CHAPTER 56 #2
Lilia followed behind me toward the water, the urge to grab her hand smothered by the numb tingling in my fingertips.
We finally reached the shore that opened onto white sand and the soft, gray waves of the ocean.
I came to a stop on a short stretch the tide hadn’t yet reached, and she sauntered up beside me, wind sifting through her hair as if it longed to touch her the way I did.
“It’s so beautiful.”
As she stared at the arch, I stared at her. “Lover’s Leap.”
“I remember seeing this one in a booklet I grabbed from town. Haven’t read it yet. What’s the story behind it?”
“A local native girl, the daughter of a chieftain who fell in love with a simple Dracadian fisherman. She asked the gods for permission to marry him, and the gods refused, banishing him from the island.” As I relayed the story, I toed the sand with the tip of my shoe, unearthing a shell that I picked up and rubbed the sand away from with my thumb.
“She climbed atop the arch to watch his boat depart, and out of nowhere a white squall struck his vessel, crashing it into the rocks beneath where she sat. Devastated, she leapt to her death.” I handed the perfectly intact shell to her, watching her marvel it as if I’d given her a rare jewel.
“From that day forward, the gods gentled the waters around the arch, made it shallow there, so no one would ever perish by those rocks again. The indigenous believed the arch to be a gateway to the afterlife.”
Her lips curved to a smile, and the wind blew a stray hair loose that I wanted to capture between my fingers and tuck behind her ear, but I didn’t dare.
I didn’t dare because it would’ve only infuriated me to confirm I couldn’t feel its silky texture.
“Everything about this island is a story. The sirens of Bone Bay. The nymphs in Squelette Lake. And now Lover’s Leap. Every corner seems to hold something magical and terrifying.”
The waves drew closer. Closer. She backed herself up, nearly tripping, and I reached out a hand to catch her. Biting back the repulsive lack of sensation, I forced a smile, as she chuckled.
“Well, what are you waiting for?” I asked, releasing her. “The sea awaits.”
She shot me a look, as if thinking she shouldn’t dare to.
Her bottom lip slipped between her teeth on a smile, and she yanked off her boots and socks, tossing them to the dry sand behind us.
With her feet together, she took in a deep breath and closed her eyes.
The waves reached for her again with the kind of longing that I could feel pulsing in my own chest.
On a squeal, she jumped back, then cautiously stepped forward.
Another wave followed the first, and I watched her legs jerk, as she lifted her dress and let the water pool around her.
Over her shoulder, she shot me a smile–one so fucking beautiful, I wanted to frame it.
Capture it. Study the alchemy of it. How wonderfully intoxicating one simple expression could be.
Emboldened, she skittered forward, letting the next wave pool above her ankles.
A little more, and the next one pooled at her calves.
I watched in awe as she let the sea seduce her, tickle her into a giggling young girl, dancing, hopping, and tumbling in the waves.
It was there that my failures and her worries were swept away, cleansed by the salt and air and the sounds of calm that reverberated off the surrounding rock walls.
It was there that I began to wonder if what I felt for Lilia was something more than I cared to admit.
I dared not slip into those thoughts, though, because I knew fate and the world didn’t give so freely. It lured us on a siren’s call and pulled us to the inevitable depths of pain that followed.
Lilia was a liability. A weakness. The one crack in my armor that threatened to crumble my defenses. I couldn’t afford that. Not when The Rooks were watching so closely, waiting for the news of my latest variant.
Yet, the radiance she gave off was fucking addicting. A warmth that reminded me how cold death could be sometimes.
She jumped and stumbled in the waves, trying to lift her foot from the water.
After an unsuccessful examination, she hobbled back across the sand with her toes stuck upward, red trailing after her foot.
“Think I cut myself on a shell,” she said, grimacing.
“Damn it.” When she finally plopped down beside her discarded socks and shoes, I took hold of her foot and examined the small cut just below her toe.
“I’ve got something to clean it up. Hang tight.” I strode back up the staircase to my car, and from the glovebox, I pulled a small emergency kit I kept stored there.
An intense pain struck my skull at both sides.
Fuck!
Hands clutched at either side of my head, I screwed my eyes shut on the intense ringing that sliced across my eardrums like hot blades, and fell to the pavement.
The agony radiated outward, down my neck, into my arms, where it electrified my bones.
As a searing heat struck my spine, I arched and grunted, feeling the attack crawl down into my legs, like my whole body was crystalizing inside.
There was nothing I could do. Every muscle had locked itself into paralysis.
Inside my coat pocket in the backseat hid the last dose of toxin, but hell if I could get to it.
A stabbing pain pierced my chest, and I rolled onto my back, staring up at the birds–ravens–circling overhead.
An omen of death.
This is it.
Impervious. Impervious!
An invisible fist clamped over my lungs, banishing the air on an excruciating gasp.
Fucking figured that just as I’d begin to feel something through this numb existence, fate would tear it away from me like a jealous lover.
I closed my eyes and let the blackness take me under.