Only when his legs gave out did he collapse, face-first in the grit, lungs heaving like bellows. He rolled onto his back, staring up at the night sky, salt stinging his eyes. His body trembled uncontrollably, adrenaline still burning in his veins.
The sea was quiet behind him, deceptively calm. No shadow, no wake, nothing to prove what he’d just lived through. If anyone had watched, they’d think he was drunk, staggering from his boat and falling like a fool. But Erik knew what he’d felt. Something vast had passed beneath him, and for a moment, it had tried to take him.