Chapter 38
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
D arkness envelops me, and I am in a complete void.
No noise, no light, no feeling.
I am floating in an abyss.
There is nothing. No roaring of waterfalls, heat from the sun, or mist on my face.
Nothing.
Then suddenly, there is burning.
I cough and splutter, water bursting from my mouth. Light and pain flood my senses as fire burns through my chest. I feel the hard ground under my body as I cough repeatedly, head pounding and mouth gasping for air.
I am afraid to open my eyes. I don’t know where I am, or what has happened. My last memory is crossing the stone bridge in front of the waterfall.
My chest feels like it has caved in as I continue coughing and gasping, spitting out the water that had infiltrated it.
Air. I need air.
“Breathe, just breathe,” a low voice grumbles over me.
My spine stiffens at the sound.
I am not alone.
I throw my eyes open and immediately flinch, the light such a stark contrast to the immersive darkness filling my eyes just moments ago. My vision is blurry, but I can make out a shape in front of me.
A person. A face, hovering mere inches above mine.
My heart continues racing and my limbs start to shake. I blink rapidly, the person’s features slowly coming into focus. I’m met immediately with a pair of bright teal eyes, framed by long dark lashes and thick brows, slanted in concern. Droplets of water fall off his face and hair onto mine, as he too takes deep heaving breaths.
The eyes roam my face, assessing, then soften slightly. I’m taken off guard at the relief I see reflected in them, as if the world is back in order now that I am breathing.
“You’re alive,” he breathes, his breath mingling with mine.
I’m alive.
Wait.
The panic that his eyes had soothed moments ago comes slamming back into me in full force. Who is this man? He isn’t a Voyager.
That can mean only one thing.
A Castaway.
I scramble to put my hands underneath me, pushing myself backward and away from him. I stand and almost immediately my knees give out underneath me, and black spots mar my vision. My head spins as I gasp for more air. Strong arms catch me before I hit the ground, and I fall into a wall of solid muscle.
I try to push away, my limbs weak and difficult to control as I look around for anything that can help me. We are in a cave of some kind, with a stream of water flowing over the only visible exit.
I’d have to push through that strong wall of water to get out of here .
And him.
He is standing between me and my only way of escape.
“It’s alri?—”
He stops speaking and his head snaps away from me at a commotion coming from above.
“Did she surface?”
“Can you see her?”
“She can’t swim!”
I can barely hear the shouts over the roar of the water echoing through the cave.
Suddenly I am moving. No, not moving. He is lifting me. It happens so fast, I barely have time to process it before my back is pressed against the stone, hips pinned to the wall by his. He grasps both of my wrists and holds them over my head, then clamps his other hand over my mouth.
I suck in a breath, ready to scream, trying to alert the Voyagers above searching for me.
He lifts one finger off my face and puts it to his lips, his face coming so close to mine.
Heat pools low in my abdomen at the press of his body flush against mine, followed by absolute horror as I push the feelings away.
What am I thinking?
This man is the enemy.
“Shhh,” he hushes, eyes imploring me to listen.
I can finally see him clearly. His eyes are striking, but they are not the only striking feature. His strong square jaw is covered by the beginnings of a beard, shaved close enough that I can still see a muscle tick in his jaw as he urges me with his gaze to stay quiet. Short dark tendrils fall loosely over his forehead, still dripping wet, and his dark clothes cling to his drenched body, leaving little to the imagination. Every curve of muscle in his shoulders, arms, and abdomen stands out. A thick belt sits low on his hips, with a sword at his side .
He leans in closer, his body still trapping mine, cocooning it, protecting it from the commotion that is breaking the silence of this small, isolated cave.
“Please?” The deep rumble and earnestness of his voice makes my insides melt, and I blame the lack of air. My knees buckle, but the pressure from his body keeps me from sliding down the wall. Everywhere his body presses against me feels like it is on fire, my nerves sparking and igniting to consume me.
I barely muster a small nod, but the relieved smile lights his lips when I do makes me breathless again.
“I’m heading down! Keep the arrows nocked and cover me!”
He glances toward the water again before releasing me. The loss of the pressure feels like a weight has been lifted, not one I want to be rid of, but one that I should want to be rid of. He turns away from me and darts to the back of the cave, along the wall, and disappears around a bend.
“W-wait,” I croak, my throat still burning from coughing up buckets of water. I scramble after him and round the corner, only to see him place his hand on the stone wall in front of him. It opens under his hand, a doorway forming in the stone large enough for him to slide into it.
I am moving then, stumbling across the stone, trying to make it to the doorway, but by the time I reach it, it is solid again. I place my hand on it just as he had, but nothing happens. I push, slightly at first, then again using all of my weight.
“Wait!” I scream, banging on it with my fists, but nothing budges.
I spin around and look back at the cave.
I am alone.
Trapped.
I need to get out of here.
I stagger to the front of the cave, just behind the falls. I try to look past it, but can see nothing except for the wall of water .
“I’m here,” I croak, my voice barely audible. No one is going to hear me. I need to be louder. I cough, hard, trying to wake up my voice so I can get help.
“I’m here! Hey! Help! I’m here!”
I have nothing else to make any noise, so I just keep yelling as loud as I can.
“Lennox? She’s here guys! I found her!”
Mara.
She slides behind the wall of water into the cave and wraps me in an enormous hug.
“I thought you were a goner. How did you get out of there?”
“I-I don’t know,” I stammer. Warnings sound in the back of my head, telling me not to say anything to anyone about the man who helped me.
Logic says I should. If this was one of the Castaways, which it most likely was, everyone needs to know. Dane needs to know.
I can’t help but listen to the small voice that says to keep it a secret.
He’d helped me, saved me even. He pulled me from the water as I was drowning and somehow brought me back to life.
He looked so relieved when he saw I was alright, and he pleaded with me to keep him a secret. Could I give him that? Should I give him that?
This is the one favor I would allow him. One for one. We are even after this. Next time I come across one of them, I won’t hesitate to fight or to bring down the wrath of everyone else on the right side of this island.
“You’re one lucky bitch,” Mara laughs as she slings her arm across my shoulders. “Come on, let’s get out of here.” She slides behind the waterfall again, and I follow, mimicking her exact moves and trying to keep away from the water as much as possible. The opening lets out to a pile of slick rocks between two falls with enough grip holds to climb up to the bridge.
Mara is already halfway up as I place my hands on the closest holds, hauling myself up the slippery rock behind her.
I focus on the rock, making sure I don’t lose my footing and slip back into the deadly pool below. When I reach the top, she sticks an arm down to help pull me up, back onto the rock bridge where I had started this whole excursion.
Storm stands beside her, crossbow at the ready and pointed at the water below.
“What is in there?” I ask, winded from making the climb and still recovering from almost drowning.
“Sirens,” Storm says gruffly.
“What are those?” I look between him and Mara, both their faces stoic.
“They are half fish, half people. They live in the lagoon,” Mara answers.
“Why are both of you okay, but I wasn’t?”
Or the man who saved me?
“Clearly you have fears,” Storm grunts.
Mara rolls her eyes just as Roley jogs up to join us.
“Everyone has fears, Storm.” He grunts in response, but Mara continues. “The sirens prey on your fears and make you feel happy. Am I correct to assume you were afraid of searching out here by the water?”
“Yes. I’d been dreading coming here all day.”
“You can’t swim Lennox?” Roley asks.
“Nope. The kingdom I’m from doesn’t have any water.”
“Not even lakes or rivers?” He asks, surprised at my clear lack of life experience.
I shake my head. “We have them, but I’ve never been to one.”
“The bigger question,” Mara says, interrupting us, “is how the hell did you get out of there?”
“I don’t know,” I shrug.
Storm glares at me, his eyes narrowing. “You sure?”
Mara throws an elbow into his side. “Seriously Storm? Has she given us reason not to trust her?”
I stare blankly, trying to look honest, even though my insides feel like a whirlwind of lies, with that voice still tugging at the back of my mind, telling me to stay quiet .
“The island does all kinds of weird things. Maybe almost dying two days in a row was too much for it and it gave her another chance,” Mara says.
Storm grunts, then strides away.
He doesn’t seem convinced, but I wondered if that was just Storm, or if he didn’t really care for me. I need to tread lightly around him. If it gets back to Dane that I lied, potentially exposing the Voyagers to the threats of a Castaway, it would drive a wedge between us. Not only between Dane and me, but also between me and the other friends I have made.
If something happens again, I will deal with how to tell them then, but for now, I am staying silent and granting him a courtesy for saving my life.
“So you really can’t swim, Lennox?” Roley cuts in again.
I chuckle as we head back across the bridge and toward camp.
It feels wrong lying to them, but I can’t shake the look in the man’s eyes when he saw I was breathing.
Please.
It makes me shudder just thinking about the quiet plea for me to stay quiet and hide him, as if what he was doing was just as wrong as what I was.
I ignore the fluttering low in my stomach, and instead focus on the guilt I feel for the lie I am about to tell Dane, and for the feeling I got when another man touched me.
I need to feel something more than guilt. Anxiety rolls through me as we get closer, my fingertips tingling and stomach in knots. I need a distraction to clear my mind, and I know a great way.