Page 72 of Obsession Under the Southern Stars

I’m halfway there when Zoe goes white as a sheet and squeals, “Joel!”

I turn just in time to see a gigantic wave approaching us, presumably created by the motion of the water on the Black Rocks. It looms over us, a huge dark shape, filling me with terror.

“Hold on!” I yell, knowing it’s pointless to do anything else. When Tangaroa loses his temper, there’s little us mere mortals can do to fight his ire.

The wave is easily over ten feet high, and it washes right over the boat. I grab Zoe to make sure she’s not swept overboard, holding her tightly as the full force of the wave hits us. I hook an arm around the handrail, and I hang on for dear life.

The roar of the wave is deafening, the wall of water rushing toward us like ataniwha—a Maori kraken. We duck instinctively, but it slams into us, knocking the breath from my lungs. The boat creaks and shudders, as if its very bones are being torn apart by the ocean.

As it recedes, I straighten, soaked from head to toe and feeling as if I’ve gone ten rounds with a heavyweight boxer. “Are you okay?”

Zoe’s hood was knocked off and her hair is plastered to her head, but there’s no sign of blood, and she’s in one piece. She coughs and gives me a thumbs up, and we look around to assess the damage.

At that moment, the engine coughs, splutters, and dies.

“What’s happened?” Zoe yells.

Fear fills me as I remember Manu scraping the boat against the reefs yesterday. It must have been damaged… and I never thought to check. “I think the water’s got into the fuel tank.”

Even though we’d lowered the canopy and strapped it in, it’s hanging by one corner, and there’s no sign of the fold-up table.

My heart bangs, and I turn immediately to the VHF radio that’s mounted on the dashboard near the steering wheel and engine controls. I flick it on—it buzzes briefly and there’s a hiss of static, but it’s immediately snuffed out, and the box goes dead.

We have no way of contacting the coastguard or other emergency services. We’re out on the ocean, in a storm, with no engine and no radio, completely on our own.

Chapter Sixteen

Zoe

I can see the fear on Joel’s face as he plays with the radio, trying to get it to leap back into life, but the water has obviously shorted it.

I take my phone out of my pocket, trying to shield it from the rain. Predictably, there’s no signal.

We’re stranded. The realization hit me with as much force as the wave.

Lightning forks across the sky, and almost immediately thunder booms, making me jump. The storm is directly over us, and it’s fucking pissed.

I look around, my heart banging. I’m completely soaked; the wave knocked off my hood, and my hair is stuck to my head; rain runs down my face in rivulets; my waterproof is useless. At least my bare legs can’t get any wetter.

Together, shivering and trying to shelter our eyes from the rain, we stand in the cockpit, looking around us.

Despite the thunderclouds and the lashing rain, it’s not yet dark. To our left, Moturoa Island looms above us, temptingly within reach, but the current is carrying us away from it, toward the Black Rocks.

“I’m so sorry we’re in this predicament,” he says, raising his voice against the lashing rain. “If I hadn’t fallen asleep…”

“It’s not your fault.”

“I should have set my alarm, and made sure we returned long before the storm hit…”

“It’s not your fault,” I say again. I can see that he’s upset and scared because he thinks he’s responsible for putting us both in danger. “I know how fast weather patterns move andchange. The report this morning said the storm would hit in the evening, didn’t it? We should have had several more hours.”

He looks doubtful; I’m not going to be able to convince him he’s not to blame.

I decide the best course of action is to be brisk and practical. “Come on, look forward, not back—we need to decide what we’re going to do. Should we stay on board and wait for the storm to pass? Or try to swim?”

He glances at the island. We’ve drifted close to it, and it would only be a five-minute swim, but we have no way of knowing if there are rocks or reefs beneath the surface that could be dangerous if we’re thrown about by the waves.

Clearly he’s thinking the same, because he says, “I think we should stay on the boat.”

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