22. Cole
TWENTY-TWO
Cole
Bright lights and blaring alarms rip me from my slumber.
“Cole, get up!” Alejo says. “Briar’s listing.”
“Where’s Morgan?” The question is automatic.
“In the engine room.”
Right. Obviously. “Okay.”
I throw on a hoodie over my joggers, and race down the teetering steps in the near darkness to the engine room. I have to find him.
“Morgan?” I call, voice eclipsed by thundering machinery and my footsteps pounding the metal path between the engines.
I swing around the corner and nearly slam into Seb, kneeling before the generator, calmly working.
“Where’s Morgan?”
He looks up with a frown. “What are you doing here? I already sent the others up.”
The engine stops. Darkness falls. Sinister silence replaces the echo of the engine fading.
“Seb?” I call.
No answer.
The hull groans as residual momentum pushes Briar up and over a wave. I exhale a trembling breath. If we fix the generator before the next wave crests, we’ll be okay—
A wave crashes into Briar’s side, pitching her hard to starboard, and tossing me against the wall. It takes way too long for Briar to right herself, and when she finally does, she doesn’t return to midline; she lists to the side even more.
Dread curdles in my stomach. The Briar Anteros is sinking.
“Morgan? Seb?” I shout, panic mounting.
The engine roars to life, and the overhead lights switch on. Seb stands, and wipes his grease-stained hands on a rag.
“Where’s Morgan?” I ask again.
His gaze snaps to me with irritation. “What are you still doing here? He’s on the bow.”
Briar drifts into a lazy death spiral, riding down the slope of a wave and settling horizontally in the trough between the next wave. It’s the last place we want to be when we’re listing. The floor slants into a slide as the next wave builds.
“She’s going to capsize, Seb. We have to go.” Fear clutters my thoughts as the gathering wave drags Briar toward the maw of the Bering Sea.
Seb snaps his fingers. “Look at me. I’m not scared, so don’t be scared.”
“Okay.” I take a deep breath and trust him.
The wave crests, then collides with the Briar, kicking her onto her side, and throwing me to the floor—No. Not the floor. The wall that became the floor. Our world rotated ninety degrees.
I jump to my feet and pull Seb up. “Come on. We have to get out before it’s too late.”
He shakes me off. “No. I can still fix this. Go find Morgan. He needs you.”
“Seb, please. I can’t lose you.”
“You already did.”
“Huh?”
“I sacrificed my life, and you’re wasting it. Now get the fuck up there and take care of them—all of them, including Finn.”
The boat rolls toward midline, but another wave slams into the side, forcing her down again. The engine shuts off. Sirens fill the silence.
“I would do anything to save you, so stop being a dumbass and let me fix this.”
Tears sting my vision. I think I understand.
“I love you, Seb.”
“I love you too, baby brother.”
He hugs me, and I remember every hug he’s ever given me within a fraction of a second. Then he pushes me toward the stairs.
It still feels wrong to leave him, but I have to get to Morgan. I scramble sideways over warm metal and machinery, climb the steps like monkey bars, and emerge from the engine room to find the window over the sink looking down on the dark ocean below.
Primordial terror seizes me. I rush toward the exit like a tidal wave is chasing me, and reach the deck just as the bow starts to lift. But no one is there.
Where is Morgan?
Alarms scream louder and louder inside my head. The ocean rises to meet me. I climb onto the rail, suck in one last breath, and leap.
My eyes open.
“MAN OVERBOARD!”