Page 16 of Restoration

four

MAYBE I BLACKED OUTagain or maybe I fell into a blurry daze. For whatever reason, I have almost no memory of the stretch of time between our climbing up onto the piece of boat wreckage and finally getting beached on a sandy shore.

The sun is just barely starting to rise over the water, and the storm has either ended or passed on. It’s quiet other than the lapping of the waves when I suddenly realize we aren’t moving.

At all. Not even the steady rocking of the sailboat.

I lift my head and blink, momentarily blinded because I’m facing the sunrise in what’s now a clear sky. I taste salt in my mouth, and my skin is stinging in a dozen places from small cuts and abrasions.

My head is pounding, and it hurts every time I move, but I’m alive.

Alive—when all odds were against it.

I turn my head to check for Edmund and let out a long breath. He is indeed still beside me, sprawled out as awkwardly as I am. His eyes are closed, and his wet hair is plastered over his eyes and forehead.

I reach over and give him a hard poke in the side. “Edmund. Edmund!”

He makes a grumbling sound and shifts just slightly.

“Edmund! Wake up.”

“Way too early.”

I almost—almost—giggle at his aggrieved tone. He sounds exactly as he always has on the few occasions I’ve had to wake him up at a certain time. “Edmund, get your ass up or we’re going to be washed away again.”

That evidently gets through to him. He blinks a couple of times, then pushes his hair out of his face and lifts his upper body to peer around. “Oh my fucking God,” he breathes.

“We’re still alive. So that’s something.”

“Yeah.” He hefts himself into a sitting position with a groan. “Where are we?”

“Your guess is as good as mine.” It’s an island in the Pacific. That much is obvious. And there’s nothing to be seen except a broad expanse of sandy beach and the edges of a tropical forest that appears to cover the interior of the island.

“Guess we got to that island paradise after all,” he says, studying our surroundings the way I am.

“Probably so. Unfortunately, that means the island is uninhabited. So there’s probably not a way to call or radio for help.”

“Shit.” He scoots over until he’s able to slide off the large piece of our hull that saved us.

When he reaches up to help me off too, I let him, my knees buckling when my feet hit the sand.

It feels like I’m going to fall, so I instinctively grab for his wet shirt. I stabilize myself quickly, but he suddenly pulls me forward, wrapping his arms around me in a tight, urgent hug.

I hug him back, responding to the shuddering emotion coming off him.

We almost died. That much is obvious. It’s a miracle we didn’t, and both of us know it.

For some reason, the idea of his dying is even more painful than thinking about dying myself.

We stand hugging for a long time, but then finally I make myself pull back. This is a real emergency, and we have to figure out what to do.

“Okay, let’s think for a minute,” I say, rubbing my face. The sun is rising fast, reflecting blindingly on the ocean. I’m going to get burned to a crisp out here.

Edmund gives a soft, amused huff. “That’s my Autumn. Already with making a plan.”

“What other choice do we have?”