Chapter 91. Feelings

The cold wasn’t only outside now – it was inside me, a penetrating cold that had lodged itself within my bones. I was pressed against the door, locked, huddled, but the cold metal gave no reassurance, it simply transferred the humidity. My thoughts on the fever were like slow, thick molasses.

I was lying unconscious or barely conscious in a fog punctuated only by the occasional drip of water in the distance. I glimpsed images of Ryder’s tempestuous eyes, the blot of ink on his letter, the frightful grin on Madison’s. With each delicious chill coming from a new wave of irresistible shivers, I asked if my body could still resist. I was so tired I almost welcomed the darkness, the numbness that would end my suffering and my fear.

Beneath the surface, the pool water glinted, a huge, black mirror that appeared to draw my awareness closer to it. I was going to lose the fight against cold and illness. I felt as if I were sinking, as if I were miles from the life I should be str