Page 12 of Endless Depths

Nausea and pain swell inside me as Javi palpates my abdomen. I try to squeeze Morgan’s hand, but I’m too weak. I can’t breathe, let alone scream. I can’t even gnash my teeth. All I can do is cry silently as my vision dims.

“Stop. You’re hurting him,” Morgan says. “Cole, eyes on me. Don’t go to sleep.”

I try. I really try, but darkness drowns me in the ocean’s inky depths.

“Do something!” Morgan’s words slosh around inside my brain from somewhere far away.

He sounds so scared. I have to find him. My eyelids are so heavy, but I manage to open them.

“Thanks for coming back to me, sweetheart.” He cradles my cheeks, tears shimmering in his turquoise gaze as he arches over me, shielding my face from the raindrops pelting the rest of my body.

My teeth chatter. Cold seeps into my back from the deck. Each fractured breath rains a fresh torrent of pain. I’m scared. I don’t want to die.

“Hurts,” I say. One word saps all of my energy, and I slip into the sanctuary of nothingness again.

A sharp slap stings my cheek, and my eyes snap open.

“Lawrence, what the hell?” Morgan brushes my hair back from my brow. Each blade of shifting hair feels like another broken bone. “Sorry, sweetheart.”

“It worked, didn’t it?” Lawrence says.

“We’re going to move you inside and warm you up,” Morgan says.

“No,” I whine.

“Hey, Cole.” Javi materializes in my peripheral vision. “Morgan will keep your head supported, while Lawrence and I lift you. Here we go. One, two, thr?—”

It feels like all of my bones rip out of my body at once. My eyes roll back, connected to a string that death keeps pulling on. A curtain of black descends.

“Cole! No. Please,” Morgan pleads, muffled and sob-stricken. “Wake up.”

Wake up.

Wake up.

Wake up!

I force my eyes open. My head rests on a pillow. No, not a pillow. Morgan’s lap. His tears sizzle as they splash onto my cheeks.

“There you are, Sunshine.”

Javi squeezes my wrist, checking my pulse again, and frowns. “Cole, your heart is beating too fast, and I can’t give you the medical care you need out here. I know it hurts, but we have to take you inside.”

“But what if he tries to die again?” Lawrence asks.

“The Coast Guard is only an hour away,” Seb says. “Maybe we should leave him here?”

“No, it’s not safe,” Morgan says.

Seb’s here? Why isn’t he talking to me? Is he mad at me? “Seb?”

Seb squats beside me. “Hey, baby brother.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. This is on me. Not you.” He looks away and back. “I’msorry.”

“I’m scared.”