Allissa
Eira went in first, taking Heath. Then Darren. Each of them stepped off into a black gap in the ice and vanished without one bubble. Lovely. Then it was my turn. Eira’s hand came up out of the dark water and found mine, and I stepped off the edge of the world.
The cold hit like a train. A white slam that tried to empty my lungs in the first second. Then Eira’s palm pressed flat against my sternum, and air bloomed in my chest that I had never drawn. Warm as summer. Trust me for every breath, she had said. So I stopped fighting and let the current take us.
I won’t pretend I remember that swim in order. I remember it was dark, so dark that my eyes started inventing colors just to cope. I remember there were two bends and the channel getting so narrow the stone brushed both my shoul
