The Six | A Reverse Harem Novel | ✔️

Fifty Five

Icy water soaked my clothes, ebbing and flowing across the bottom of my legs. I gasped awake. Immediately squeezing my eyes shut against the searing sun’s rays. My body, stretched across a torn piece of plane, lifts and falls with the water’s waves.

“Hay-Hayden?” I called, struggling to get my throat to work. “Hayden?”

Quickly, I scrunched my legs up and turn my head, searching across the debris. Shrapnel and broken shards of plane litter around me, some smudged with black. Fire and smoke filled my nose and I choke on it, coughing heavily.

“Hayden!”

His name falls under the dull roar of chaos breaking loose in my brain. Clawing a hand through my hair, I roughly massaged my scalp. When I pull away, blood coats my fingers. Fear grips me.

Blood. So much blood exploded from my body, the surrounding water runs red with it. Gritting my teeth, I forced my legs down and prepare to stand.

Scorching heat engulfs my side, prickling with a vengeance. Pain steals my breath and I cough, hard, locking the need to scream inside of my chest. Patting down my side with my right arm, I curl cold, shaky fingers around a piece of metal jutting out of my skin.

Iris pushes forward in my mind, cataloging my injuries so fast I can’t keep up. Weak and broken, I collapsed onto the swaying metal and breathe through clenched teeth. Nanites swarm in my blood, rushing to heal every part they can touch. Unfortunately, they can’t heal the gash in my side unless I remove the shrapnel.

“Hayden!” I screamed his name.

Where was he? Was he okay? Were the vitals swimming in my head only the product of my imagination?

He was alive. I was sure of it. His presence was a comforting blanket over my mind, but my system was too damaged to locate him. Frustrated, I punch the metal under me but freeze when it punched back.

Launched in the air, my body flops like a rag doll. My metal raft digs deeper into my side, ripping the flesh and steel cage beneath my skin wide open. Red filters into my vision, covering every inch. If I continue to lie here, in the cold, bleeding out, I won’t survive.

Lethargic, I blink at the sky as my vision blurs and pain wipes my ability to think. Slowly, the nanites are putting me back together. Yet, I fear, just like with Jason, they won’t be fast enough. A gray dorsal fin sticks out of the water, slowly circling me. Groaning, I knock my head back.

Shark.

A beautiful, powerful creature, but I hate them. They took someone I loved more than myself away. Tearing up, I breathed out of my mouth to keep them from spilling over.

“Hayden…” I beg, both in mind and in mouth. He remains silent, dancing around the edge of my consciousness like a fine mist. Further out, four dull pings echo in the void. Confused, I reach out for them. They still slip away, falling through my fingers like rain. “Hayden, I love you.”

As the shark closes the distance between us, it speeds up. Blue light latches onto his driving form, tracing the contour of his gaping jaws. Resigned, I prepare to die.

Just as he rises out of the water, a hand yanks it away from me. With a shout, Hayden locks his arms around the shark, digging his hands into his flesh. Flipping and snapping, it tries to get him. They fall into the water and away from my sight, but I can sense Hayden’s triumph as the shark dies.