Prologue

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This was not how Jane Hollythorn expected to die, but who was she to argue? Still, she hadn't quite wanted to go out like this. Maybe when she was older, married, and with a few grandchildren.

Not like this.

She clawed at the water, trying to climb back to the surface.

Back to the sweet air.

The many layers of her dress had turned into a weight cinched around her waist. They tangled around her limbs as she fought to move. All around, debris from the above wreckage sank into the deep abyss surrounding her. Her lungs burned with the desperate need for oxygen. Bubbles of precious air slipped between her lips as the corners of her vision darkened.

Not like this.

Please, any way, but this.

She had nothing left to give. Her limbs burned from the effort of swimming.

It would be so easy to stop moving and float, to just let go. Which way was up? She wasn't sure. Jane succumbed to the voice in her head telling her it would be all right to stop.

Floating in the cold, fathomless depths of the ocean.

Floating in the cold, fathomless depths of the ocean

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