Dauntless Read Online Free PDF

minutes to walk from one end of the walkway to the other. I took a deep breath and the salty tang of the ocean filled my lungs, the crisp air reviving my senses.
    I could feel the time ticking away inside my head. I had to find Sebastian and find him fast. Looking first one way, then the other I decided on heading North. There was more ground to cover that way, but there was also easy access to the water. I jogged down the wide walkway. The pressed concrete was smooth and the hand railings looked as if they were freshly painted, a brilliant clean white. I kept my eyes peeled for anything that would give me a hint of where Sebastian might have gone.
    After a few minutes my anxiety began to grow. What if I was wrong? What if he hadn’t come down here?
    I didn’t have the time to search the whole downtown core for him. We had to get out of here. Tears began to burn at the back of my eyes and my throat tightened. I didn’t want to think about the conclusion I was coming to.
    If I couldn’t find him in the next few minutes, I would have to turn around and leave, go on without him.
    The sudden, sharp, pain in my chest wasn’t from the exertion of jogging; it was from my heart trying to break. I ran up a slight rise in the walkway and looked down over the lagoon. It was fenced in by cement barriers that rose five or six feet in the air over the water and a beautiful white bridge that arched over where the lagoon met the ocean.
    The sound of splashing and a squeal of fear moved me towards the beach access for the lagoon. For some reason my mind tried to come up with the name of the place. It was a strange one, a real mouth full. Swinging longa, or something like that. Distantly, I recognized that my mind was scattering in all directions, that I was tired, hungry and afraid. All of which was not helping my mental process.
    I rounded a corner and there on the lagoon’s beach was Scout, having a complete and utter meltdown, his hands flapping and eyes wild as he jumped all over the place, unable to make himself go in the water.
    Sebastian was in the lagoon, up to his neck and still walking out deeper.
    I ran along the paved boardwalk and skidded down the stairs to the sandy beach and into the water.
    It wasn’t too cold, but to be fair, I barely noticed it as Vincent’s words echoed in my head.
    “Genistin increases the calcium content in bones and prevents more bone mass loss. This also increases the bodies overall mass, making them heavier and less buoyant.”
    Sebastian was almost up over his mouth.
    “Bastian! Stop!” I yelled, as I floundered through the first few feet of water to the point where I could start to swim out to him. My clothes dragged at me and I struggled to keep my own head above water. I reached him as his nose dipped and he snorted in some salt water.
    I did the only thing I could think of. I grabbed the back of his head and pulled a handful of hair, yanking him back to shore. He grunted but didn’t fight me; he didn’t have too. His body was solid and he only stumbled back far enough to literally give him some breathing room.
    I kicked hard, pulling him off balance, which spun him to face the shoreline.
    “Come on! Help me Bastian,” I snapped, getting a mouthful of salt water.
    “I’m no good Mara; I don't think I can control the monster in me,” he said, his words, the fact that he was speaking in full sentences, jarring me. Treading water, I turned to face him and really looked at him.
    His skin was clear, the yellow tones gone; his eyes were human in shape, though they had retained the golden irises. More than that though, I could see Sebastian in his eyes, with no hint of the Nevermore that had raged through his system.
    I reached for him and he stood still, let me touch his face. “You’re back,” I whispered, the waves rippling around us. A piece of sea weed floated by and Sebastian shook his head.
    “I don’t know that I am.”
    From the beach Scout let out a squeal. Treading water,