Page 65 of The Narrow

“I’m sorry,” I say again, staring at the wall.

“Stop apologizing and drink more water,” Veronica says. She sits beside me on the bed and puts her hand on my hip. She sighs. “I don’t know what’s going on with you these days, Eden.”

I don’t answer. After a while, she stands up and goes out to the living room, and I hear her getting blankets out of the linen closet. I lie there, staring at the wall, trying not to be sick.

I can’t tell her. I can’t tell anyone.

Not about the summer.

Not about the ghost.

They won’t believe me. Theydon’tbelieve me.

I’m on my own.

21

I DREAM THATI’m drowning. Tumbling through the water, my limbs twisting, my back bending at impossible angles. But time is running backward. My bones knit themselves together as I rush back through the wicked current. As I erupt from the cold water and land on the dry shore, I pause a moment, suspended in time, the moonlight playing over the softly creasing water of the Narrow.

Then a blow against my back sends me toppling forward once more, and I hit the cold water with a gasp—

And I wake in the darkness of my room. My eyes are open, but I can’t move.

I know what’s happening before I hear the slow, steady dripping. Before I see the pale figure at the very edge of my vision.

She draws closer. I whimper, unable to even part my lips. Veronica is here. She’s only a few feet away, but I can’t call to her.

The Drowning Girl is at the edge of my bed, leaning over me. Ican’t make out her face, only the ragged curtain of her hair, wet and dark. Cold water drips against my cheeks, but I can’t even blink it away.

Guh, guh, guh,she chokes.

“Maeve,” I try to say. No sound comes out.

She shudders. Her fingers crackle as they twist back into place. “Eden,” she says. She slides one knee onto the bed, half kneeling. She bends over me, her hair curtaining down around us both. “I have to reach her, Eden. They’re trying to keep us apart, but I won’t let them. You have to help me.”

I’m trying.

“I know. I know,” she croons. She cups my face with her hand. A bright star blooms behind my eye, but my wounds are already fresh. There’s nothing worse she can do to me.

“You look so much like her,” she whispers.

I’m not afraid. All the fear has rushed out of me. In its place comes a flood of longing, a fierce thing that sings with the beating of my heart but isn’t mine, doesn’t belong to me.

It’s hers. But it’s the strongest thing inside of me. Stronger than fear or sense.

“You’re kind, like she was,” she whispers. Every part of me wants to cry out to her, to answer that wild longing. Her fingertips trail down my cheek. “I loved her with everything I was. They tried to keep us apart, but I wouldn’t let them. We’re supposed to be forever. We’re infinite. You and me, Grace.”

I can’t answer or move or scream or tell her I’m not Grace—I’m as frozen as ever.

I can feel her breath, warm against my lips. Her fingertips against my chin. Her lips, soft as they press against mine. And my heart sings with joy.Herjoy.

Cold water trickles between my lips. I choke, swallow it down. But she’s still kissing me, and the water is still coming, filling my mouth, flowing up over my face. I’m drowning in her.

Pain bursts in my leg, my ribs, my spine. Blood blooms in the water in my mouth—

“Eden!”

Veronica is screaming my name. Shaking my shoulders. I choke, cough. Water gurgles from my mouth. Veronica flips me onto my side, and I cough again, gagging as the water spills out. I gasp down a breath. Another coughing fit seizes me, but this time I’m gasping in air in between. Veronica sits back, raking her hair away from her face and letting out a moan of relief.

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