Another ball of magic flew their way, but instead of sidestepping it, Sagely opened herself and pulled at it as it passed. It swerved off course and hit her, knocking her flat. Her ring pulsed with blackness once, seeming to squeeze her finger as it did.
River was over her in a second. “What happened? It was going to miss you.”
“I’m fine,” she said, jumping up and dusting off the sand. “That’s what I’m supposed to do. You’re supposed to be on your ship.”
“You seem awfully concerned about me,” he said with a gloating grin.
“You wish,” Sagely said, throwing up a wall of sand between them and a witch who was charging their way. She shook back her red hair and returned River’s haughty smile.
“I do wish,” he said. “I’d be a great addition to your collective. I’m strong, I’m sexy as hell, I’m a good team player, and I fit into the outside world without ever blowing my cover.”
“You don’t have a cover.”
“Exactly,” he said with a grin, picking up the witch who had blasted through Sagely’s wall and tumbled to the ground. “I’m a great go-between for this world and the human world. Like Zeb. And I already know all your customs.”
“Zeb the ice cream guy?”
“Sure,” he said. “He’s a wizard. He takes all our loot and gives us regular money for it, so we can get stuff on land without drawing suspicion.” Another witch stumbled through Sagely’s sand wall, which collapsed into a giant mound in front of them, burying the witch.
“You do have an impressive resume,” Sagely admitted, blowing the sand off the witch so she wouldn’t smother. “What was that skill you mentioned? Being sexy as hell?”
“That’s right,” he said, tipping his sailor hat at her.
“Fine,” she said. “I’ll consider it. But you have to do something for me first. To prove you’re capable of getting along and fitting into my collective.”
“Anything for you, darlin’.”
“Take Fox, and go back to your ship. He’s hurt, and you will be, too, if you don’t get out of here.”
“What do you want me to do with them?” he asked, nodding at the witch squirming in his grasp and the one he’d knocked out.
“I know exactly what to do with them,” she said. “You worry about Fox. I’ll worry about them.”
forty
Raina
Raina watched from the deck of the ship as the fight raged on the beach. A giant shield had formed, and Sagely was trapping people inside. Even Raina had to admit it was pretty impressive. She wished she could be there to help, but on land, she was as useless as a beached whale.
She’d sung all that night and the night before, and yet, she felt helpless now that it was time to actually do something important. She could do nothing without magic. She didn’t know how her brother could stand it, being a commoner. Raina had spent only a few days without magic, and she already felt a frustration building inside her that would never find release.
After a few minutes, she slithered across the deck. Her arms were sore from pulling herself around on them, but River had taken the small boat to shore. Opening the hatch, she slipped below deck. She was exploring the sleeping cabins when she heard footsteps overhead, and it occurred to her that she was probably stuck down there. She didn’t know if she could climb a ladder without legs.
As if taunting her, a pair of legs appeared on the ladder. River came down halfway, then accepted a bundle into one arm. No, not a bundle. A body.
Raina’s chest tightened as she hurried forward, praying it wasn’t Shaneesha. “Who is it?” she whispered, not wanting to hear the answer. There was no good answer to that question. Anyone River would bring on board would be a friend.
“Fox,” he said, reaching the bottom of the ladder. “Help me get him onto a bed. He got hit with a lot of magic.”
Raina winced at the thought, but she hurried ahead and pushed open the door to a cabin with bunk beds. It smelled like men and sweat. River carried Fox inside, but before Raina could follow, the ladder creaked under someone’s weight. Guthrie stood in the gloom beneath the deck, a troubled frown heavy on his brow.
“Hey,” she whispered, pausing at the door to the cabin. After singing for so long, she could barely manage more than a rasp.
Guthrie shoved his hands in his pockets. “Hi.”
She forced her words to come out aloud, though even a whisper hurt. “I figured you’d be on shore, fighting.”
“I don’t have much of a dog in that fight,” he said. “And River needed someone to help get the boat out here.”
“Oh.”
He cleared his throat and tugged at a tuft of his messy hair, which was sticking up all over, as usual. “And I guess I wanted to see you one more time.”
“I’m leaving on the ship,” Raina said. “They’re going tonight.”
“I know,” Guthrie said. “We got them free. They’d be gone already if not for what’s going on up there on shore.”
“They said I could stay with them a while, as long as I don’t sing and hypnotize anyone and drink their magic.”
Guthrie looked away. “Too bad you can’t stay.”
“I have to be in water,” she said. “And I’m banished from this area.”
“I know.” He looked back at her. “It’s just too bad. That’s all.”
“I came to find my brother, and I found him,” she said, her throat aching as her words needed more and more effort to make sound.
“That’s good,” Guthrie said. “But he doesn’t have magic. He can’t feed you. He’s basically asking you to starve.”
Raina gulped. “You’re not disgusted by that? What I have to do?”
“You can’t help what you are, or what you need to survive,” Guthrie said with a frown. “Witches get magic from the elements, from the world around us. There is plenty. You can’t get it from your environment, so you have to get it from someone else. Blaming you is like blaming a predator for eating prey instead of grass.”
“But who would willingly give magic to a siren?”
“Everyone here should. You called their coven back and used all your magic to do it. They should replenish you. You wouldn’t have to deplete anyone. If everyone gave you a bit of magic, you’d be well again, right?”
Raina shrugged. “Sirens only sing to bring in their prey, as you put it. Once we’re away from here, I’ll be in the ocean. I can communicate with other mer telepathically. I won’t need a voice.”
“And until then?”
“I’m not going to ask anyone for their magic,” Raina said. If they said no, which they probably would, she’d be too humiliated to face them again. She was basically begging for food, and no one trusted a siren not to bite their hand off if they fed her.
“You can ask me,” Guthrie said, his thick brows knitted.
“I can’t.”
“You asked who would willingly give a siren their magic,” he said. “I would.”
forty-one
Sagely
As the witches released the void magic, Sagely tried to absorb as much as she could. But the more she absorbed, the more she began to feel a pull from the water. Soon, she was fighting at the edge of the water, one minute punching a witch and the next turning to step into the water. With horror, she recognized the feeling. She was being reeled in like a fish.
Oh, hell no! She hadn’t forgotten the terrified, helpless feeling of being on Viziri’s hook. She turned to the ocean, but all she saw was a towering wave. It rushed towards her, but even as she should have run, she couldn’t move. Wrenching at her legs, she tried to resist.
The last time, the four elemental witches had surrounded her and done a spell, which had unbound her magic. But this time, they didn’t have a water witch. Yvonne had Raina’s magic, but she hadn’t mastered anything in the few short days she’d been a witch.
As the wave crashed over Sagely, she remembered the truth of her words to Quill on the beach that first day. She had always pride
d herself on being self-resilient, but magic was a whole new ballgame. This one, she couldn’t play alone.
“Quill,” she screamed. “Help me!”
In seconds, he was at her side. “What are you doing out here? You’re soaked.” He scooped her up and carried her up the beach, away from the skirmish. Gale and Shaneesha broke away and ran over to join them.
“The more void magic I take in, the easier it is for Viziri to control me,” she said quickly. “He must be nearby. I don’t know how long I have until he takes over my mind like he did last time and makes me turn against you.”
“Not gonna happen,” Shaneesha said, taking her hand and squeezing. “You gotta fight it.”
“I can’t,” Sagely said.
“The mages told me they had to bind themselves to the masts to resist the sirens when they didn’t have charms,” Gale said. “Maybe you can do the same thing.”
“Does anyone have some rope?” Sagely asked.
“They do,” Gale said. “You haven’t forgotten our first meeting with them, have you?”
“I sent River back to the ship, and he took the boat,” she said, scowling out at the water. The ship had disappeared, but she had to believe it was still there, under the invisibility charm. The pull was so strong it almost hurt, like when she’d left Quill. Maybe it wasn’t Viziri pulling her at all, but Fox, out there on the ship. When she saw a shape on the water, her heart caught. Was he healed already, coming back to make sure she was safe?
When the next wave hid the shape, anguish gripped her. But the wave crashed, and she could see the shape of the boat again, coming closer with each wave. It wasn’t Fox in the boat. It was River.
“And of course he didn’t listen to me,” she muttered.
“Let’s get you out to that ship,” Quill said, tucking Maude into his shirt so he could hold Sagely with both hands if needed. “We can lock you in the hold, if you feel safer there.”
They started towards the water. But before they could reach it, Quill’s mother stepped into their path. She bared her teeth like an animal, her eyes the same void as the others.
“Mother,” Quill said, inhaling sharply. “You don’t have to do this. You’re still yourself under the magic.”
Without a word, she dove for Sagely. Their foreheads smacked together, and they toppled to the sand. The older woman clawed at her as if trying to rip through her flesh to get Sagely’s magic.
“No,” Quill shouted, grabbing his mother from behind and heaving her off. She sent a blast of magic rocketing into Sagely, who was not prepared to receive it. Her head swam with pain, her whole body feeling as if it were being electrocuted. In all their battles, she’d never been hit with one of those magical fireballs. Now she knew why they used them. She couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe.
“Absorb it,” Shaneesha commanded, her palm smacking Sagely’s cheek. “Can you hear me? Even if it hurts, let it in.”
Sagely sucked in a breath at last, trying to relax despite the blinding pain. When she finally did, the pain lessened. She squeezed Shaneesha’s hand. “Thank you,” she whispered. “And I swear, if you ever slap me again, it’s on.”
“Fair enough,” Shaneesha said. “Now get your ass up and get on that boat before I do slap you again. I’m not afraid of you. Especially right now.”
Sagely dragged herself up, feeling suddenly so exhausted she thought she’d collapse into the sand again. She didn’t know if it was the magic hit she’d taken or the last few weeks catching up with her all at once.
“Come on,” Gale said, grabbing her arm. Together, they ran down to the water. Halfway there, Yordine flew at them, almost unrecognizable without her usual poise. Now she looked crazy, wild and bedraggled like the rest of the coven.
“I got this,” Shaneesha said, stepping forward with a fireball swirling between her hands.
“Keep going,” Quill said behind them. They hurried down to the water, Quill’s mother flailing and grunting in his arms.
To Sagely’s horror, when they reached the water’s edge, she saw other witches staggering, zombie-like, into the ocean. When she saw a head bobbing further out, she spun towards Quill. Jaw set, eyes hard, he held his beloved mother trapped in his arms.
“Hey, darlin,” River said with a grin, straightening from pulling the boat up onto the sand.
Sagely turned back to him. “I thought I told you to stay on the ship where it’s safe.”
“I think you told me to go back to the ship,” he said, scratching his head and squinting as if trying to remember.
“Thanks for coming back,” Quill cut in. “Got any rope? I’m going to need to bind this one.”
“It’s been a while since I kidnapped anyone,” River said with a shrug. “Oh, well. Could be fun, right?” He winked at Sagely and threw her a coil of rope from the bottom of the boat.
“Quill, the coven is going to drown,” Sagely said urgently, speaking to him as he wrestled his mother to the sand and bound her hands. “We have to do something. Viziri is out there somewhere, and he’s pulling them into the sea.”
“Do you think he’s on the ship?” Gale asked.
“I can’t feel magic, but I highly doubt it,” River said. “There’s about a dozen protection spells on that ship. To a pirate, a ship is like a baby and a lover and a brother combined.”
“River can lock me in the hold,” Sagely said. “You’ve got to save them, Quill.”
“I stayed behind to take care of the coven once,” he said. “That was a mistake that I’m not making again. I love my coven, Sagely, but I love you more. Nothing in the world can take me away from you. I’m getting you out of here before that devil shows up.”
“But who will save the coven?”
Quill nodded up the beach. “I’d trust her with it before I’d trust myself.”
Sagely turned back to see Shaneesha throwing Yordine inside the reverse shield Sagely had left on the beach. Suddenly, her exhaustion made even more sense. She’d left a lot of her magic there, keeping the shield going without concentration. She hadn’t even noticed she was sagging against Gale, who was holding her up.
Luckily, the pull from Viziri was diminishing as her magic waned. She could still feel it, though, and she was afraid of what would happen if he came any closer. The witches bobbing in the water like driftwood answered that question for her. She shuddered and turned away.
“Hop in, hot stuff,” River said. “Let me take you for a ride.”
“I’ll blow the boat out,” Gale said, reaching up. In an instant, her gull had landed on her hand. They climbed into the boat, and River and Gale pushed it into the water. Though the ship was back under the invisibility spell, River seemed to know exactly where it was. With no hesitation, he set their course, his shirt sticking to his back with sweat and his enormous muscles bulging and flexing with each stroke of the paddle. Gale sat on the bottom of the boat, eyes closed, holding her seagull and summoning a strong and direct wind to blow them out to the invisible ship.
Sagely sat clutching Quill’s hand, not looking at his mother, who lay bound in the bottom of the boat, moaning softly every once in a while and muttering incoherently to herself.
“Are you okay?” Sagely whispered, sliding her arms around Quill’s body and linking her hands.
Maude’s little face poked out between two buttons of Quill’s shirt, and Sagely held out a finger to her.
Quill shook his head a little. “It’s my father who did that to her,” he said at last. “It’s my father who’s doing all this to all of them. To us.”
“And that’s not your fault,” Sagely said fiercely. “You’re not like him. Look at you. You’re protecting me, not making me into that.” She nodded at his mother.
“I’m sure he protected her at some point.”
“You saved Fox tonight,” she reminded him. “You didn’t have to do that. You could have let him die and blamed it on the witches. But you saved my faerie fiancé. You didn’t kill him.”
“I gues
s.”
Sagely took his face between her hands and turned him toward her. She kissed him hard, with all the fierceness she felt. She let all her love and protectiveness and loyalty flow through their bond, blanketing him. When he pulled back, his eyes shone with emotion.
“Thank you.”
“No, thank you,” she said. “You saved my other lover. I’ve never been more sure that we belong together.”
“I did that for us,” he said quietly. “Not just for you.”
“Not me,” River said from the front of the boat. “I saved him just for you, Sagely.”
“A collective functions as a unit,” Quill said. “We do what’s best for the whole. We have one purpose—to protect you. I did what was best for you, but also what was best for us. All of us. You and me and Fox.”
“You…are amazing,” Sagely said, tears suddenly springing to her eyes. Crap. She hated to get all choked up with emotion in front of people.
But these weren’t just people. As she looked around the boat, she let the tears fall freely. The realization of how much they all meant to her sank in as Quill pulled her into his arms. He was her soulmate, the one person who understood what she needed better than she did, and let her make mistakes along the way, didn’t force her to admit how much she needed him but let her find out on her own. She knew in that moment that he’d made the right decision by coming with her to the ship. She couldn’t have lived without him again, not even for a night.
And then there was Gale, her best friend, one she hadn’t realized how much she needed until that moment, when her heart swelled with relief that Gale had gotten in the boat with them. She didn’t want to be separated from her any more than she wanted to be apart from Quill.
All her life, she’d put up walls around herself, not realizing she wasn’t just protecting herself, she was depriving herself. Though she’d had friends, she’d never had a best friend. She’d never even known what she was missing until now, when she had one.
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