EPILOGUE

 

 

Stella stood on the stern of the SUMMER FIN, the fishing trawler from Sandy Hook that had come to their aid. Colin’s arm was looped around her shoulder. They watched a flock of seagulls swoop and soar, trying to gauge their prospects for food. To the left a thin blue score of land came into view. It didn’t cause her to gasp. Excitement seemed to elude her.

They had been missing for a little over a month, and now she feared the inevitable questions–the certain doubts. Perhaps the reluctance of Loren and Daniel to rise to the surface was founded.

Colin squeezed her arm, nodding at a yacht cutting through the surf, the sound of music gliding across the salty mist.

Life.

No, they were wrong to want to stay below. They deserved the light. The light represented life. What they were experiencing down there. That wasn’t life.

“You asked the captain for the coordinates where we were located?”

She knew she’d asked Colin this question several times, but he patiently assured her that he had.

There was no telling how far they drifted in those days before the SUMMER FIN arrived. Would they ever be able to find the spot again? Would they ever locate that peculiar siphon–that water tunnel to the sunken cavern known as the Underworld?

She looked up to Colin’s stubbled chin. He caught her staring and met her eyes. She saw it there. The ocean was mirrored in his gaze, or maybe it was emblazoned there. Also reflected there was her own conviction.

They would never stop trying to get back to the Underworld. They would never stop trying to save their loved ones. They would never stop until they were once again beneath.