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Alexa Play: Golden by Harry Styles

T he clouds rolled overhead in tandem with the nearly black walls of water that surged before us.

There were four of us in the lineup, waiting for the green flag to drop.

I could feel Tully’s eyes burning holes into the side of my head as we bobbed in the waiting zone.

“Ignore him. Focus on you. Lock in,” Riddick growled next to me. I say Riddick because he was not Jake right now. This was the man I had first met that day months ago when I’d first come to Stars Cove.

Intense. Serious. Not one ounce of amusement or softness in his face.

He was almost angry.

Angry with the ocean, and maybe a little angry at me for doing this, though I suspected a lot of his anger was just for Tully .

“Focus on your breath. The last two waves were clean. If the next one that comes in starts to peak before the break zone, take it.”

Riddick’s instructions were humming through my body, and my mind was whirling a mile a minute. I felt that snapping sensation in my chest that I always got right before something life-changing was about to happen to me.

It was like I could see the waves form before they even began to swell. My mind cataloged my path, and I invented my ride strategy at the speed of light, connecting dots that only I could see.

“Flag’s dropped,” Riddick whispered in my ear. “Go!” he barked just as the next wave started to form. It was a good one. The water began to curl right before the break zone in a way that told me it would be a safe one to ride.

My body went into autopilot, and I was moving before anyone else had even registered that the flag was up.

Mine.

My entire body coursed with adrenaline as I caught the swell and reversed into it, mounting it like a fucking dragon tamer, riding his monster into war.

Up, up, up, I went as the wind and the water roared around me.

It peaked.

I dropped.

The rest was history.

I fucking shredded through the thing like a sword cutting through flesh.

My feet stuck to my signature pink board as if it were a part of me. It was magical. Every move came easily—a rehearsed dance.

I laughed as I carved through the belly of the beast, whipping out every trick in the book.

Before the wave curled, I tilted up and caught air off the lip, sticking my landing and barrel riding through the rest of the run .

I knew the aerial would be huge points, and I couldn’t wipe the grin off my face as I executed a perfect cutback, extending my run for another glorious ten seconds.

I exited the wave directly back where I started, saving me paddle time and setting me up to catch another one before the heat was over.

“Damn, Summers! You’re a tough act to follow!” Devon McAlphie congratulated me as I resumed my place in the lineup. Devon was a big wave surfer who’d made his name surfing Jaws in Hawaii. Doing my best not to fangirl, I grinned at him, giving him an up nod.

“Thanks, man!”

Tully was sputtering with fury, his beady eyes bouncing back and forth between Devon and me, clearly bristling at the easy camaraderie.

“I’m up,” Devon winked at me, and I gave him a hang loose sign.

“Good luck out there.”

Devon laughed. “Fuck luck, never needed it.” Then he paddled out to catch the next monster swell. I watched in awe as he held back on his entry, executing a late drop that looked so smooth you could spread that shit on toast.

“Damn, that was sick,” I breathed as Riddick paddled up next to me.

“Devon’s good people. I surfed with him a bit in Hawaii.”

I nodded just as Tully started running his mouth.

“You’re a piece of shit, Summers. You think you’re so fucking badass, but you’re just a wannabe. Leave the surfing to the real professionals and go back to the East Coast. No one wants you here.”

I shot him a cool grin and shrugged.

“That’s not what Quinn said last night.” I smirked, and Riddick snarled at me.

“Don’t engage with him! Fucking focus!”

I chuckled, turning away from Tully, whose face was now a satisfying shade of purple.

As fun as it was to get Kyle all worked up, Riddick was right. I had a surf competition to win, and the next wave rolling in was a beauty .

“Later, toothtastic; my ride’s here.” I winked and paddled away, catching the Leviathan with just as much ease as I had the last one.

Riddick caught the wave with me, and I immediately knew this ride was going to be more challenging than the previous run.

The wave unexpectedly formed a second ripple, and I realized a few moments too late it was going to turn into a double-up.

“The barrel’s splitting! Hit the crest and catch the inner tube!” Riddick bellowed to my right, but I was already ten steps ahead of him.

My mind mapped out my route effortlessly, and I caught a floater over the first break so I could drop into the second barrel safely.

“Fuck yeah, baby!” Riddick praised me as I entered the greenroom of the inner tube. He was right behind me, cheering me on, and I had never felt so alive.

“They’re going to go nuts for that floater!” I yelled back to him as I prepared to execute another cutback so I could land back at the lineup.

I was setting up my pivot when suddenly, Tully dropped in front of me, fishtailing a carve that pulled the water away from my board.

Without the water to keep my board latched in, there was nothing I could do to recover.

“FINN!”

Riddick’s booming voice was the last thing I heard before I fell.

Eighty.

Feet.

Down.