Chapter 26: The Breath Between

Su pressed until Evan's sternum yielded beneath her hands. Nathan counted from the other side of his body. "Twenty-seven. Twenty-eight. Twenty-nine. Thirty." He sealed a clear mask over Evan's mouth and gave two breaths. Evan's chest rose beneath the torn rain shell. For one beat, her body believed him alive. "Again," Nathan said. She placed her hands and drove down. Her arms were human. Below the waist, a thick coil dragged across the flooded pavement. Scales split where skin tried to close over them. Realgar burned through both forms, consuming the heat she needed to become smaller. Evan did not breathe. His face moved with each compression. Lake water ran from his hair. Without his glasses, he looked younger, though she knew the precise age of every line beside his mouth. Daniel ran from the dock station carrying a red case. "AED." He dropped to his knees and tore the…