her head bob gently up and down, as if she were lying, stomach
down, on a lumpy raft, and her lips twitched in the faintest of
grateful smiles. Something had broken her fall and was gently supporting
her. She concentrated on that bit of good fortune as she divided
her pain up into manageable little bits, one heartbeat at a
time. After ten heartbeats she counted to twenty. At twenty she
asked herself to get to forty, and so on. She heard another steady
rhythm under her, and after a short time her heart was in sync
with the sound coming from her life raft. They beat together, each
encouraging the other. She kept very, very still.
After what seemed like hours Helen was still immobile, but she
could finally open her eyes and focus them. All she could see in the
sweeping, blinding flashes sent out from some distant lighthouse
were walls of sand. Under her right cheek was a warm T-shirt.
After a few moments she realized there was a person in it. She was
lying on top of a man. The lumpiness under her head was his chest
and the bobbing sensation was him breathing. She gasped. The
Delos boys had caught her.
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?Helen?? Lucas asked, his voice faint and breathy. ?Make sound.
If alive,? he barely managed to say. He didn?t sound like he was going
to kill her so she answered.
?Alive. Can?t move,? she whispered back. Every syllable sent
threads of pain radiating out from her diaphragm.
?Wait. Listen to waves. Calm,? he said, struggling with every
word as her body weight tried to press the air out of him.
Helen knew she couldn?t so much as raise her arm, so she relaxed
like he told her to and just watched as the world swayed up and
then back down with every breath he took. They waited in the intermittent
light and dark of the lighthouse signal, listening to the