Chapter 5
Esme hung by a thread, suspended on the very edge of con-sciousness.
Life rushed back into her. Her eyes flew open. She was still under the water’s surface, the current propelling her up, but now air was flowing into her lungs. Somehow, she was breathing in air—sweet, precious air—underwater.
Seconds later, she broke through the surface.
Esme staggered out of the pool and collapsed onto a rock, wrung out and wretched, as limp and sodden as flotsam washed up on shore. She retched, sure she had swallowed half the sea, but nothing came up.
The pool settled back into peaceful somnolence, winking at her in the sunlight. Esme gaped at it. She had just been under that water—drowning under that water.
Hadn’t she?
Had she?
Her mind spun uselessly, stuck between gears. She scrabble
