Page 29

Chapter 29

Lillian

S he knows.

She knows I’m trying to escape.

But instead of stopping me, insulting me, or baiting me, the voice in my head is doing something infinitely more terrifying.

She’s laughing.

And I can’t get away from it. She echoes in my head like it’s an opera house, and I’m center orchestra, forced to listen as Her sensual chuckle saturates into every thought until I think I’m going to go insane.

And also? Remember how I couldn’t come this morning, no matter how hard I grinded Erik’s face and dick?

Yeah, well, Keto seems to find some sick, twisted joy in making me suffer. Because there’s an ache in my core that won’t go away. And I’m not talking about the “I just swam a mile and now my abs are on fire” ache. I’m talking about the horny kind.

So I’m exhausted, thirsty, terrified, devastated, and horny. If you’re keeping track at home.

Erik returning to the beach only ramps up the tension curling in my belly. And Keto’s laugh only gets louder.

I need to get off this island.

You can try, Lillian. It is so entertaining to watch.

I swallow around the lump in my throat, and it burns with thirst. Erik, seeming to read my mind, hands me a water skin from the mountain of stuff piled in his arms.

I sip greedily, taking a minute to absorb the tragic irony of seeing a Viking swashbuckler like Erik attempt to blow up a pink flamingo floaty while I burn with literal Titanic lust. All in a, if I’m being honest with myself, doomed attempt to flee the gods.

My ankle throbs in time with my core. I’m never going to be able to swim to the mainland like this.

The greatest sex of my life. And this is the price.

“It’s useless, Erik,” I croak. Even after emptying the whole skin, my mouth is dry with feelings I can’t understand or control. “We’re never getting off this island.”

“I will not let you suffer as I suffer!” He belts, tearing the little plastic gasket away from his mouth before furiously pursing his lips around it once again.

It’s ridiculous. And it’s also the bravest thing anyone has ever done for me.

Oh, you think so?

Her words stop my heart mid-beat as an image flashes across my brain. It’s gone as quickly as it comes, but it’s so vivid I can’t help but remember it.

Tiffany. A younger Tiffany: pre-Dean Tiffany. Standing on a boulder at high tide, tears streaming down her face, shouting at the waves.

How does it feel, to know that so many humans are willing to give up everything for you?

Another flash, and this time it’s Tiffany as I know her now. A slight bow to her stomach, bloated with the young life growing inside it. Strapped to a rocky cave wall, imprisoned by strong, slimy-looking ropes of seaweed, as Dean watches helplessly from his own underwater prison. Bubbles rise helplessly from their mouths and noses as they shout for someone to rescue them.

Tiffany!

My best friend. She took my best friend.

Why didn’t I listen!? When she wanted to leave early, when she didn’t want to swim in the lake? When she wanted to abandon the lake cabin and instead take a vapid, touristy trip to the Mall of America where we could Build a Bear and call it a day? Why couldn’t I just do what she wanted to do?

But no. I had to be selfish. I had to run away, and now we’ll never be free again.

You can be free.

This time, it’s Phorkys’s voice, and I know Erik can hear it too, because the innertube falls from his lips and bounces noiselessly into the wet sand below his feet.

We meet eyes, and the only word I can use to describe his face is pure terror.

Because he knows. We’re playing a game we can’t win.

She has my best friend, Erik. I plead with him with my eyes. She’s pregnant. I can’t let Them…

He nods slowly, shoulders sinking with defeat as his eyes rake over my face, then my body, before latching back onto my gaze.

Perhaps it is time for a reunion…

If I weren’t seeing it for myself, I never would have believed it possible. But in that moment, the bright blue September afternoon sky turns a dusky purple-red, as angry clouds roll in from the horizon. From the center of the lake, I see a mound of water rise, giant and frothy, and come roaring at us like a stampede of wild horses. As it approaches, it rises, cresting higher and higher until it engulfs the entire sky in the wall of water.

In the second before Erik and I are swallowed, I see fish swimming in the massive wave.

Huh, I think. That’s funny.

And then everything goes black.