Find Me (Immersed Book 1)

by Francesca Riley

  Skye felt her lungs fill again, and the pain behind her ribs eased. “Was she one of the dead?”

  “No.” The word was clipped.

  “No? You mean she’s...out there somewhere?”

  Hunter nodded. “Yes. But things are a little different now. I was once the lowest of all the survivors. But now...I’m not.”

  “So no one owns you?”

  He smiled. “No one owns me.

  Her mind replayed what he’d told her so far. He’d spoken of a girl from his clan. The idea of him with someone else made her stomach twist. She couldn’t stop turning the subject over in her mind. He’d been around for probably hundreds of years... She pressed her lips together in an effort to keep silent. It was none of her business. And she shouldn’t care. But she did.

  “Hunter?”

  “Yes?” The light turned his eyes to deep ice.

  “Have you ever been in love?” She hadn’t meant to ask that. But it was what she really wanted to know.

  “There was someone once.” He spoke softly, and she felt a sickening stab of jealousy. “I barely knew her.”

  Skye tried to look impassive, to ignore how much hearing this hurt, hating that it did.

  “It was long ago. So long ago that I couldn’t say when. It was before I knew what I was. What I really was.” His eyes saw somewhere far away. “I couldn’t leave the water, but I’d found I could be on rocks as long as the waterline passed me. I haunted the shoreline, but to the few people who came to the water’s edge, I didn’t exist.”

  “How didn’t you exist?”

  “They couldn’t see me, or hear me.” His storm-grey eyes searched hers, waiting for a reaction. She felt a swarm of questions bursting to spill out of her, but held them in, and he continued.

  “I was angry. Miserable. And lonely. One day a young woman on a strange chair was brought to the edge of the rocks. She was nestled among pillows and blankets. The chair was woven cane, and had wheels that let it roll on smoother terrain. Intrigued, I drew near. Our eyes met and she smiled at me.”

  Skye recalled her first impression of Hunter below her in the water. Whoever the girl had been, Skye couldn’t blame her. “She saw you?”

  “Yes. Her companions didn’t. They left her alone by the water’s edge. She was warmly wrapped against the wind, and from the way that she gazed at the sea it was clear that she was there by choice. Each day the same occurred. Eventually I grew bold enough to approach her, and so our silent friendship began. A friendship that probably ended every time I left her.”

  Skye frowned, unable to follow that, but didn’t interrupt.

  “Hers was the first human contact I’d had since our fall. I didn’t understand her speech, nor she mine. We never touched. But her smile, her company, was enough at first. She was thin, pale, and very weak. But she seemed happy to see me each time I appeared. I felt that my presence helped her somehow. I was naïve, and lonely. I thought I’d found love. And when I sat with her, I could pretend the change in me wasn’t real. That I was myself.”

  Skye’s jealous pain faded in sympathy.

  “But after a time, without language to communicate, desperate for a deeper connection I tried to sense her thoughts and emotions. I couldn’t detect anything, certainly no indication that my company meant something to her. One day I delayed returning. My loneliness had grown. It seemed pointless. I hesitated, trying to decide, until at last I accepted that some human contact was better than none.”

  He was silent for a moment, his expression more difficult to read. “She was already in the water when I was still a distance off. Weak as she was, I thought it was simply a terrible accident. But even from that distance I sensed – I don’t know how to explain it... It was like faint tendrils of someone I could feel through my skin. Hope, longing, fear, despair. I recognised that it was her. I sped to her. “

  He swallowed. “She died in my arms, while I was swept away by the flood of the person that she was inside. Her essence. There were hints of me in it, barely memories – just – unnameable yearning. It had drawn her to the water. It was unbearable. I managed to get her body back to the rocks, and then I fled, hid myself away. Shut myself off from any human contact.” He looked down. “From forming any connection with anyone.”

  It was a tragic story. A lost, lonely boy, and a sick, lonely girl; their impossible, disparate worlds. It filled Skye with heaviness. No wonder he’d warned her to keep away.

  “We really aren’t so different, Hunter.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Life has taught you that caring for someone ends up hurting you. Well, me too.”

  “So you’ve…?”

  “I haven’t let myself. Actually, because of my parents. If it doesn’t hurt one way, it will hurt another. I’ve never seen the pain as worth the journey.”

  Hunter searched her eyes. Then after a short silence, he glanced at the sinking tide. “The waterline is too close for me now. But if you aren’t cold, and if memory serves me, we talked about you needing to get better with being in the water…” The corner of his mouth curved up.

  Her heart began to race.

  23. Lessons

  Hunter’s eyes sparkled. “You did amazingly well getting here on your own, but there is always room for improvement,” he teased. “I think this is the perfect time for lesson one, day one.” Standing, he smiled, raising his eyebrows, “Swim?”

  “Um... I guess…”

  His broadening smile was brilliant. In moments he had descended to the water’s edge. He turned to watch her.

  Climbing down to join him, Skye found it hard to maintain any pretence at casual. It wasn’t just the idea of swimming. It was the idea of him. The memory, the feeling of him holding her close in the water rippled beneath her skin. Was he thinking the same thing?

  He seemed perfectly at ease. When they’d been caught by the tide, she’d suggested removing her clothes, leaving just her bikini, to make it easier for him to move her through the water. He’d thought it would be a distraction. Did he find her less…distracting now? Feeling painfully self-conscious, she avoided his eyes.

  When she reached him, he offered her his hand. “Shall we?” It was like that first time all over again. Breathless, she took his hand, noting its coldness. She darted a glance at his face, and her heart stuttered at what she saw. He was as intensely conscious of her as she was of him. She felt a sharp surge of pleasure at that knowledge.

  She looked down into seaweed-filled depths, and her throat constricted. The water drew back momentarily, revealing submerged rock almost completely encrusted with seaweed. It didn’t help to stay the creeping fear.

  Hunter’s hand was steady around hers, and when he stepped down she followed. Despite knowing she was only stepping onto rock, her heartbeat accelerated and she gripped his hand tighter. He carefully transferred her hold to his other hand and slid his arm round her waist, cold as water against her.

  “You’re safe with me Skye,” he reassured. “Will you trust me? Again?”

  Skye looked up into his eyes, light-filled charcoal with the colours of the sea around his black pupils, and her heart turned over. It was unfair that he should have those eyes in that face, and look at her so intensely it felt physical. As if she were all that mattered. Yes. She trusted him. She swallowed, nodding, not trusting her voice.

  Hunter drew her against him and slid them into the water, turning as they went so his body formed a support, barely inches apart as they moved smoothly along the surface. Cold water streamed over them and between them. Skye squeezed her eyes closed. Her skin was a rash of goosebumps. She was acutely aware of him so close to her, while at the same time her stomach knotted in anticipation of the weird freak-out that being in the sea could potentially bring. His chuckle brought her eyes open. “Really? That bad?”

  Skye met his smiling eyes. It was like having a human surfboard that moved at will and enjoyed having her along. She released her held breath, “No…not bad,” she said shaki
ly, “Actually, good.” She gasped as a low swell impacted the back of Hunter’s head, showering them both with water droplets, but when he laughed, she laughed too. She felt safe, completely protected by him. His promise had sunk into her bones, dissolving her fears. It was exhilarating.

  After a minute Hunter slowed and stopped, drifting upright. Flinching as her toes brushed something, she clutched at him. But almost immediately her brain registered the sandy seabed. Water lapped just below her shoulders. She felt embarrassed at how jumpy she was. But if there was an upside to being so lame, it was that Hunter seemed to have made it his mission to un-lame her. She was more than okay with that.

  She looked up at him waiting patiently beside her. Water dripped from the ends of his hair, and glistened on his skin. Her insides trembled. She couldn’t tell if it was at his closeness, or the imminent lesson.

  “Now,” he said, “you have firm sand under your feet. If any fears from the past come at you, I’m right here. Nothing will hurt you. So. Next step, day one, lesson two: go below the surface. Are you with me?”

  But she hesitated. “Hunter, why did you say, ‘fears from the past’?”

  He went still, his smile disappearing. But he barely paused before replying, “Fear is a thing of the past for you now, yes?” he smiled again. “This is where we make history together, Skye and Hunter, Destroyers of Fear. Yes?”

  “Yes.” It was true. With him her fear truly did seem to be a thing of the past. Elation spiked inside, running under her skin as the idea of further reclaiming the water that she loved took hold.

  “Dive with me then?” Hunter’s expression was so persuasive Skye’s cheeks heated. She concentrated hard on the actual offer. Dive below the surface? Amazingly, she felt ready to, right this second, just like when she was little. Something about him made her feel free, but… “One condition,” she demanded.

  Hunter raised his eyebrows. “I don’t recall agreeing to entertain conditions.”

  “Tough! Condition is: you tell me more first. About you.”

  Hunter sighed, but Skye guessed he’d been expecting her overwhelming curiosity. “All right,” he agreed, “I tell you more and we proceed to lesson two. But we’ll keep moving. I see the cold on your skin.”

  He stepped closer, sliding his hands along her arms and her breath caught. Taking her elbows, he walked slowly backwards, floating her through the water.

  They stopped at a jumble of rocks partially exposed by the sinking tide. Hunter helped her climb up and they sat in silence for a moment, a warm smooth rock to their backs. The sun filtered through the patchy cloud, easing Skye’s mild shivers.

  “So, telling you things I shouldn’t...” he mused, “what next to reveal?”

  With her eyes on the water, the obvious spilled out at once. “Breathing?” She turned to watch his reaction.

  He smiled as if he’d been expecting that one, and shrugged. “I breathe both, water and air. I know. Impossible. Water, it’s like air to us. And when we breathe the air, it’s like our air, thinned. Almost too thin, but manageable.

  His smile faded. “We thought we were dead, ghosts, when first we woke to our new selves: breathing under water, then above the surface as well. It was terrifying. But some of us died soon after, teaching us the difference between our...existence, and not existing at all.”

  After a brief silence, Skye tried to distract him from his sad thoughts. “How do you sleep? Like the sharks?”

  His eyes widened, and then he burst out laughing. “Sleep like the sharks, eh? I guess so, sort of. Actually, we don’t really sleep.”

  She was astounded, recalling the weightless feeling of tiredness after time spent in and around the sea. “But don’t you get tired? I mean, being in the water – it’s kind of exhausting. I thought you’d pretty much have to crash out.”

  “Crash out?”

  “Yeah. Like, super tired, desperate need of sleep kind of thing.”

  “Oh, right. No crashing out for us. Of water. Water doesn’t sleep. It just...is.”

  She saw in his face that what she’d intended as a light, albeit completely fascinating, subject had led unerringly to darker waters.

  “Time to go back,” Hunter observed her shiver, concerned.

  She looked around as the shadow of swift-moving clouds fell over them. The wind off the ocean carried the scent of rain once more. This time she was cold. “S-sorry,” she stammered.

  “No, Skye, I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “When I’m with you I forget that you’re human, and that I’m…not.”

  She wished she could disguise her cold skin and keep the sadness that filled his eyes from appearing.

  But he shook his head as if reading her thoughts, and took her hand. “I’ve promised myself to not be an utter idiot when our differences hit me between the eyes. We just have to…manage them. It’s time for you to go back.”

  Reluctantly Skye followed Hunter into the water, now barely above her waist. She was only just beginning to feel hungry. It was probably barely mid-day.

  “I’ll tell you more next time,” he promised.

  “Next time?”

  “We haven’t had lesson number two yet,” he reminded her. “There has to be a next time.” His eyes sparkled, and her disappointment dissolved in a surge of excitement. She hoped her smile wasn’t too wide.

  As the water grew shallower, he dropped to a crouch. She copied him, and together they moved crab-like through the shallows, grinning at each other. The water felt mild despite the cooler air. Skye tried to move slowly to drag their time together out. But too soon he stood. Reluctantly she followed suit, the water swirling choppily around her thighs. Glancing up she saw that cloud now covered the sky.

  “This is where we part.” Hunter looked pale.

  But she wasn’t ready to let him go. Her lunch was in her bag. Lithus Rock was separated from the water now by a short stretch of exposed rippled sand, marked with snail trails and seagull’s feet.

  “Hunter, can’t you come with me? Just to the rock? It’s so close to the water.” She could have bitten her tongue out then for the desolate look that crossed his face. “Never mind,” she said hastily. “I just – it would have been nice, that’s all. I’m sorry.”

  “I wish I could. But it’s impossible.” A few drops of rain reached them.

  “Can I – do you mind if I ask you…” Her courage gave out.

  “What happens if I cross our boundary?”

  She nodded. He looked steadily at her for a long moment then stepped slowly past her towards the shore, moving as if his limbs were heavy, the strain apparent on his face once more. He took another, slower step. He was knee deep now, and Skye saw that he was trembling.

  “Hunter,” her voice was sharp with fear as she splashed to his side. He half turned to look at her, his face pale with a sheen of moisture different from the beads of sea water. “I have to show you Skye. It’s better that you know. This is how we knew the bars of our cage.”

  Skye’s argument stuck in her throat as he took one more step, and then another as if through setting concrete, until the foam-laced shallows surged about his ankles. He was trembling violently now, doubled over. He slowly reached his hand towards the shore. As the water drew back beneath it, she watched in horror as the flesh of his hand began to shimmer, writhing like the rippling of stones cast into still water. He groaned in agony, and she cried out as a wisp of vapour rose eerily from his dissolving outstretched fingertips.

  24. One of the Dark Ones

  Throwing her arms around Hunter’s waist, Skye dragged him back, away from the shore, and they stumbled awkwardly together until he fell, sinking beneath the surface.

  She knelt over him, the low water lapping her waist, barely controlling the nausea that churned in her gut. Her eyes burned as she watched his lean form, motionless below the surface. How could he bear it, she wondered? To live trapped forever in sight of land he could never stand on? What had they’d done that was bad enough to deserve this? A s
cattered flurry of rain, fine as mist, swirled around her, dulling the surface.

  Slowly Hunter began to move, his arms and legs flexing and stretching. The water felt cold to her now, as cold as his skin when she laid her hand on him. At her touch he went still, then raised himself above the water, and crouched facing her, rivulets running from him. He looked tired, drawn, but unharmed in any other way.

  Despite her determination to be stoic for his sake, tears welled in her eyes and trickled down her cheeks. “How could anyone do this to you?” she whispered. She reached for his hand and studied it, turning it between both of hers, relief filling her. It looked just the same: long and slender, and complete. Whatever had begun to happen, the water had restored him.

  “We deserve it.” The knowledge of darkness was in his eyes. “I need to tell you, Skye. There’s no way you and I... It’s not real if you don’t know everything.”

  Skye’s heart lurched and she dropped her eyes to hide her feelings. He wanted what they had to be real, enough to tell her the worst things about himself.

  “Our treason... The Seers tried to turn the entire city into an army of willing slaves, tried to summon complete obedience. They used me as a conduit.” His eyes grew hot. “They wove their spell around me...through me, and sent such a force of summoning throughout the people of Lithus –” He broke off.

  “It worked? It wasn’t your fault, Hunter.”

  “No, Skye. It didn’t work. They misjudged the power in me.” He raised a hand to his face for a moment as if to hide. “They summoned…” he swallowed, dropping his hand, his eyes haunted, “they drew the lives right out of the people.”

  “They…what?” She stared at him, horror-struck.

  “By the time I regained consciousness, and it was barely any time at all, judgement was falling. The noise... Everything shook apart like the world was ending. And then – it ended.”

  His voice was low. “I woke to utter darkness, pressing weight, and cold like knives piercing me. When I breathed in the icy blackness, my vision altered and the weight lifted. I could see where I was. I could see – everything. Some, like me, survived. Others, shattered bodies, lay around me like broken statues. Among them were the Seers. My father. All gone, for prideful ambition.”