Out of Air by Rachel Reiss

Author:Rachel Reiss
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

CHAPTER

17

PRESENT DAY

AS I CLIMB THE ladder and back onto the boat, the weight of my gear hits me at once.

I can barely stand. My adrenaline runs ragged and my body trembles. I try to wrap my head around what happened down there but can’t make sense of it.

“Phibs! Are you okay?” Isabel screams when she reaches the top rung.

I struggle to process her words as I remove the dented tank. My gaze travels over the gnashed metal, scraped white with teeth marks. I shudder at how close the tiger shark came to tearing me apart. It was so powerful it crushed my tank, fortunately leaving no holes.

“Holy shit!” Will gasps as he surfaces. Meanwhile, Isabel grabs my arm, spinning me toward her. She runs her fingers over my back with a labored pant, as if checking to make sure I’m still in one piece. Relieved, she pulls me into a tight hug.

Will helps Gabe up the ladder. “I thought you were behind me in the cave, but I looked back and—” His voice catches, his wide eyes sweeping over Gabe’s body and landing curiously on his hand.

Isabel bends over, unable to suck in enough air. “That shark. Those teeth.” The words escape in a muffled cry. “It almost…” She clutches her arms and rocks back and forth.

“I’m okay,” I finally say. But I know, deep down, I’m definitely not okay.

I mechanically remove each item of gear and soak off the salt. I’m lost in the sensation of being carelessly flung through the cave and then the stinging in the side of my body when I plowed into the limestone wall. I peel my wetsuit off and run my fingers over my thigh, which is tender to the touch and already swelling.

I wrap a heavy towel around me but can’t stop shaking.

Lani is last on the boat. She carries the glowing marker from the mouth of the cave. Aside from the light she threw at the shark, which now rests somewhere along the sandy bottom, we didn’t leave a trace.

Although the cave certainly left more than a few traces on us.

She doesn’t take a step, doesn’t even unstrap her tank. Her blazing eyes find Gabe. “What was that? The both of you … almost…” Lani inhales sharply, and her lip trembles. “What the hell happened down there?”

But Gabe doesn’t look at her. He isn’t looking at anything, really. Just staring out at the invisible horizon dividing two infinite stretches.

“Gabe, your hand.” I try to remove the rattle in the syllables, the obvious fear burrowed under each sound, but I can’t. I think back to him scratching his neck at the bonfire and how his hand had transformed into something terrible. But now it looks normal. “It’s like you made the shark turn away.”

Gabe gives me a curious stare. He blinks, like he’s trying to see me clearly. “What shark?”

I gape, shooting an alarmed look to the others. “What shark?” I repeat. I lunge across the deck, grabbing my dented tank. I thrust it toward him.

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