Chapter Forty-Three

Safiya

T he smaller boat stopped close to shore, the engine sound fell away to rain, and Grayson picked me up.

Then both he and the boat swayed.

Ares glanced over as he was helping the injured Helios stand. "Ghost?"

Ignoring him, Grayson stepped out of the enclosed cabin and onto the deck.

Wind and rain struck us, and suddenly Ares was right behind us. "You got her?"

"Affirmative." Grayson ducked his head against the driving needles of rain as the man who had driven the boat came out after us.

"Wait." He tucked a raincoat around me as he glanced at Grayson. "Watch your step. Two-foot drop off the swim platform."

"Good copy."

Grayson stepped off the boat, and it happened all at once.

His legs buckled, we pitched forward, and a wave came at us as we started to sink into icy water.

Ares yelled, fear gripped, and the angry ocean stole my borrowed sandals as my feet sank below the surface. "Grayson!"

"We're good." Holding me up higher, straightening his tall frame, he took the impact of another wave. "Moving."

Panicked, unable to see the shoreline through the rain, I gripped him around the neck, and the movement untucked the raincoat. The wind immediately grabbed it and whipped it into his face.

Trudging through the waves, he got us out of the ocean and onto the sand, but then we were facing a wall of rocks, and he was aiming right for them.

"Wait!" Ares yelled across the storm, but Grayson did not listen.

Gripping me tighter, he stepped onto the wet, jagged boulders and slipped.

Ares cursed, grabbed Grayson's arm, and shoved us up the rocks and onto flat ground.

A man came rushing at us, and reached for me. "Let me take her."

"NO," Grayson barked, aiming to walk around him.

The man did not back down. "You're not going to clear the airstairs, let alone get her on board in your condition."

Airstairs. On board.

The two words registered, and it was instant. Terror struck, and I looked up. "No!" Yards in front of us, with its cabin door open, was another private jet, and my heart seized. "No, no, no!"

"Safiya," Grayson barked.

"No airplanes!" Panicked beyond all reason, my body jerked, my legs kicked and I fought to get out of his hold.

But then Grayson dropped to his knees, his eyes rolled back, and he collapsed.

The man caught me, Ares grabbed for Grayson, and I screamed.

And screamed and screamed.

"Grayson! Grayson! GRAYSON."

NO. NO .

Then we die together.

He cannot die. HE CANNOT DIE.

"Let me go!" I kicked the man, Ares pulled Grayson's motionless body up, and I saw it.

The blood soaking through his shirt again.

Too much blood .

Then the plane was crashing all over again, and everything went dark.