“Oh...shit!” Logan leaped to his feet, his eyes wide with terror. He lunged at me and swept me up into his arms as flames flared up around me. I truly was on fire. At least my clothes were.
Logan ran with me, splashing into the placid ocean. Cold sea water enveloped us, drowning the flames. We went under before I could take a breath and saltwater rushed down my throat. I thrashed in Logan’s tight embrace, fighting for the surface.
“Demetria! Breathe, damn you!” Gradually I became aware he was shouting at me, and I was no longer submerged. We sat in two feet of water as rain poured down on us. I lay sprawled in his arms, choking on raindrops because I hadn’t the sense to close my damn mouth. The acrid stink of burned fabric combined with swallowed sea water made my stomach lurch.
Logan turned me to the side and belted my back as I retched miserably into the frothing waves. They tossed us back and forth, adding to my nausea. I tried to find a handhold, but the sand swirled and shifted beneath my grasping fingers. I couldn’t tell if we were being pulled out to sea or were washing ashore.
“Are you burned?” I focused on his hand on my arm. Ugly blisters disfigured his fingers.
“Are you?” He turned me around to face him and ran his blistered hands up and down my body, searching for burns.
“I don’t think so,” I said because nothing hurt except my stomach from puking and swallowing sea water.
“How in the hell can that even be?” Logan marveled.
“You got me into the water on time,” I guessed.
“Fire generated by her magic won’t hurt her.” Mother stood with her feet in the surf, clutching at her drenched skirt as if lifting it above the waves would make it less wet. “You’re brave, sea witch, I’ll give you that much.”
“I’ve never seen an earth witch spontaneously combust before.” Logan hauled us both out of the waves, and we sloshed to shore. “I didn’t know they could do that.”
“It’s rare.” Mother reached out to help haul me onto the beach.
“Fire may not have hurt me, but it wrecked the Lady Regent’s dress.” Appalled, I surveyed the ruin of the day dress that clung in sooty, smelly clumps to my body. Grimacing in disgust, I ripped what was left of the fabric off me. My bra and panties hadn’t withstood the fire any better than the dress, and it wasn’t until I was standing there, stark naked, that I remembered Logan and Captain Clark could see me.
“Oh, crap,” I muttered, wrapping my arms around myself and twisting my legs to try to cover my private parts.
“Why do you keep flaunting your naked body at me? I’m going to start thinking you’re seriously trying to kill me. Are you?” Logan asked me as he unbuttoned his shirt. I gaped at him. What on Othala did he think was going to do?
“You keep your clothes on!” I shouted at him, my feet tangling together as I tried to run away.
“Hang on!” He yelled, but a huge grin threatened to split his face in two. “I’m trying to be gallant here.”
“By stripping?” I yelled. “Bad enough I’m naked, you think joining me makes you a gentleman or something?”
“I’m trying to give you my shirt, you little idiot.” Logan snickered as he held out his shirt. Bare chested, the man was breathtaking. Beside me, Mother’s mouth dropped open as she stared at him. He caught her looking and flexed his biceps making her giggle.
“Ahem!” Captain Clark cleared his throat self-consciously. He had one hand over his eyes to avoid seeing my naked body. He’d taken off his uniform jacket, which he extended in my general direction. “I think this might...ahem...cover more.”
I snatched it and hastily pulled it on. The jacket blessedly reached my knees. The arms were so long they swallowed my hands whole, making it hard to button.
“Need some help?” Logan wondered, smirking.
“See how he’s averting his eyes? That’s called a social cue. Ever heard of them?” I snapped, turning my back so he wouldn’t get an eyeful as I struggled to button that damn jacket.
“Me? I’m an uncouth barbarian. I wouldn’t know a social cue if it leaped up and bit me in the ass.” Logan ambled around me so we were face to face. I glowered and turned my back on him again. Stupid buttons. Stupid sea witch.
“What did he mean by ‘keep flaunting your naked body’?” Logan’s previous comments seemed to penetrate Mother’s embarrassing infatuation – probably since he’d put his shirt back on. “You’ve been naked with Logan before?”
Logan sniggered, and if I hadn’t had my hands full with buttons, I would have smacked him.
“Some people don’t bother to knock before they burst open a closed bathroom door while other people are taking a bath.” I swore under my breath when a button slipped through my fingers again. “Damn stupid sleeves!” I shoved them up to my elbows again, which was difficult because the fabric was soaked and stiff.
“I’m sorry,” Logan said, when judging by his grin he so was not. “I didn’t realize I was sharing a bathroom at the time. I thought I was the lone witch banished to the upper floor of the mansion. Now that I know, have I burst in on you ever again?”
“No,” I muttered, conquering the last recalcitrant button. “Because I make sure to lock the door. Don’t think I didn’t hear the knob rattling this morning while I was showering, because I did.”
“Can’t put one thing past you, can I, earth witch?” Logan leaned close to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear and let his fingers brush my earlobe. I shivered, and he grinned, obviously pleased at how he affected me.
“I’m going to put my fist past your teeth and ram it halfway down your throat if you continue to smirk at me like that,” I said, making Mother laugh so hard she choked, and Logan had to pound her on the back.
Casting them both a sour look, I declared, “You can look now, Captain. I’m decent.”
Captain Clark lowered his hand and peered at me anxiously. I’m sure I was a sight in his sodden jacket, with my bare legs and feet sticking out beneath the hem. After surveying me for a long moment, he blew out his breath and looked out to sea as if he might see someone he knew out there and be able to start a conversation that wasn’t awkward. I wished him luck.
“I’m so proud of you, Dem.” Mother hugged me hard, knocking me off balance both literally and figuratively.
“For what? She just about killed us all!” Captain Clark blurted, then reddened like a cherry.
Logan let out a whoop of laughter.
“You felt it, didn’t you? The energy inside you? The magic?” Mother took me by the shoulders and beamed at me as if I were her star pupil and I’d passed the big test.
“I felt something really weird,” I admitted. “And hot,” I added, making Logan guffaw.
“You keep out of this!” I pointed a finger at him, and he knocked it away playfully. When he winked at me, I couldn’t help but stick my tongue out him. We both grinned at each other. A wave of giddy happiness enveloped me. I’d touched my magic! Sure, I’d nearly killed us all and potentially sent a tidal wave flooding across Regent’s Row, but, by Othala, I’d proved to myself I was a witch – a powerful one at that.
The strangled noises that sputtered between Captain Clark’s lips interrupted my proud moment. Was he having some sort of delayed reaction fit of hysteria? He pointed down the beach, his face so pale I thought he might keel over.
Logan glanced over my shoulder and went rigid before bursting into incredulous laughter. “You are one amazing, earth witch, you know that?”
“What?” I turned around, and Mother did also. She sucked in her breath, but I could only gape.
The stairs were back. Not a crack or missing piece marred their pristine perfection. They were in better shape now than they had been when we’d descended them. As if brand new.
“What does it feel like when you’re having a heart attack?” Captain Clark asked conversationally as he clutched his chest. “Because I think I may be experiencing the onset of a massive one.”
“Oh, John, don’t be so dramat
ic,” Mother said, rolling her eyes.
“He can’t help it. He’s in Regiment Thirteen. They’re all a bunch of histrionic bastards,” Logan said, and by the grim darkness that flickered across his face, he was only half joking.
“Come on.” Logan draped one arm around my shoulders and the other around Mother’s. “Let get the hell out of here before something else catastrophic happens.
“I think we’re safe for the moment. I’m not mad or scared. We tend to be safe when I’m not mad or scared,” I said. I glanced down at my bare feet. When had I lost my shoes? Had they burned off? Maybe they’d floated out to sea.
As if to mock me, thunder boomed above us, which made Mother jump. Lightning sizzled across the sky in a dozen different places just before the heavens opened up, releasing a deluge of cold rain so thick the world turned hazy and indistinct.
Even through the curtain of rain, I sensed Captain Clark staring at me.
“Blame the sea witch for this one!” I shouted. “Not everything’s my fault.”
“Damn near,” Logan muttered. “Ow! Ow!” He protested when I elbowed him in the ribs.
We reached the stairs and hurried up them, slipping on the wet stones. Logan caught me, I braced him, and Mother clung to him.
Captain Clark reached the top first and hollered a blistering oath that stopped us in our tracks.
“That damn horse.” He turned to us, spitting mad, wiping rain from his eyes. “Good for nothing nag! He bolted and took the carriage with him.”
“Guess we’re walking,” Logan said with a shrug.
Grateful for the warmth and comfort of Logan’s arm around my shoulders, I leaned into him as we walked.
Rainwater choked the gutters and washed leaves and twigs onto the cobblestones. Puddles formed and deepened. Logan slogged through them rather than around them, forcing me to do the same. I limped along, wishing like hell I knew what on Othala had happened to my shoes. Cobblestones hurt.
Chapter 9
Three drenched, filthy witches plus one bathroom equals two hours minimum clean-up time. Logan let Mother and me prepare for dinner first.
I couldn’t rush through bathing. Sand encrusted my hair and my skin. Seemingly everywhere I found itchy, tiny grains. I washed my hair three times before I couldn’t feel any more sand through the suds. Curse long hair.
Tonight no lady’s maid waited to help me dress, for which, at first, I was thankful. However, one inconvenient zipper and a headful of tangled, still-somehow-gritty hair made for a painfully slow process.
By the time I’d managed to subdue my hair and stumbled across the hall to Mother’s room to beg help with the zipper, she’d bathed, but was busy scrubbing her hair dry. All her clothes were flung across the bed where they lay in twisted, inadequate piles.
Mother’s strange, almost fey confidence from the beach was gone as she stared at me with wide, scared eyes. “I have nothing suitable to wear to dinner with the Lord Regent,” she whispered in a voice so filled with terror, I’m sure she would have preferred to take her chances with a ravager instead of dine with the Lord Regent in one of her old dresses.
“How about this dress?” I gestured at mine. It was the only evening gown that didn’t have dipping cleavage. Mother could pull off cleavage and then some, but I knew she wouldn’t want to dress provocatively in front of the Lord Regent. Neither did I, which was why I’d selected that dress.
Mother screwed up her face and circled me, debating the merits of the gown. “What will you wear?”
“Regina gave me two other evening gowns. I can wear one of those.”
Mother arched her brows. “Regina?”
I flushed. “That’s what she wants me to call her.”
“Regina,” Mother said, her mouth tight, “is the Lord Regent’s wife. Is she truly so different from him that you feel comfortable calling her by her first name?”
“She was nice to me at dinner last night. The only one, besides Logan. And she tried to give me advice to get Logan to tone it down and be more respectful. She knew the Lord Regent would punish his family instead of him because that would hurt him more.”
“Interesting that she would give you this advice rather than directly to Logan.” Mother touched a finger to the strap of the gown I wore, and I flinched even though I knew she’d never hurt me. I was ashamed. Confused. Had I misinterpreted Regina’s motives? They seemed crystal clear to Mother while I still struggled to figure out if I could trust her.
“You’ll meet her tonight, and you can see for yourself.” I shrugged the strap off my shoulder and let the dress slide in a puddle of silk to my feet.
“We’d better hurry. We’ve got ten minutes until dinner.”
“Ten?” Mother touched her tangled hair in horror. “We’ll never make it. Can’t they hold dinner another half an hour? They saw us come in bedraggled. That housekeeper had seven kinds of fits about us dripping sand and sea water all over the carpets.”
“If anything that would have motivated her to move dinner up not back. Matilda is a bitch.”
Mother’s eyes widened at my choice of words. I tried not to swear around her, but that was the only word that fit the housekeeper as far as I was concerned.
“We’re wasting time. Hurry and dress.” Mother snatched the dress from the floor.
I scurried across the hall and into one of the other gowns Regina had given me wishing I had a shawl to wear to cover my half-exposed breasts. One thing I truly missed from my old life was my clothes. At least back home I never went to dinner half naked.
I met Mother in the hall and zipped her up in the back then we rushed down the staircase and into the foyer. I expected to find Logan waiting for us, but after poking my head into every open door I could find, I had to concede he wasn’t ready for dinner.
“Obviously, he’s still dressing, Dem. I’m sure being one or two minutes late to dinner isn’t a crime.” Mother peered at her reflection in the huge oval mirror that hung above an antique side table. She clucked and fussed with her bangs. “Oh, Othala curse it, I’ve still got sand in my hair.”
“Me too.” I resisted the urge to feel my hair because I knew I would encounter gritty bits of sand.
The rustle of fabric accompanied by footfalls on the stairs distracted me away from my hair. Logan, at last! I looked up with a smile, only to let it die when I saw the Lord and Lady Regent descending.
She wore silver, which made her look like a pale, fairy princess. She nodded at me, but didn’t smile.
“You go ahead, my dear.” The Lord Regent halted at the bottom of the staircase, and Regina moved ahead, still not saying anything.
“Shall we?” The Lord Regent held out his arm to me. I froze. Touching him was anathema. I didn’t know if I could keep the disgust and hatred off my face if I had to touch him.
“I told Logan I’d wait,” I blurted, then waited for him laugh at me, or worse, become angry.
“He’s not down yet?” The words were nonchalant, but lethal. I cursed myself. Why must I play directly into his hands?
I wanted to tell him that one bathroom between three people who’d spent the afternoon rolling around in the sand and surf was not enough, but the words stuck in my throat. I threw a look of appeal at Mother, but she simply stood there, her face blank. Her hands were clenched into fists at her sides – the only sign of her smoldering fury.
“I’m sure he can find his way to the dining room without your guidance.” The Lord Regent smiled, giving the words a flirtatious lilt, which sickened me. “Come.” Again he extended his arm, and trapped, I forced myself to take it.
If he noticed my hesitation and distaste, he gave no indication. As we passed Mother, he stopped and held out his free arm. “You will join us, won’t you, Helena?” Her name on his lips was an abomination. Rage boiled inside me with nowhere to go. I had a vision of the entire mansion collapsing on our heads, and horror thrilled through me. I tamped down my anger as best I could before my magic called out to the earth and it
answered me.
My mother gave the Lord Regent a frozen smile, but she took his proffered arm.
“I feel quite lucky with two such lovely women on my arms.” The Lord Regent’s tone was jovial. He was enjoying our discomfiture. Feeding on it. Bloating like a leech.
“I’m sure you must be used to feeling lucky,” Mother said in a stilted voice just this side of hatred. “Your Lady Regent is one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen.”
“Well said, earth witch.” The Lord Regent smiled at her, showing his teeth, but Mother didn’t flinch. I would have broken and ran if he’d smiled at me that way.
As we reached the dining room, Matilda sidled down the hall, giving the Lord Regent an obsequious bob of her head as she passed. A moment later the gong sounded.
I looked around the dining room, hoping against hope Logan had decided not to wait for us and had made his way here instead. The only people present were Regina, the Councilor I’d dubbed Walrus Mustache, and the corpulent lady who had nearly swooned at the mention of ravagers from the night before. She must have been Walrus Mustache’s wife.
Logan was officially late. Again.
Leaves had been removed from the dining table, creating a much more intimate setting. The Lord Regent took the head of the table and seated me beside him. Walrus Mustache sat next to me with his wife on his other side. Mother sat opposite Walrus Mustache with two empty chairs on either side of her. One them, presumably, was Logan’s. Regina took the foot.
No one spoke until Walrus Mustache observed, “Doesn’t the sea witch know how to tell time? Damned rude to be late every night. People are hungry.”
“If you’re that starved, by all means let’s not wait.” The Lord Regent picked up the silver bell by his elbow and gave it a brisk shake.
A moment later Matilda bustled in bearing fruit cups in the same red, glass bowls the shrimp cocktail had been served in the night before.
She set one before me, a sneer on her lips she didn’t bother to conceal. I wanted to spit in her face, but I ignored her and picked up my spoon, careful to observe which utensil the Lady Regent chose from her place setting first.
Sea Cursed: An Adult Dystopian Paranormal Romance: Sector 13 (The Othala Witch Collection) Page 9