mast with a cloud of seabirds around him. The threads of gold lighting in Willa’s hair.
West.
Again and again, my mind found its way to him.
It wasn’t until the mallet slipped from my numb fingers that I blinked and the reef came rushing back to me. The blue swallowed up the vision, a twist behind my ribs threatening to pull me to the black. I found one of the iron anchors driven into the reef and held on, pinching my eyes closed. The ping of Koy’s pick down the ridge sharpened my thoughts enough for me to realize I needed air. He stilled, looking up at me over the waving fronds of red coral for only a moment before he got back to work. There was probably nothing Koy would love more than to see me dead on this reef.
I slipped the mallet back into my belt and pushed off the ledge, kicking toward the light. The reef, and the dredgers on it, grew small beneath me until I broke the surface with a ragged gasp, my vision washed white in the glare of the sun. It hung in the middle of the sky above me, but I couldn’t feel its warmth as I drank in the humid air. My skin was ice cold, the blood moving slowly in my veins.
Clove’s face appeared over the railing of the Luna, and as soon as he laid eyes on me, he vanished again. I squinted, thinking that maybe I had imagined him there. The light was too bright, pulling in glaring beams that splintered and glowed, making my head hurt.
It had been a long night, dredging in the moonlight until it was too dark to see the reef. I’d gotten only an hour or two of sleep before the bell on the deck was ringing again, and I was back in the water by the time the sun appeared on the horizon.
I hooked one arm into the lowest rung of the rope ladder and untied the purse from my belt with a shaking hand. As soon as it landed in the basket hanging against the hull, the Waterside stray above was hoisting it up for Clove’s count.
I stayed there and breathed, willing the feeling to come back into my weak arms. I needed to get my body warm if I was going to keep diving, but the piece of bloodstone I was working on in the reef was almost loose. Three more strikes and I’d have it free.
A splash sounded behind me, and I looked back to see Ryland surface, the sound of his broad chest taking in the air like the howl of wind. He panted, pulling it in and out until it was steady, his face turned up to the sun.
I watched him swim to the ship and set his purse into the next basket. It instantly lifted, dripping as it rose. When the deckhand at the railing fished the haul from inside, he tossed it into the air and caught it again, feeling its weight. “Little light there, Ryland,” he said, laughing.
Ryland gave the boy a tight smile, the red beneath his skin blooming. It was one thing to know other dredgers were better than you. It was another for your crew to know it. I wondered if Ryland’s place on the Luna was becoming just as precarious as mine was.
His burning gaze found me, and I turned away, calling up to the ship. “I need a line!” My voice was hoarse from the burn of salt.
The Waterside stray appeared over the side of the Luna again, giving me a nod, and I pressed my forehead into the wet ropes, closing my eyes. My stomach was sour from swallowing the seawater, and the blisters on my hands had all reopened. But if I wanted to get back to the Narrows, I couldn’t afford for this haul to be even one carat short.
The rope landed in the water beside me and I hooked it over my shoulder as I let go of the ladder. My chest was sore when I drew the breath back in, my bruised bones screaming. One more. Then I’d rest. Then I’d climb back up onto the sun-warmed deck and let the trembling in my limbs slow.
I gulped in a last full breath and plunged back under, going still so that I could let myself sink slowly and save as much energy as possible. Koy was coming up again, kicking toward the surface for air, and a