded?”

“It’s him,” Yulenna cries. “He’s going to kill us all?”

I struggle to sit up, because I know she’s talking about Aron. My red, hazy vision won’t focus, but I can barely make out a dark form drifting over the water a short distance away. Not in the water, but floating above it. Wind whips my hair, ice cold, and more thunder rumbles. I watch in shock as Aron—because it has to be Aron floating out there—extends his hands and lightning curls around his palms.

Then, he blasts at the water again. Thunder shakes the boat and the air grows heavy with the force of the lightning.

And this time, I can’t breathe. I’m like a sponge being squeezed of every bit of life. It’s the water in my lungs, I think. The water and the cold. That’s why I’m so weak. Why there’s so much pain. Why it’s so hard to focus.

“He’s pushing the boat forward,” someone cries. “Toward the shore!”

I want to smile with relief. Of course Aron’s rescuing us. He won’t let me die.

But the moment lightning crackles again, my vision goes red—then black—and then I crash with the thunder. My head feels as if it’s splintering. Something tears inside me.

The world goes utterly dark as pain sweeps me away.

Maybe Aron didn’t save me after all.

OceanofPDF.com

59

I fade in and out of consciousness. I’m vaguely aware that I’m not quite dead. Not yet.

There’s far too much pain for that. Everything hurts. I whimper, because I want it to go away, to stop hurting me, but it just keeps pounding at my head, determined to split it open. This isn’t a migraine. This is every nerve ending staging a revolt, and the pain is so intense I want to die just to have it end.

Someone touches my back, lifting me up. I can’t see—everything’s hazy.

“Drink this,” a low voice murmurs. Markos. A moment later, I taste hot broth against my lips. I manage a swallow before my stomach churns and I want to die. Even the small act of drinking that makes my body hurt so bad it feels like a mistake. I sag, sinking back into unconsciousness.

“You have to drink, Faith,” Markos says, shaking me lightly. “We have to get something in you. It’s been days—”

“No,” a stern, familiar voice snarls. “You do not get to die.”

A second later, rough hands grab me. It shoots horrible pain through my body, followed by the familiar crackle of sparks that tells me that it’s Aron, and somehow the pain lessens. I’m tucked against a broad chest, my cheek resting against his shoulder, and he strokes my hair.

“You will not die on me, Faith,” he says again, the tone imperious. “I will not allow it.”

“S’not the plan,” I manage, though it really does sound like a good idea right now. I just want to stop hurting. I’m so tired and there’s so much pain. I just want to sleep.

“This is my fault,” Aron says again, stroking my hair so hard it feels as if he’s going to pull it from the roots.

I want to wince, but that requires too much effort. Aron’s heart pounds under my ear, strong and powerful, and I sigh, because I feel better against him, weirdly enough. I still hurt like nothing I’ve ever felt before, but somehow it’s tolerable because he’s holding me. “W…what happened?” I manage to ask. “Boat…”

“I do not know how to swim,” Aron admits in that same imperious tone I’ve come to recognize and love. “So I waited at the bottom, watching. And then I saw it attack you. And it made me…angry.”