Page 41 of Theirs to Ruin

I frantically scrabbled to get a better grip on her. My fingers were growing numb, but I held tight. I had to. I couldn’t let her die. Not like this.

The current suddenly swirled Ava and I deeper into the middle of the river, the channel now narrowing and the water churning. An eddy instantly spun us around and I felt my hold on Ava slipping again.

“No!” I screamed. I couldn’t lose her.

Flashes of memory charged through my mind: the two of us cuddling up on our couch last winter, her teaching me how to knit. Ava handing me a cup of coffee during a late-night study session without me even asking. The two of us at my family’s pool this summer, talking and laughing about boys and gossip.

And then the river ripped her from my arms and sent me under even as I screamed. For a moment, everything seemed peaceful. Serene. I forgot what I had been fighting so hard for. The current shifted, popping me back to the surface. I sucked in air, my lungs burning, my desperate gaze finding the riverbank. I was so close I could almost feel the solid ground beneath my feet, yet land seemed so far away.

I tried to call for help again, but only bubbles escaped my lips. The water's icy grip tightened around my heart, each beat growing more sluggish, each breath becoming a struggle. Fading memories of my family, of happier times, flooded my mind. I thought of Dad, Elise, and Bianca, Simone, Ty, even Dante and Kage.

How would they remember me?

Just before the water’s embrace enveloped me completely again, I saw a figure running along the riverbank. I was so disoriented I couldn’t tell which side of the river the person was on, or what direction they were running—to or from me.

Had they seen me?

Had they killed Ava?

Water overtook me. The sounds of the river disappeared, and in that suffocating silence, my fight began to wane, the urge to inhale overwhelming, until darkness took me.

Chapter 17

Camille

Asound jolted me awake. I sucked in a breath and my eyes flew open but the world around me was a blurred mess. I was so cold. So heavy.

Realization hit me hard.

Ava. Trying to save her. The horrific knowledge I couldn’t when the river ripped her from me. The shadowy figure on the riverbank. The river claiming me and dragging me under.

Somehow, I’d survived.

Cold wet tendrils of hair clung to my face as the cold autumn wind whipped over me, making me shiver. Breathing hurt. Each inhale was a reminder of the icy river that had nearly claimed me, and my throat burned from the strain. I tried to swallow, but it felt like sandpaper moving against gravel.

The ground beneath me was uneven and damp, chilling my bones even more than my wet clothes. I caught the barely-there sounds of music and laugher, but there was also a closer, more urgent noise: a rhythmic pumping sound.

Someone was here.

As my vision cleared, a surreal sight met my eyes. There, a few feet away from me, lay Ava. Waterlogged hair spread out around her like a dark halo, her pale face set in a disturbing mask of finality. The fact that she was motionless wasn't what drew most of my attention, however—it was the guy desperately attempting to resuscitate her.

The reddish-brown hair, the angle of his jaw, those familiar artist’s hands…

It was him.

But that wasimpossible.

As he turned slightly, the moonlight illuminated his features and I gasped.

Ty.

My heart stopped. Ty was here….

But how?

Why?

The questions swirled; my brain too foggy to piece anything together.

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