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I’d never been skydiving before, and something tells me that even with the comfort of a parachute, I wouldn’t enjoy the weightless out of control feeling that rushed through my body. I could scarcely put together my surroundings in the proper order before I realized I was heading straight for the shore that hadn’t been there when we’d started our kiss.
My scream scared me, as I had no knowledge of when I’d started making the awful sound. My body sliced through the air like a well-aimed missile, cresting and coming down with a hard splash into the water.
I was so close to the shore, but the water was too deep for my feet to find purchase in the murky sand beneath the green-tinged water. To almost make it, and then drown in the last ten yards felt like the punch in the gut I deserved. I should die in obscurity, drown in the cold ocean that had somehow turned muddy and sickly, and then have my remains be eaten by the sea monster so Von couldn’t find me.
If he didn’t find the note I left in Ezra’s pocket, would he think I’d ditched him? When Finn turned up missing too, would he assume we’d run away together?
My arms punched through the water, fighting for breath so I could explain things to Von. I had to go back to the real home I had with him instead of living in a fantasy – if he’d still have me.
My lungs burned and my disoriented body flailed until a strong hand closed over mine, yanking me up the few feet I needed to break the surface. I could barely see, even though the dawn was doing its best to alert me to my surroundings. My body was hefted out of the water when my lifeguard finally reached shallow enough ground. I was Baywatched out of the depths, my legs dangling as I clung to my hero.
“I feared you were lost, so I sent my servant to find you.”
My body froze when my vision cleared. I coughed into the shirt of the man who was certainly not Finn. I was smack in the arms of Philip. It was so shocking to see him in real life that I merely gawked up at him while he carried me toward the shore.
“I admit I forgot about your inability to swim. Apologies for the way Bakunawa brought you to safety. His body’s too large to get too close to the shore.”
My heart pounded in my chest, and the blood flowing through me felt like ice. I didn’t have my knife on me, and struggled to put the pieces of the plan together in my mind. I wanted to get it all over with, but I was so cold and inundated with holy-crap-I-almost-drowned that I couldn’t bring my muscles to reason. “My guide!” I protested, wriggling to get down and find Finn. My small effort of struggle was ignored, and Philip carried me to the very same hut he’d taken me to in my last dream.
“Your guide can swim, as you should’ve learned to do long ago. He’ll be able to rest along the shore, but he won’t be able to go past that tree there,” he motioned with a jerk of his head to a tall, branchless trunk to his left. It was barren, the bark stripped, leaving it sad and naked for all to see. The tree itself looked cursed, as the rest in the naked forest were. “There’s a heavy charm that marks my territory. You’re only here because I’m carrying you in myself. You wouldn’t be able to find it on your own if I weren’t here to help you. I would’ve explained it all to you earlier, but you haven’t been to sleep since we last parted.”
Philip glanced down at my wet and petrified face as Finn’s voice reached our ears from a few yards down the coastline. He was calling out my name, scared that I was lost in the ocean. I opened my mouth to reassure him that I was alright, but Philip shot me a deadly look that made me shrink in his arms. “She’s not your concern anymore,” he called to Finn. He didn’t pause for Finn’s anguished cries and war-laden threats. Philip’s grip on me tightened as he carried me deeper into the stripped and naked forest.