He cupped both sides of my face in his hands and spoke intently, “Where have you been, young lady? I heard Carriag blew up the boat you stole. I was worried sick.”
“You were not worried.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I’m guessing.”
“Oh, so you’re thinking about me?”
“You’re impossible.”
“Impossible to resist. Don’t I know…”
“So back to the question—I’ve been with Logan, and we discovered this fully stocked yacht just waiting for us in the middle of the sea. We should’ve known it wasn’t a mere coincidence, but we got on anyway. It’s a magic boat. A boat that made us forget Orchid and Chance and the Seven Sisters, all of it.”
“Are you cold?” he asked.
“I’m okay.” I wrapped my arms around my body. Before I could protest, Jude pulled his robe over his head and put it over my head, pulling it down in the right places. Hands purposeful. Careful. Dare I say it? Gentlemanly. Who was this Jude? “This will keep you warm and disguised in case any of Carriag’s guys are lurking around.”
He was right. It was warm. And it smelled like him. And the disguise wasn’t a bad idea, but still, I felt guilty taking it, and letting him take care of me, not only in this small way, but in all these other ways: finding Orchid, guarding her whereabouts from Carriag. What was in it for him? Jude worked selfishly, that was his only way. The heart of a narcissist. If it wasn’t in his best interest, he didn’t bother.
I eyed him skeptically. “Where is Orchid? Is she okay?”
“She’s pretty messed up, actually. Is she blind or something?”
“The white eyes? I think it might be the dark magic. Whatever that spell was that you guys did together, that stuff she was choking on…” My anger for him returned as I remembered what he’d done to her, to Logan, to all of us. “Or maybe it was whatever Congression did to her when they were interrogating her. I’m not sure.”
“She’s alive at any rate. Here. Come take a look.” He offered me his hand again. Frowning, I debated whether to take it. While I was deliberating, he grabbed my elbow, pulled me up onto a higher rock. Below us, the dinghy pounded against the shore. “Where’d you get the raft?”
“From our boat.”
“The magic boat?”
“Mine and Logan’s. Yeah.”
“Ah,” Jude said. “Where is our hero now?”
Guilt swarmed in my stomach. I didn’t like Jude talking about Logan like that. “He’s back waiting for us. I figured, there wasn’t room enough for us all in the life raft.”
“Ah.”
“Don’t look at me like that,” I said.
“Or maybe you didn’t want him to come along to meet me. Maybe you wanted some time alone with me.”
“Shut up, Jude.”
“I’ll take that as an affirmative.”
I slugged him.
He seemed pleased enough with that tiny admission and didn’t press for more. “Okay. She’s over here.”
Jude’s hand slipped down my elbow and into my hand. “For safety,” he explained with a lilt of pleased possession to his voice. He held my hand tightly as we scrambled over the slippery rocks. His hand was warm and felt good—safe. I shook away some of the guilt I felt. If Logan saw us holding hands, how could I possibly explain? I was the Rognaithe. I could scamper over hills, rocks, mountains. I could swim miles under the water, yet, I needed Jude’s hand so I wouldn’t slip on some moss? I bit my lip, slipping my hand out of his as we came around the corner and saw my best friend lying on the ground.
Orchid’s spine was bent; her torso flopped over her trembling knees. She was awake. “Orchid?” I rushed to her side. “Orchid? Are you okay? It’s me. It’s Lily.”
“Lily,” she said. It was shocking to hear her voice. Tears of relief sprung to my eyes.
I tucked a thick strand of dark hair behind her ear and noticed a string of what looked like narrow stones dangling around her neck. “We’re going to get you out of here.”
“Okay, Lily,” she said. Her voice was flat and without affect, but still, she was alert enough to know who I was.
I looked incredulously at Jude. “When we left her, she was unconscious. Did you spin a spell?”
He shrugged sheepishly. “Something like that.”
“What’s that necklace?”
“Witch doctor’s bones. The same ones that woke Logan after he went down in The Gleaning. Supposedly, they heal the mind as well as the body. When I found her, she was awake but couldn’t talk. I wanted, well, I didn’t know where you were, and thought she might…”
“Did she tell you anything? About what happened?”
“Not really, but she kept calling your name, so I knew that eventually you’d hear her and come. You witches are all close knit like that, it seems.”
“I did hear her. I heard her cries, from the boat.” I explained about the flowers, the black orchids clarifying our muddy minds. “Thank you for saving her.”
“You’re welcome.” He cleared his throat and looked away. He was being so sincere and forthcoming. Who was this version of Jude? Was it another trick?
I had to know. “Are you…doing this for Jacob?”
He frowned; arching an eyebrow in my direction like that was the dumbest idea he’d ever heard. “For Jacob?”
“Yeah. Did he tell you to help Orchid? Me? Did he send you?”
“I’m helping her to help you, Lily. To find you. Isn’t that obvious by now?”
“But…”
“You need to stop asking me if you aren’t going to believe my answer.”
He stared deep into my eyes. His eyes weren’t just cerulean. They were green. They were gold. They swirled like marbles. A girl could get lost in eyes like those.
I was on a mission. With Logan. To find the cure for Chance.
I couldn’t get lost.
“You know what?” I said, breaking eye contact. “It doesn’t matter why. Not now. I’m just grateful you did it. Help me get her into the dinghy? We need to get her to the boat.” I cleared my throat, determined to stay the course. Determined to stay loyal. “Logan’s waiting.”
7. AND THEN IT ALL FALLS APART
………………
LOGAN
WATCHING HER PADDLE OFF IN the orange dinghy felt all kinds of crappy.
Especially considering whom she was rowing toward. Jude. Damn Jude. And Orchid. Sending my girl on a mission to rescue her friend with a guy I couldn’t stand. I should be helping her, not him.
But I had to let her go. She won’t leave Melas without Orchid, and we needed to get to the Isle of the Sisters and the cure. Time was running out.
I headed toward the captain’s seat, turned the boat around and waited for the dinghy. I knew Jacob and I knew Jude. No matter what they pretended to be, I knew what they were: monsters. And the fact that both had a sudden interest in Lily bothered me immensely. But we would be rid of them soon. Once she grabbed Orchid, we could get out of Melas, to the Isle of the Sisters, to the cure. I conjured the map from my mind and studied it. From here, we could go either south and follow a route that would be tropical and warm but slightly risky because of storms, or north, a longer route that would take us past Alaska and Greenland and Iceland.
I’d run it by Lily, but guessed, like me, she’d prefer the southern route.
As the crow flew, it was 5,000 miles from San Francisco Bay to the Isle of the Sisters, which was near Scotland. But our journey would be far longer. Once we were out at sea, our magic would propel us faster than an ordinary ship, but the journey would still be long and possibly arduous. By boat, we’d have to travel down the Pacific Coast of the United States, Mexico, and Central America to reach the Panama Canal and start heading back up north toward the Isles. Normally, just the journey to Chili would take seventeen days by boat. Let’s hope our magic held up.
I leaned back in the plush white l
eather Captain’s Seat.
Could we fly? No. I didn’t have a passport and neither did Lily. Besides, how would we explain our white-eyed unconscious third if Lily managed to find Orchid? There was no way that would work; the Sea Witch was our best, and most convenient, option. I just hoped the black orchids on the kitchen table continued to keep our minds clear so we could focus on our mission. We couldn’t afford any more distractions.
Lily and me against the world; we had five days left to get the cure and get back to Melas in time to save Chance.
………………
Determined to set off as soon as we could, I headed for the deck when I heard the dinghy approach.
“Nice to see you, brother,” came an obnoxious voice down below on the water.”
Jude. Super.
“What are you doing here?” I called back.
“Nice to see you too,” Jude replied.
“Lily? What’s he doing here?”
Before Lily got a chance to answer, Jude blurted out, “Stop asking questions and help, why don’t you, or didn’t you get enough rest on the ship while we were doing all the heavy work?”
I was going to kill that guy one day.
It took both Jude and Lily to help Orchid up the Sea Witch’s ladder. I scooped her up easily enough; she was terribly thin and weak, but she was awake.
“She needs a blanket. She’s freezing,” Lily said, all business.
“I’ll put her in the second room.”
Lily nodded. “Thanks.”
“Nice ship,” Jude said, wiping his wet palms on his pants. “Sure beats your digs back at the Academy, eh?”
I thought back to the too-short twin bed in my childhood bedroom of horrors, still not sure why Jude was here. We needed to get out of Dodge. “I’ll be right back,” I said, carrying Orchid past him.
“I may follow you. It’s been quite a long evening. I need to crash,” Jude said, dramatically. With a drenched, shivering Orchid in my arms, I snarled as he smiled warmly at Lily.
“Don’t get too comfortable. It’s a long swim from here.”
“Try to be nice,” Lily spoke quietly, holding onto my arm. “He saved Orchid’s life.”
Grimacing, I replied, “If it weren’t for Jude, Orchid wouldn’t be in this mess to begin with. And neither would we.”
She patted my arm. “You’re right. Still. He found this necklace for her, the same necklace the witch doctor used to save you, and it woke her up. Maybe he’s…remorseful….about what he did before.”
I laughed. This was exactly what I was afraid of: she spent time with Jude and was back to acting weird. “Lily, Jude isn’t one of the good guys. He never will be.”
8 THAT OTHER CHOICE
………………
LILY
I DECIDED TO FOLLOW LOGAN into the second bedroom, as much to get away from dealing with Jude as to talk to Orchid. Logan laid her on the double bed, but as soon as he left, she sat up and looked at me. “As much as I’d love to sleep for 24 hours straight, I’d kill for a hot shower first.”
I was so shocked to hear her sound like a slightly normal version of her old self that I was startled. “What?”
Frowning, she tilted her head to the side, one of her sandy dreadlocks slanting across her face, revealing one glowing, confused eye. A smear of dirt crossed her high-angled cheek. “A shower? I was in that cave for who knows how long. I’m a wreck.”
“Sure. Of course….you…remember the cave?”
“It’s a little foggy, but yeah. A dark place. It was wet. And so cold. People were looking for me. Warlocks. Bad ones. Real bad ones…at least, according to my white knight.”
“Carriag and his men.” Who was the white knight she referred to? Jude?
She nodded, her eyes broken glass that was newly pieced back together.
“But they didn’t find you, did they?”
“No. Jude found me first. I called for you, Lily. Did you hear me calling for you?”
“Yes. That’s when I remembered. This boat…it has a way of making people forget things. Anyway, when I heard you…and then there were these flowers that woke us up.”
“Black orchids. Good. I think I conjured those up as a clue to tell you to come for me.”
“It was you?”
“Black orchids. Duh. I focused on you hearing me. Hear me, Lily. Hear me. In my mind I saw black orchids blooming on a boat at sea.”
“Wow.”
“And shortly after, Jude saved me.”
She smiled then. Like she was trying to piss me off. Like she was enjoying this. Dark anger brewed in my gut. I hated her coy expression. All of her recent betrayals flashed in my mind. “What else do you remember?” I pressed.
She tugged at a loose dreadlock. “I don’t know. I remember hanging with you at the Boardwalk and then the cave.”
Wait. What?
“The boardwalk?” That was forever ago.
I studied her. Was she playing dumb? If so, I had no patience for it. What else was she pretending? “So…you don’t remember killing my boyfriend in the Solstice Stones?”
Orchid looked aghast. “Kill your boyfriend? Logan? What are you talking about?”
“Never mind.”
What was wrong with me? I was angry at Orchid, of course, but she had almost died. I needed to give her some time to rest before I started interrogating her. Why was I jealous about her calling Jude her white knight? He did save her. She was just being funny—and dramatic—typical Orchid. Calm down, Lily.
Blinking, she grabbed my wrist. “I didn’t try to kill Logan.”
Glancing down at her hand, I shook her off harder than I intended to and she looked hurt and confused. I inhaled a deep breath. “Orchid. Look. You’re tired. I don’t want to fight. You almost died and I’m…glad you didn’t. I’m trying to save you. But yes, you tried to kill Logan. Disguised as me. At the Gleaning. We’re all in a crapload of trouble mostly due to you and Jude, so…I guess I’d rather not hear you refer to him as a white knight and make what happened into a joke, because your actions have caused serious repercussions. Logan and I almost died trying to save you. Twice. Nothing about our circumstances is funny.”
“Okaaaay,” she said, wild-eyed. “If you say so. But I don’t remember any of that.”
Anger gurgled in my gut as I remembered all they’d done. How they tried to break Logan and me up. How they schemed and planned to kill us in The Gleaning; how they made me maim Chance when Jacob overtook his body and attacked me.
Now, here I was with both of them on my ship. The magic love boat was supposed to be reserved for Logan and me? I was so tired of being manipulated! I tried to control it—keyword “tried”—but my palm heated up. If I curled my hand into a fist, I’d have a spark, then a fireball…and I could be done with her for good.
Stop, Lily.
Breathe.
This isn’t the time or place to get into this with her. You need to get rid of Jude and hit the open sea and go for the cure. That’s it.
But then, with a viper’s speed, Orchid emphatically grabbed my arm again. Again, I jerked away; again, I wanted to smack her. “Lily. I would never try to kill Logan!” She shouted. “Why would I do that?”
“Lower your voice,” I snapped. “Who knows? Because you hate me? Because you’re jealous that I was the leader of the Young Sisters and you weren’t? The wicked have their reasons.”
“Lily! What’s wrong with you?” Orchid looked like I stabbed her in the gut. Why was I saying this stuff? These feelings that festered internally weren’t for sharing. At least not right now. But I couldn’t stop. I was so angry. I wanted to hurt her like she hurt me.
A warm heat rose behind me. I felt Jude’s presence in the doorway before I saw him. His energy was so much darker than Logan’s; always had been. When I twisted my neck to find out what he wanted, he flicked an eyebrow, peering at me quizzically.
“What do you want?” I sna
pped.
He held up his palms retreating. “Some food is ready if anyone is hungry?” He looked back and forth from Orchid to me.
“Thank the goddesses you’re here,” Orchid said to Jude. “I’m hungry. And I’d like a break from this interrogation.”
The talisman of bones around her neck swung back and forth as she spoke.
She tried to move past me, but this time, it was me grabbing her arm. “Do you really not remember what happened in The Gleaning?”
“I told you. I remember the Boardwalk, and then I remember the cave. That’s it. And yes, thank you. I’m starving.” Again, she tried to move past me to join Jude, but I blocked her way with a hard shoulder.
“Orchid. The Gleaning was last night. You and Jude practiced black magic. You became me. My doppelganger.”
“The last thing I remember was meeting Logan’s friend Chance at the Boardwalk…going on that ride together.”
“What?”
“Lily,” Jude said. “This whole time she could’ve been in a trance of some sort.”
“What do you mean?”
“If the last thing she remembers is hanging out at the boardwalk with you guys?”
Leaving me to fill in the blanks. “You mean, the enchantment. She only remembers things up to the enchantment? So everything she did afterward was due to some spell?”
“Maybe.”
Orchid interjected, “I was with Camellia and…then it’s all fuzzy.”
“Camellia.”
“Where was Camellia when Orchid was being tossed off the cliffs anyway?” Jude asked.
I glared at him. “You’re trying to clear your name again. Blame someone else for the trouble you caused.”
Laughing, he shrugged. “Worth a try—not a bad theory though—” He elbowed me, playfully. “You have to admit.”
“Not funny,” I snapped. After inhaling a calming breath, I turned to Orchid. I’d deal with all of this later. If I lost my temper, we’d lose. And we had to get to the Isle and the cure. “Fine. Let’s get you something to eat and drink. Logan and I will figure this all out.”
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