Chapter 5 #2
He took half a step before he stopped himself. His fists were balled so tightly at his sides that he was definitely cutting his own palms, and even from here, even with the morning sunlight and salty water in my face, the way his chest surged with every pained breath was obvious.
The dread that hit me was accompanied by a little thrill. Was he that close to losing his shit?
I tamped that down. This was part of the act, right? We were supposed to be claimed, after all. That was the ruse. That he cared so much about me because we had completed the claiming.
Well, we hadn’t. And we’d likely be killed, or worse—forced to claim with others—if our secret was discovered.
He didn’t actually give a shit about me. This was all a show. I had to remember that.
Still, I tried and failed to look away. As hours passed and wave after wave pummeled our backs, I searched for him over and over on that now blurry piece of land.
Time and time again, he was intent on me. Even as the salty water blurred my vision, it was clear. Even as I lost all sensation in my body. Even as I thought the next wave would certainly be the one that swept me out to sea.
“One hour left!” Simon announced.
Alexander groaned beside me, the first time he’d shown any hint of how he was struggling. “We need to talk about something. Distract me.”
“Okay,” I breathed. Even though my face was covered in seawater, my mouth was dry as cotton. The sun was now scorching above us, but the ice-cold water continued to slap.
And slap.
And slap.
An exceptionally strong wave hit, and Karlyle—Alexander’s claimed who had seemed to be holding it together until now—flinched on the sand.
Shit. He was losing it.
“You need a distraction. Tell me about yourself,” I demanded.
I was fighting for my damn life to stay above water. But the last thing I wanted was to face whatever twisted punishment Simon had in mind for us if we didn’t all keep our shit together.
“Myself? We’d have better luck talking about you, sweetheart.”
Teeth clenched and legs growing numb, I braced the impact of another wave. “There’s nothing interesting about me.”
Alexander laughed, though it was pained. “That can’t be the true. Not with the way that man fawns over you. Tell me about your gift. What’s your power, anyway?”
Despite the exhaustion that weighed down my limbs, my heart rate skyrocketed. I swallowed a dry gulp. “I thought we weren’t supposed to talk about our gifts.”
When the next wave hit, Alexander lurched forward. I was yanked along with him, causing the girl to my right to lose her footing, too.
But by some miracle, we caught ourselves. I pulled Alexander’s body upright, but he was tall and packed with muscle, and it took all my strength, plus the strength of the person on his other side.
“Please,” he sputtered as he collected himself. “I’m hanging on by a thread here, sweetheart. You want to distract me? Give me something that’s better than this damn water.”
I forced out a laugh. “You didn’t strike me as the type to be so easily affected by the waves.”
Another hit, and he lost his footing again. Each time he fought against the damn sea, his body grew weaker. And with every wave, Karlyle grew weaker on the beach. He was now a full step or two ahead of everyone else on the sand.
“I’m fine!” Alexander called, his feeble voice betraying him. With the loud wind coming from behind us, I wasn’t sure Karlyle could hear him.
He was fighting. Hard.
“Okay, fine,” I started. “I’m not entirely sure what my gift can do. I didn’t even know I had one until recently.”
“Ha!” He cackled. “Right. You didn’t know you had a gift, or you weren’t willing to accept it?”
I sucked in a breath. “I’m helping you here, remember? You have to be nice to me.”
“Right, right.” He straightened himself out again. “I’m sorry. Continue, please.”
We braced together for another wave, and as it ebbed, I dove in, distracting him.
“I really didn’t know I had a gift.” Right? I still didn’t understand how I’d gone so long not knowing. Maybe I still wasn’t ready to come to terms with what I’d done. With the truth that I’d killed my family.
Did I know then that I had the gift? Had I been shoving it from my mind for all this time?
“Okay, we’ll go with that story,” he replied. “And what is it? Your newly discovered gift?”
Rocked by the current again, I sucked in a face full of water. The girl to my right tumbled into me. Fuck. I wasn’t sure how I was still standing. These cadets had been here longer, had trained more than I had. But I wasn’t the only one holding on for dear freaking life.
This time, though, she didn’t recover, even with my help.
She put all of her weight into me, trying to scramble back up, but the momentum forced me against Alexander—who still hadn’t fully recovered himself.
It all happened so fast. One moment, we were standing in the waist-deep water, the next, the sea was everywhere. Muffled screams. Limbs thrashing and lungs straining.
The line was down.
We were down.
I only went under for a split second. But I forced myself to the surface just in time for another wave to crash against me.
Too weak to fight it, my body tumbled forward.
I held my breath and squeezed my eyes shut, but the strength of the current sent me head over heels and my head hit a sharp rock.
I sucked in a breath on instinct.
No, not a breath. Water.
A foot connected with my head. An elbow with my shoulder.
I reoriented myself just for the water to force me off my barely sturdy feet again.
This wasn’t freaking happening.
My lungs screamed. I could hold my breath, yes, but after hours of exhaustion and mixed with this chaos?
Hold on, Athena. Get your feet in that damn sand and stand up.
I finally got myself upright and planted my feet, even though my head was spinning in my head.
When I breeched the water, I took a breath, though it was cut off by a cough.
And was instantly smacked in the face with another wave.
My limbs burned as I fought. As I kicked. My eyes stung as I opened them under the water. It didn’t help. I was too disoriented to make sense of my surroundings.
This time, two massive hands gripped me under my arms and hoisted me up.
I gasped for breath again, one after another, chest heaving with relief as oxygen fueled my body.
That was damn close.
But then reality set in.
We’d failed. We’d broken the chain, and we sure as hell had gone under that water.
“Athena.” Sinner’s voice sliced through the buzzing in my ears.
Shit.
It wasn’t just his voice…
His hands were on me, shaking me, his chest inches from my face.
Behind him, the rest of the cadets waited to gather the rest of my group as they crawled out of the water.
But Sinner wasn’t on that damn beach anymore. He’d broken Simon’s rule. He’d interfered.
I couldn’t keep the panic from my voice as I asked, “What the hell have you done?”