Page 50 of Corrupted Lies

When she blinked and looked at him, she could see raw fear on his face.

Had she done that?

She hadn't wanted to scare him, she’d just needed one second to rest.

“S-sor-ry,” she stammered, her teeth chattering wildly. Now that she had her head above the water again, any warmth she’d felt had evaporated and she was back to freezing cold, her entire body shaking with the force of it. At least it was shivering, her body hadn't completely given in to hypothermia yet, but it would.

That was inevitable.

As inevitable as both their deaths if they didn't find land soon.

Jake couldn’t be any warmer than she was, and he had to be every bit as exhausted. He was highly trained, and she knew he worked out every day, brutal workouts, totally incomparable to what she did at the gym. But sooner or later he would wear out too.

“Thought I lost you when the waves ripped you out of my hand,” Jake said. His voice was still strong above the roar of the storm.

Or …

Maybe the storm was dying down.

The wind wasn't whipping into her as strongly as it had been before she went under, and the rain was easing off, more drizzling now than pounding down like a million little stones against her unprotected body. There was a faint light to the skyrather than the oppressive darkness, and the waves weren't quite as strong.

Was it possible that the worst of the storm had passed them by?

“Here, you need this more than I do. I'm not taking another turn, so don’t bother asking because I won't humor you again,” Jake snapped as he shrugged out of the life jacket and slipped it over her arms, doing up the straps to secure it to her chest.

While his tone was harsh, she knew it wasn't because he was angry with her, it was just because he was afraid. The storm might be dying down, but they were still exhausted and cold. They had to find land soon or it was going to be too late.

“I think we’re finally through the worst of it,” Jake said, echoing her thoughts.

What he didn't say also echoed everything she’d just been thinking. This was a reprieve, it wasn't a solution.

“Sorry, sunshine, but we’re going to have to keep moving. I know you're exhausted, but the longer we stay still, the more we give hypothermia a chance to settle in.”

Even though swimming was the last thing she wanted to do, Alannah knew that staying still was just signing her death warrant. Jake’s too. Because there was no way he was going to leave her alone. If she was too exhausted to move, he’d stay right by her side even if it cost him his life. Or he’d pull her along with him and deplete his own supplies of energy in the process.

Above them, the sky continued to lighten, and as she went to tell Jake that she could keep swimming for as long as she needed to, even if that was pretty much a lie, she saw it.

The impossible.

It had to be a mirage.

Yet the longer she looked, the more it formed rather than shimmering away into nothing.

“Jake, look,” she said, pointing behind him.

She knew the second he registered what she had seen because some of the tension left his body. If Jake saw it too, it had to be real.

“That’s … land. Right?” she asked, just in case this was in fact some sort of shared hallucination, the cold and exhaustion finally getting to them.

“It’s land, sunshine,” Jake confirmed, excitement in his voice.

It was still a distance away, and honestly, she wasn't sure she had the energy to make it, but the fading storm and the hope that ignited inside her rejuvenated her.

They could do this.

They had to do this.

With Jake keeping a hold on her like he had the entire time they’d been out there they both began to swim again.

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