Saltwater

The tide came up the cut faster than the charts allowed for, and by the time Mira reached the boathouse the lower step was already gone.

Elias was waiting with the lantern hooded, which meant he had seen it too and had decided not to say so out loud. That was Elias entirely. He would carry a thing for a week rather than name it once.

“It answered,” she said.

He looked at the water a long moment. “Then something out there is listening, and I would rather it were not.”