I climbed the mainmast, unwinding the lines so I could slide the canvas up. My heartbeat fluttered as the grommets sang against the ropes. On the foremast Hamish did the same, watching me from the corner of his eye. He was thinking the same thing I was. I was either brilliant or stupid for making the call to leave Yuri’s Constellation. We were all about to find out which it was.

As if he could hear my thoughts, he smiled suddenly, giving me a wink.

I smirked, climbing back down the mast while the crew unlatched the anchor crank. Every bit of my body screamed with the ache of the last four days as I pulled my shirt off. West took it, handing me my belt, and I fit it around me silently. I was nervous, and that was something I never felt on a dive.

Willa’s makeshift anchor splashed into the water. When West started to buckle his own belt around his waist, I stopped him. “Let me take a look first.”

Dark circles hung beneath his eyes and the cut on his shoulder was swollen despite Auster’s best attempt at cleaning it. He was exhausted. And if I was wrong about the skerry, I didn’t need West there to see it.

He didn’t argue, giving me a nod in answer. I pulled myself up onto the side and stepped off before I even had time to think about it. I hit the water, and every dull pain resurfaced in my arms and legs as I kicked. When I came up, the entire crew was watching.

I turned away from them, trying to smooth the hitch in my breath. I wasn’t just letting Saint down if I screwed this up. I was letting all of them down. Again.

I dropped down into the water with my chest full of air, and froze when I felt it.

When I felt her.

All around me, the warm, melting drip of some whisper fell to the back of my mind, winding around me in the cold deep. I could feel Isolde. Feel her as if she was right there, diving beside me.

My heart raced as I swam, carving through the still water with my arms. The sea was an eerie calm, protected by the rocky, curved shores of the skerry. From what I could tell, the storm hadn’t come this far east, leaving the water clear and crisp. It shimmered in the folds of light piercing the soft blue.

The sea bottom was nothing but pale silt that lay in parallel ripples far below. There wasn’t a reef or anything like one in sight. The expanse of sand was hedged in by the walls of black, craggy rock that climbed up toward the surface at an angle, where the waves foamed white.