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I peered hard at him, trying to detect a conscience at the bottom of those deep green eyes. “You don’t like doing the trick, do you?”
“I don’t. And stop calling it that. ”
“Can the vampires do it?” I recalled Alcántara, and how my thoughts had gone to such unsettling places the last time we were together.
“The vampires can do many things. ”
And how, or so I’d learned at lunch. “Yeah. Who knew girls were also on their can-do list?”
“Annelise. ” He spat out my name in a scathing, chastising tone, and it made me feel like a disobedient child.
I swung my arm, gesturing to the wide-open sea. “It’s not as if anyone’s around to overhear us. Anyway, don’t act so innocent. I can tell you and Amanda have a thing. ”
A dozen expressions crossed his face, but the clearest were shock, then discomfort, and finally anger. “That’s complicated. ”
“Sorry. ” I felt stupid for pushing as I had. I hated when we argued. I hated that I was having these feelings of inferiority when I’d known from day one there could never be anything between Ronan and me. And, at the moment, I mostly hated that he might take his mood out on me while in deep, freezing seawater.
He nodded curtly toward the water. “You’ve postponed long enough. Get in. ”
“Okay, okay. ” I rose to a squat and sat on the edge of the boat. It wobbled and bobbed with my shifting weight. “I’ll get in without the trick. ”
Before he could scold me one last time, I rolled backward into the water.
The cold was a fist seizing me, tightening across my chest, and stealing my breath. A sharp ache shot from the soles of my feet up my calves. I began treading water at once. Ronan was right—deep water was very different from any pool.
Swells that’d seemed small from the boat felt huge to me now, splashing water in my face and whisking me away from him. The sea was so totally vast around me. And—oh God—beneath me. Panic kicked in my chest at the thought of the terrifying things lurking below the surface, eager to take a bite out of me. I was dangerously close to hysterical, and it came through in my voice. “Are there sharks?”
Ronan, however, was as maddeningly calm as ever. If this was his way of getting back at me, he was doing a bang-up job. “You’re on an island with a bunch of vampires, and you’re worried about sharks?”
“You betcha. ” I scissor kicked wildly, operating on pure instinct.
“Quiet yourself. Slowly now. ”
I didn’t listen. My body apparently had the notion that if I kept moving, I’d be safe. And currently, I was only too happy to cede control to my animal instincts.
He leaned his elbows on the edge of the boat, considering me. “Truly, Annelise. I promise you. No sharks will be attacking today. You’ll tire out far too quickly moving like you are. ”
His words registered. He was right—I was feeling winded already. I tried to lengthen my strokes. To slow my breaths to match.
“That’s it,” he said. “You can move more slowly than you think. You’re lucky it’s not windy today. Not much chop on the water. ”
The swells had seemed alarmingly huge, but I saw how really they were gentle rolls. It calmed me a little.
“Imagine yourself a part of the sea. Imagine it’s not your enemy, but an extension of yourself. That swimming is a return to your true nature. You’re a creature made mostly of water, after all. ”
His words became a dull hum in my head, soothing me. I pictured a globe of the earth, and all that blue. I imagined myself as an impossibly tiny speck somewhere in the North Sea—alive and vital, not yet defeated, not drowned. My heart rate began to normalize.
“On your back now,” he said.
I relaxed, and I felt my belly slowly float to the surface. Floating on my back, I longed for those swells now, for the feeling of bobbing up and dropping down. I spread my arms out from my sides, imagining myself like a starfish.
“Slow your breath. Exhale slowly and hold. Inhale from your belly. ”
I did as he told me, not opening my eyes. My stomach rose with each inhale, and that part of my wet suit grew cool. I became calmer still. Distantly I wondered if it was my own doing, or if he’d somehow used his powers to lull me into this state. But really, it didn’t matter. I was languorous now, a creature of the sea floating without care. Perhaps this was how I’d escape—I’d simply drift away.
A hand wrapped around my ankle. I felt a tug. My relaxed arms whooshed over my head as I was pulled closer to the boat. I’d been floating away.
Ronan’s hand lingered on my calf, cupping it from below. Was he reluctant to let go, or had my perception of time simply slowed?
