Panic curled my stomach and my heart stalled out.
“Shea.” Her name didn’t make it above my breath while the wave gathered strength. It rushed, the white toil of water swelling higher. Surging faster. Like evil had once again reached its fingers up from the pits of hell and stirred the waters. Cast its chaos on the sea.
Unaware, Shea was still smiling when it hit them from behind.
It swallowed them, knocking Shea from her feet.
Shea thrashed wildly when she emerged. She sucked in a surprised, shocked breath, eyes wild as she searched.
Kallie was no longer in her hands.
And Shea was screaming.
Screaming.
Screaming.
Screaming.
I felt it all the way to my soul.
Terror.
Spindles of fear splintered through me, vast and deep and wide.
I scanned the water until my sight caught the little body tumbling in the receding wave off to Shea’s right.
Out of reach.
No.
No.
No.
No.
“No… No… No.” Suddenly, I was saying it aloud in the same second I was sprinting toward her. Water split under the pounding of my feet, splashing on my thighs, before it got too deep. I dove in, frantic as the salt hit my face, my arms burning with the force of my strokes.
Another wave surged forward, and I propelled myself up and over it, sucking in a breath as I broke the surface, spinning around as I tried to find her.
An arm.
A glimpse of blue.
Blonde awash in the turbulent churning of the sea.
One desperate moment later, Kallie was in my arms and I was dragging her free and carrying her toward the beach.
But there was nothing.
No reaction.
Five seconds of agony that felt like an eternity as I held Shea’s daughter in my arms.
Then Kallie was coughing and crying and Shea was there, nearly delirious as she yanked at my arms to get to her while I held Kallie close and stumbled with her onto the shore.
Gently, I laid her on the sand while my world spun. My spirit roared. My head screamed.
Shea dropped to her knees.
Frantically she ran her hands over her daughter’s face, trembling fingers through Kallie’s drenched hair, pushing it back.
Shaking.
Shaking.
Shaking.
She chanted, “She’s okay…she’s okay,” again and again and again as she touched her all over, reassuring herself.
She’s okay.
Lyrik was on his phone, his voice sounding just about as frantic as my mind. He shouted the address and told them to hurry. No doubt he had an ambulance on the way.
“She’s okay,” Shea said again like the reality had finally taken hold, and she swallowed deep, pulling a crying Kallie into her arms. She was crying, too, as she hugged her and rocked her while she looked toward the sky, like she was sending up a prayer. “She’s okay.”
Bile burned in my gut when I looked back at Austin. He was still nailed to the same spot. Fists full of hair that he tried to rip from his head. Eyes full of horror and memories and dread.
She’s okay.
She’s okay.
He wasn’t okay.
It felt like an hour passed, but it really was only a few minutes before three paramedics rounded the side of the house. They took the walkway down onto the beach, and I moved to stand beside Shea who refused to let Kallie go while they examined her.
Lyrik, Ash, and Zee gathered behind me. The combined nerves and energy and a thick slick of shock ricocheted between us all.
Austin had disappeared.
“We need to take her in to have her checked out by a doctor and get an X-ray of her lungs to be sure they’re clear, but it looks like she was a very lucky girl.” One of the younger paramedics gave Shea a reassuring smile. “I think she’s going to be just fine.”
“Oh my God, thank you.” She hugged Kallie closer, still in shock.
“Why don’t you get dressed?” he urged. “We have to strap her to the stretcher to move her safely in the ambulance. Does that sound okay?”