by Amie Gibbons
“No, no, no,” I gasped, pulling her straight.
Her brown curls smushed under her in a wild mess, mixing with the sand in what would probably take about three showers to get out.
If she lived.
No, no! This was what CPR was for.
I could do this.
I hadn’t done CPR since training in it like over a year ago, but I could do this.
I tilted her head back, mind racing.
How did I know when her head was tilted back far enough so it was the right way and I was breathing into her lungs and not her stomach?
Crap. I didn’t remember how to do this.
Crap!
“Here,” Grant said, pushing me aside.
He readjusted her and pinched her nose, giving her two puffs of air, and then pumping her chest.
“Come on,” I whispered. “Come on.”
Grant repeated the process, and AB gagged, coughing and rolling to her side away from him to half cough-puke water up.
“Oh, thank you, God!” I pressed my hands together and closed my eyes, takin’ a moment before falling next to my friend.
I pulled her shoulders into an awkward, tight hug.
AB just kept coughing.
“Are you okay?” I asked when she quieted.
She shook her head but shot me a thumbs up as she lurched to break my hold and crawled away.
She stayed bent over, coughing again and again, more deliberate now, like she was trying to make sure everything was up.
Grant’s hand fell on my shoulder, and I jumped in place, looking over and up at him.
“Thank you!” I said emphatically, putting my hand over his.
He nodded, meeting my eyes.
And despite what’d just happened, my heartrate picked up, and I swear I was having a hard time breathing again.
Funny, since I could breathe in the water just dandy.
“How did you do that?” Grant asked after a moment.
Still not moving his hand.
“The magic?” I asked.
“That would be it, yes,” he said dryly.
I had to laugh.
“I, um, I’m not sure. I just figured out last year that I’m some sorta water witch and can do stuff with it now. I can conjure water sometimes, and I can make it do what I want. So in there, it’s like I imagine a laser coming outta my finger, and it makes a really hot stream of water. I can also make the waves move me, and water amplifies my psychicness.”
I took a deep breath.
Couldn’t tear my eyes away from him.
In getting mouth to mouth, AB had gotten further with Grant than I ever had.
I wanted to know what it’d be like to kiss him.
Just once.
“Where’d your sword go?” I asked, voice barely more than a whisper.
He smiled that tiny ghost smile. “Spell. It grows when I want it to.”
Okay, that was dirty!
Heat flushed through me and I licked my lips.
Something dark flashed behind Grant’s eyes and he pulled his hand away.
I looked away, clearing my throat.
“Um, anyway,” I said. “I know, by magic, that this world is mostly water. The Fae are all on islands. Some are bigger than others, and some are in chains, but it’s like the Pacific out here. Some islands are about the size of the UK. Don’t ask me how I know that. I don’t even know how big the UK is. That’s just what popped into my head. Like this chain belonging to the lust Fae is the size of the UK in total, but this is the big island. And I know it, like I read it in a presentation, you know?”
“Ryder,” Grant said in that tone I’d know anywhere.
Saying I was babbling.
“Sorry, sir,” I said, eyes going to AB as she flopped over to her back and stretched in the sand.
We were all gonna need a serious shower after this.
The sand itched under my top and I wished I hadn’t changed outta my dress into the shorts and tank AB had grabbed from home for me, cuz then at least there wouldn’t have been room for the sand to get in between the two pieces and itch all over my stomach and back.
I took a moment to wish Pyro had been home when AB hit the house.
It’d been dark by then, and he’d already gone out for the night.
I’d texted him, but he hadn’t answered before we left.
And something told me my data plan didn’t cover the Fairy realm.
I took a deep breath. “Anyway, they all have their own lands, and they’re running outta room. That’s why they keep coming into ours, or trying to. The water keeps them from fighting too efficiently, cuz their magic can’t go over the deep water. Fae magic is very earth based. Water has a dampening effect.”
“Pun intended,” Grant said, voice still dry as unbuttered toast.
“Yeah,” I said, trying to smile and not feeling it.
AB crawled back over to us and picked up the bag.
“You okay?” I asked her.
She shook her head, unzipping the bag.
“Should’ve been water proof,” she said, voice raspy.
She wouldn’t look at me.
“AB?” I asked.
She shook her head. “I can’t… can’t deal right now.”
She sounded so weak.
“AB, I’m so sorry!” I said. “I know-”
“No!” she said, strength behind the raspiness. “I drowned in there. So no. Just, focus on the stuff. Were they…?”
She shook her head again and I bit my lip, looking at Grant.
“It’s okay,” Grant said. “She’s right, let’s check the stuff.”
We each took a pack and looked through them.
The dried food stuffs, I couldn’t remember their names, but they were army ration things, were still dry. The bottles of water were a bit wet, probably more from condensation than anything else, and the change of clothes and the bottles and packets of spells and ingredients were okay.
So even though the cloth on the outside of the backpacks were soaked through, apparently the spell had held, in that it kept the stuff inside okay.
I checked my gun, and AB glanced at me and did the same with hers.
Mine was okay, so I assumed the spell she’d put on mine to keep it dry worked on hers too.
Why didn’t we think to spell our clothes, since we’d thought to take care of the things we’d be carrying?
Speaking of.
“Any place to change around here with a little privacy?” I asked, looking around. “I guess we could just turn around.”
“We should save the change of clothes for when we really need them,” Grant said.
AB nodded. “Not feeling too great about the ones I have on right now, but yeah.”
“Okay, fine,” I said. “So, any idea what that was?”
“Security system,” AB said. “Emily said we’d see those near the doors. I just figured, you know, we’d see them. This was…”
She shook her head, shoving stuff back into the bag.
Oh, dear.
Did we make a mistake bringing her?
What if she was traumatized all over again?
I mean, she’d just been drowned.
And probably accidently swallowed some of the water!
Holy crap on a cracker.
What was that going to do to her?
It was my turn to shake my head.
We couldn’t worry about that right now.
She’d dealt with a lot since I’d met her, and she’d handled it. It was hard to remember when she was dealing with her ex, but she was made of sterner stuff than she thought. And part of this reaction was probably her berating herself for being weak, when she was actually very strong and dealing with this just like I would.
By pushing forward.
“That caught me by surprise,” AB finished after taking a moment.
She pulled the clip outta her hair, shook out the stringy, sandy mess the best she could, and pushed it back to reclip it.
>
My long dark blonde hair was already bound back in a braid, but little hairs were escaping, making fuzzies around the top of my head.
And it was coated with sand.
Ew.
I grabbed it and shook it out, looking at Grant as I stood.
And burst out laughing.
He scowled at me as he shoved the rest of his stuff into his pack.
“Sorry, sir,” I said, walking over. “You have a ton of sand in your hair. It’s like half sand. Close your eyes.”
I put my hands in his short brown hair, shaking the sand out, digging my fingers into his scalp to shake the lower bits loose.
Grant sucked in a sharp breath and my hands froze.
“That got most of it,” I said quickly, stumbling back.
Yep, that was smooth.
Just remember what happened the last time you tried to seduce Grant, I thought. And that was before he had a girlfriend.
Nothing was gonna happen here. Even if we weren’t in danger for our lives and didn’t have AB along.
Because he had Heather.
And I needed to remember that.
Needed to internalize it, as AB would say.
Especially considering we were in enemy territory here.
Grant got up, clearing his throat, and AB walked up next to us.
Shaking.
I rubbed her arm, and she shrugged me off.
“Sorry,” I said.
“No,” she said, holding up a hand and waving a finger. “I’m good, but I want to stay that way, so that means denial. So no asking me if I’m okay or anything like that because I will break, and we don’t have time for that shit. I’ll break when we get home.”
“Okay,” I said.
“Catching this asshole for that bitch better be worth it, that’s all I’m saying,” she growled.
Grant and I exchanged a look and followed her as she plowed forward.
One fist clenched around the gun on her hip.
Chapter Seven
“You think we can just walk in?” I whispered, eyeing the gate.
The place wasn’t exactly Fort Knox.
The gates stood facing the sea where it curved inland in a little delta, the water so clear we could see that it was no more than ten feet deep for practically the entire bay.
Probably good, defensively speaking, since that was shallow enough for their magic to be able to travel over it without too much water to block it.
Meaning their defensive spells might up their game.
We’d only had to walk another ten minutes or so, and I’d kept a magical eye on the ocean to make sure no other surprises were waitin’ for us.
I could feel the spelled seaweeds ready to reach up and grab us.
And then quell as they felt the power I had over water closing around them any time they moved.
I shivered as the water swished against the shore.
Speaking to me.
The power here was so great, permeated so much, it felt like it was touching me when I was just standing there.
Like it was boosting me.
And honestly?
I felt plum pickled, almost drunk.
The water followed me so easily, and something told me it had more to do with this place and the amount of magic here than anything AB had whipped up in her lab.
Maybe that explained why the Fae were so powerful when they went over to our side?
Maybe they brought the extra magic that was all around here with them?
Or maybe they were just that powerful, and that meant the extra boost I had here also meant they’d be even more juiced than the ones I’d met over there.
Still…
Their seaweed traps hadn’t been a match for me.
“Calm down, Ryder,” Grant said.
I flinched.
“Sir?”
“You are projecting very loudly right now.” He kept his voice very quiet. “And I can feel you feeling the power. Don’t let it go to your head. And it will. Take a breath, and remember, no matter how powerful you feel, no matter how powerful you are, there’s a few hundred thousand to millions of them in any given city.”
I crashed back to earth.
Or Fairy, as the case was.
“Right, sorry, sir.”
“I feel it too. Don’t let it control you.”
I nodded.
Once we were inside the city, I wouldn’t have the water to pull on anyway.
So it really didn’t matter how powerful I felt if my main source was miles and a twenty-foot-tall wall away.
The gates weren’t guarded by anyone we could see.
And people wandered out, some of them laying on the sand and a few playing in the frothy shallows of the sea.
It looked so normal.
Like something you would see at any beach resort.
And these people certainly didn’t look like a bunch of rapists and murderers.
I mean, there was a woman lying on a towel on the beach, looking exhausted as two little boys screamed and pushed each other in the surf a few feet away, for cryin’ out loud.
She looked like every other run ragged mom wishing for a babysitter, a backrub, and a mimosa.
“Any reason we shouldn’t walk in?” I asked Grant.
“None I can see,” he said, glancing over. “AB, conceal your weapon.”
AB nodded and pulled her baggy shirt out, letting it fall over her hips.
We both wore shirts that were too big.
So our guns wouldn’t print.
Not at all fashionable, but hey, it did the job.
“Ryder, how long can you have the glasses off before you get sick?” Grant asked.
I shook my head. “None.”
Grant growled under his breath. “How long until you throw up or are beyond being useful?”
“Ummmm.” I looked at him. “Why?”
Okay, he sure looked like I was testin’ his patience now. “So you can look for spells around the door.”
“Oh,” I said. “Sure, that’ll only take a second. I thought you wanted me to walk around in there with them off. And that ain’t happening.”
Grant took a deep breath, and I wondered if he was counting to ten.
I slid the glasses down, already bracing for the sickness.
It came on command, swirling through my stomach and making me want to cry and curl up at the same time.
The gate glowed so bright it burned my eyes, and I yelped, pushing the glasses back up, closing my eyes till my stomach calmed down.
“I…” I cleared my throat, swallowed back bile, and tried again. “I think the spell on the gate is for when it’s closed. It’s strong, but it’s on the gate itself; nothing seems to be over the entrance.”
“Which makes sense when you think about it,” AB said.
“Yeah.” I nodded. “I really don’t want to go in there.”
“Neither do I,” Grant said.
We looked at each other, and I nodded again.
“But we get the job done,” I said. “We sure they won’t notice we’re human? Like, I can see their magic, so can they see ours?”
“We can’t be sure of anything,” Grant said. “However, if we mind our own business, don’t give anyone a reason to suspect us, they won’t have cause to look at us closely.”
I pulled out the compass spelled to find Shawn, and it pointed through the wall.
“How do we know he’s not on the other side?” AB asked. “Like in another town?”
I shook my head. “City is the main thing on the island. It’s like Manhattan with walls around it. And this wouldn’t work if he was on another island.”
“How do you know?”
I shrugged. “Won’t work over water. Most of their magic doesn’t. It’s all earth based.”
“We’re safest here near the water then,” AB said.
“We were safest on our plane,” Grant said. “Safe isn’t an option here.”
“Safe isn’t an option anywhere,�
�� AB said, the words holding too much weight. “So that’s why I said safest.”
“Feeling argumentative?” Grant asked dryly.
She shrugged. “This place…” She smirked and said in a pretty good Southern accent, “It has my back up higher than a cat’s in a roomful of snakes.”
Grant actually smiled. “You’ve been around Ariana too much.”
AB smiled at me. “Not possible.”
I smiled back.
“We’re stalling,” Grant said.
“Yep,” I said. “I think we just gotta walk in and hope for the best.”
“That should be on your office door.”
“We were thinking the motto should be ‘It’s so crazy, it just might work,’” AB said.
Grant stood and walked forward with confident, easy strides.
AB and I scrambled to follow.
We walked past the mom as she rubbed her forehead.
She didn’t give us a second look.
The others scattered on the beach didn’t do much more than glance at us.
“Um.” AB slammed to a stop, and Grant and I took up on each side of her, looking around.
AB cleared her throat and nodded ahead.
There were two Fae naked as the day they were born in the surf and… yep.
They were doin’ it.
My mouth fell open.
There were kids here!
I hadn’t noticed them since my eyes and attention had been glued to the gate, but they were gasping it up like they were in a porno, and the guy grabbed the girl’s hair as he went at her from behind.
Grant grabbed AB’s elbow and yanked her.
Subtle.
Then again, her staring like that sure as shootin’ wasn’t.
If they were doing that here in front of kids and everything, it had to be pretty normal.
I gulped.
If we’d already seen that out here, when there were maybe a dozen of them on the beach, what were we likely to see in a city full of a few hundred thousand of the depraved creatures?
The girl screamed as she came, and I seized up below, heat flushing through me.
I blushed.
Crap! My face!
I couldn’t control it in the normal world, how the heck was I supposed to when I saw horrible things here?
“At least it’s consensual,” AB whispered. “I was afraid after what I’d read they’d be seriously depraved and just be raping in the streets.”
My stomach twisted as a horrible thought struck me.