“Oh.” She unhooked her tank. “I forgot. I forgot you can’t see the way I do in the water. I’m sorry.”
“Sorry for what?” Riley pulled herself on board.
“I went deeper, and didn’t stay in sight. I’m sorry. I won’t do it again. I could see all of you, but went beyond what you can see in the water. I made Sawyer’s heart beat fast.”
Riley smiled over Annika’s shoulder as she helped Annika take off the tanks. “I bet it’s not the first time.”
“Funny. How do you know my heart beat fast when you were deeper and out of sight?”
“I can feel it. In the water, I can . . . It’s not feel like I can feel your hand,” she said, taking his. “But I can feel it.”
“Interesting.” Glancing at her, Bran threw open the cooler. “You can feel heartbeats of living things when you’re in the water?”
“Yes. Or is sense the better word? Know?”
“And you can see much farther than we can,” Bran continued.
“I forgot that. I could feel—sense?—Sasha’s heart on that day in Corfu, and know where to look. And see her. The legs weren’t fast enough, so I needed to change them.”
“But even with the legs, you can feel and see?” Riley grabbed a Coke, tossed Sasha juice.
“In the water. Are you angry?” she asked Sawyer.
“No. No, I’m not mad. You just gave me a jolt. Remember, we’re buddies down there.”
She sat beside him, tipped her head to his shoulder. “I’ll be a better buddy.”
“Good enough. How’d you do, Sasha?”
“I was fine—I can’t say I much like those tight openings, but I did fine. But I didn’t feel anything, unlike Annika.”
“Let’s cross it off.” Slicking her cap of hair back, Riley guzzled water. “And hit the next. We should be able to do three today. All of them in this general area. We’ve got oth
ers to try on the east coast, and down to the south. But we can finish up this section today.”
Sawyer figured Annika could have dived all day and half the night, but the rest of them put in a solid five hours under the water, on the boat, with a short break for a quick lunch.
They found nothing but the appeal of sea life, rock formations, and in one cave a crude carving on rock with the names Greta and Franz inside a heart with the date 15/8/05.
He liked to think Greta and Franz stayed together, maybe living in a little farmhouse along the Rhine.
He hadn’t expected to stumble across the star the first day out—didn’t think any of the team expected that kind of luck. A quest required time, effort, sweat, and risk.
And when gods were involved, blood.
But steps had to be taken, and they’d taken them for the day. Best of all, they hadn’t encountered any of Nerezza’s minions. Any day no one had to shed that blood was, in his book, a good day.
Once they’d docked the boat, turned in the tanks, he shouldered his pack. The hike home loomed, but there’d be beer at the end of it.
“Now we can go shopping.”
As one, the other five stared at her.
“There are many shops, and pretty things, and all the people. And Sawyer said we could have the outstanding.”
“A beer sounds outstanding,” Doyle commented.
“She means gelato.” Reluctantly charmed again, Sawyer shifted his pack. “She doesn’t forget anything.”