Page 34 of Bewitched By the Sea Monster
I wasn’t going to make it.
I was going to die. In the middle of the ocean, thousands of miles away from home.
They’d never find my body.
Jackson would never get closure.
I would just…disappear.Poof. There one second, gone the next.
I stretched, pushing my hands up until my shoulder strained, praying I’d feel the break in the water.
Thwack.
Pain jarred my fingers as they smacked against something solid. And rough.
Stone.
Ithadto be.
I forced my rubbery legs to give me three more powerful kicks. And they pushed me high enough to get my hands more fully onto the stone. To feel the jagged peaks cutting into my palms. I grasped on to it, hauling myself up.
The air burned my throat when I popped my head out of the water and took that first big, gulping breath. It was a wonderful kind of pain, though. A pain that meant life—salvation.
I cried, choking on my breaths and heaving sea water out of my lungs, as I crawled more fully onto the rock. And then I lay there for a heartbeat, two,twelve,savoring each fiery inhale and the stickiness of the air against my skin. Marveling at the fog and the dark hunk of rock I was clinging to.
Safe.
I was out of the water. I wassafe.
But not for long. The next wave announced its rampage with a resonant growl.
I didn’t want to look. But I did, and I sobbed when the mountain of water loomed so very,very,tall above me. I wouldn’t survive that.
The fact settled deep into my bones. I was not going to survive.
Beneath me, the rock gave a shudder. And then?—
A scream tore out of me when the solid slab of stone moved, lifting me up until I wastallerthan the wave.
When the fizzing water broke against the face of the rock, all it did was tickle my backside with a few foamy flecks.
Impossible.
The rock moved again.
I started to slide, and my numb fingers wrestled to keep hold of the jagged piece I’d been clinging to.
Except now, with the saltwater cleared from my eyes, I could see the jut of rock I had my hands wrapped around wasn’t a rock at all.
It was a horn. A big, curved, pointedhorn.
The surface beneath me? Was gritty but pliable. Warm.Alive.And it shuddered as a thick, accented voice boomed between my ears.
“What were youd-doing?”
No…no…no…no,no,no,no,no.
I pivoted, dragging my knees against the coarse surface as I drank in my surroundings.
