My mouth opened, yet no sound came out. This wasn’t happening. That shot was a car backfiring from the highway, or someone testing their illegal mortars a few weeks early of the Fourth of July. Any second now, Rafe’s strong arms would pull him to safety and he’d beat the shit out of Zach.

But he didn’t surface.

Zach dove into the water with a splash, and his strokes brought him straight for me with the stealth and speed of a shark. I could do nothing to save myself. Water lapped against the boat, paralyzing me. My fear trapped me, held me prisoner in my own mind, and Rafe…

He wasn’t coming up, wasn’t gasping for breath and diving after Zach.

My heart fractured, split wide open, and I didn’t recognize the howl of agony spilling from my being. Zach pulled himself into the boat, his sodden clothing weighing him down, and shoved a hand over my mouth. I flailed as he wound an arm around my neck. I fought him with everything I had, even as my gaze fastened to the spot where Rafe had gone under. I longed to slip into the void after him, to vanish as he had. I didn’t want to live if he didn’t.

The headlights crawling along the highway, like pairs of lightning bugs, blinked out in my periphery, and the night narrowed to nothing, yet that empty spot in the river burned in my mind.

21. Vanish - Rafe

21. VANISH - RAFE

I jerked awake in the depths of icy water, kicked weak and useless limbs, and eventually broke the surface. Gasping, I pulled myself onto land with jittery arms and spewed water from my lungs, coughing until I puked. I rolled to my back, and the throb in my head made itself known. So did the fire in my left shoulder. The sky spun like a damn acid trip. Wet and itchy grass cradled my body, and I groaned as I ran my fingers along a nasty gash in my skull. I pulled my hand away and winced at the blood covering it. Too much blood.

Shaking uncontrollably, my heart rate doubled as I tried to sit up, but I couldn’t get myself off the ground. The stars seemed to distance themselves, as if they knew I’d suck the light out of them. I thought I heard someone scream, and something about that hysterical plea fisted my insides. What the fuck had happened to me? I recognized my dad’s island, but why I was sprawled on it, hurt and bleeding, I didn’t know. Another scream cut through the air, abruptly cut short as it carried in the night. Someone was in trouble, needed my help, yet I couldn’t move…couldn’t stay…awake.

Someone lifted me, followed by the unmistakable sway of a boat ride. A voice kept talking to me, telling me to hold on.