Mist on Water by Shea Berkley

Author:Shea Berkley [Berkley, Shea]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781942373049
Publisher: Thursday Publishing
Published: 2015-03-31T07:00:00+00:00

10

“R

yne.” Nari’s voice held a muffled quality to it as if she pressed a wad of cotton in front of her mouth. She pushed further into the fog. “Are you here? Please, Ryne. I know you are.” A sob caught on the last word, but she continued forward. “You have to be here.”

I inched around the spot where she stood, barely making out her form in the heavy mist.

She took a step forward. “Why did you leave? Why did you let them scare you away?”

I held my tongue. It was best I melt into the forest like the myth I’d become. Over time, she’d forget all about me.

“Don’t do this,” she cried, moving dangerously close to the pool. “I love you. Only you. If I don’t care what anyone says, why do you?”

I hesitated. I fought back the words that sprang to my tongue. She didn’t know how hard life would be. People would always be staring. Always asking. Always laughing. The new wife was right. That wasn’t any way to show someone love, by subjecting them to that kind of life.

Just as I turned my back to go, I heard a sharp gasp and a loud splash. Nari had fallen into the pool. I shouldn’t have worried. She knew how to swim, but I listened for the telltale sign of her climbing free of the water.

I heard nothing. No sputter. No drip of water from drenched clothes.

“Nari?”

I moved closer to the pool, blindly feeling my way. The mist was so thick, I had to get on my hands and knees and feel my way to the edge.

“Nari?” I called louder, more forcefully. At the continued silence, my heart surged. “Nari.”

If she didn’t surface…

I couldn’t wait. I dove into the water and clawed my way to the bottom. I’d never before given a thought to how large the pool was, but now it felt never-ending as I pushed my hands out to search for Nari like a blind man would use his cane. My lungs burned, but I refused to give up. The very next moment, I found her trapped against the rocks, as if she’d been stuffed between two boulders. How had she managed it? I took hold of her face and clamped my lips to hers and blew air into her lungs. I bolted to the surface, my mind in a fog of terror, took a deep breath and dove back down. When I returned to where I’d found her, only her dress was left floating in the current. I made a quick search of the area before bolting back to the surface. When I crested, the moon had reappeared and cut a silvery beam through the mist. The play of silver light lent an eeriness to the pool, but it was the scream that sent chills down my spine.

Fear spiked through me. “Nari.” I cried, twisting this way and that as I treaded water. Where was the sound coming from? It echoed again and again, ripping into my ears and into my heart.

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