( Aria's Point of View )The bullet never touched me.One second, I was sitting in the inflatable raft, watching Isabella's silhouette on the burning ship as she lined up her shot. The next second, a hand; cold, impossibly strong, clamped around my ankle and yanked me into the black water.I didn't even have time to scream.The ocean swallowed me whole. The cold was a physical assault, stealing the air from my lungs and turning my limbs to lead. I kicked wildly, my hands clawing at the darkness, but the grip on my ankle was like iron. I was being dragged down, down into the crushing depths.My vision blurred. The instinct to open my mouth and gulp in water was overwhelming.Then, just as suddenly as it had pulled me under, the hand released me.I kicked upward, my arms pumping with desperate, frantic strokes. My head broke the surface, and I gasped, sucking in air so fast it burned my throat. I spun around, treading water, searching for the hand, the monster, the thing that had saved
Last Updated : 2026-01-13 Read more