Fear closed around him as he treaded water, searching the darkness. He couldn’t see her. Arms flailing, he thrashed through the water. Arianna? Where are you? Arianna!

She didn’t respond.

He swam again, searching the black night.

In a panic.

Sweating in the cool water.

Where the hell had she gone?

One second she was close, stroking him, laughing with him, seducing him, and then a moment later, she disappeared.

He rotated in the water, tried to yell for her. Again, no sound. Frustrated and scared, he caught a glimpse of her not far away, just a flash of white skin and dark hair. He swam toward her, cutting through the water with speed as he sensed the river changing around him. The water grew darker, filling with an invisible evil. The flash came and went. He saw her, lost her, and then she appeared again, caught in a whirlpool that spun, wildly, the water churning and frothing.

He tried to swim to her, to rescue her, but she remained just out of reach, her body spinning deeper into the eddy’s vortex. Her pale face contorted in fear, only to slacken, her eyes becoming fixed and glazed.

No! Hold on! For the love of God, hold on!

Closing the gap between them, he, too, got caught in the whirling current. Tossed by the swirling pull of the water, he felt the maelstrom of cold dragging him to its center.

Arianna! He was screaming her name, no sound issuing from his throat as the whirlpool dragged him swiftly into its vortex. Arianna! He nearly reached her, his fingers touching the tips of hers, only to slip away as she was spun farther and farther into a dark funnel.

Oh, God, she was dead. Horrified, he noticed that the pallor of her skin had become gray, the whites of her eyes luminous against the ashen tone of her flesh. Her head lolled to one side at what seemed an impossible angle, but still her unworldly gaze found his.

“You did it, Jase,” she said, though her lips didn’t move. Once again he caught a glimpse of another woman, of Brianna, being sucked into the bottomless blackness.

No! No! No! Again he tried to swim to her, to dive deeper to reach her, even though he knew she was already dead.

“You killed me,” she said, the words flowing upward to the rim of the swirling funnel of water, the spot where he was trapped. This time, no bubbles rose with her words, and the flesh of her mouth was starting to fall away, long teeth and bone exposed. “You! You’re a murderer, Jase Bridges.” Accusations formed in her eerie dead eyes. “A killer.”

And the truth hit him hard. Twisted his stomach.

He had killed.

She was only speaking the truth.