Another wave spun us around and I realized I had no clue which direction we were headed at this point. I tried to help by turning on my back so I would float easier, but the waves were slamming us around so much that I was afraid of being dragged down. I closed my eyes, trying to calm myself as I ran through the spells that might be useful.
None of my fiery spells would do much good. Nor would any divining or information-seeking spells. I could do minor tricks, and I had a few odd spells that didn’t seem to fit anywhere, but nowhere in my repertoire did I have a build-a-boat spell or please-don’t-drown-me spell. I wasn’t even sure any of those types of spells existed.
Aegis continued to propel us through the water, though I had no clue if he knew where we were going. I didn’t want to ask, either, because I didn’t want to interrupt his focus. Vampires were extraordinarily strong, but that didn’t mean they were invincible, and if a shark came along and decided to make a meal out of us, it could. And then, there was the ocean. The ocean was stronger than any other force on the planet. The element of water was relentless and it crept in through cracks and overwhelmed even the tallest of mountains.
We slowly pulled away from where the vortex had sucked down the boat, but the thunderstorm continued unabated and I was still worried the lightning might strike us. I wasn’t sure how much of a target we were, but the thought of a billion volts of electricity running through my body did not strike me as an experience I wanted any part of.
After a while, Aegis stopped. He was treading water, while my vest was keeping me afloat. “Love, I hate to tell you this, but I don’t know which way the shore is.”
I was crying, but it was impossible for him to tell because of the incessant rain splashing down my face. I forced a smile into my voice. “Well, this is one anniversary we’re never going to forget.”
He wrapped his arms around me and, without a word, started off again. I closed my eyes, willing him on, trying to feed him my energy via osmosis. But another moment and there was a roar behind us as the water swelled. Another wave crashed forward. Surely, this one would swamp us and drag us down to the bottom. I bit my lip, wondering why now, why was this going to be my end? And who would know? Kelson would realize we weren’t back in the morning, and so would Garret, but by then? It would be too late.
I decided to face my death with the courage I faced hunting vampires. I sucked in a deep breath and turned to face the rolling water that thundered toward us. As the wave towered over us, there was another wave forming below us. It lifted us into the air and as I caught a dizzying breath, the wave rushed forward, carrying us with it, and everything went black.
Chapter 3
“MADDY? MADDY? CAN you hear me?” The voice seemed to be coming from a distance, but it sounded familiar. “Maddy, wake up. Maddy?”
My eyes flickered and the next moment, I was staring at Sandy. I realized I was in a bed, warm and dry, and there was an IV needle in my arm. What had happened? Why was I in the hospital? I closed my eyes and a vision of swirling waves lashed around me, and all I could see everywhere I looked was dark, rolling water. The taste of brine lay heavy on my tongue. Another moment and it all swept back to me. The boat. The storm. The waves trying to drag us—
“Aegis? Where is he? Is he all right?”
“It’s okay, hon. Yes, he’s all right. He’s asleep for the day, safely tucked away from the light. You’re lucky, though. Garret thought the storm might be too much so he called you and Aegis, but neither one of you answered. So he went down to the marina and found both of you on the shore. Aegis was struggling to carry you up, but he was weak—something sapped some of his energy.”
“Vampires aren’t exactly like the Energizer Bunny. They can over-exert themselves and he was doing his best to get us both to shore. But I don’t know how he swam all the way in.” I was starting to remember the details.
“He told Garret that some massive wave came rumbling beneath you and carried you to shore, tossing you on the beach before retreating. Garret called an ambulance for you, then he contacted me. Once they determined you’d live, I made Aegis go home.” She brushed my hair out of my eyes. “Maddy, we almost lost you,” she said softly. “You were hypothermic. Aegis said you passed out when the wave picked you up, and that you had been in the water far too long.”
“Every time I close my eyes I see spinning whirlpools and waves. It’s making me dizzy.” I leaned back against the stark white pillows, shivering. I felt incredibly cold. “I’m chilled to the bone.”
“Your temperature’s normal,” Jordan Farrows said as he walked through the door. He was a doctor who specialized in magical ailments but I had started going to him because he was good at his job and I trusted him. “But you’ll likely feel that intense chill for a while. You don’t have the energy to spare to try to raise your heat level, so don’t even think about it, but I’ll have the nurse bring an extra blanket.”
“How am I doing?” I shifted, trying to stop the feeling of motion. “It feels like everything spins when I move.”
“You ended up with a lot of water in your ears. We drained them, but you’re going to have one hell of an earache by tomorrow and you will probably have some pretty strong vertigo for a few days.” He looked over my chart. “You should be fine, but you were knocked around a lot and you’re going to have a lot of bruises. If you were human, you would have frozen to death. It looks like your sense of survival kicked in and you instinctively raised the temperature around your body enough to keep you alive, but it depleted you magically. You’ll need to rest up for a while before you try any heavy-duty spells. Got it?”
“Yeah, I get it. When can I go home?” I wanted to hide out in my own bed, safe under the comforter.
“I’ll discharge you around noon, if you feel up to leaving. But no driving for a few days. Agreed?” He tapped the chart with his pencil.
I nodded. “Agreed.” Another flash of memory hit me and I reached for my neck, hoping that Aegis’s present was still there. “My necklace—and my pentacle. Please don’t tell me they were ripped away in the water.”
“I’ll have the nurse check. We have everything you came in with up front.” And with that, Jordan started toward the door. He glanced over his shoulder. “You were very lucky, Maddy.”
“I know,” I said softly. “Can you disconnect the IVs now? I want to get up.”
Jordan laughed. “Only you would ask that. Yes, I think you’re fine now. We had to get some nutrients into you and you were—don’t laugh—dehydrated.” He motioned to the nurse, who began to disconnect the IVs from my arm. I winced as she withdrew the needle and put pressure on my arm for a moment, then taped a cotton ball over it.
I couldn’t stand without the room spinning, so the nurse brought me a shower chair and I sat beneath the warm water, leery as it splashed down on me. Even though it felt good, the fact that it was showering my face made me feel claustrophobic and I was grateful when I was done.
Sandy helped me dress. She had brought me a change of clothes, and grateful, I slid into the warm, flowing dress. It was a soft knit, and I felt like I was snuggled in a soft blanket. I slipped on the socks and boots she had thought to bring, and she guided me over to the banquette by the window that overlooked the parking lot. The realization of how close I had come to dying hit home, and the fear from the night before rushed back. My stomach tightened into a knot.
“I almost bit the big one, Sandy. Is this how you felt when that car hit you?” I realized I was shaking. A few months back, in late June, a couple of discontented thugs had tried to take out my best friend. We had managed to catch them, but that had been far too close of a call.
“Yeah, pretty much. At least after I woke up in the hospital. During the attack, it was all too quick for me to really think much of anything.”
I nodded. “Last night, all I can remember is the waves crashing over us and the chill of the water and Aegis trying his best to swim us to shore. If that wave hadn’t
pushed us in, I don’t think I would have made it. Aegis would have, but not me.”
Just then a nurse came in with an envelope. “I’ve brought your possessions that were on you when you came in.”
I knew my purse wasn’t there—which meant I’d have to replace all of my ID, as well as my phone and my keys. I opened the envelope and shook it out in my lap. There was my pentacle, and the necklace from Aegis. I slipped them around my neck before realizing there was something else in the envelope. As the last item landed in my hand, I gasped.
“Sandy…” I held it up.
The second pentacle was exactly like mine, only it was bronze. I looked over Sandy. She stared at it, then touched her chest, where her gold pentacle rested—again, exactly like mine.
“Fata,” she whispered.
Fata, Sandy, and I had commissioned matching pentacles from a jeweler. He had made them, and mine was silver, Sandy’s gold, and Fata’s had been bronze. I turned the pentacle over and sure enough, on the back was an engraved “F.”
“Is she really here? Did she bring me in? Aegis would have mentioned her, surely.” I desperately wanted to talk to him, but he was asleep.
“He didn’t say a word.” Sandy slowly reached out and touched the pentacle sitting in my hand. “Fata. I wonder if she’s on the island.”
“The storm—it was her doing, I know it in my gut. She brought me to safety with her waves. That has to be it. But why didn’t she stay?” I wasn’t sure how I felt. Nearly drowning was rough enough, but wondering what Fata was up to added a whole ‘nother level of stress.
“I think we’ll have to wait until she decides to show herself. Maddy, it’s been a long time. We don’t know who we’ll be dealing with. Fata Morgana was always on the wild side. I know you don’t like talking about it, but when she left—s”
I cut her off. I really didn’t feel like talking about that last night, especially right now. “Yeah, she had slipped over the edge.”
“Exactly. We don’t know if she’s still there, dancing on the wild side, or if she’s had time to let the past go.”
And with that, we fell silent. I wondered what Sandy was really thinking, but given I didn’t know what I was thinking myself, I decided to change the subject until the doctor discharged me.
AN HOUR LATER, I was ready to go. Sandy made me sit in a wheelchair until we reached the parking lot. When we were at her van, I stood and immediately was grateful for how pushy she had been. I almost faceplanted onto the asphalt. As she helped me into the passenger side, her phone rang.
“Can you get that while I run back to grab a bottle of water from the vending machine?” She motioned to her purse. “It’s probably Max.”
I pulled her phone out of her purse and frowned. The number was unfamiliar. “Cassandra Clauson’s phone. May I take a message?”
“Is Ms. Clauson available?” The voice was deep and very, very business-like. “It’s important. This is Mills Wayfair, her lawyer.”
“She’ll be back in a few moments. May I help you?” I wasn’t sure if I could do anything, but he sounded insistent.
“Please have her call me back immediately.” He hung up abruptly. I wasn’t sure whether to be offended, but decided he was probably busy. If the news was as important as it seemed to be, he’d be focused on whatever it was and not up to playing Mr. Congeniality.
Sandy returned a few minutes later, water in hand.
“Phone your lawyer. He called and said he needs to talk to you and that it’s important.”
“It can wait till I get you home,” Sandy said, buckling her seat belt and starting the van. She eased out of the parking lot and fifteen minutes later, we were sitting in my driveway. “Once I get you inside, I’ll call Mills.”
“Is he human?” A number of lawyers were human—they seemed to excel at the profession.
“No, actually.” Sandy opened my door and helped me get out. She brushed off my insistence that I could make it into the house without a problem and guided me across the back yard from the driveway.
Kelson saw us coming and opened the door, running out to help. She, too, refused to listen to my protests and took my other arm. I felt like a little old lady they were helping to cross the street, but I bit back my irritation. The doctor had said I would be unsteady for a few days, and he was right— if Sandy and Kelson let go, I’d probably end up on my ass.
I eased into a kitchen chair and leaned back, sighing. “Sometimes, home looks mighty fine,” I said.
“You hungry?”
“Oh gods, yes. Hospital food sucks. Well, actually, I didn’t have hospital food. Just nutrients in an IV solution. So bring on the bacon.” I flashed Kelson a wide smile, grateful for her presence.
Sandy pulled out her phone and moved off to one side to return Mills’s call.
Kelson brought out a dozen eggs, a loaf of bread, and a bowl of fruit salad. She began heating a skillet, then cracked three of the eggs into a bowl, pausing to gesture at Sandy. Sandy shook her head, so Kelson left it at that and whipped the eggs into a frothy blend, then poured them into the crackling skillet. She popped two pieces of bread into the toaster, then put away the carton of eggs and the rest of the loaf. After spooning fruit salad into a bowl, she began to scramble the eggs.
Sandy let out a soft cry. “You can’t be serious?” She didn’t sound excited, just shocked. “They couldn’t be mistaken, could they?” A pause, then, “All right. Yes, I understand, No, I’m fine with that, but… Oh, Mills. How am I ever going to tell her?” She sounded heartbroken, now.
I straightened up, watching her carefully. Kelson quietly set my plate of toast and eggs in front of me, along with the bowl of fruit. I nodded her my thanks and absently sprinkled salt on the eggs and bit into them, my gaze glued to Sandy.
She was wiping away a tear, and she looked so bereft that I knew something had gone horribly wrong. A few more murmured words into her phone and she slowly dropped into the chair opposite me, setting her phone on the table. She stared at it like it might bite her.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
She raised her gaze to meet mine. “Derry’s dead. My lawyer called to tell me that Jenna’s mother died, and she left specifications in the will that I am now Jenna’s legal guardian.”
I blinked. Derry Knight was a gadabout woman who probably never should have had children. She was fun loving and free-spirited, but not the best mother. Jenna had turned out remarkably well for a child whose main parent wasn’t invested in their existence. Derry had taken off on a two-year world tour, leaving Jenna in Sandy’s care, and Jenna was blossoming out. She lived at the Neverfall Academy for Gifted Students, but she stayed with Sandy every other weekend and knew she could always call us if she needed.
“Derry’s dead? What happened?”
“Apparently, Derry was hiking in Kakadu National Park in Australia. They told her not to go out alone at night, because that’s when a number of the venomous snakes come out.” Sandy rubbed her forehead, pinching her brow between her fingers.
“I can see this one coming. Derry ignored their warnings.” The little I remembered of Derry had mostly been her refusal to play by the rules.
“Yeah. She hiked out to Jim Jim Falls late one night. She slipped out of camp before their guide could notice. By the next morning, they discovered her disappearance. The guides went out to look for her and found her near the falls, dead. She had been bitten by a coastal taipan and she was dead when they found her.” Sandy gave me a mute look. Finally, she said, “How the hell do I tell Jenna? It’s up to me. I’m her legal guardian now.”
“Do you want help? I can go with you.” With food in my stomach, I felt like curling up under a fuzzy blanket and taking a nap, but if Sandy needed me, I was here.
She shook her head. “No, this is my responsibility. I’ll ask Max if he can help. He’s scheduled to leave on a business trip over to Bellingham for a day or so, but I think he’ll have the time to drive u
p to Neverfall with me before he catches the ferry.” She quietly accepted the mocha that Kelson pressed into her hands.
Kelson brought me a triple-shot mocha. Not as strong as I wanted it, but it would do for now. I sipped the frothy chocolate and peppermint and closed my eyes, trying not to picture Derry, lying there alone, dying. It was just too harsh.
Finally, I rested my elbows on the table. “Derry lived life on her own terms. She knew the dangers. She was warned and yet, she decided the risk was worth it. Sometimes you can play the odds and win, and other times, you lose. This time, her number came up. There’s nothing you could have done to stop it. The best you can do now is to be strong for Jenna. I know Derry was your friend, but that little girl is going to need you. She adores you.”
Sandy finished her drink, and pushed back from the table. “I know. Derry was selfish, when it comes down to it. She never cared as much about Jenna as she did herself. I’ll head out now.”
“Let me know how it goes,” I said, waving as she left.
Kelson carried my empty dishes back to the sink. I let out a long sigh, staring at the table. “Well, it’s been one hell of a twenty-four hours. Last night was Aegis’s and my first anniversary. I guess the party got a little wild, didn’t it?”
She settled in at the table with me. “You know, sometimes life just likes to put the hammer down on celebrations. But you’re both safe, and I imagine after you’ve had a few days to relax, you’ll be fine.”
I thought of the bronze pentacle in my pocket. “Fine” wasn’t exactly the word I would use to describe my life at this moment. I wasn’t sure whether to tell her about Fata Morgana. Kelson lived in the Bewitching Bedlam. She would find out sooner or later, but right now, I needed to process everything that had happened.
I was saved from making a decision when the house phone rang. Kelson went to answer it, and that reminded me that I needed a new cell phone as soon as possible. And identification, and I had to call the bank about my credit cards, all of which were lying at the bottom of the Salish Sea.