Page 60 of Make Out With A Merman

I’m dragged down.

Water floods my ears.

I kick, twist, reach for anything.

My hands scrape silt.

Boom.

A soundlesscracksplits through the water like the world’s spine breaking open.

Pain blooms in my chest.

Bright and instant.

Then everything goes black.

When I come to,I’m choking.

Air burns like fire in my lungs.

I’m on the dock, on my back, soaked, shaking.

Callie’s over me, knees planted, hair soaked, hands pressed to my chest.

“Ryder?” she says, voice wrecked. “You with me? You gotta be with me.”

I cough hard.

Lake water spills down my cheek.

“Hey!” she snaps, half a sob, half a command. “Comeon.”

My eyes open. Barely.

She exhales in a rush and slaps my shoulder. “You absolute dumbass. Don’t ever do that again.”

I wheeze. “Didn’t plan on it.”

She lets out a sound something between a laugh and a cry and falls forward, bracing herself over me with both arms.

“I dove in when I saw the pulse hit,” she says. “You didn’t come up. I thought gods, Ryder, I thought the lake took you.”

I reach up, slow and shaking, and grab her wrist.

“I felt it rupture,” I rasp.

“Isawit.” Her voice is sharp. “The float lights went out. Every single one. It knocked two canoes off their hooks.”

I sit up, groaning, and look out at the lake.

It’s still.

But itshouldn’tbe.

Callie crouches beside me. “What the hell was that?”

“A warning,” I say.

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