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“Exhale. Envision something you’d be doing in this special place.”

A board appeared, the bright white deck popping against the water’s blue-green. I slid onto its middle, lining up my belly with the stringer. And paddled.

Muscles burned as they lifted me—“Another big inhale”—into a crouch where I rode, and I reigned, and as I entered the barrel of the wave…I simply became. I simply became the element.

Something soared with me in this frosted green cathedral. Power, like I’d never known it. It coated me like the salt spray, kissed me like the rush of the wind, spoke to me like the roar of the ocean. Here, that power had an outlet. Here, that power had a voice. And here, I’d muster the courage to tread the last memory of my mom—and I’d find the others.

Every fiber in my being told me this was it, as the weighty tug of reality pulled me back to the dreary office, and I opened my eyes with a gasp—like I’d actually surfed the perfect wave when the reality was, I hadn’t left the chair.

Chapter 12

Twisting in my chair, for probably the hundredth time since class had started, I tried to register the words scrawled by the harsh strokes of Mr. Hess’s dry erase marker. But the rain—which had turned into an epic downpour after my solo shift at work last night—and the feeling of entrapment that came with it, made it all the harder to concentrate.

I bit out a sigh. No point in trying to follow this lecture on resources during the boom-clap of thunder. I had more important tasks to see to, anyways: finding the Voices. Closing my eyes, I attempted to replicate the guided breathing I had done with my therapist the day before, imagining myself in a place that brought calm—far from the fluorescent lights overhead.

Shielding my brows with my beanie, I tried to escape them, but every flicker interrupted my concentration, making it damn near impossible to leave the classroom behind.

I blew air against my lips. The summer storm—unusual, but not unheard of—trapped us indoors beneath the stained, moldy ceiling, so even the break offered no relief. Growing restless, I went to lean against the window and watched the raindrops hit the concrete.

Focusing on one at a time, I followed their journey from the heavens to their final contact with Earth. The impact rang in my ears as if they weren’t liquid at all, but marbles or diamonds, plinking down faster and faster. I tucked my hands into my long-sleeve shirt and brought them together, hunching my shoulders to cocoon the warmth.

Ferocious gusts bent the trees; some branches gave in, littering the outdoor hallways. Lightning struck, exposing the quad and all of its silhouettes: rose bushes, basketball nets, some idiot at the three-point line staring down my class.

Wait, what?

Squinting, I fixed my vision on the centermost part of their hood. A mask against the incoming elements, or maybe a way to conceal their identity.

A chill swept over my skin, pricking each hair on my body, and my stomach dipped—nice try at going incognito, but even within this level of darkness, I caught that piercing green gaze.

When I crossed the door’s threshold, I knew I was defying all common sense. I didn’t need to see any more of the person beyond the façade, though; my intuition already recognized his tricks.

The first step drenched my pale rose thermal to a dark maroon. Righteous anger surged in me after the next, when it became more like swimming, my beanie nothing more than a wet rag on top of my head. This close I could trace his distinctive jaw, jutting from his disguise.

“What are you doing here, Ryder?” I meant to sound demanding, but of course my voice came out weary, due to him or the effort it took to shout over the storm.

I took a final step towards him. And this close I could count the water droplets clinging to his lashes.

He barely turned to look at me, focused on something in the distance. “I don’t know.”

“You mean you thought you’d take a stroll in the middle of a hurricane?” I raised my palms to the sky.

“No, I had this feeling…like I needed to protect you.” Even with his voice dampened by the rainfall, I could make out how strained each syllable sounded.

“Seriously.” I wrapped my arms around my body, my shirt crinkled and logged with water, hardly protecting the skin beneath. “You’re really bad at taking a hint.”

A flash lit up the court again. The stroke of light underlined his cheekbones and revealed the panic in his eyes. It cast the quad’s shadows across his shoulders and reflected off his drop hoop earring, the cross swiveling in the torrent.

“I know I’m breaking all the rules being here.” Being out here, with him, I was breaking some of my own. He let the rumbling thunder pass before he continued. “But I had to make sure you were okay.”

“I think I’m equipped enough to handle a rainy day.” Never thought I’d be so thrilled to retreat to Mr. Hess’s economics trenches.

When I turned to leave, he grabbed my wrist. “I’m not letting you out of my sight.”

I looked down at his grasp. “You need to let go. Now.”

He may have unlocked his fingers, but it wasn’t at my command. It was when a lightning bolt struck a utility pole not even six feet away. My arms arched above me to cover my face from the eruption of sparks.

In one fluid motion he moved his grip from me to his bow, and had an arrow drawn into aim. What, was he going to shoot a lightning bolt? Only Ryder.