Chapter 25

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THE SEA RUSHES BETWEEN USas we plunge, ripping us apart. But the moment we resurface, he’s swimming for me again. My back bumps into Genevie. I try to hoist myself up by the elbows, but he’s too fast and yanks me under. Bubbles bulge from my mouth like jellyfish, swimming up to freedom as we go down, into darker and darker blue.

Cee. Find me.

Strength returns to my limbs. I fight him off and swim for the light above, head whacking into something as I break the surface.

The oar—the first thing that went overboard. I grab it before it bobs by and whip around, swinging it with everything I’ve got.

Smack.The ugly sound of wood against wet skin. And bone. Skin and bone, splitting. Scarlet, spilling down half his face.

The impact is still vibrating in my arm when his whole body goes slack. He sinks, water closing over the top of his head, and he’s gone.

Just like that.

I stare at that spot of sea, expecting him to resurface. I wait and wait, treading water until my legs burn.

“Hero?”

My voice is broken, my vocal cords crushed. I’m still seeing Kay’s face, clearer than ever, and it’s compelling me to get back onto Genevie, to find her, to sail away from the boy who just tried to kill me but Joules dammit, fuck me, fuck reason, fuck everything—

I dive.

I don’t know how long it is before I see him, suspended like a specimen in the middle of the deep. I pull him to me and swim us both back up, gasping for breath as I grab one of the ropes I tied along Genevie’s side. I push him on first, then clamber on after, trembling.

“Hero?” His skin’s almost sheer, his eyelids purpling like his lips. The sea water has washed away the blood, but the gash in his temple unzips to the bone.

“Hero.” I clutch his face. “Hero. Wake up, love.”

He doesn’t wake up.

And after an eternity of begging, I finally check—

He’s not breathing.

His heart’s not beating.

Rain falls, silver needles melting into the sea, washing the salt out of my hair, bringing it down my temples and cheeks as I stare at the boy in my lap.

The boy I killed.

The rain stops. The sun rises. Sets. It’s night when I finally wrap my hand around the oar.

I row.

Back to the island. I try to carry him to the house. Buckle.

We fall into the sand, just like we did that night beneath the stars.

I drag myself over to him and lay my head on his chest. We lie there. How long, I don’t know. Maybe hours. Maybe days. I lose track of time.

I do know that the whirring begins at dawn. The vibration starts somewhere beneath his sternum and spreads outward, humming into my cheek. My mind’s too numb for thoughts, but my body reacts. I lift myself and stare down as color returns to his face and the gash to his temple fills itself in with silvery skin that turns a shade of flesh.

And then Hero, the boy I killed, takes his first breath.