Page 107 of Sands of Atonement

Now he was seeing me.

I was sure of it.

He was touching me and… There were no harsh words or hateful glances between the two of us. This wasn’t normal—this wasn’t reality.

A flood of fear coursed through my body once more.

A sob escaped my mouth. Ezra lifted his hand from my waist to my throat.

“Shh, relax,” Ezra ordered me. His voice instantly melted my body into his. I breathed in and out.

Warm sensations pooled at the bottom of my core at the sound of his voice.

“Do you know who did this to you?” he said in a cool, lethal tone.

He brought the bar of soap to the front of my body, but kept his hand around my throat.

“N—no one,” I stammered, trying to focus on my breaths and be in denial that almost my whole body is submerged in water.

“Don’t lie to me, Eshe.”

“I don’t like the water.”

“Because?”

“Because…” I can’t tell him. It’d only further his point about Kavid.

His fingers pressed lightly against my throat, feeling my pulse.

“You know who did this?”

He was going to kill me. I was going to drown. A tear fell from my eyes, and my pulse sped.

I hyperventilated.

“Ezra, take me back…” My hands lifted to his on my neck.

“Kavid did this,” he spat, answering his own question.

I froze. The world stopped spinning.

How did he know that?

I swallowed against the column of my throat. “H—how did you know?”

“Because I saw him. I saw him near the pillar, just staring at you when you were drowning in the bath during the storm. I saw him do nothing.”

“N—no, it was an accident. He didn’t know.”

Ezra tightened his hold on my throat.

“It was no accident. He wanted you dead.”

Another uncontrollable, panicked sob came from my throat, and I shook my head. I didn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe it.

“You’re lying. Kavid would never try to kill me—it was an accident. He told me!”

“If it were an accident, why didn’t he save you when you were screaming for help? You know who did?”