Total pages in book: 254
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
I wanted to hold up my arms and ask what they were thinking, but I realized then why Spencer had said what he’d said.
If Pascal fell into the river….
I couldn’t let that happen.
Leaves and bushes rustled along my legs, and just to the side of them were Duncan and Agnes. They had followed me. My ride or die and the girl who I was pretty sure saw him as a little brother.
I would die before I let anything happen to them.
“Stay. Here,” I repeated, pointing at the ground. “Please. Don’t go in the water for any reason. Do you understand? No matter what happens, you don’t go in.”
“Yes,” Agnes answered.
“Yes,” Duncan told me, meeting me with those bright red eyes. He was worried.
“Please. I’m serious. Stay here where it’s safe. I love you so much. I love you both,” I said, taking my phone out of my pocket and thrusting it toward Agnes. “Stay here,” I repeated as Shiloh shouted something that sounded really close to “Shit!”
Forcing myself not to look behind me—because I had to trust them; I did trust them—I scrambled closer to the river where Shiloh was, the bank grassy and muddy and getting steeper the further down river I went. I moved from one rock to another, some boulder-sized, some barely big enough to fit my toes, but I didn’t have time to worry about busting my ass.
It was faster to get to a shaking Shiloh than I’d expected, but I figured being led by pure panic helped. When I got close enough, I reached out. “Grab my hand, Shiloh,” I called out.
The little boy shook from his spot maybe two feet from the bank. “I’m scared!”
The water was high and looked deep, even though he wasn’t that far in, and I didn’t blame him, but… “It’s okay. See? I can reach you.”
Opening my hand, I coaxed him to grab it, trying to ignore Pascal wobbling on the rock he was perched on. One kid at a time. I couldn’t freak out this soon.
“You can do it. Come on, Shiloh!” I egged him on.
His little hand trembled, but he stretched, reached out, and grabbed me. “On the count of three, jump, okay?” I told him. “One! Two!”
I didn’t get to three and almost slipped when he jumped early and I wasn’t ready, but I managed to pull him into me with his momentum, and we both stumbled when he landed in my arms.
We didn’t have time to celebrate though.
I picked him up, set him higher up on the bank, and ordered, “Don’t move an inch.”
Damn, that water is high, I thought when I was facing the river again. It didn’t help it was muddy, which made it impossible to see the bottom.
Eyeing the distance between us, there was no safe way to get across to Pascal that way. My legs weren’t long enough to safely jump to where he was. I wasn’t even sure how he’d managed it. There was a log halfway jutting out of the water thirty feet along the river, but it was way too far to reach him from it….
“Nina! I’m scared!” the little boy wailed in a frantic voice that was probably going to give me nightmares.
“I’m coming!” I yelled back as Shiloh made a distressed sound, but I couldn’t reassure him. I had to act fast. Act now.
But I swear I decided right then, that if I died, I was going to come back and haunt Pascal when he was older and it would be less traumatizing
I can’t let that happen. I couldn’t leave Duncan. I didn’t want to never speak to my parents again. I didn’t want to miss out on Matti and Sienna’s lives. And damn it, I wanted Henri to mark me again with his cheek on my throat.
Before I could waste more time or overthink this crap more than I already had, I leapt to get to where Shiloh had been perched. The water flowed aggressively around my feet, but I couldn’t focus on it. Holding my breath, I hopscotched the last few embedded boulders I could reach before the wide gap that separated me from Pascal. And that was when he screamed again, thrusting his hands out at his sides to keep his balance.
“Nina!” he hollered, wobbling so hard he almost fell in.
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. I had to act. I had no idea what the hell I was doing, and someone with better survival instincts was more than likely going to call me an idiot, but… I squatted until my butt hovered over the surface of the water and called out, “I’m going to try and walk over to you. If I get swept away, don’t jump in after me, Pascal. Stay right where you are as long as you can. Do you hear me?”