Thunder crackled in the darkening sky, lightning striking somewhere on the island.
“You can’t rest there. It’s about to storm, and we’ll be sucked back down.” He slowly made his way down to her and moved behind her. “If I could carry you, I would. You’re going to have to help me. I’ll push from behind, and you just move your limbs, baby.”
It took half an hour before she collapsed at the top of the crest and rolled on her back. Her gaze set on the clouds blocking the rising moon from view.
Danny appeared in her view, wearing a scowl. “You could have been killed.”
“But I wasn’t.”
He squatted and lifted her in his arms. She didn’t have the energy to fight him, so she rested her head on his chest and latched her arms around his neck. “Thanks for helping me out.”
“Two down and one to go. I think we’re making excellent time. How many days until your birthday?”
“Times up at midnight three days from now.” The sky opened up with hail-sized raindrops, coming down fast and heavy just as they made it back into the cave.
Danny sat her up against the wall and started digging through his backpack. Her energy to move was zapped.
“That rainbow energy zapping stuff is coming out of the gutters in Blansett.”
Danny’s gaze snapped to hers. “I haven’t seen it.”
She shrugged. “Maybe you can only see it when it’s a high concentrate. The stuff in town just floats into the air and evaporates. It didn’t act like that.”
Danny grabbed a blanket from his pack and covered her before handing her one of their packed sandwiches and water.
“Do you think that’s what your prophecy was talking about? You zapping the town with that crap? It drained your energy. Can you imagine what it would do to the others?” he asked as he sat down next to her.
“Maybe that’s the point. That stuff drained my energy.” A new plan started to form as she took a bite of the sandwich. “That’s a good thing. If we can’t find the other stone, we’ll have to come back, and I’ll spend the day in the colors. I can’t hurt anyone or zap powers if I don’t have the energy for it.”
Danny glanced out of the cave. The rain coming down slanted sideways. “I don’t think you’ll be able to get back down into the mouth of it if the weather continues.”
He was probably right, but that wouldn’t stop her if it were her last resort.
Chapter 9
For two entire days, they paced inside the small cave while it poured with torrential downfall. Their head-start to the last stone had been wasted on trying to outwait this weather system, which was acting like a slow-moving hurricane with gale force winds and rain beating down on them. They were slowly losing time, and their window for finding the other piece was closing on them.
Lucy wrapped her hands around her waist at the base of the cave opening. Chewing her lip, she looked in the direction of the other piece.
“We’re going to have to make a break for it. We’ve lost too much time.”
Danny started repacking the backpack with everything they’d pulled out over the last couple days. Thank God he’d had a pack of playing cards in his pack, or he wouldn’t have had any other way to entertain her. They’d shot fireballs out into the rain. They’d recalculated their next steps using the map, and Lucy had even played with the two pieces she’d found to see if she could make them fit. There was still a missing piece, but when they had them all, it would form a triangle with the shape of a heart in the middle.
He helped Lucy into her backpack before putting his on. “As soon as there is a break in the wind, we’ll head into the forest. That should provide us with a little shelter.”
Lucy didn’t wait like Danny suggested. She fought against the wind and the rain and started climbing out of their little love cave. He rolled his eyes at the thought and began to wonder if she even liked him at this point. Close quarters for so long without an escape could do that to a person. Especially when he didn’t want to risk the chance of pushing her away by making a move on her for a much better way to pass the time.
He climbed down after her and headed toward the cover of the brush. Lucy was going to get herself killed if she continued to push without thinking.
“You played sports growing up, didn’t you?”
Lucy glanced back, and her brows dipped. “What makes you think that?”
“There isn’t much you let get in your way when you put your mind to something.”
Lucy chuckled. The sound of her voice raised his spirits in place of vitamin D from the sunshine. “I didn’t play sports. I didn’t get out much because of my ability. I didn’t trust that they wouldn’t throw the game just to let me win.”
“So you were secretly a comic book nerd?”
She walked in step with him. The cover from the overhanging trees and thick brush kept them somewhat out of the elements.
“I spent my time drawing, painting, and reading through all of the books in my mother’s library.”
“So you’re a creative type?” he asked.
“I can be.”
“Then, when we buy a house, I’ll make sure you have some space to…create.”
Her foot caught on a root, and he caught her and helped her keep her balance.
“You have this all worked out in your head, don’t you? We meet, fall in love, live happily ever after.”
“I did at first and then witnessed firsthand what Beck and Grey went through to be together. I know we’ll take work, and it won’t be easy, but everything good in life is worth the effort. We’ll find our way, just like they did.”
She slowed her step, and he turned to find her frowning with a worried dip between her brows, which he just wanted to kiss away.
“I may not make it off this island, Danny. If it gets too close to midnight tonight, you can’t stay. I won’t risk hurting you.”
“You’re under the assumption I’ve got a choice.” He closed the distance between them and used his finger under her chin to lift her gaze to his. “You’re it for me. You’re all I get, you’re all I want, and I already know that. How fucked up is that that I already know in my soul that it’s you?”
“Who says? The stone? Your mother’s coven?” She began to shake her head. “That’s not good enough for me.”
“What about this?” he asked, slipping his fingers into her hair and around the back of her neck. He took her mouth with the first sensual all-out assault that he’d been dying to give her. She melded into his arms and rested against his body as though it was place she was meant to stay for the rest of her life. A moan slipped free, and he deepened the kiss. His tongue plundered hers. Her grip on his shoulders tightened as she tried to pull him closer. The desire he was feeling, she had to be feeling it too. It was the very fabric of them coming together just in the kiss. The intensity surprised even him. He hadn’t been expecting the need between them to bloom to new heights, but he was feeling it first-hand. Was she?
He slowly broke the kiss to find her eyes still closed. The quick rise and fall of her chest pressed her breasts against her tight T-shirt. He stood in silence waiting for her speak. She stood stock-still, breathing softly with a serene look on her face. What seemed like minutes passed but were probably more like seconds. The longest seconds of his ever-lovin’ life.
“Your energy wraps around me, cocooning me like a familiar blanket.” She slid her eyes open. “I thought it was your cologne or something else that made me feel it.” She tilted her head. “All this time it was your energy I was feeling with all of my senses. You smell woodsy. Your energy calms me. It gives me everything I need when I need it, and I bet you don’t even realize that it’s happening.”
“You got that from a single kiss?” Danny said, taking her hand and heading toward the spot they needed to find the other stone. “I’ve got a million more of those to give you if it helps convince you that we’re destined for each other.”
The rest of the way to the next clearing, Da
nny dropped the subject of what would happen if they didn’t find the stone. Not finding it wasn’t an option. Not when they were both so close to getting everything they’d ever dreamed of. She didn’t argue anymore. She didn’t insist that he’d have to leave. She was finally figuring out that he wouldn’t. It would take one hell of a force to get him away from her, and even that, he would fight with his dying breath.
They broke through the brush to another clearing. Tall, thick trees were strategically placed in a circle-like pattern. There was nothing living inside the circle, no grass, no brush, nothing. It was as though an invisible force field had left that part of the earth devoid of life. An eerie apprehension settled in his gut. Was this what it looked like where Lucy’s great-great-great-grandmother had walked away from the Indians?
“What did the page say about the last piece?” she asked as she chewed her lip. Concern pinched her brows, and her frown from before returned.
“You can only see this one with your heart, not your eyes.”
Lucy dropped her backpack to the ground and sat on a stump as if lost in thought. For once she wasn’t jumping in headfirst.
“That’s too cryptic, and we’re out of time. We only have a few more hours to figure this out. When the clock strikes twelve tonight, there’s no telling what will happen.” She sighed.
“We can figure this out.” Danny slipped his pack off and joined her on the stump. “You can’t see it with your eyes. You have to look with your heart. So we just have to figure out what heart means to you.”
“My heart.” She sighed again. “My mom, my friends, my town, helping people, my magic, laughter, love, happiness.” She glanced at him. “How am I supposed to see with any of those?”
“My heart is those things and more,” he said, unhooking the necklace with his pendant. He slid it around her neck. “My heart and happiness has always been tied to this pendant and what it represents. It’s my happily ever after, my one true love, my better half…you.”
She held his gaze and cupped his cheek. “You know how to make me feel special.”
“You are special.” He leaned in and kissed her lips in a slow kiss of encouragement.
She rose from the spot and moved into the center of the clearing. A slow spiral of rainbow mist of energy swirled from the ground around her legs.
“Lucy, come back!” Danny yelled and tried to step into the clearing, only to find there was indeed some invisible force holding him back.
“Lucy!” he screamed louder, his voice on the verge of panic. Lucy held his gaze, and a look of apprehension shimmered across her face before she closed her eyes and grabbed both his pendant and hers together in her fist. A burst of green energy poured from her body toward the top of the dome.
Her lips were moving, but he couldn’t hear her words. Danny beat on the invisible field until his hands were raw and darkness clouded the sky. Fire and heat sparked beneath his palms, and he concentrated on making it grow, hoping that maybe the fire would burn through whatever was keeping him out.
Nothing happened. No matter the intensity or the area he worked, nothing made a dent.
He was helpless from getting to her, helpless to break her free. He dropped to his knees, his hand on the force field, and he watched in horror as the rainbow colors filled the circular dome, engulfing Lucy in its haze.
All hope rushed from Danny’s body, and he dropped his gaze to both their packs. They needed a piece like the others. “The others.”
He slid the pack open and pulled out the metal box. “Okay, you energy suckers. You might be missing your last piece, but according to the book, you’ll suck my energy out just for touching you. We’re about to see if that’s true.”
Danny braced himself for what would come next. If the legend were true, he was about to have his abilities ripped from his body and soul, and he’d be defenseless from a cold night for the rest of his life.
He didn’t care. He unlatched the box and opened the lid. He grabbed a stone. His fingers immediately began tingling, and it started a slow path up his arm. He held the stone to the force field, and some of the rainbow energy started seeping out of the circle and directly into the stone. The hole that was forming was too slow.
He grabbed the other stone and held it to the shield again. This time the energy moved quicker, with the colored streams drawing into both stones at once. Danny rose to his feet and slipped inside the hole he created.
He hurried to the center through the mist. A stream of colored energy trailed behind him being sucked into the stones.
He found Lucy lying on the ground, her eyes closed, their pendants still in her grasp with the chains broken. He ran the stones over her body to clear away the energy that was suffocating her, and when he did, both of their pendants fused into a heart-looking shape right before his eyes. It floated on the rainbow directly to the middle of the two crystals, inserting itself like it had never left and melding them all into one beautiful swirl of colors. The rainbow energy around them intensified, as all of it from around them and inside Lucy was sucked through the air toward the triangle crystal. Danny dropped the stone, grabbed Lucy into his arms, and carried her back through the path he’d made when he entered. Her body lay limp in his arms as he stepped out of the circle. He eased them both to the ground. He felt for her pulse. It was slow, but it was still there.
“Lucy,” he whispered, fighting back the panic that threatened to explode. “Baby, can you hear me?”
She didn’t move.
Danny cradled her in his arms and wrapped his energy around her, hoping that might be what she needed to regain consciousness. He rocked with her, kissing her hair as he watched the last tendrils of the force field drain into the newly constructed pyramid he’d left behind.
When the last speck of color dissipated in the clearing, Lucy gasped for breath and tried to shoot out of his arms.
Danny didn’t let her go. He held her tight. “You’re safe,” he whispered into her ear and kissed her forehead again. “You’re safe.”
She eased out of his hold, propping herself up. “What happened?”
“The rainbow energy engulfed you and created a force field that I had a hard time breaking through.”
She grabbed the empty metal box and rose to her feet. “You used the stones?”
“I had to. That was the only way I could get to you.”
“You touched them?” she asked, dropping to her knees. She grabbed his hand and opened his palm. “Can you make fire?”
Danny tried calling on fire to appear in his palm, and all he got was a low spark before it dissipated. “No.”
“You gave it up to save me?” she asked. Tears filled her eyes, and one slipped free.
“I would move mountains for you,” he said, cupping her cheeks and staring deeply into her eyes.” There was no question about where his loyalties resided.
“Oh, Danny,” she whispered before crashing her lips to his in a heated kiss. He pulled her into his embrace and kissed her back the way he’d dreamed of kissing her since they’d met. When she slowly pulled away, she rested her forehead against his. “We still have to find the last stone.”
Danny glanced at his watch. It was five minutes past twelve. “No, we don’t. It was our pendants fused together. They reshaped into a heart and melded with the other pieces.” He pointed to the fused stone and smiled. “Happy Birthday, Lucy.”
Lucy’s eyes widened. Her hand flew to where her stone would naturally lay. “The ward must be gone.”
“What about your ability?” he asked, standing and holding out his hand to help her up. Lucy opened her palm and held it in the air, trying to make fire. Nothing, not even a spark.
“It looks like it zapped you.” He pressed a tender kiss on her lips. “Don’t worry, though. If my mother’s coven spelled the stone once, they can do it again on a new one, just in case.”
They both walked back into the clearing to find that the stones melded and the middle missing section was filled in with bo
th of their pendants, making it whole.
“See with my heart, not my eyes,” she said, picking up the rainbow-filled stones.
“I guess you found your heart.” He chuckled and rested his arm over her shoulders.
“I guess I did.” She snuggled into his arms and kissed him again. “I guess we should start with a date.”
He let out a full-belly laugh. “I still say we start with the ring.”
And that was exactly what they did. She didn’t make him wait. She already knew deep in her soul that they belonged together. She’d known it the minute she figured out it was his energy blanketing her that gave her that sense of home and forever. She’d found her missing piece, her heart, her home, and his name was Danny.
The End
Thank you for reading our stories. If you enjoyed the stories, please consider leaving a review. To learn about us for to find more of our stories, please consider checking out our Amazon Author pages or signing up for our newsletters.
Mystic Luck (Mystic Tides Book 2) Page 29