Chapter 116

Painexcruciating darkness starsblue

Cedric's head throbbed as he fought to get away from whatever was dragging him deeper and deeper into the sea's vast depths. His strength was rapidly fading and his lungs would explode unless he could get to the surface. His shirt tore and the binding that had trapped him to the wreckage was gone. He fought as though nothing in his life had mattered until now.

All he could see was Anne's face, and his desire to live. His desire to see her looking up at him with love and endless wonder. New strength flooded his limbs. The water stung his eyes, burned them like hot pokers, but he kept swimming toward that brightening point of light that he knew had to be the surface.

When his head burst above the water, he sucked in a loud, agonizing breath. A shocking white glared into his eyes, and he blinked, raised one hand as he treaded water, and looked aboutlookedas gray shapes appeared in the fog.

"What in God's name?" Pieces of wood bumped into his shoulde