Chapter 21

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IN THREE COUNTS, HE REACHESthe mattress boat. It’s faster than I can react.

Too fast.

That’s what gets to me. Not the fact he swam the whole way, or his ability to find me at all, but his unnatural speed. His hands clamp onto the mattress’s edge, his fingers white against the hunter green, and I can’t move. I’m paralyzed as he claws onto Genevie. She lurches, and my legs crumble. I collapse as he stands, water pouring off his person and pooling around his feet.

“H-Hero?”

He steps forward. I scuttle back, hand colliding with an object—the oar. I seize it by the paddle and stand as he takes another step forward. I shove the handle between us, gaze finally rising to his face—

His blue eyes are unblinking.

This isn’t the boy who cleans the house and grows the taros, who walked Genevie the mattress boat with me and showed me the stars. He’s wearing an M.M. sweater, sure, and he has the hair and lips and eyes. But this isn’t my Hero.

This is the boy who tried to kill me on the shore.

“Don’t move!” The wind steals my voice, but it doesn’t matter; he can’t hear me. Can’t see me. Just takes another step forward, crossing the midpoint of the mattress. Genevie sinks lower into the water. “Don’t come any closer!”

One more step, and the paddle knocks into his chest.

He stops.

Everything stops. My breath. My heart. The sea itself, even though I know that’s impossible. The sea is unending.

So is this moment, right before he lunges.