Fervor by Chantal Boudreau Page A

but the water’s so cold and I’m feeling so tired.”
    It was hard for him to concentrate as he struggled for breath. At the same time, he didn’t want his last few thoughts to be shared with the rest of the connection. Anything he was going to tell her was to remain just between him and her. He stopped fighting the waves as fiercely, and steeled the link with Sarah.
    “ Royce was talking with others in secret – other Bigs that I didn’t recognize. I don’t think that they wanted anybody to see them, and that’s why he came after me. I found something…a container. I know that it’s something special. I think that it’s still safe in my pocket. When they drag my body out, make sure you get that before they take me away.”
    “ Your body? Sam – no!” Her push was so forceful that it gave Sam a headache. “Nathan’s just about there. Don’t give up!”
    As much as he wanted to listen to her, it was at that very moment that a sizeable wave washed over his head and with little ability left to lift his face above water again, Sam began to sink.
    “ Sam! Sam!”
    He could hear the cries faintly in his head as his vision blurred and the greyness fell over him. He wasn’t sure who exactly it was calling to him, his ability to identify the person who spoke fading along with his consciousness. As the blackness overtook him, he thought that he felt something make contact with his forearm, and he could have sworn that he heard, just barely, “Gotcha.”
     
    * - * - *
     
    “ Sam? I think he’s coming around.”
    The voice was a hazy one inside his head, but one that he would always recognize, and he knew it was attached to the small hand that rested on his chest, a chest that felt painfully constricted and water-logged. With a few coughing gags, Sam weakly turned onto his side and spewed saltwater onto the damp sand next to him. That was when he noticed that there was still a firm grip on his arm as well. Nathan was there, too.
    “ Dammit, little buddy, you scared us to death. Don’t you ever do that again, you hear?” He felt the thick fingers by his elbow tighten their grasp a little – one brief and reassuring squeeze.
    “ What were you doing so far away from home?” Fiona demanded. She knelt beside Sarah, looking equally concerned. “How do you expect Nathan to keep you safe if you don’t stay where he can easily get to you?”
    “ Fiona,” Sarah protested. “Give him a chance to recover before you start nagging at him. I’m sure that he didn’t mean any harm.”
    “ Finding,” Sam said shakily, as Nathan helped him to sit up. That was when the smaller boy noticed that Francis was on the beach as well. He stood a few feet away, his arms crossed and his expression grim. Royce has not that far away either, past the Teller. The other Bigs that had been with the black-haired boy were nowhere in sight . “I was finding. I couldn’t help it. There was something there, but then I saw Royce and...”
    Now it was Nathan’s turn to respond unhappily.
    “ I heard Royce and Francis talking while Sarah was trying to revive you. Royce claimed that he was just doing what Francis had asked, giving you a bit of a scare so that I had to come help you. They said that it had something to do with testing my talent, whatever that meant. It sounds like they planned this, and Royce had suggested that he wasn’t really going to hurt you,” the broad-shouldered Big reported.
    Sam reached out his mind and touched Sarah’s. They both knew that Royce may have been telling the truth about Francis asking for his assistance in order to test Nathan’s gift, but otherwise he was lying through his teeth. It was clear that he could in no way be trusted.
    “ Come on, little buddy,” Nathan murmured, lifting Sam out of the sand. “Let’s get you home and rested. The finding can wait for another day.”
    With that, he carried the smaller boy back to the house, Fiona and Sarah by his side. Francis, with his familiar