Lokahi (Hawaiian Shadows Book 3)

by Edie Claire

The phrase “easier said than done” hung over the table like a flashing neon sign, but nobody said it out loud. Zane and I exchanged another uncomfortable look. So far down…

  “Besides that, the whole scene itself could be a ‘might happen,’ rather than a ‘will happen,’” Kylee said finally, her first words of the meal. “If we knew more specifically what happened before the vision starts, maybe there’s a chance we could change the course of it.”

  “It starts with pain on the left side of the head,” I reminded.

  “And we shouldn’t forget the blood,” Zane added, causing winces all around.

  My dad sat up straighter in his chair. “Have you thought about a shark?”

  My muscles tensed. I didn’t like to think about sharks. Ever. I knew all the statistics about how rare fatal encounters were, how important sharks were to a healthy ocean ecosystem, blah, blah, blah. But I also knew that it wasn’t at all uncommon for surfers to meet up with tiger sharks in Hawaiian waters, and whether the thought bothered Zane or not — and of course it did not — it terrified me.

  “A bite on the head would be pretty strange,” Zane said thoughtfully. “But not impossible. It would explain the blood, anyway.”

  Both Kylee’s and Tara’s faces seemed to have lost all their blood. My mother grabbed a fresh napkin and wiped all the rib sauce off the serving platter.

  “We’ll keep an eye out for sharks, then,” I said crisply, moving on. “I guess the main thing will be to make sure there’s a lifeguard nearby. To keep an eye on Makani at all times. To call 911 at the first possible hint of a problem. If that means driving all over the island trying to keep up with him without him seeing us, then that’s what we’ll have to do.”

  “And if he hops on a plane?” Kylee squeaked.

  My dad’s forehead wrinkled. He looked at Zane. “We’ll fly if we have to. But if memory serves, the forecast’s pretty decent in town this week, is it not?”

  Zane nodded. “We know he just got back from the Big Island, and he was in Tahiti before that. Maybe if we’re lucky he’ll want to stay close to home for a while. After all, Trestles is coming up in a few weeks and then he’ll be off to California.”

  My dad exhaled loudly. “Let’s hope.”

  Kylee raised her hand. Then, with sudden realization, she blushed and jerked it down again.

  The Colonel had a strange effect on people.

  Kylee cleared her throat. “My ba noi said that whatever Kali and Zane are seeing, it’s very likely to happen soon. Precognition is a short-term thing, for a lot of reasons, and it tends to amp up the closer you get. She definitely thinks ‘days,’ not ‘weeks.’”

  “But…” I cried, “It’s been three days already!”

  “We have to think logically!” Tara practically shouted. Her face was still deathly pale, but her expression was resolute. Clearly, she was struggling to get a grip over her own emotions more than she was chastising anybody else. “What tools are at our disposal, here? We know there’s danger in the ocean, and we know we can’t keep Makani out of the ocean. All we can do is be on hand to intervene. We ordinary humans can find out where’s he going, watch him like a hawk, alert the lifeguards, and call 911. Kali and Zane can touch the jersey again and see if they can pick up any more clues about how the whole thing starts. Kali can also see shadows.”

  She looked at me. “Any chance of that ability helping us?”

  I sat back in surprise. I was still trying to process the concept of intentionally drowning myself again. “I don’t see how,” I admitted. “They can’t do anything like ghosts can. And there isn’t any knowledge from the past we’re looking for.”

  “I guess not,” Tara agreed. “What about feeling emotions?”

  I considered, then shook my head. “All I’ve ever gotten from the ghosts is ‘we’re worried.’ Even if they did know specifics, I can’t read their minds.”

  “It’s Zane that has the most useful tool,” my dad said, sounding as uncomfortable as if someone were actively sticking pins in him. “You do realize the army spent years trying to figure out if remote viewing was a real thing or not? The CIA finally decided it wasn’t, and they shut the program down. But hell, if Zane can do it, you’ve got a built-in spy machine right here.”

  All eyes turned to Zane. “I can see certain places I’ve been to already,” he admitted. “But that doesn’t mean I could track a person. I mean, I could only see Makani if he happened to be someplace I knew, and I happened to be looking at it then.”

  “Well,” my dad continued, his voice smug. “In the months since you’ve lived on this rock, have you, or have you not, personally sized up every possible break that a guy like Makani would be likely to paddle into?”

  Zane smiled with understanding. “Well, yeah. I guess I have.”

  “So there,” my dad said triumphantly, crossing his arms over his chest. “We have a spy. As of now, you’re on duty, son. Twenty-four, seven. Consider it a service to the state of Hawaii.”

  “But Dad,” I countered. “Zane can only do that when he’s with me. Survey a whole scene, I mean. He has to be touching me, or at least close by me. Otherwise he just gets flashes.”

  My dad’s hawk eyes darted from me to Zane. “That true?”

  Zane nodded.

  My dad frowned. “Well. That’s damned awkward.”

  “I think our most useful tool is the ghosts,” Kylee piped up again. “They know who we are and where we are, and I’m sure that the old woman, at least, understands that we’d like to help. I don’t think they’re using up all this energy just to cry and moan. I think they’re going to pop up again. And we should be ready to follow their lead when they do.”

  My dad threw a look at my mother. She threw a look back at him. I didn’t need captions.

  I’ll take orders from a bunch of damn floating banshees when hell freezes—

  Mitch! For God’s sake, just roll with it!

  My dad didn’t follow anyone who didn’t rank above him in the military. Unless, of course, he was married to her.

  Tara jumped in her seat. She whipped a hand around to her back pocket and pulled out her phone. But then she tossed it down again, muttering one of her little brothers’ names along with some unkind adjectives. “Like I care if he can’t find his friggin’ football pants!”

  My mother stood and began to collect the dishes, signaling that the meal was officially at a close. “Well, it will only be daylight for a little while longer,” she said in her best cheerful-mom voice. “Unless Makani was headed straight out to the beach when you left him, he’s bound to be safe until tomorrow, right?”

  She meant the statement to be comforting, I’m sure. But it had the opposite effect.

  “How early do surfers go out in the morning?” Tara asked.

  “Ever heard of the dawn patrol?” my dad answered her. “Makani would be just the type to get out there at first light, too. He’s got every reason to want to avoid the crowds, never mind the wind.”

  Kylee was staring at Zane. “He’s doing it again right now,” she commented. “Look.”

  We all turned to Zane. He was leaning back in his chair, which he had scooted next to mine so that our shoulders were touching. His gaze seemed to be fixed on the cup of ice water in front of him, but his eyes weren’t focused. If he knew that Kylee was talking about him, he gave no indication of it.

  “Leave him alone,” I suggested, trying not to move. “He’s probably scanning the south shores right now, checking to make sure Makani’s not there.”

  We heard some dishes clink. I couldn’t see my mom because she was behind me, but I’m pretty sure she almost dropped something. Her footsteps scurried into the kitchen and my dad made a funny sound that he tried to turn into a fake throat clearing.

  Tara tapped something into her phone. “It’ll be light before six tomorrow,” she announced.

  Kylee’s lips pursed thoughtfully. “No offense, Tara, but we can’t count on the guy answering your text to tell us when
and where he’s going surfing. I mean, he’s not exactly been great at getting back to you.”

  “That was before!” Tara said defensively. But then her confidence deflated. “No, he’s not the greatest about answering. Did you notice he didn’t pull out his phone once the whole time we were in the museum? You know he had to be getting stuff, too. He was just ignoring it. I don’t think he’s much of a phone person.”

  “Even if he does answer,” I pointed out, “I doubt he’d mention a dawn patrol. He wouldn’t think you’d want to get up that early just to watch.”

  Tara groaned. “Well, how direct can I be? Should I call him up right now and say, ‘Please, please, Makani, for the sake of our mutual love of museums, can you give me your minute-by-minute itinerary for the next three days?”

  “No,” Kylee answered quickly. “We have to be careful. You can’t all of a sudden go stalker-chick on him.”

  “I know!” Tara lamented. “I was only with him for a couple hours, but I’m pretty sure he’d know it was out of character, and then he would think I was just weird.”

  “Is that healthy?” my dad asked. He was paying no attention to any of us. He was still staring at Zane, who remained sitting motionless with his eyes unfocused.

  I looked to make sure Zane was still breathing. “He’s fine, Dad,” I assured.

  My mom finished clearing off the dishes, then began to wipe down the tabletop. I shifted a little so she could reach between me and Zane, totally forgetting the shoulder-to-shoulder contact thing. As soon as I moved, Zane snapped out of his trance and gave a little jump in his seat, which startled my mother so much she cried out and dropped the wet dishrag on my head.

  “I’m so sorry,” she apologized, extracting it from the curls beside my face. Gross. I could swear I tasted salt.

  “What?” Zane asked, looking around in confusion.

  “Did you see Makani?” I pressed, reminding him of his mission.

  He gave himself a shake. “No. Actually, the surf sucks pretty much everywhere right now. I looked around at all the obvious breaks, but I didn’t see him and I really don’t think he’d be out. Not in this. It’s not worth it. I’m pretty sure he’s safe for the night.”

  We all let out a sigh of relief.

  “Well,” my mom said with authority as she collected herself. “Then I think the best thing we can all do is get a good night’s sleep. Zane, you might as well head out to your place right now and get your things. The sooner you leave, the sooner you’ll be back. All our air mattresses are taken, but the couch should be comfortable enough.”

  Three seconds of dead silence followed.

  “What in hell’s fire are you talking about, Diane?” my father bellowed. “Since when are we running a teenage dormitory?”

  My mother made a huffing sound and came just short of rolling her eyes. “This is a group project, Mitch. You can’t expect the boy to go home now just to get up and drive back over here in the middle of the night. If you think Makani is going surfing at dawn and you expect to have a prayer of getting out there in time to keep him safe, then of course Zane needs to be here with Kali to start watching the beaches as early as possible!”

  My dad made a growling noise low in his throat. We could hear a gnashing sound as his teeth ground over each other.

  “She’s right, Dad,” I said seriously, careful not to grin. “It’s his service to the state of Hawaii.”

  Chapter 21

  Kylee, Tara, and I sat on the couch in my living room, staring at nothing. Zane sat beside me not even staring, but just sitting with his eyes unfocused, apparently running through a continuous loop of every happening surf spot on the island of Oahu. He’d been doing the same thing for hours now. He had to be getting exhausted.

  Under any other circumstances, last night might have been fun. It wasn’t every day a girl got to have her two best buds sleep over — and her boyfriend, too. We’d made a quick trip to the North Shore after dinner, packed up Zane’s board and his backpack, and returned to a short but cozy evening of popcorn and surf videos. Once we’d all gotten familiar with how Makani looked out on the water, we turned in for the night, but I’m not sure how well anyone slept. I couldn’t stop thinking about how Zane was tucked in on the couch one floor below, and I have a pretty good feeling he was thinking similar, distracting thoughts about me. The Colonel, I’m sure, considered it his fatherly duty to toss and turn all night listening for the creak of an unauthorized footstep going up or down the stairs, which would have kept my mother awake out of sheer aggravation. And I’m pretty sure that seeing my dad brandishing a gun in his pajamas earlier in the week might have been behind Tara’s and Kylee’s reluctance to make their usual trips down to the bathroom.

  When our alarms had gone off in the wee hours, I’d slithered downstairs, my mom had heated up some island tea, and Zane had put his remote viewing ability to work. Kylee and Tara had devotedly gotten up with us, Kylee insisting that someone needed to watch for further communication from the ghosts and Tara checking her phone every three and half seconds. My dad made coffee and then went out to fetch us all some donuts.

  Now it was late morning. Zane had seen no sign of Makani. And Tara had received no text.

  I moved away from Zane, and his eyes fluttered. “Time for another break,” I suggested. “We really don’t know how long you can keep this up. You should pace yourself.”

  “I’m all right,” he protested, stretching his arms. But he sounded groggy to me, and his eyes were still a little unfocused.

  “Maybe you should get up and move around a little?” I pleaded.

  “Maybe we should all go out for an early lunch,” my mother proposed from her desk. “I’m used to sitting around this house, and even I’m getting stir crazy.”

  “Hear, hear,” my dad agreed, practically jumping up from his recliner. “Can’t stand another minute of this, myself. Why don’t we move our base of operations a bit? Get a change of scenery?”

  Everyone rose in unanimous approval as my phone buzzed with a text. My hopes skyrocketed for a second, and I could tell from the look on Tara’s face that hers did too, before we realized that we were idiots. Makani didn’t even have my number.

  “It’s Lacey,” I announced. We hadn’t seen Lacey yesterday, but she had texted to announce that the community pool’s pump needed a part that had to be ordered, so the lifeguards were closing down for the season. Needless to say, she had been ecstatic.

  Hanging in Haleiwa today!!! Hitching with Matt — you guys gonna be around?

  My smile was bittersweet. I would so much rather be playing on the North Shore this afternoon than face the specter we were facing! Then again, if Lacey knew what was good for her, she wouldn’t be inviting us along in the first place. She would be spending quality time alone with Matt, waiting for his hormones to kick in.

  Awesome! But sorry — doing town today. Have fun!

  I sent off the reply and slid my phone back in my pocket. “Where should we go?” I asked Zane.

  “We’ll have to stay pretty much central, like we are here,” he answered. “From what I’m seeing, the best action right now for a guy like Makani would be around Diamond Head, and I still think that’s where he’s most likely to show up. But your dad’s right.” He gave my dad a nod, and the Colonel nodded back. “Makani mentioned in an interview that he surfs around Ewa Beach a lot because he has friends over there. If there’s even a small chance that he decides to go over and goof off with them while we’re waiting for him all the way over near Waikiki, we’ll have a terrible time fighting our way back through the traffic.”

  “Moanalua Gardens, then,” my mother suggested. “It’s right off the H1. We could take a picnic.”

  “Diane,” my dad said fondly, crossing over to her and wrapping an arm affectionately around her waist. “You are a genius.”

  My mom was also really good at packing picnics. Between the week’s leftovers and what she gathered from a quick run into the grocery store on the way
, we had quite a spread laid out before us under the shade of a banyan tree at the picturesque city park. The food was tasty and the weather was gorgeous, sunny and warm with a light breeze that carried the scent of the park’s abundant flowers. On another day, under other circumstances, we could all have had a fabulous time.

  “I should try again,” Zane said determinedly.

  “It’s only been ten minutes,” I replied. He really wasn’t himself. His appetite seemed fine, but the remote viewing was obviously draining him — mentally if not physically. He seemed fuzzy-headed and checked out, and it worried me. “Give it another five.”

  “I still haven’t seen a ghost,” Kylee said distantly, sounding more than a little checked out herself. “I haven’t seen a whiff of anything supernatural since Makani drove away from us yesterday afternoon. And yet, I know it’s not over. The silence is almost, like… eerie.”

  “I know what you mean,” Zane said quietly. “There was so much activity. And now… nothing.”

  I looked from one to the other, and my heartbeat quickened. “You don’t think—”

  “No!” Tara cried with alarm.

  “No, not that!” Zane and Kylee said together, a reaction that seemed to surprise them both. They exchanged a glance, and then Kylee explained.

  “We would know if… well, if we’d failed. I’m sure of that. I’m not sure how I’m sure, but I am. I get the feeling that the ghosts are in some kind of holding pattern. Just like us. Like they’re gathering their strength or something.”

  “Calm before the storm,” Zane murmured.

  I studied his too-serious face again. I really didn’t like what all this weirdness was doing to him, and if it wasn’t a matter of life or death I would make him cut it out right now. “Let’s take a walk,” I urged. “We can show Tara and Kylee King Kamehameha’s summer cottage.”

  Zane didn’t argue with me, but the zombie-like way he walked beside me across the grassy lawn was less than reassuring. I purposely moved away from him a little, just so he couldn’t cheat and start viewing again while I wasn’t paying attention. We both loved Moanalua Gardens, which was blessed with an abundance of happy shadows including some from my own family, but I couldn’t focus on them now.