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Pure terror sliced through me.
I turned to look, but she threw herself over us, planting salt-stinging kisses on our cheeks. “Seni çok seviyorum. I love you so much. Seni seviyorum. Love you—”
“Jale, stop that. You’re scaring them,” my father yelled. “The boat will last—”
The boat made a sickening noise.
Not a groan this time but a crack and a tear and a gush of water sprouted from the ocean-hammered sides.
A rush of nausea and a buffet of vertigo as the ocean surged beneath us, sending us high again, soaring again, dragged up the face of a giant wave as winds whipped and rain fell and sea foam blew agony into our eyes.
“Hold on!” my father yelled.
“Baba, help—” my sister screeched.
“I love y—”
And that was the last time I ever heard my family.
The wave crested.
It broke.
Onto us.
Into us.
Killing us.
The boat smashed into smithereens.
Splinters danced into the sky as a wall of water ripped me from my parents’ hold and flung me into the sea.
The icy embrace of the churning depths suffocated what air I had left.
I plummeted from the warmth of my family with such suddenness, it tore open my heart with grief.
I tried to scream.
Salt water poured down my throat.
I tried to swim.
Waves pushed me deeper.
I tried to survive.
Something heavy crashed against my—
* * * * *
Something painful lashed around my wrist.
I mumbled incoherently and tried to get away.
Only...nothing worked.
Everything hurt.
Everything stung and ached and screamed.
“You’re okay...I’ve got you.” The pressure moved up my forearm, squeezing. I groaned and tried to push it away.
“Oh no, you don’t. You’ll sink.” The pressure moved up to my shoulder, clamping tightly around me.
“Mum! He’s alive!”
I winced.
The words sat heavy in my waterlogged mind.
I recognised them.
English.
My father made us learn so we’d be able to speak when we travelled to a land where we weren’t hunted and safe.
“Help me. He’s hurt. He’s barely holding on—”
Something nudged my legs.
Awareness crashed through me.
Wet.
Floating.
Scratchy wood beneath my cheek.
The slippery nudge bumped my knee again.
My eyes ripped open.
The storm.
The decimation.
The sorrow.
The nudge wasn’t just a nudge this time but a shove to my side.
Everything inside me went cold.
Shark.
Shark!
I screamed and struck at whatever held me captive.
Pain tore through me.
Blackness stole my sight.
I sank—
* * * * *
“It’s okay. You’re okay.”
I hated those words.
I despised those words.
They were lies and false promises, and they’d stolen everything.
“Neri, move away. I need to see how badly he’s injured.” A male voice rumbled in my storm-deafened ears.
A scuffle sounded but then gentle hands landed on my head, fingers feathering around my skull as if searching for something.
I moaned.
The fingers stopped searching. A shadow loomed over me, blotting out the sun dancing behind my closed eyelids.
“Can you hear me? Can you speak? Open your eyes, mate.”
A tap against my cheek. A shake on my shoulder.
Another flash of breath-stealing pain from my ribs, my wrist, my leg.
Darkness feathered over my thoughts again, pushing me down...down...
“It wasn’t a shark,” a soft, sweet voice suddenly whispered—so close to my ear it tickled. “It wasn’t a shark nudging you. It was Sapphire. She’s a dolphin. Her pod brought us to you. They saved you. So rest easy, whoever you are, because you’re safe now and nothing can hurt you.”
My heart fisted.
My throat closed.
Loss crashed over me.
I tried to fight the cloying heaviness.
I did my best to open my eyes and see who spoke so kindly.
I wanted to thank her.
To touch her.
But pain pushed me deep—
Chapter Two
*
Aslan
*
(Moon in Turkish: Ay)
THIRST.
Out of all the things that hurt, that hurt the most.
It scratched along my thoughts and clawed through my dreams, layering nightmares with desperation for water and drinking and overflowing cups full of sweet tea that my mother so adored.
Gasping, I slammed awake.
And just like that, my thirst was no longer the worst thing I endured.
A groan tore through my lips, involuntary and guttural as I tried to move.
Flashbacks of heavy rain, blinding lightning, and ear-bleeding thunder shot through me with panic.
Melike! Afet!
I shot upright, the world swimming, my eyes hazy, and my head stuffed full of salt-drenched clouds.
My pain was nothing this time.
They were still out there.
Drowning.
“Mel! Where are you!? I—”
“Hey, it’s okay. Don’t move. Dad told me you’re not allowed to move.” Something slight and surprisingly strong landed beside me, hands pressing against my bare chest, pushing me backward.
“No.” I fought. “Wait, I need—”
“You’re safe but you’re broken in places and shouldn’t move.” The hands pressed firmer. “Do you understand me? Stop fighting. You’ll only break yourself more.” A firm shove sent me reeling.
My head crunched against something soft.
My body bounced against comfort instead of splinter-splicing wood.
I blinked and did my best to focus.
A girl appeared in my brine-scratched stare.
A girl with sun-streaked dark-brown hair, wild and thick, tanned button nose, and the brightest, bluest eyes I’d ever seen. They were so pale and clear, they reminded me of moonlight on crystal water.
