"What do you think about Jade and Noah?"
I smiled. "I think he’ll bore her to tears soon. What do you think?"
"Same. I like her, though."
"Yep, me too."
We sat down on a piece of driftwood and watched the water as he held my hand. He gazed down at me with his melted-chocolate eyes and my insides turned to mush, as the butterflies in my stomach started flying. He always had the same effect on me.
I snuggled up close. The sea breeze was just a little bit chilly as it came off the water and I shivered. He wrapped his arm around me and pulled me even closer. I melted into his warmth. And then he stiffened.
"What the hell?" he exclaimed, pointing back the way we had come.
I looked in the direction that he was pointing and immediately tensed up, both as a result of Noah’s actions and the pain that was shooting from my wrist. Whatever he was doing, it was wrong, wrong, wrong. I clutched my wrist and stared.
Noah stripped off his shirt and waded into the Pacific, the pale expanse of his back reflecting the dying light of the sun. Gavin and I rushed back to where Jade was standing on the shore, all while Noah continued to walk straight out to sea. The pain from my birthmark was almost crippling.
As we got closer, Gavin shouted, "Noah, what gives?"
Noah turned around and grinned. "I’m no chicken, Chase."
"Who said you were?"Gavin shouted back.
Noah pointed at Jade and turned back around, plunging himself into the waves. I sucked in my breath. The current was known to be bad here. If an inexperienced swimmer got caught in it, it could be bad. Very bad. I grabbed Gavin’s arm.
"Gavin, make him stop!"
Jade interrupted. "I didn’t really mean to call him a chicken. He just started talking about swimming again and I was joking. I said, ‘Well, if you ever stop being a chicken, you can put your money where your mouth is.’ It wasn’t a real challenge I was joking." Her eyes were wide and nervous and I squeezed her elbow.
"It’s not your fault. You didn’t know that he could be such an idiot." I looked back out at the water. He was chest-deep now.
"Noah, get your pathetic butt back here!" I shouted. "I mean it!"
He looked at me one more time, a huge grin plastered on his face.
"You can’t make me, Lockhart. You don’t have my balls in your purse!"
He turned back around and kept walking. And then suddenly, I couldn’t see him anymore.
He was just gone. I gasped, gripping Gavin’s arm.
"Where is he?" I cried. "Can you see him?" He had not reemerged.
Gavin pulled off his shirt and strode toward the water. Jade and I followed close on his heels. The water was cool, the tiny rocks and sand under my feet actually felt good as we waded out toward the buoy. Noah still hadn’t resurfaced and I started to panic, my heart pounding loudly in my ears.
Pushing through the water, I dove under the waves and started to pull with long, strong strokes through the choppy current. The farther out I got, the murkier the water became and I couldn’t see. I had to stop every few seconds to surface and look around. Gavin was directly in front of me and Jade was behind me.
And Noah was nowhere.
I reached the orange and white buoy and held onto it for a moment, bobbing with the waves as I looked around.
"Do you see him?" Gavin asked urgently, as he treaded water next to me, scanning the horizon.
"No," I answered.
But then something caught my eye and I turned back. A glint of white flashed just beneath the surface to my right. Letting go of the buoy, I took off like a rocket. 30 seconds later, I reached it and thrust my hand under the water. I hit something fleshy and human.
"It’s him!" I cried. Gavin reached me at just that moment and floating together in the waves, we turned Noah over so that his face was above the surface. His eyes were shut, his mouth was hanging open.
"Oh, god," I whispered.
"We’ve got to get him to shore."
Gavin was already swimming with Noah tucked under his arm. I followed, trying to help him keep Noah’s body afloat. It was difficult and awkward, even swimming with the current.
Noah was entirely inert. I gulped hard and tried not to panic.
As soon as we reached the shore, we stretched Noah out on the sand as Jade dropped to her knees beside us.
"This is all my fault," she wailed, grabbing Noah’s hand. "He’s so cold!"
"It’s just from being in the water, Jade. Calm down," I instructed.
I quickly felt for a pulse and was actually surprised to find one. It was weak, but it was there. But he wasn’t breathing. I pinched his nose closed and tilted his head back, blowing into his mouth.
Nothing.
I did it again. And again. And again.
Still nothing.
I watched his chest fill up with air every time I breathed into him, but he wouldn’t breathe on his own. My heart started racing, pumping adrenaline throughout my body and I felt my fingertips start to tingle with it. I could hear Jade on her phone calling for an ambulance but all I could focus on was breathing into Noah.
And just when panic was really setting in, he started coughing and spewed sea water all over me. I leaned him to the side and he vomited salty water all over the sand. I took a shaky breath and slumped into Gavin, virtually collapsing with relief. My hands were shaking but the pain in my birthmark had stopped.
Noah wiped his mouth with his hand and propped himself up on his elbow.
"Lockhart, you know, if you wanted to kiss me, you could have just asked."
My relief was overwhelming and I smiled, but then just as quickly wanted to punch him in the face. Or shake him. Or shoot him. Or possibly strangle him. But I settled for just yelling at him.
"Noah! Oh my god. How could you have done that to us? You almost died. I’ve never seen such a stupid thing in my whole life."
Jade was sitting next to him, stroking him lightly on the back. She looked up at me.
"I’m sorry, Macy. It was my fault. I didn’t realize that I was challenging him. It was stupid."
Her gorgeous eyes were watery and I stared at her in shock.
"Seriously? Um, no. You are not going to accept the blame for this. This this was the result of his own stupidity."
"You’re right," Noah answered quietly. "I’m sorry, guys. It was stupid. Sometimes I don’t think things through."
"You’ve got that right!" I shot back. "As in never!"
But my anger was fading. At least he understood that he was stupid. As I simmered down, I realized that Gavin was staring at my chest. My agitation reared its head again.
"Um, hello?" I gestured to my face. "Up here, please?"
He shook his head, smiling a little. "I thought we already ascertained that I’m not a dog? I was looking for your necklace. It’s not there."
My hand flew to my neck and realization hit me like a brick wall. He was right. My bloodstone was gone. I wanted to hyperventilate, but had to pretend that I was fine. Not an easy feat. My bloodstone was everything. I jumped to my feet.
"I’ve got to find it," I announced. "I’m sorry but that necklace is special to me and I----"
"I know," Gavin interrupted smoothly. "Calm down, sweet. Let’s go find it. Jade, can you keep an eye on Noah?"
She nodded, by this time holding Noah’s head in her lap. He was milking it for all it was worth. I rolled my eyes at him and he grinned back. When Jade glanced down, he quickly closed his eyes. I rolled my eyes again before heading back toward the ocean. Good grief. I had been all the way out to the buoy so my bloodstone could be anywhere. If I lost it, I couldn’t imagine the consequences. The Moirae would kill me. Maybe literally.
Gavin grasped my elbow from behind. "Macy, calm down. We’ll find it."
I had my doubts, but I followed him into the water.
"Let’s retrace where we were, starting at the point where you found Noah," he called over his shoulder. "It probably got pulled off when we were wrestling him to shore."
I dove under the water and started combing the sea floor, coming up ever minute or so to breathe. There was pretty much everything else you could think of broken glass, a marble, an old can, a Frisbee, a shoe but not my necklace.
Dread formed in the very depths of my belly, but for reasons that I didn’t understand, my birthmark was silent. It wasn’t hurting in the slightest. Odd. I dove back under and scoured the ocean bottom again. As I patted the sand and silt with my hands, I suddenly felt something metallic and then an electrical jolt. I couldn’t see through the murk, but I innately knew it was my pendant.
Closing my fingers around the chain, I shot up to the surface and the light from the sun hit my bloodstone. I sighed a long sigh of relief and clutched it tightly to my chest. Yelling to Gavin that I had found it, I headed back to shore. I crawled onto the sand and collapsed into a heap. The emotional and physical stress had drained me. I literally felt weak.
Gavin dropped next to me as I picked slimy seaweed out of my pendant’s thick chain.
"I’m so glad you found it," he murmured. "I know how much you love that necklace.
Here, let me fasten it for you." Before I could stop him, he reached over and pulled the pendant from my hands.
And he grew instantly still and stiff, his eyes fixated on the distant horizon, as if I was no longer even there. I knew exactly what was happening as a million expressions flitted over his face. It had happened to me a hundred times before. Fear, worry, shock, sadness so many things took over his handsome features in a just a minute’s time as the bloodstone flooded him with visions.
I overcame my horror and yanked the necklace out of his hands, turning him to face me.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jade and Noah approaching us and felt panicky again. They couldn’t overhear whatever it was that Gavin was going to say about his visions.
"Gavin, snap out of it," I firmly instructed, grasping his hands. "Come back to me. I’m right here."
Gavin’s liquid brown eyes stared worriedly at me, his dark brow knitted together in puzzlement and confusion.
"Harmonia?"
I sucked in my breath as my heart felt like it stopped beating. Harmonia? I stared at him for a scant second, confusion muddling my thoughts before I snapped myself out of it. Now was not the time. No matter how much I wanted to find out who Harmonia was, I could practically feel Jade and Noah’s breath on my neck.
"Gavin, you’ve had a shock. It’s okay- it’s me, Macy." I cupped his face in my hands, trying to get him to focus on mine.
He stared back at me like I was an idiot.
"I know who you are," he replied. "Did I hit my head or something?"
He looked puzzled, but only by my behavior. He had apparently completely forgotten the visions and the fact that he had just called me Harmonia. Interesting. The bloodstone must have a different effect on him than it did on me. Or the Fates were messing with me somehow.
Suspicion bubbled up within me before I tampered it down. There was no use second-guessing them at the moment.