Chapter 16Dakota
Something about drowning? He may have been terrible at languages, and he couldn’t have recited any of Katya’s handful of words to live by, but Dakota did have functioning ears. He lived with the woman for long enough to hear her explanations, over and over, in thickly accented English. And when Kenna started using some of them, too, he listened to her paraphrase them.
He had no idea which part of the statement translated to drowning, had no knowledge about where words ended and began in the onslaught of guttural syllables—and it would be a cold day in hell before he could ever spell it—but Dakota knew that one thing.
Whatever the larger meaning was, he could relate. He felt submerged. Gasping for air. Reaching around for something or someone to save him from his own cho
