Neverworld Wake(69)

There was nothing else here.

“Cannon?”

My voice, hoarse and unsteady, ventured only a few feet in front of me before giving up. My legs were so frozen, they felt unattached to me. The cold was like knives in my back.

“Cannon!”

A boat motor roared behind me. Startled, I turned to see the paint-chipped bow of a skiff blasting out of the fog, heading straight toward me. I caught a glimpse of faded blue words, Little Bird, Cannon hunched over the motor, his bearded face red, his hair long and matted. The boat hit my head. White pain exploded through my skull. The water silenced my shocked scream as I was dragged under.

Everything went black.



* * *



—

When I opened my eyes again, I was submerged in freezing water.

It was silent.

Blue water clouded my eyes. I could see debris floating around me, seaweed, bits of shell, and mud. Long, dark fish with overbites and bulging eyes drifted around me. They looked dead until I touched one and it shot into the shadows.

I wasn’t in pain, apart from my lungs. I blew bubbles, kicking after them. Within seconds I had blasted through the surface, gasping.

It was the exact same scene, the Blue Pond, Cannon’s Birdcage.

A motor grunted. I whipped around to see the skiff heading for me again.

I dove back down into the water, madly kicking through the explosion of bubbles as the boat missed my head by inches. My left foot burst with pain as the propeller’s blade sliced it. When I resurfaced, Cannon had circled the boat around and was aiming for me again.

I dove under again, swimming away a few feet before coming up for air.

“Cannon, please, just wait a minute—”

“You shouldn’t have come here, Beatrice.”

“We need to talk.”

“There’s nothing to say.”

“What about Jim?”

He scowled at the mention of the name, killing the engine.

“Cannon. Please. I just want to talk to you.”

I held out my hand.

He leaned over the boat, smiling reluctantly, extending his hand to help me aboard. As I grabbed it, however, he pulled an oar out and struck me with it on the side of the head, my vision exploding into whiteness.

I screamed. I could feel my body sprawling, coming apart, cold water in my mouth, an oar on my back as he pushed me down.

No matter how hard I fought, that oar remained on my shoulders, keeping me underwater.

He was drowning me.

There was no reasoning with Cannon anymore.

The Neverworld had driven him mad.



* * *



—

When I opened my eyes again, I was submerged in freezing water.

The quiet was deafening.

I realized with a stab of panic exactly what was happening: I was reliving the same wake over and over again. Cannon was killing me, whereupon I remained dead until I was pulled back to the wake. How long did it last? An hour? Minutes?

I could hardly think. I was nauseous with fear. I had to stay calm. Trying to ignore the pain in my lungs, I kept swimming. Blinking up at the surface, I could see the underside of Cannon’s boat amid large chunks of ice. He was hiding between the trees, waiting. I dove deeper, ignoring the dark fish with their flaking skin shooting around my legs. When I couldn’t hold my breath any longer, I swam to the surface, trying not to make noise as I gulped down air.

Cannon’s boat was yards away. He didn’t see me. He was standing in the skiff, looking around.

“Beatrice!” he called. His voice sounded calm, even friendly. “You out here?”

I ducked back under and swam away, the water growing dark and murky, the rotten roots of underwater trees, yellowed and tangled, wafting what looked like chimney soot. I could no longer feel my feet or hands. My thoughts were cloudy and strange. As I swam past the debris of a sunken skiff, the faded words Little Bird barely visible, I felt the pull of an undertow. I tried to fight it, but the current was too powerful. As soon as I recognized the deep thundering drone of a waterfall, it was too late; I was plunging through the air. Spray blasted me like a fire hose. Rocks knocked my head and scraped my hands, branches clawing my face. White trees. Blue sky. They flipped over me and under me. I kept waiting to hit the ground, for it all to go black, but the end refused to come.

I was falling, falling for what felt like an hour, every inch of my body freezing, stiffening.

Then I hit a boulder. Life left me like light from a bulb with the flip of a switch.



* * *



—

When I opened my eyes, I was submerged in freezing water.

How many times had I been here before? Four times? Four million?

Fish swirled around me like murderous thoughts. I swam into them and they scattered.

I floated deep under the water until I spotted his boat. The water was getting colder. A thin layer of ice was forming on the surface, growing thicker by the minute. I could see Cannon, searching for me. Grabbing a submerged piece of driftwood, I swam directly underneath the hull, clinging there, breathing through a hole in the ice around the boat’s edge. I yanked off my pink T-shirt and let it drift to the other side. Cannon, thinking it was me, bent over to pull it out, and as he did, I surfaced and jammed the wood in his back as hard as I could. He cried out in surprise, pitching forward, losing his balance, somersaulting through the ice. I climbed into the boat, nearly capsizing it. I yanked the cord to start the engine. I pried off Cannon’s hands gripping the side and veered the boat away.