chest, the need to breathe became unbearable. I prayed in that moment for it to stop.
Then I saw it. From the black depths below me, something small and white and shimmering appeared. It grew larger, floating up toward me, glowing against the murk. It was an angel.
The angel was dark. Black hair floated around his face like plumes of glistening raven feathers. And he had only a single, gleaming wing. That didn’t seem to matter. His deep blue eyes were all I could focus on. Brilliant and intense as a lightning strike, they fastened on me and didn’t let go.
He’d come to take me.
Whether to save me from the edge of the world or take me to the other side, I didn’t know or care. My chest and throat were on fire, bursting from the need to breathe.
He floated closer, his arms open. The angel’s hands were warm on my skin, like the warmth of a fire when you come in from the cold.
He pulled me to him and kissed me.
With the press of his mouth, I felt a gasp of breath. Sweet, intoxicating air rushed into me. But not enough. The little taste of it brought a spasm of desperate need, an animal panic for more, and I clutched the angel’s head and drank the breath from his lips in coughing gulps until he broke away. Then his long fingers cupped the back of my head. He laid ahand against my chest, calming me, slowing me down. Now his mouth returned to mine and I breathed him into me. Inhale. Exhale.
Bliss.
I wrapped my arms tighter around the angel. Something was happening to me.
Every inch of my skin pulsed with sensation at the touch of the water, his hands, his lips. The angle of his mouth on mine changed, became something else. Something dark and sweet and just as elemental as breathing.
I felt myself being pulled deeper and deeper. Into the kiss and oblivion.
Something struck the water and surged beside us in a white plume of froth. But I couldn’t focus on anything but my consuming need for air. For this kiss.
A hand grabbed me and I was yanked sideways and pulled upward, upward.
I broke the surface of the water gasping. My chest ached and the side of my head throbbed. Weakly I kicked at the water as small waves lifted and dropped me. The air felt good, so cool in my throat.
But I was tired. Somehow all I wanted to do was float down once more.…
“Delia!” someone shouted. A strong hand grabbed the back of my T-shirt and supported me in the water.
“Are you okay?”
I sputtered and nodded, unseeing, to the voice. “Y-yes.”
“C’mon.”
It was Sean. He was beside me in the choppy sea. I could hardly move as he gripped my arm and dragged me toward the
Widowsong
, which rose as high as a skyscraper before us.
Back on the dock, I sat on an empty wooden lobster trap. I was swaddled inside a thick gray blanket, my hands clamped around a cup of hot liquid that I drank without tasting. I couldn’t stop shivering. Or thinking about the creatures that had clung to the bottom of Sean’s boat. Or the angel. I put shaky fingers to my lips as I remembered his mouth on mine.
Maybe he wasn’t real. Maybe I’d just had some kind of freaky near-death experience.
I dismissed that. No one ever says, “Go toward the light—and the really excellent kisser.” Whatever he was, he was real.
“Thank goodness you’re all right,” Gran said. “I should have known, after seeing what they did to Ben’s boat, that something like this might happen. But I thought maybe—” She broke off.
What they did to Ben’s boat
. The words drifted over me like a vague, black cloud.
They
.
The memory of those monstrous faces swam before me again: green and black, their heads looking obscenely human. Like men, but with veiny, bald scalps and black sunken holes where their ears and noses should have been. They had elongated torsos and short curved legs that had clung to the boat.
“M-monsters,” I said. My voice came out in a high-pitched waver that didn’t even
sound
like me. “There were sea monsters under the
Then I saw it. From the black depths below me, something small and white and shimmering appeared. It grew larger, floating up toward me, glowing against the murk. It was an angel.
The angel was dark. Black hair floated around his face like plumes of glistening raven feathers. And he had only a single, gleaming wing. That didn’t seem to matter. His deep blue eyes were all I could focus on. Brilliant and intense as a lightning strike, they fastened on me and didn’t let go.
He’d come to take me.
Whether to save me from the edge of the world or take me to the other side, I didn’t know or care. My chest and throat were on fire, bursting from the need to breathe.
He floated closer, his arms open. The angel’s hands were warm on my skin, like the warmth of a fire when you come in from the cold.
He pulled me to him and kissed me.
With the press of his mouth, I felt a gasp of breath. Sweet, intoxicating air rushed into me. But not enough. The little taste of it brought a spasm of desperate need, an animal panic for more, and I clutched the angel’s head and drank the breath from his lips in coughing gulps until he broke away. Then his long fingers cupped the back of my head. He laid ahand against my chest, calming me, slowing me down. Now his mouth returned to mine and I breathed him into me. Inhale. Exhale.
Bliss.
I wrapped my arms tighter around the angel. Something was happening to me.
Every inch of my skin pulsed with sensation at the touch of the water, his hands, his lips. The angle of his mouth on mine changed, became something else. Something dark and sweet and just as elemental as breathing.
I felt myself being pulled deeper and deeper. Into the kiss and oblivion.
Something struck the water and surged beside us in a white plume of froth. But I couldn’t focus on anything but my consuming need for air. For this kiss.
A hand grabbed me and I was yanked sideways and pulled upward, upward.
I broke the surface of the water gasping. My chest ached and the side of my head throbbed. Weakly I kicked at the water as small waves lifted and dropped me. The air felt good, so cool in my throat.
But I was tired. Somehow all I wanted to do was float down once more.…
“Delia!” someone shouted. A strong hand grabbed the back of my T-shirt and supported me in the water.
“Are you okay?”
I sputtered and nodded, unseeing, to the voice. “Y-yes.”
“C’mon.”
It was Sean. He was beside me in the choppy sea. I could hardly move as he gripped my arm and dragged me toward the
Widowsong
, which rose as high as a skyscraper before us.
Back on the dock, I sat on an empty wooden lobster trap. I was swaddled inside a thick gray blanket, my hands clamped around a cup of hot liquid that I drank without tasting. I couldn’t stop shivering. Or thinking about the creatures that had clung to the bottom of Sean’s boat. Or the angel. I put shaky fingers to my lips as I remembered his mouth on mine.
Maybe he wasn’t real. Maybe I’d just had some kind of freaky near-death experience.
I dismissed that. No one ever says, “Go toward the light—and the really excellent kisser.” Whatever he was, he was real.
“Thank goodness you’re all right,” Gran said. “I should have known, after seeing what they did to Ben’s boat, that something like this might happen. But I thought maybe—” She broke off.
What they did to Ben’s boat
. The words drifted over me like a vague, black cloud.
They
.
The memory of those monstrous faces swam before me again: green and black, their heads looking obscenely human. Like men, but with veiny, bald scalps and black sunken holes where their ears and noses should have been. They had elongated torsos and short curved legs that had clung to the boat.
“M-monsters,” I said. My voice came out in a high-pitched waver that didn’t even
sound
like me. “There were sea monsters under the
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