“Do you want to go up top and sit with Angel, or back to the car where Raven is?” Herne asked as we pulled away from the railing.
I shook my head. “Neither. Let’s walk up to the bow and watch the water from there. It should be okay if we don’t cross over the safety lines.”
The ferries were open ended on both sides, and so we walked along the outer railing to the bow of the boat. There were four cars there. The middle two were slightly forward, and there were ropes that crossed in front of all four, signaling where to stop when you pulled forward onto the ferry. I noticed that one of the cars was occupied while the other three were empty. The one that was occupied had a woman in it reading her tablet.
The next moment, the ferry lurched as a gust of wind shook the boat, cresting a wave high enough to splash over the hoods of the cars at the front. Herne caught hold of me with one hand and grabbed one of the safety rails on the side of the boat, pulling me off the deck and back onto the ledge. He held me tight as the boat rose up and then dipped abruptly on the rolling water.
As we watched, the car with the woman in it suddenly broke loose and began to roll forward toward the ropes at the front. The woman began to scream as the car skidded on the wet deck. Over the rumbling of the ferry engines, over the roar of the waves, I could hear the fear in her voice.
“No!” I broke free of Herne’s grasp as the car went rolling toward the edge of the ferry.
The woman appeared to be frantically trying to start her car so that she could put it in reverse, but then next moment, the ferry rose again and then, abruptly dropping as the wave rolled out from beneath us, the nose tilted forward. The car teetered on the edge. Before anybody could move, it tilted and fell into the tumultuous waters.
I yanked off my boots and vaulted up on the edge of the railing as the ferry’s engines slowed. There were screams and shouts as three of the ferry workers raced toward where the car had gone overboard, while two more tried to hold back the people pushing forward to see what the commotion was about.
“What are you doing?” Herne yelled, reaching for me.
“I can swim like a fish and I can call on the elementals,” I shouted back at him before diving into the water. As I headed toward the rolling waves, I focused on my mother’s blood and summoned my Leannan Sidhe side.
The shock of the cold water hit me like a brick, but I managed to come up for air. Then, narrowing my focus, I caught a lungful of air and dove beneath the waves, reaching out for any nearby water elementals. They were thick in the sound today, and I immediately felt one by my side. I projected the image of the car and the terrified woman trapped within, and then formed the image of me opening the door and getting her to safety, along with the need for help.
Communicating with elementals was tricky—they didn’t think in terms of words and language—but rather, emotions and images. But it was one of my talents, and the elemental in front of me seemed to understand. As it encompassed my body, we went sliding through the dark water behind the ferry.
There, slowly sinking, was the woman’s car. The inside light was on and I could see that she was pounding on the window, her expression one of absolute terror.
The elemental was huge, and I thought of a way that we could rescue her. I formed the image of the water element wrapping around the car and carrying it to the surface long enough for me to free the woman. After a brief moment, the elemental coiled one tendril around me and another around the car, and we began heading toward the surface.
My lungs felt like they were going to burst, and I must have projected the pain toward the elemental because then it forced my lips open and a bubble of air rushed through my body. I caught hold of it in my lungs and relaxed enough to focus again. Somehow it had managed to transfer a breath into me. Grateful, I embraced the elemental with my thanks.
The water around us was reeling, rolling in swirls and eddies that seemed to boil like dark clouds. I closed my eyes as the waves crashed against us. If the elemental hadn’t been with me, I would have been pulled under by the churning waters of Puget Sound. Everything around me was bathed in silver and dark gray, and for a moment I couldn’t figure out which way was up or down, and it felt like we’d never surface. But then the elemental broke through the water and the air rushed around me. I coughed, wheezing as I gulped breath after breath.
The elemental held the car steady as I reached the door and it used a tendril of water to shelter me as I pulled on the latch. The inside was nearly full of water but there was enough air for the door to release, and the woman came spilling out. She was either unconscious or already drowned, but I didn’t have time to check.
I grabbed hold of her, and right then, heard shouts behind us. A lifeboat was chugging through the water, heading toward us. The putt-putt of the motor was the sweetest noise I had heard all day.
I gritted my teeth, holding the woman under one arm as I treaded water, keeping us afloat. The elemental gave me a gentle shove, pushing me forward, and in less than a minute, the tugboat was beside us and the men were pulling us aboard. As I tumbled in, I saw the car begin to sink again before it quietly vanished beneath the waves.
“Are you all right?” one of the men said.
I nodded, pushing back the hair that had plastered against my face.
“Check her. I’m fine.” I shivered, but we were almost at the bow of the ferry and I knew I could get warm on board.
Another man in the boat began giving the woman CPR. The first few compressions, nothing happened, but then she coughed, spitting out water as the man rolled her to her side. She opened her eyes, still coughing, but she was alive.
As she sat up, groaning, the man next to me gave me a long look. “You had help, didn’t you?”
I nodded. “I’m part Water Fae. I can commune with the elementals. I happened to find one willing to help.”
“I’d tell you how stupid you were to do that, but the fact is, she’d be dead if you hadn’t. So I think I’ll leave that lecture for another time,” he said, a smile on his lips. “You’re a brave woman, you know?”
“Not always. But what else could I do?” I shrugged, realizing that’s exactly how I felt. I had the ability, she was in trouble, and therefore the only choice I could make was to help. “My conscience wouldn’t let me rest if I had just stood back, watching.”
“I think we need to hire Water Fae for the ferry system. Hazard pay, but hey—it’s worth it.” The man smiled again as we neared the ferry, where we were hustled up a rope ladder.
Herne was standing there, an ashen look on his face. He rushed over to me, pulling me into his arms, covering me with kisses as he held me tight. Angel and the others were right behind him.
“I thought I lost you,” he said hoarsely.
“No chance of that. I’m too stubborn to die,” I whispered back, shaking as the cold hit me hard. “I’m freezing.”
At that moment, one of the deckhands hurried over while a medic attended to the woman.
“Do you need help?” the deckhand—whose nameplate read “Julius Tirran”—asked.
I shook my head. “Just a blanket, a place to change, and something hot to drink.” I turned to Herne. “Can you get me dry clothes out of my suitcase?”
He nodded, but it was Angel who hurried back to the car. The engines started up again, only this time, heavy blocks were placed by the car tires of the front-most cars. The deckhand led us to the elevator and upstairs, where Herne guarded the restroom while Angel brought me in clothes. She had also brought in my blow dryer and she quickly dried off my hair, brushing it into a loose ponytail.
“I know you felt you needed to do that, but if you ever put yourself in danger like that again, woman…” She paused, her voice thick with tears. “I thought we lost you.”
“I wouldn’t have gone if I hadn’t believed that I could save her. I’m impulsive but not stupid.” I turned to her. “The woman would have been dead if I’d left it up to the ferry workers. They couldn’t have gone down in
those depths without scuba gear. I managed it because I’m part Leannan Sidhe, but it was still rough for me and without the elemental’s help, there would have been no hope. So yeah, they would have tried but I guarantee you, they wouldn’t have succeeded.”
“I know,” Angel said. “But let’s hope this kind of freak accident never happens again.”
“I’m with you on that one.” I was still freezing, but at least I was dry.
When we came out of the bathroom, Herne and the deckhand were waiting.
“We’re approaching the dock. There are bound to be reporters there. We can give you the option of remaining anonymous if you like.” The deckhand glanced at Herne nervously, as though he was afraid to approach me. Herne was hovering around me protectively, and he gave the deckhand a dark look.
“I would prefer that,” I said, not wanting my name splashed around in the news. “If the woman asks who helped her, can you please just tell her ‘a good Samaritan’?”
“That I can do, though we need your name for our records.” He was holding a tablet, and I reluctantly gave him my name and phone number. “Thank you, Ms…Kearney.” He paused, still looking like he wanted to say something, but then the loudspeaker crackled and the captain was asking us to return to our cars.
“If there’s nothing else?”
He shook his head. “No, we can contact you if there is.”
Herne and I turned and, following Angel, returned to the car. Viktor, Yutani, and Talia had already buckled up in Viktor’s vehicle, while Raven and Raj were waiting in the backseat of Herne’s SUV.
I silently climbed in the front seat, exhausted and still chilled. I didn’t feel like talking. Glancing at Raven and Angel over my shoulder, I turned back to stare out the window as we drove off the ferry and into Kingston. I had saved a woman’s life, but it felt like an ominous beginning to our trip, and I believed in omens.
CHAPTER FOUR
K ingston was a small, picturesque community on Appletree Cove, which opened out into Puget Sound. With the ferry terminal, most of its business came from tourists and commuters on their way across the sound to Seattle, or up the peninsula to Port Townsend. The main street was decked out to appeal to nostalgia, with quaint shops and boutiques lining the streets, and the marina was home to boats of all shapes and sizes, including a number of houseboats.
We drove off the ferry, turning onto NE First Street, which curved around the parking lot of cars waiting to board. From there, the street curved to the left before merging with Highway 104, which was where we wanted to be. Within minutes, we were passing through a heavily wooded rural area, with occasional streets or driveways leading to nests of housing, and from there, we followed the highway as it curved north once again, through tall stands of trees. The storm had broken and it was snowing lightly, sticking to the roadways and grass.
“I hope we make it to Port Ludlow before it really starts to come down,” Herne said. “I changed over to snow tires just in case, but the peninsula can get some fairly deep snowfalls.”
“Port Ludlow is only about an hour’s drive from Kingston, at moderate speeds,” I said. “I looked it up on MapApp before we left this morning. But then again, the highway over here’s not exactly the easiest.”
“That’s why I’m slowing down. Text Yutani and tell him to remind Viktor to slow down on these backroads. They’re behind us.” Herne nodded toward the rearview mirror.
I craned my neck, trying to catch a glimpse of them. Sure enough, there they were. I pulled out my phone and texted for them to be careful and slow down.
Less than fifteen minutes later, we approached Port Gamble, where Dr. Nalcops lived—one of our primary leads to ferreting out the Tuathan Brotherhood.
Port Gamble was like a cross between Kingston, with its quaint and charming design, and Port Townsend, an artistic community hearkening back to Victoriana, but it was mostly for show. Very few people actually lived here. Originally a mill town—a company town built for the mill workers—like Port Townsend, Port Gamble had aged poorly until the Olympic Property Group took over maintaining the entire town.
Though a few places were available for lease, Port Gamble had become more of a museum than anything, with a minuscule population. At least of the living. The town was rumored to be one of the most haunted cities in Washington State, with reports of over half the buildings in town containing some sort of ghostly activity. I was grateful we were approaching during the day, because the energy was odd enough as we were passing through during the daylight hours.
“Where is Nalcops’s practice?” I asked.
“Yutani texted me his address. He’s on the outskirts of town, on Milltown Lane, off of Wheeler Street. We’re not stopping there just yet, though. We don’t want to tip him off before Rafé heads up to meet the group.”
“If they’re so secretive, how does Rafé know where to go?” Raven asked.
“He received an email ten days ago that he’s to meet with members of the group in Port Angeles. He’ll be transported to the location at that point.” Herne glanced at me, then in the rearview mirror and I knew he was looking at Angel. She said nothing, however.
“So they’re picking him up? You have a trace-spell on him?”
“A magical implant. It’s subcutaneous so they shouldn’t find it if they search him. Of course, if they use a bug tracer, they’ll find it, but we’re hoping they won’t think of that.” Herne made a right, taking the exit leading toward the Hood Canal Floating Bridge. From there, we had another ten miles until we reached Port Ludlow, where we’d be staying with Angus.
Like the 520 and the I-90 bridges in Seattle, the Hood Canal Bridge was a floating bridge—the third longest in the world. Part of Highway 104, the bridge spanned Hood Canal, which fed off of Puget Sound, near the Squamish Harbor.
“We’re lucky. The bridge is still open,” I said as we approached it. That meant the weather hadn’t gotten bad enough to shut it down yet, which happened during major windstorms or heavy snow.
It was a two-lane bridge, stretching across Hood Canal with an open view of the water. Street lamps illuminated the bridge at night, and the bridge could open to boat traffic when necessary. The traffic was light during this time in the morning, and we passed over it uneventfully, even with the falling snow. On the other side, we curved to the left as the road bent, passing a side road that led to the Shine Tidelands State Park.
We continued along the thickly wooded highway with sporadic pockets of housing peeking out from the trees until we turned right onto Highway 19. Another few minutes and we turned right on Oak Bay Drive, and a short time later, we pulled into Port Ludlow. Definitely a step up from Kingston in size, Port Ludlow had a thriving tourist industry and was located on Port Ludlow Bay. It was affluent, especially compared to a number of smaller towns on the peninsula, and had a resort that was known throughout the state.
“Where’s Angus live?” Angel asked.
“He lives out on Olympus Boulevard,” Herne said. “Near the end of the road shortly before Basalt Point. We’ll be there in a few minutes.”
I glanced at the clock. It was almost noon. “He’s expecting us?”
Herne nodded. “Yeah.”
Angel’s phone pinged. “Rafé’s about ten minutes behind us. He’ll meet us there.”
Suddenly, a pungent smell wafted forward from the backseat. I coughed and turned around. Raven was staring at Raj, shaking her head.
“I’m sorry. He got into the chili I made yesterday and ate about a quart. He’s been farting ever since. I’m surprised we made it through the morning without him smelling up the car.” She grinned and patted his head. “You goon.”
Raj let out a soft sound, and tilted his head. “Urmph…”
“What was that?” Angel asked.
“Gargoyles don’t talk. Not the way we do. They’re intelligent but it doesn’t translate to the way we think of intelligence. He’s empathic to a degree, and he can understand what I say for the most part. He’s like
a cat in that they meow mainly to humans. The more you talk to cats, the more they tend to talk back to you to let you know what they want. Raj mostly makes noise when I talk to him.”
Raj was about the size of a large Rottweiler. He looked a lot like a dog in some ways, except his front legs were actually arms, though he walked on his knuckles instead of upright on two feet. With leathery gray skin, he was all muscle, and while most gargoyles had wings, Raj had suffered their loss at the hands of the demon who first owned him. Raven won the gargoyle away from the demon in a poker game and had used a spell to make Raj forget the pain he had suffered with the demon, and with that, he seemed to have forgotten he had ever had wings.
He was a good sort, guarding Raven’s house and her, and she loved him like I loved Mr. Rumblebutt. He left her ferrets alone, which was surprising given that gargoyles were highly carnivorous, though Raj had developed a taste for human food.
“Is chili even good for him?” Herne asked, wrinkling his nose.
“Well, he eats just about anything he finds around. I’ve discovered the hard way that pineapple and citrus fruits make him sick to his stomach, but otherwise, it doesn’t seem to have hurt him in any way.” Raven paused, staring out the window. “There are ghosts walking by the side of the road. I can see them. You were right in saying this area is haunted. I’ve never been over here.”
“It’s filled with ghosts. Also odd creatures and beings that hide in the forests over here.”
“Bigfoot,” she said. “I’ve seen him once, elsewhere. Sasquatch is a freaking scary-ass creature and he doesn’t like anybody intruding in on his space. I had to run for my life to get away from him.”
I frowned. “You mean he went after you? You’re one of the Ante-Fae.”
“I doubt he even knows what the Ante-Fae are. To be honest, I don’t think his kind are from this planet. As far as I can tell, they’re interdimensional beings.” She paused. “Just like the creatures who create crop circles. They’re a form of earth elemental. People keep talking about aliens doing it, and while I believe there are creatures from other planets here, there are plenty of ways to reach this planet other than linear space. Crossing through dimensions isn’t that difficult, but you have to make sure you know where you’re headed.”
The Silver Mist: A Wild Hunt Novel, Book 6 Page 4