Waveborn

20

Cass! Cass, hold on....

Her shoulder slammed against something smooth and solid, dragging her to consciousness in a spasm of coughing and gagging. Her mind swam with terror and darkness. She had to...she couldn't remember.

Something pulled at her—hands, hooked under her arms, dragging her through a swirl of light and shadow. She thrashed and twisted, trying to escape.

"Cass, it's me! Quit—I'm trying to help you!"

The voice pressed through the terror, familiar, just as her head cracked hard against whatever had hit her shoulder a moment before. The world faded.

#

The second time she woke, it was to the pain of her arm twisted too high above her head. Her cheek pressed against a curved surface; hair and grit stuck to her tongue; and the sun, too bright, burned through her eyelids. Waves lapped at the back of her head and washed across her ears.

She coughed weakly and tried to pull her arm down, but the pressure against it tightened. Panic returned instantly and she tried to jerk free.

"Easy, easy, it's me."

That voice. The world rocked dangerously, and Cass caught a blurred glimpse of dark hair and a face so white the eyes look like twin smudges of paint. "Jason?"

The word emerged barely a croak, but he seemed to understand. "Yes," he said. "Cass, listen...your help... and paddle...." Words cut in and out as water covered and uncovered her ears.

She coughed again, this time twisting her head away to vomit a stream of watery bile.

"Have to hold on...to shore."

Shore: the word sent another wave of panic flooding through her. She wrenched away from him. Jason's fingers dug into her forearm and fire burned through her shoulder, twisted so that Jason could hold onto her.

"Cass, please!"

Tears broke through his voice. Cass forced herself to stop struggling, but she was shaking, unable to control the tremors that shuddered through her. "You—" No more than a whisper, the word still made her choke and she had to try again. "You're hurting me."

He eased his grip just enough that she could shift her arm into better position, but he didn't release her hand. He held too tightly, as if afraid she'd slip away. Every part of her ached with heaviness. Strands of hair stuck to her cheeks and neck, but she was too tired to brush them aside. She was too tired to lift her other arm out of the water or hold onto the boat.

And the water felt comforting, somehow, cool against her head as she floated, its rhythm restful.

"Can you hear me?"

Cass blinked her eyes open—she hadn't realized she'd closed them—to see Jason leaning over her. She floated in the water alongside a bright red kayak.

"I need you to hang on so I can paddle us to shore."

"No!" This time her voice emerged stronger. "Just...just give me a minute. I'll be okay." She wasn't making sense. She knew she wasn't making sense; she only knew she couldn't go back to shore.

"Cass—" Jason's voice wrenched, pained and frightened.

"I'm okay," she said again. She wasn't sure who she was trying to convince, him or her. With a tremendous effort, she lifted her other arm from the water to get a better grip.

He grabbed her hand. "You're not okay. We have to—"

"Please," she said. "I can't go back there. Not yet."