Aria's POV
The freezing water hit me like a thousand knives.
I couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. The ocean pulled me down, down, down into darkness that wanted to swallow me whole.
My lungs screamed for air. Salt water burned my throat. I kicked toward where I thought the surface was, but everything was black and spinning and I didn't know which way was up anymore.
Lily. I have to get back to Lily.
My daughter's face flashed in my mind—her smile, her laugh, the way she called me Mama. I couldn't die. I wouldn't let Marcus win. Not like this.
I kicked harder. My arms felt like lead weights. My wet clothes dragged me down.
Just when my vision started going fuzzy, strong hands grabbed me.
Damien.
He pulled me up, up, up until suddenly we broke through the surface. I gasped and coughed, choking on seawater and air and relief all mixed together.
"I've got you," Damien panted, treading water while holding me against his chest. Blood still ran from the cut on his head, mixing with the ocean spray. "Don't let go."
I clung to him like he was the only solid thing left in the world.
Around us, pieces of the broken catwalk floated in the dark water. Above, I could see the lighthouse door where Marcus had been standing. But he wasn't there anymore.
"Kira?" I choked out.
"There." Damien pointed.
Twenty feet away, Kira's red hair bobbed in the waves. She was swimming toward the rocks, moving fast despite the cut on her throat.
"We have to help her—"
"We have to get you safe first." Damien started pulling me toward the rocky shore. "Can you swim?"
"I think so."
But before we could move, something splashed into the water behind us.
Marcus.
He'd jumped in after us, and now he was swimming straight toward Kira with powerful strokes that ate up the distance between them.
"No!" I tried to swim toward them, but Damien held me back.
"Aria, you can barely stay afloat—"
"He's going to kill her!"
Marcus reached Kira. She tried to fight him off, but he was bigger, stronger. He pushed her head under the water.
Bubbles rose to the surface. Kira's arms flailed.
Then she went still.
"KIRA!" I screamed.
Marcus looked back at us, his face twisted with rage even from this distance. Then he dove under, disappearing beneath the black waves.
"He's coming for us," Damien said grimly. "Get to shore. Now."
We swam as fast as we could. My muscles burned. Every breath felt like fire. But fear pushed me forward—fear for Lily, for Damien, for myself.
We reached the rocks just as Marcus surfaced again, closer now. Too close.
Damien hauled himself out first, then pulled me up onto the slippery stones. My hands were cut and bleeding, but I barely felt it. We scrambled higher, away from the reaching waves.
"Run!" Damien pushed me ahead of him.
We ran along the rocky shore, our wet shoes slipping on seaweed and stones. Behind us, I could hear Marcus climbing out of the water.
"You can't run forever, Aria!" His voice echoed off the rocks. "I always find you. I always win."
A narrow path led up the cliff face toward the road. We took it, climbing so fast I thought my heart would explode. Damien stayed behind me, one hand on my back, steadying me when I slipped.
We were almost to the top when a gunshot cracked through the night.
The rock beside my head exploded into dust.
I screamed and dropped flat.
"Keep moving!" Damien threw himself over me, shielding my body with his.
Another shot. This one hit so close that sharp stone fragments cut my cheek.
Marcus was climbing after us, shooting as he came. In the moonlight, I could see his face—and it wasn't the charming mask he showed the world anymore. This was the real Marcus. The monster who'd haunted my nightmares for five years.
"Give me one reason I shouldn't kill you both right now!" he shouted.
"Because the police are on their way," Damien called back. It was a bluff—his phone was waterlogged and useless, same as mine.
Marcus laughed, cold and cruel. "Nice try. No one knows you're here. No one's coming to save you."
He was right. We were alone. Trapped. And he had a gun.
Damien looked at me, and in his eyes I saw a terrible determination. "When I say run, you run. Don't look back. Don't stop. Get to the road and flag down a car."
"What? No—"
"Promise me, Aria. Promise me you'll save yourself. For Lily."
Tears streamed down my face, mixing with salt water. "I can't leave you—"
"You can. You will." He cupped my face with one hand, his touch gentle despite everything. "I love you. I've always loved you. Now run."
He kissed me—hard and desperate and full of goodbye.
Then he stood up, putting himself between me and Marcus.
"Run, Aria! NOW!"
I ran.
Behind me, I heard them fighting. Damien's grunt of pain. Marcus's curse. Another gunshot that made my heart stop.
But I kept running like Damien told me to. Up the path, my legs shaking, my lungs burning, my whole body screaming to turn back.
I reached the top of the cliff and stumbled onto the road. Empty. Dark. No cars. No help.
I turned back toward the cliff edge—and froze.
Marcus stood there, his gun pointed at Damien, who was on his knees at the cliff's edge. Blood soaked Damien's shoulder.
"Aria!" Marcus's smile was terrible. "Come here, darling. Or I push him over."
"Don't do it," Damien gasped. "Keep running—"
"Shut up." Marcus kicked him, and Damien nearly went over the edge. Only his hands scrabbling at the rocks kept him from falling to his death fifty feet below.
My mind raced. If I went to Marcus, we'd both die. If I ran, Damien died.
There was no good choice. No way to win.
"Tick tock, Aria." Marcus's finger tightened on the trigger. "What's it going to be?"
I took a step toward them, hands raised. "Okay. Okay, I'm coming. Just don't hurt him. Please."
"That's my girl." Marcus's smile widened. "Always so predictable. Always so—"
Red and blue lights suddenly flooded the road.
Police cars—three of them—screeching to a stop all around us.
Detective Torres jumped out, gun drawn. "Drop your weapon! Now!"
For one second, Marcus looked shocked. Then his face hardened with pure hate.
"If I can't have you," he said to me, "nobody can."
He turned his gun toward Damien's head.
Time slowed down. I screamed. Torres fired.
Marcus stumbled backward. His gun went off, the shot going wild.
Then he fell—over the cliff edge, disappearing into the darkness below.
I ran to Damien, dropping to my knees beside him. He was bleeding badly, his face pale, but his eyes were open and focused on me.
"You called the police," he whispered.
"No," I said, confused. "I thought you—"
"I did." A weak voice came from behind us.
Kira stood there, dripping wet and shaking, Torres's phone in her hand. Blood still seeped from the cut on her throat, but she was alive. Alive.
"I got away from him in the water," she said. "Played dead until he went after you. Then I swam to shore and found Detective Torres's number in Damien's wallet. I called from the lighthouse phone."
"You saved us," I breathed.
"You would've done the same for me." Kira's smile was weak but real. "We're sisters, remember?"
Paramedics swarmed around us. They worked on Damien's shoulder while I held his hand, refusing to let go. Torres coordinated search teams to look for Marcus's body at the base of the cliff.
"Is he dead?" I asked. I needed to know. Needed to hear it.
Torres looked grim. "That's a fifty-foot drop onto rocks, ma'am. Nobody survives that. But we'll search until we're certain."
I should have felt relief. Should have felt free.
Instead, I felt numb.
They loaded Damien into an ambulance. I climbed in beside him, still holding his hand. As we pulled away, I looked back at the lighthouse silhouetted against the dawn sky.
Movement on the cliff's edge caught my eye.
A figure standing there, watching us drive away.
In the growing light, I saw red hair. A familiar face. But something was wrong—the expression was cold, calculating. Nothing like Kira.
I blinked, and the figure was gone.
"Did you see that?" I whispered.
But Damien's eyes were closed, his breathing shallow. The paramedic was shouting something about blood loss.
And behind us, down at the base of the cliff where Marcus had fallen, I swear I heard someone laugh.
Cold. Cruel. Familiar.
The ambulance doors slammed shut, and we raced into the morning—away from the lighthouse, away from the ocean, away from the nightmare.
But deep in my bones, I knew.
This wasn't over.
Not even close.