stone was a strange one, the feel of it thick in the water around me. If it was what I thought it was, it had been missed because of the unusual rock formation that had hidden the shape of the cache. Elestial quartz was rare and valuable, but it formed in feldspar, not basalt, which was exactly what this reef looked like. No one had come looking for elestial quartz here, and no one had stumbled upon it. And if the quartz had managed to hide, maybe midnight had too.
When I could see the faded orange face of the basalt, I dropped the chisel back into my belt and switched to a pick. It only took a few drives of the mallet before the purple gemstone appeared, but five dives later, there was no midnight to be found. I chipped the last of the feldspar from the ridge, my teeth clenched. But as the sand cleared, my hand tightened on the handle of my mallet. Nothing.
Fronds of coral swayed back and forth in the rough water, the fish swimming wayward as they pushed against the tide. The noise of the storm radiated through the sea like the drawn-out sound of thunder, disorienting me. If there was any midnight on this reef, I wasn’t going to find it like this.
I turned, letting a bubble escape my lips as I pressed my back to the rock and watched a dim spread of pale green swirling in the distance. In a few minutes we would lose what little light we had left and we’d be forced to wait out the winds.
A sharp ping shot through water and I looked up the ridge to see Koy floating over the top of the reef. He was hitting together two chisels, trying to get my attention. As soon as I caught his eyes, he sank back down and disappeared.
West rose from where he was working, swimming after him, and I followed, carving through the water with my heart hammering in my ears.
Koy’s black hair floated up in twisting strands as he hit the handle of the chisel. I came down beside West, going rigid when I saw the deep slash of red wrapped around his shoulder. It looked like he caught the corner of the reef.
I gently touched the broken skin, and he looked back at me, giving a flick of his fingers to dismiss my concern before he turned back to Koy.
His hands were working fast, and I eyed the constriction in his chest, pulling beneath the muscle. He needed to surface, and fast. He leaned back when another piece of basalt broke free and my mouth dropped open. The taste of cold and salt rolled over my tongue and I floated closer, eyeing a glossy spread of black.
West looked to me, his brow furrowed, but I couldn’t tell through the dim light what it was. I took the chisel from my belt and pushed Koy aside, signaling for him to go up for air before he blacked out. West worked at the other side and we moved the tips of our chisels closer together until the smallest corner of the stone chipped off, falling between us. West reached out, catching it in his palm and closing his fingers around it.
I rubbed the sand from my stinging eyes, my vision blurring. When a fish darted between me and the reef, I looked up. Something wasn’t right.
The water turned around us, shifting back and forth quietly. But the reef was empty, every fish and crab suddenly gone. I watched the last of them skitter away, into the murky distance.
West froze beside me, seeing the same.
It could only mean one thing.
I looked up, eyeing the surface, where the ripple of light had been just moments ago. Now, it was only black.
TWENTY-NINE
I broke through to the roar of wind, gasping, and West came up beside me as lightning tangled in the black clouds overhead.
I sucked in a breath as a wave barreled in toward us, and I sank back down before it hit. West disappeared as the water crashed and rolled above, sucking me deeper in its retreat. I kicked in the opposite direction, but another one was already coming in, slamming into the rocks ahead.
I came back up, choking on the burn of saltwater in my raw throat. Down the reef, West was swimming toward me over another wave.
“We have to get back to the ship!” I shouted, turning in a circle to search the rough water.