I thrashed at first and opened my mouth to scream, but when the chlorinated brine rushed down my throat, my body locked up. Only distantly could I tell how quickly I sank, like a stone. The seacrest hues that surrounded me began to blur, and I saw the shape of my book float by the corner of my eye for a second before fuzzy white overtook my vision.

My heart combusted in my chest and needles stabbed every inch of my skin. My body burned to move, but it couldn’t—and then, I knew. This was it. Every one of my worst nightmares had finally come true.

It was no use… no use fighting… I knew. And I gave in. I could hear nothing but the crashing of my pulse in my ears, but it too faded and soon everything around me was soft and floaty. I found myself drifting into a long-forgotten memory. A summer afternoon when I was very young, on my parents’ boat, bobbing on the gentle waves off the San Diego coast. The sun warm on my cheeks, the ocean breeze whispering through my hair…

Look Andi, whales! Do you see the whales? No sweetie, look further. Out there… beyond…

A distant splash of a body diving into the water above me broke through the soft stuff of the memory, but then it too was gone.

Don’t lean over too far, Andi… If you fall in, we’ll never be able to get you back…

Suddenly, I felt Travis wrenched away from me. I hadn’t even realized he was still holding me until he was gone, and for an instant, the water’s chill assaulted my back. But only for an instant. And then arms were around me. I must have been beyond delirious because it felt like more than two. Countless arms—an impossible number of them, surrounding my frame, enveloping me, completely entwining me—strong and protective, gathering me against a hard, firm body like the most precious of pearls from the darkest of depths, buoying me to the surface, where I burst forth into the glorious air with a tremendous gasp.

I gulped in mouthfuls of air, sweet and beautiful, and was faintly aware of Vik’s voice shouting my name from afar. My vision began to clear as I felt the strong arms pull me up out of the pool as if I weighed no more than a child. I coughed and sputtered as the arms sat me down gently on the ledge. And then I realized that there were only two of them, and that they belonged to Riley Bay.

He released me and crouched at my side, his face inches from mine, his hair dripping down his forehead. His black brows knit deeply as he peered intently into my eyes. It was as if he were searching for something, demanding an answer to a question I could never begin to fathom.