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“Watch me.” Shoving her away, I broke into a run.
My bare feet flew over fallen leaves and twigs, kicking up plumes of sand. “Nerida!”
“What the hell is his problem?” Rita’s annoyance chased me as I bolted past the two posts announcing the trail to Noah Beach. Signs dotted the entrance with pictures of crocodiles and other dangerous creatures.
I didn’t stop to care.
“Neri. Get your ass back here!”
No response.
No sound of her running up ahead.
The night swallowed me completely as I balled my hands and raced faster.
The path seemed to go on for miles, an endless tunnel of darkness and claustrophobic trees before it finally spat me out on the most stunning beach I’d ever seen.
I didn’t stop to gawk.
I didn’t care how the thick bush suddenly ended, giving way to golden moonlit sand.
I didn’t look at the huge glowing disc in the sky as the moon granted its silver light, pouring it all over the calm ocean. The faintest lap of lazy waves licked at the sand, refracting the night sky above, glimmering with a million salty stars.
My heart pounded as a shadow flung itself toward the sea. A shadow that tripped and flew, sun-lightened chocolate hair streaming behind her.
“Nerida!” I threw myself after her. “Get back here.”
I didn’t know why she’d run or why I hurt in the pit of my stomach.
She was being immature and stupid, and the moment she stopped, I was gonna make damn sure she understood that this sort of behaviour wasn’t on.
Neither was kissing drunken boys or lying about a chaste camping trip, only to find out it was a ruse for a fuck-fest.
Her parents are going to kill me.
“Neri! Kosmayi birak ve benimle konus!” I flinched as I slipped into my mother tongue. Repeating myself in English, I yelled, “Stop running and talk to me! You’re going to twist an ankle running so fast!”
She didn’t stop or look back.
Jack would never forgive me if I returned her damaged.
My teeth ground together.
He’d also never forgive me if I returned her, and he found out she’d spent the night with a seventeen-year-old moron like Joel.
A splash and spritz of moon-glimmering water as Neri barrelled into the sea, ran until the water lapped at her thighs, then dove under.
Gone.
I slammed to a halt on the sea’s edge, panting hard, heart chugging. “Neri!”
My gaze skimmed the gentle waves, wishing the sun shone and not the moon, desperate to be able to see her.
Terror of her drowning like she almost had with the net suffocated me.
I paced the shore, seawater wetting my feet and ankles, warm and whispering.
I didn’t have a watch.
I couldn’t time her.
She’ll come up for air soon.
How long has it been?
A minute?
Two?
Dragging both hands through my hair, I kept pacing. Madly, furiously, kicking the ocean out of my way as my eyes stayed locked on the spot where she’d gone under.
No bubbles.
No ripples.
She’d disappeared without a trace.
I dropped my arms, rubbing my mouth as I looked at the moon, the forest, the sand, the stars.
Nothing could help me find her.
Every instinct screamed to launch into the sea and snatch her from the depths. But...the grief I hadn’t dealt with threw itself against the walls in my mind.
The creak of the boat as it broke apart.
The throb of my bruises as the waves threw us around as if we were nothing.
The scream of my mother—
“Nerida!” I stopped pacing the shore and turned to wade deeper into the sea, ignoring the thundering in my ears and the horror in my heart.
Water lapped over my knees, soaking the hem of my shorts.
Fuck, how long has it been?
Too long.
Far, far too long and new images came to mind.
Images I couldn’t shove back into the waterlogged box where they belonged because these were all too real, too true.
What if she was stabbed by a stingray?
What if she was stung by a Portuguese man o’ war?
What if a shark smelled her or a saltwater croc—
I turned to ice as a shimmer of movement appeared where Neri had vanished.
It looked like the swish of a croc’s tail. The ridges of its reptilian spine. The power of death hunting the one girl I’d fucking die for.
I hurled myself into the sea.
Fully clothed, pockets full of precious things and belated birthday gifts, I forgot all about myself and only thought of her.
I dove under and swam.
Fuck, I swam as fast as my arms and legs would allow.
I opened my eyes underwater, begging to see signs of Neri—in one piece, alive, unbleeding.
Gentle waves carried me, rising and falling with the sea’s currents.
My eyes burned from salt.
Nothing.
Nothing but blackness and darkness and—
A terrifying shadow to my left.
I choked on a mouthful of brine as I shot to the surface and planted my feet on the sandy bottom. Images of poisonous stone fish and barbed sea urchins ready to impale my feet couldn’t scare me as much as the shadow racing toward me.
