Raging Rival Hearts

by Olivia Wildenstein

  Josh turned toward his mother, then back toward us. “Mom was born that way.”

  “My lady-friend was born that way, too.” Kajika took a sip and then returned the glass to Josh, but the cup slid and sloshed over the boy’s upturned face.

  The boy let out a high-pitched squeal.

  “What?” Charlotte raced toward her son’s side. For someone who couldn’t see, she was incredibly aware of her surroundings.

  “The tall man dropped his water on me.”

  I dug a tissue from my bag and was about to dry him off when Kajika stilled my wrist.

  “I am deeply sorry for my clumsiness, Joshua.”

  Charlotte turned those unblinking eyes of hers on the hunter.

  Kajika wasn’t a clumsy person. What he’d done was deliberate. Was he trying to anger the already irate mother?

  Charlotte wiped her son’s face with her sleeve. “Go get changed, Joshua. I don’t want you catching a cold.”

  He nodded and then scampered away. The other children who’d accompanied him stayed put, ogling us with various degrees of curiosity.

  “When will you have more Marvels available?” Kajika asked.

  Charlotte directed her spooky gaze at me even though I hadn’t been the one to speak. I took a small step back. Even though she was no taller than I was, she was remarkably intimidating.

  “You will not let it go, will you?” she asked.

  “Once I set my sights on something, I do not let go.”

  She exhaled an exasperated breath. “Wait here then. Quinn, stay with them.”

  He shot us a sheepish look. “My cousin is very authoritative.”

  “I had a sister who was the same,” Kajika said.

  The hunter never spoke about his family. Cat had told me they’d been murdered, along with Kajika’s entire clan, by faeries who wanted to take over the tribal land. Was Manistique the land in question?

  “Yes,” he breathed without looking away from the entrance through which Charlotte had disappeared.

  What was the water about?

  “Later,” he mumbled.

  Charlotte returned holding a brown paper bag, which she handed to Kajika.

  He peeked inside. “How much do we owe you?”

  “Fifty dollars.”

  Kajika drew his wad of cash back out and placed a fifty into her palm.

  She stroked the bill as though to ascertain it was the correct amount. “Get these folks off our land, Quinn.” And then she was gone.

  Quinn cocked his head to the Camaro. “Let’s go.”

  As we drove off the compound, I spotted a yellow minivan parking by one of the trailers. A teenage girl with strong shoulders and hair so blonde it was almost white got out of the driver’s side. She frowned at us as we passed.

  Clearly these people never had visitors.

  None of us spoke during the ride back to the gas station. It was only once we were in the cover of our own car that Kajika finally said, “The water was to see if the boy had scales.”

  Cat didn’t have scales until she visited Neverra.

  “But Cat wasn’t pure Daneelie.”

  Well, did you see anything?

  “The boy did not even glimmer.”

  Cat doesn’t shine unless she’s in the lake.

  “Perhaps, but if they do not shine, then these drugs we bought are not Daneelie scales.” He tossed the paper bag onto my lap.

  I uncrumpled the bag and extricated a small plastic Ziploc. Inside the baggie was powder the shade of sunset. It didn’t glimmer like the one I’d once tried in Neverra on my seventy-fifth birthday—my fifteenth human year—but perhaps Daneelies didn’t shine like they did in Neverra.

  The sight of the powder brought me back to the eve of my birthday, which had fallen on Middle-Month. With Nadia and Eleonor, my two closest friends back then, we’d headed to the marketplace for some shopping.

  We’d sipped sparkling wine while we tried on every jewel crafted by the calidum. Even though my mother’s vault was full of real jewels, most Earth-made, I favored Neverrian-made ones. Not because they were prettier—they weren’t—but because courtiers were sheep who followed in the steps of the royal family. By supporting Neverrian crafts, I was sending a message to the younger generation. They would all flock to the marketplace to purchase what the princess had worn.

  In the runa that had taken us back to the palace, Nadia and Eleonor had handed me a wooden box—my birthday present. I opened it assuming it was a piece of jewelry, but nestled against burgundy velvet was a tiny vial filled with a powder that twinkled like ground metal. Nadia had told me Daneelie scales would turn me into an irresistible vixen.

  On the night of the party, I’d rubbed it against my gums, thinking this was it, the moment I would graduate from baby sister to sexy fiancée. The only thing the powder did was make me desire Cruz more and him want me less, especially after I threw myself at him like a crazed harlot. Even though years had gone by, my heart still shriveled up with shame each time I thought of that night.

  I unzipped the baggie, touched my pinkie to my tongue to wet it, then dipped it into the powder. I took a steadying breath as I raised my finger back to my lips. What if it was Daneelie scales? What if I came onto Kajika?

  Wasn’t I pathetic enough?

  The hunter pulled the car to an abrupt halt on the side of the road and grabbed my wrist. Before I could react, he stuck my finger inside his own mouth and sucked off the ground powder.

  Shock wasn’t a strong enough word to describe the emotion detonating through me. Even after he’d let go, I was still so transfixed by his lips that my hand hung limply in midair.

  “It tastes like wet earth. Is that what it is supposed to taste like, Lily?”

  I swallowed, finally lowering my hand and tucking it between my knees. No. It should taste like metal. Do you feel any different?

  He raked his hair back. “No.”

  Emboldened by the fact that he’d taken some and it hadn’t affected him, I dipped my still-wet pinkie inside and brought it to my mouth. This time, I touched the powder to my tongue. Instead of dissolving, the substance turned as cakey as wet clay. I gagged, incredibly tempted to spit, but if Kajika had kept it down, so could I.

  It’s definitely not Daneelie scales.

  Like the rancid powder, my deflated hope left a sour taste in my mouth. I pressed the Ziploc closed and tossed it into the paper bag.

  Kajika placed his hand on top of mine. His skin was so dark, especially now that I was so pallid. “Do not lose hope, Lily.”

  I kept my gaze lowered, working on corralling my disappointment.

  “We will drive around the coastline. Perhaps we will locate Mishipeshu.”

  I sighed. This hunt for water faeries had been nothing more than a wild goose chase. I removed my hand from underneath Kajika’s and nestled it in my lap, and then I stared out the window at the portion of Lake Superior visible between two houses. The surface was just the slightest bit rippled, like poorly ironed linens.

  “Could they possibly live in the water, Lily? Like fish?”

  I squinted at the expanse of water. Could they? And if they did, how could we go about finding them? It wasn’t as though we could go exploring Lake Superior’s depths at this time of year.

  “I have an idea.” He turned the car around and started driving back the way we’d come.

  13

  The Boat

  A couple minutes later, we parked next to a harbor where tarp-covered boats bobbed like corks around a cement dock.

  Are we stealing a boat? I asked, unstrapping myself.

  “I do not care to have my nose chopped,” the hunter deadpanned.

  His answer was so absurd I tilted an eyebrow.

  “That is what happened to Gottwa thieves,” he explained, getting out of the car.

  I followed him, his long legs eating up the dock so fast I had to speedwalk to catch up. Few people were out, aside from a couple fishermen tying up their boats or cleaning them
. We approached a ruddy-faced man who was sorting through flashy fishing lures like a pirate combing through a treasure chest.

  “We would like to borrow your boat.”

  The man raised his eyes toward us, inspected our faces, and then he snorted and returned to untangling his tackle.

  “We will offer you compensation.”

  The man stopped what he was doing and looked up again. “I don’t rent out my boat.”

  “Get out of your boat and hand over your key.”

  The man blinked as he stood. Brow furrowed, he jumped out of his boat, then dug a key out of the back pocket of his jeans and deposited it into Kajika’s outstretched hand.

  Kajika took his wad of cash out and peeled off two hundreds. “I will leave two more bills like these and your keys in that box”—he nodded toward the fishing lures—“tomorrow morning. Now walk away.”

  The man nodded docilely before ambling down the dock. Not once did he look back at us.

  Kajika vaulted inside the boat then extended his hand to help me climb in.

  I caught hold of his hand. And the adventure continues…

  A tight smile tugged at his lips. He didn’t let go right away; nor did I. No other place on our bodies touched, and yet it felt like we were connected everywhere. Perhaps it was the way he gazed down at me, black pupils so dilated they obscured the brown depths of his irises.

  “I feel…strange.” His voice was low, coarse, like raw silk.

  I took inventory of my own body. I also felt different—slightly more carefree and mellow.

  “Do you think they could have been Daneelie scales?”

  Daneelie scales awaken the senses rather than dull them. What we’re experiencing is more of a mallow-high, but since hunters are impervious to mallow, and it only grows in Neverra, I suspect that what we took was an Earthly drug. Pot or something harder. Probably something harder.

  Kajika lowered his gaze to the tackle box.

  You’re feeling calm, right? Equally blissful and lethargic?

  “Yes,” he said so softly I almost missed it.

  He didn’t move for a long minute, but then he let go of my hand and proceeded to free the boat from its mooring. And then he swung up the ladder to the cockpit. The boat hummed to life and then it slid out of its slip. I stayed a moment on the stern, watching the harbor shrink and shrink as we maneuvered away from it, and then I climbed up to the cockpit.

  How do you know how to drive a boat?

  “Blake.” Without taking his gaze off the horizon, he added, “I do not like losing control.”

  We didn’t take much. It’ll wear off fast.

  He squared his shoulders. “How come you know so much about drugs?” Disapproval rang so loudly in his words that it spoiled my fragile high.

  Because mallow helps with depression. For years, I was severely depressed.

  “What did you have to be depressed about? You were a princess. You never wanted for anything.”

  I bristled, and the backs of my thighs hit the plastic siding of the boat. Because everything was handed to me, you think I was happy?

  “I did not mean that.” He scrubbed a broad hand over his face, pushing away his long bangs.

  I thought you knew me, Kajika, but you still think I’m a spoiled little faerie brat who gets everything she wants. Well, newsflash, ventor—

  Sure enough, the Faeli word for hunter made Kajika stiffen, which was my intention. Silly, but I wanted to hurt him like he’d just hurt me.

  I never got anything or anyone I wanted. Never. And now…now I’m running out of time. I tried to steady my breathing, but my lungs pumped hectically. I crossed my arms. This is stupid. We should just go back to Rowan. A tear slid down my cheek. Instead of wiping it away, I spun my face away from the hunter so he wouldn’t see how pathetic I was.

  “Lily—”

  Don’t. Just drive the boat back to the harbor. I want to return to Rowan.

  “No.”

  What do you mean, no?

  “I am not taking you back to Rowan yet.”

  Fine…then I’ll just fly back.

  Before I could even buoy up, one of his arms snaked around my waist and crushed my back to his chest.

  “Stay, Lily. I am sorry. Like you said, I have no manners.”

  His arm tightened around me as though he didn’t trust his apology would get me to stay. He was right not to trust it.

  I really wanted to leave.

  Why?

  “Why what?”

  I was still facing out. The lake, like my mood, had gotten brisker. Whitecaps now dotted the dark water, and gray, almost purple, clouds obscured the bright blue sky. The weather had shifted so fast that for a second I thought I might have a little Daneelie blood in me—only Daneelies could control the water, and thus the weather—but I knew for a fact that I was pure Seelie. If I’d been even a little Daneelie, I could’ve survived on Earth.

  Give me a reason to stay.

  His heart hammered against my spine, setting his brand aglow. Sure enough, even though my fingers were squashed against my elbow, my palm shone like a sun choked by clouds.

  You can’t think of a single one, can you?

  The boat bumped against the choppy water, and cold spray whipped my cheeks. The wind was so strong it caught in my hair and tossed it every which way, and then it flipped my black cap off my head. It bobbed in the v-shaped trail of foam behind the boat before vanishing beneath the water.

  “I stayed for you.”

  I frowned. You stayed where for me?

  “I did not go to Neverra with my tribe because I did not want to leave you.”

  His confession jolted me.

  “I want to give you everything you want, Lily. I just do not know how to.” Kajika’s arm loosened but didn’t fall away from my waist. “But I am trying.”

  I held incredibly still, barely daring to breathe. Wind roared around me, and a fierce gust snatched my sunglasses and dropped them into the lake.

  “I am failing, though.”

  I whirled around. His face came in and out of focus. He brushed away a strand of hair that had blown into my eyes, and then he dragged those calloused fingers of his down my cheek.

  His skin gleamed with droplets from the lake. “You are delicate, Lily, and I am rough. You are sweet, and I am not.”

  My arms untangled and knocked against my hips.

  A wave knocked into the boat. Even though Kajika flung out an arm to catch me, I flailed backward, and my back hit the metal railing so hard it tore my breath from my lungs.

  “Lily!” he yelled, trying to get to me, but the boat tipped and threw him against the throttle.

  As the boat jerked forward, I wrapped my fingers around the railing to keep myself upright.

  We pitched over the crest of a wave and smashed down so hard Kajika was hurled against the railing. He inched closer to me as the boat tipped again. Finally he reached me and gripped the railing on either side of me, shielding my body with his.

  He gritted his teeth as the boat banged against the fierce water. “Fly back to land.”

  I unhooked my fingers from the railing and wrapped them around him.

  “No. Do not carry me. It will be too taxing. I will swim.”

  Like hell, I would let him swim in this freak storm.

  He tore my hands off his waist. “GO!”

  Not without you.

  “I cannot drown. Do not worry.”

  The boat dropped over another wave and hit a bulge of water at an awry angle. I tried to grab onto the railing again, but my slick fingers slid off the chrome, and then I went airborne, and not because I was flying, but because I was falling.

  “Lily!” Kajika yelled, diving in after me.

  The frothing water felt like a wall of bricks and turned my whole world black for a moment. I blinked just as something sharp walloped my head and shoved me beneath the surface. I tried to swim but couldn’t distinguish up from down. I blew out air bubbles, but instead of showing
me the way to follow, they vanished in the frenzied surf and compressed my lungs.

  I began to panic then.

  I can’t drown. I can’t drown.

  But I also couldn’t breathe underwater. I’d eventually float up, but without oxygen, I would pass out. How long could my body bob atop the frigid lake before it extinguished my fire?

  I combed my hands through the water hysterically, trying to move upward, but something banded around my middle and tugged me back.

  Kajika had me. I was going to be okay.

  When I broke the surface, I gulped in air as though my life depended on it. A wave sloshed into my face, whipped against my open eyes. I shut them but not before seeing something that made the hairs on the nape of my neck rise.

  Kajika’s body drifted face down, his black hair eddying around his prostrate form like seaweed. If he wasn’t holding me, then who was?

  14

  The Savior

  I tried to turn, but the arm dragged me beneath the careening surface. As I was towed away, I screamed Kajika’s name in my mind, praying it would jolt him awake.

  Again, I tried to twist around to see the face of the swimmer who’d saved me. I assumed it was a Coast Guard, but wouldn’t they have a boat? Maybe they couldn’t take boats out in this weather.

  My savior hauled me back into the murky depths of Lake Superior and then back up and then back down, up and down. I tried to pry their arm off my abdomen, but my fingers were so numb they were useless.

  The arm tightened around my middle. My stomach clenched and throbbed. At some point, I threw up, and the jet of warm vomit hit my face and blended with my hair before ribboning off me.

  Lightning streaked the steel-gray sky, and icy rain battered the muscular lake. Whoever was propelling me through its opaque blueness accelerated, swimming so fast it felt as though we were soaring.

  A crashing sound alerted me that we were in proximity to land. The arm unwrapped from around me so suddenly I sank. But I didn’t go deep. My boots hit sand. The lake sucked me back, but then shoved me forward and spit me out onto a bank of sand that felt like solid rock.