Witch Dance Read Online Free PDF Page A

screamed. Hairs along the back of Kate’s neck stood on end.
    “Come on,” she whispered. “Come on.” She shaded her eyes, straining for a glimpse of his dark head rising above the rushing river.
    Could she have missed it? Was he too far downriver for her to see?
    Clutching her basket, she began to make her way down the side of the bluff. There was still no sign of the Chickasaw.
    He’d gone under and he wasn’t coming back up. Kate began to run, blood roaring in her head . . . and memories filling her mind, always the memories.
    “Kate, Kate.” A pair of hands clutched at her, glanced off her swimsuit, then disappeared. She couldn’t see. Wind and rain whipped the ocean into a frenzy. Where were they? Where were they?
    She must not panic. She must not. Brambles tore at her shorts and scratched her legs as she raced down the bluff.
    “I’m coming,” she screamed. “Hold on. I’m coming.”
    Her picnic basket hit the ground as she let go, bounced once, then overturned.
    The sailboat was overturned. She couldn’t get it to stay upright. The wind had been too strong . . . and the waves. She fought the panic that made her arms and legs heavy. Couldn’t stop, couldn’t stop swimming now. She had to find them. Where were they?
    She was beside the river now. Sharp rocks bit into her moccasins as she hit the shallows running. Hoping the water was deep enough, praying she’d be strong enough, she arched her body into a perfect bow and sliced the water.
    There was no one to save him except her.
    There was no one to save them except her. She was the oldest. She was responsible.
    Swimming hard, she fought the water. She couldn’t let it win. Not this time. She went under, searching, searching . . . and saw a leg.
    “Brian,” she screamed. Bubbles rose to the surface. “I’ve got you, Brian.”
    She couldn’t hold on. He was struggling against her. She was losing him, losing him in the darkness and the rain and the winds that howled over the ocean.
    “Stop!” Panic billowed through her as she fought to hold on to his leg. “Stop struggling, Brian. I have to save you . . . I have to save you.”
    Brian cried as he fought her, screamed as he clawed her face. She couldn’t hold him. He was pulling her down. And where was Charles?
    “Charles! Charles!” Tears streamed down her face, and water, so much water. She gasped for air. “Oh, God. I can’t find Charles.”
    Hands grabbed her shoulders. Panic filled her, and such soul-searing agony, she wanted to die.
    Charles was there now, and Brian, clinging to her, crying . . . Help me, Katie. Help me. Praying and crying, she swam. But which way was the shore? She couldn’t see. Brian was pulling her under . . . and Charles was too heavy. They would all drown.
    “No!” she screamed. “I won’t let you die.”
    “I won’t hurt you. Stop fighting.”
    “No. You can’t die.”
    But they did. First Brian slipped away, his little face contorted as he called her name, his hair floating around his head like a pale halo. Then Charles. In slow motion he drifted, always beyond her reach, until at last she couldn’t see him. She couldn’t see either of them. The sea swallowed them, swallowed her brothers, then spit her out onto the cream-colored sand. She hadn’t been strong enough. She hadn’t been good enough.
    She closed her eyes, wanting to die. Why hadn’t she died?
    Strong arms held her close. “Are you all right?”
    That voice. It was the same one she’d heard moments earlier, the voice of thunder that beseeched the sky in a strange and wondrous tongue.
    Coward that she was, she lay against his sun-warmed chest with her eyes shut. It was easier than looking into the face of the man she’d saved from the river.
    “Are you all right?” he asked again as he lowered her to the ground. Oh, God, she remembered how he’d looked standing in the river, gloriously naked. He probably was a marathon swimmer who could take on the English Channel without ever