I asked the sand to protect Mother and Captain Clark, and it agreed, assuring me with a warm burst of affection that traveled between our shimmering links, that it would do as I desired. I’d cast a long-term spell. Me! A glimmer of understanding shot through me, giving me an idea of what I was supposed to do for the Reutterance. Only, I had no time to dwell on this, not unless I wanted to be ripped to shreds.
Turning, I intercepted another ravager with a fireball as it flung itself at me. Hot blood showered over me, burning small holes in my shirt and pants. The rain hissed, washing the boiling liquid off me. I grimaced as I ran down the beach to incinerate another ravager, and then another.
Logan continued to drown the monsters before they could reach shore, but he couldn’t kill them all. I destroyed the ones that beached themselves, then flung a fireball at one still struggling in the rough waves.
It exploded, hot, burning chunks splashing down into the water where they hissed as they melted.
With a rippling groan of snapping timber, the Regina ran aground on the rocky shoals, gutting herself in the process. I had one spare second to picture the fishermen who must have pulled nets full of ravagers aboard, dooming themselves. How else could the monsters have made it this close to our island? Had the same fate befallen the Mary-Angela and Orca? Were they now lost at sea, or perhaps headed toward Galveteen, the crews dead, as ravagers crowded the bows and sterns, and stuffed the cargo holds?
Bad luck had brought the Regina here, but now Logan and I would destroy the ravagers before they had the chance to infect our island with their poison.
Again and again I cast fireballs at ravagers until I fell to my knees, strength sapping. Panic gnawed at my breastbone. Could I keep up? How many more were there?
A ravager emerged from the water, dragging itself across the sand, mouth agape to expose several sets of dagger-sharp teeth. Close up I could see indentations where eyes should have been. Were they sunken beneath the skin? Somehow seeing? Maybe even better than we could?
The ravager seemed to recognize that I was a witch, or perhaps I only imagined it, but the hatred emanating from it burned into me, sending me into a freefall of exhausted panic. What if I had nothing left? It would destroy me.
Sensing my weakness, it opened its gigantic mouth wider to roar in triumph. From some hidden depths inside me, deep in a place I hadn’t known existed, I drew one last burst of energy.
The fireball shot from my palm straight down the ravager’s throat, exploding it from the inside out. Gasping, I collapsed onto the wet sand, my eyes stinging from the acrid stink of the ravager’s burned guts.
I strained to find more ravagers coming ashore, but I saw nothing but glassy, green waves and a steady sheet of rain. The ruin of the Regina lurked offshore, her ropes twisted and sails buckled. Bloodstains everywhere, but no signs of any bodies. Had the ravagers eaten them? It seemed likely. Father! My gorge rose.
Hot tears clogged my throat and nose, and I sobbed helplessly into the sand until I forced myself to my knees.
On their little circle of sand, Captain Clark cradled Mother to his chest. His gaze seemed fixed beyond me, farther down the beach.
I looked to see Logan kneeling on the sand, his back to us. A bloody umbrella lay a few feet away. Staggering to my feet, I made my way toward him in a bone-weary daze. As I drew closer, I saw he was slumped with his face in his hands, as his shoulders heaved. As exhausted as I was, no doubt.
But that bloody umbrella nagged at a corner of my mind. Why did it bother me so?
The Lady Regent sprawled inelegantly on the sand in front of Logan. Her shredded shirt was drenched with blood. She clutched at her stomach, Pink strings of intestines peeked between the cracks in her fingers. I dropped to my knees, staggered by the knowledge she was dying in front of me.
Logan’s breath rasped in and out. He lifted his head to stare at me. “I was focused on the ones in the water. I never thought to look behind me.” His mouth twisted into a grimace of shame. “She saved my life, but I can’t save hers. Demetria.” He stared at me beseechingly, then buried his face again.
I crawled closer to Regina. How was she still breathing with such dreadful wounds? The side of her neck looked chewed open, bits of bone of gristle showed through, but she stared up at me, her beautiful blue eyes aware of everything.
I smoothed bloody hair off her cheek, and incredibly, she tried to smile for me. I bit my lip to keep from sobbing aloud until I tasted blood.
“Had...to...protect the...sea witch,” she breathed so softly I had to bend down to hear her. “Must save us all. You...must go to –”
“Shh,” I interrupted her, hating to see how hard she struggled to speak. “Please lie still.”
“Let me.” She grimaced in agony. “I need to...to...to tell you.”
I bent closer. “Tell me,” I urged. Perhaps speaking would give her some comfort, but what could be so important she would suffer so much to say it? My mind shied away from calculating the depth of pain she must be experiencing. I didn’t want to look at her injuries, all the blood, and worse, but I forced myself to focus on her. She’d saved Logan’s life at the expense of her own. I could not be squeamish in the face of such courage.
“You’re supposed to be the...the...in the archives, the regents’ journals...it’s all there. You’ve got to read the original – ” A massive shudder torqued Regina’s body as blood gushed from her mouth. She fell back to the sand, her mouth and eyes wide open. Dead.
A soft moan escaped me. What had she tried to tell me? I hadn’t understood her. Something about the archives and journals belonging to regents. The original what? I had no clue what she’d meant.
“Demetria!” Captain Clark shouted. “Fill in this trough. What’s happening down there? Are you all right?”
I closed my eyes, consulting the links I had with the earth. I dissolved the spell-pact I’d forged with the sand, and I didn’t need to look to know the trough filled itself in.
Logan shuddered beside me. He wouldn’t look up even when I whispered his name. He continued to rock back and forth, his face buried in his hands “My fault,” he whispered over and over.
“It wasn’t,” I said fiercely. “You couldn’t be everywhere at once. She saved you because she knew if you died, we’re all dead. You’re marked by Othala, Logan. She knew that, and she chose to do what she did. Please look at me.”
But he wouldn’t. Captain Clark skidded to a halt beside us, inadvertently kicking up sand, which landed across Regina’s bloody body.
“Oh, Othala,” he choked, falling to his knees, weeping. I stared at him. I’d never seen a man cry before, especially not a soldier. Eyes red, Captain Clark looked at me. “How can we fight without her?”
“Fight what?” I shook my head. “There’s no fighting to be done. Logan and I have to go out to sea and cast the spell of Reutterance.”
“Fight the prejudice against witches,” Captain Clark whispered as tears coursed down his cheeks. “We have no one in power on our side now.”
Mother staggered to a halt, her face white with shock. “Oh, no,” she said in a broken voice. “Oh, no. Not her.”
“Not only her,” I said, my voice clogged with tears. “It’s the Regina out there. You can see her name on her side. Everyone aboard is dead. That means Father’s dead. I’ll never see him again. I never got to say goodbye, and now I never will.”
“Michael.” Mother turned to stare at the ruined hulk of the Regina. More tears gushed down her cheeks.
Logan abruptly surged to his feet and stumbled into a run not even looking where he was going.
I raced after him, afraid he’d hurt himself, wanting to help him.
He tripped over the pile of sand Mother had gathered for me to make into a sandcastle. Crying out miserably, he sprawled to the ground, landing hard. He buried his face in his arm.
I knelt beside him, unsure what to do. When I tentatively touched his shoulder, he gasped and threw himself into my arms, clutchin
g at me as if he were a drowning man.
I embraced him tightly, rocking him, and crooning softly as I pressed my chin to the top of his head. He buried his face in my throat, shuddering.
“You can cry if you want,” I said ferociously, and he let out an awful gasp, hanging onto me so tightly I couldn’t breathe.
He shook his head. He wouldn’t let himself give away to tears. His guilt no doubt.
“I was the one who was supposed to be destroying the ravagers on the beach,” I told him. “But I got carried away killing the ones in the water. So maybe it’s my fault.”
“Too many of them for me. You saved me too.” He lifted his head so he could stare at me, his blue eyes bloodshot and wet. “I’m scared,” he whispered. “I’m so fucking scared.”
“Me too,” I admitted in a strangled voice.
Chapter 12
We were halfway up the stone stairs leading to the road when we realized Matilda was missing. Mother, Logan, and I raced up and down the beach screaming her name while Captain Clark stood on the stairs holding Regina’s dead body as rain pounded down upon us all.
Blood stained the sand in so many places, my head whirled looking at them all. Ravager blood was darker than human blood, but everything was drying and mixed with sand and water, so we couldn’t tell if any of it might be Matilda’s.
“She had to have been killed.” Logan grabbed me, forcing me to stop my panicked running around.
“But there’s not even a scrap of...of...of clothing.” I shied away from worse kinds of fragments.
“Ravagers consume everything.” Logan’s grim expression covered most of his dismay, but I saw the resignation lurking in his eyes. “We’ve got to go. We need to bring Regina back.”
I gulped back tears as I glanced up at Captain Clark with Regina’s limp body in his arms.
“Matilda was right here.” I pointed at the seawall where I’d last seen Matilda cowering. “I killed the ravager near her. I didn’t see any other ravager get so far up the beach.”
“One must have.” Logan gave me a quick, fierce hug.
“What was that for?” I gaped at him as he wiped rain from my face with his thumbs.
“You found your magic,” he said. “I was so freaking proud of you when you blasted that first ravager, Dem. I’ll never forget it.”
“I told you rage and terror were my gateways.” If I closed my eyes, I could see that fireball burst from beneath my skin. Feel the fire burning in my veins waiting for me to release it.
“Gateways, sure, but not the only ones anymore, are they?” Logan held my face cupped between his hands and stared at me as I were the most fascinating thing in all the world. From far away Mother shouted for Matilda, but no one responded.
I decided not to answer Logan in words. We stood near the pile of sand Mother had gathered up what seemed a million years ago. Blood-streaked from ravagers and half flattened from when Logan had tripped over it, the sand pile seemed innocuous and unimportant, even as it brought a lump to my throat to think of us standing before it unaware of the horrors behind us in the tossing sea.
Instead, I held out my hand, palm forward, toward the pile. Grains of sand danced and swirled, leaping about in the air and coalescing into a sandcastle complete with crenelated turrets and an encircling moat with a drawbridge.
Logan’s breath caught.
“You don’t have to worry I won’t be able to cast the spell of Reutterance with you anymore,” I told him. I bracketed his face with my hands, and his skin was wet and rough with beard stubble, but so vitally alive. Electricity jolted into my palms at contact, a buzz of pleasure that zapped through my veins. “I won’t let you down and doom your family and the rest of Galveteen now. You don’t have to be afraid anymore of anything except what comes after for us. At least we can die knowing we’ve made everyone safe.”
He nodded and beard stubble rasped against my fingers. He moved one of my hands to his mouth and planted a soft kiss upon my palm. “I never doubted you. From the first time I saw you in that bathtub and you yelled at me, I knew you were a firebrand.” He kissed my palm again. “I knew you were someone who could do anything she set her mind to.”
My throat closed over, clogged with tears. The enormous idea that he believed in me made me believe it too.
Mother shouted Matilda’s name again, close by, and Logan and I broke apart. Guilt swamped me. I hadn’t liked Matilda at all, but even she hadn’t deserved such a gruesome death being consumed by a ravager. I had magic. I should have protected her.
“It’s no use, Helena,” Logan told her, taking her by the arms as he’d taken me. “We need to go now.”
Mother struggled out of his grasp. “I know that! But, oh Othala, if I’d only not burned myself out so quickly. They came so fast. I should have kept something in reserve. Dem had to take time out to protect John and me, and perhaps while she was doing that, a ravager had the opportunity to kill Matilda.”
“Don’t,” I said. “Mother, we can’t blame ourselves for any of this. We did our best. We killed them all, didn’t we? None got past us.”
“How do you know?” Mother asked, looking about wildly. “If one got Matilda, maybe it also got up the stairs and onto the road.”
“The horse is still alive,” Logan said patiently, although his eyes looked haunted. “We would have heard him screaming if he’d been taken.”
Mother bowed her head and mumbled he was probably right.
Dejected, we made our way to the staircase where Captain Clark still waited. The horse stood placidly between the traces of the carriage. Logan pulled open the door, and Captain Clark carefully mounted the stairs. With reverence, he placed Regina’s body on one of the benches and covered her face and body with a blanket he took from beneath the seat.
“I’ll ride up with you,” Logan said to him. He assisted Mother up the stairs then held out his hand to me. I took it, and he squeezed my fingers reassuringly, but his eyes were still hollow.
Mustering my courage, I took the seat by Mother and stared at Regina’s still body. We had a fifteen-minute drive back to the mansion, and I had a feeling every moment would seem drawn out into infinity if I had to look at the Lady Regent’s dead body the whole time knowing I’d failed to protect her.
Mother slumped against the side of the carriage and closed her eyes, but I forced myself to keep vigil. Regina had tried to make me feel like a person, not a commodity or a vile disease as the rest of her household had done. Tears pricked my eyes, and I let them fall, both for her, and for Father. Perhaps if I’d been raised as a witch, I would have already cast the spell of Reutterance and nobody would be dead but me.
Shouts from in front the carriage shocked me out of my misery. Beside me, Mother’s eyes flew open, and she strained to listen.
“Damn this windowless box,” she muttered, driving a fist into her knee. “I think it’s a regiment of guards, Dem.”
“We’re not near the mansion. Why are they out?” I tried hard to make out actual words from the shouting, but couldn’t. The carriage halted abruptly, and Mother lunged for the door handle.
We all but fell out of the carriage onto the rain-drenched cobblestones and found ourselves surrounded by Regiment Thirteen, swords drawn.
“The ravagers!” Colonel Murgatroyd shouted up at Captain Clark. “Where are they? Matilda says there were dozens of them!”
“Matilda?” I cried. “You mean she’s alive? Where is she?”
“In the guard post.” Murgatroyd pointed down the road. “She had the guard telegraph to the mansion for aid. Did she misread the situation? Where are the ravagers?” His eyes bulged from their sockets as he shouted into my face. The driving rain dampened his mustache into a stringy mess.
“We destroyed them all,” I said. “We thought she’d been killed when we couldn’t find her.”
“She must have run away to get us help.” Captain Clark climbed down from the carriage to stand beside me. “Clever woman. However, colonel, the witc
hes were able to kill every ravager that came ashore from the Regina. She grounded herself just off Regent’s Beach, and it’s a damn good thing the witches were there or there’d be carnage all through Regent’s Row by now.
“I’m betting the Orca and the Mary-Angela are ravager-infested by now too. We need to mount guards and witches along every beach on Galveteen.”
Murgatroyd’s eyes narrowed as he glared at Captain Clark. “Thank you for your report, captain. I will personally take it to the Regent.” He turned, lifting an arm as if he meant to give his regiment an order, but Captain Clark interrupted him.
“Sir. There’s one thing you should know before we return to Moody Mansion.”
Murgatroyd turned back smartly. “And what is that?”
“The Lady Regent...” Captain Clark’s voice wavered before he recovered himself. “...was killed in the attack.”
“What?” Murgatroyd roared so loudly, the horse startled between the traces, and Logan had to grab for the reins to keep him from bolting. “What did you just say?”
“I regret to report that the Lady Regent was killed while battling the ravagers, sir.” Captain Clark drew himself up tall, his face expressionless.
“Where the hell were you? Witch!” Murgatroyd bellowed into my face, driving me backward until I stumbled into Mother behind me. If she hadn’t been there, I would have broken and run. “You managed to keep yourself safe but didn’t bother to save the Lady Regent?” He backhanded me hard enough to make me dizzy. The pain, white hot and savage, burned my cheek.
Captain Clark lunged for the colonel, but somehow Mother got between them and drove him back. “He’s your superior officer!” she hissed, but none of the rage melted from Captain Clark’s eyes.
“It’s a good thing someone recalls that,” Murgatroyd snarled. “I’ll pretend I didn’t see that, captain. I shall discipline these witches as I see fit.”
“They don’t need discipline!” Captain Clark yelled. “They deserve commendation and our deepest gratitude. They risked their lives to save us all. And if Demetria and Logan had been killed, damn you, we’d all be doomed. I saw those ravagers. I was there! I managed to kill three of them, and it took everything I had. Demetria and Logan killed at least two dozen apiece, maybe more. Helena killed a good half dozen before her powers were drained to the point she lost consciousness.
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