“I’ll help. I need to stretch my legs,” Polina added.
I nodded as I placed the phone to my ear.
“Grateful, where the fuck are you?” my best friend, Michelle, yelled.
“Running for my life. Witchy business,” I said solemnly.
“What? Are you joking?”
“Unfortunately, no. And my phone is almost out of juice, so don’t be offended if it cuts off.”
“Where are you? Do you need my help?”
“It’s better if you don’t know, Michelle. This is serious. If anyone tries to talk to you about me, try to change the subject.”
“That’s going to be difficult, considering.”
“Considering what?”
“You had a shift yesterday at the hospital.”
“Fuck!” I’d totally forgotten. Understandable given the circumstances, but since I’d already been written up for being late multiple times, a definite career no-no.
“Yeah, well, you didn’t call in, and they were short-staffed. They’ve been trying to reach you.”
“I had my phone turned off on the plane.”
“You had to take a plane?”
“Just don’t ask, okay? I can’t say anything more. I don’t want them coming after you to get to me.”
“Who? What? Does Logan know?” I watched Logan through the window of the office, paying for our room. Rick frowned beside me, no doubt picking up on my general mood.
“Tell my father that I love him.”
“Fuck that, Grateful. You get your shit together. This is not going to be the last time we talk, got it?” I could hear her voice crack over the line. She was crying. “I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m not telling your dad goodbye. There’s no reason to. You are going to straighten this shit out and get home. Then I’ll help you find another job.”
I took a deep breath. “Another job. They’re firing me. You called to tell me I’m fired.”
“Well, Kathleen mentioned it to me in the context of me taking your shifts. I’m sorry, Grateful. Maybe it’s for the best. The witchy stuff has been more than a full-time job lately. I’m sure Rick can help you stay afloat until you find something else. I just thought it would be easier coming from me.”
“It is.” Wet trails coursed down my cheeks, but I hid it from my voice. “My phone’s going to die. I love you, Michelle.”
“I love you too, Grateful. Fix whatever it is and come home. There are plenty of jobs out there, but not plenty of friendships like ours. Try not to worry about anything. Just fix it.”
“I will.” We ended our call, and I had enough time to check that I indeed had four missed voicemails from Kathleen. My phone went dead before I could listen to any of them. Just as well.
“Who was that?” Rick asked from beside me.
“My best friend,” I sobbed in earnest. “I was fired from my job.” I desperately needed a Kleenex, but I’d sacrificed my last paper product to clean up after Poe.
Rick wiped the back of his knuckle gently under one eye and then the other, before pulling me to his chest. “Afloat means to pay your bills, correct?”
“Correct,” I murmured, not surprised his super-hearing picked up Michelle’s side of the conversation.
“Don’t worry. I will keep you afloat, as your friend calls it, until you find another job.”
“You would do that for me?” I tilted my head back to look at him, still tucked into his chest.
He stroked my hair back from my face and wiped my tears away with his thumb. “I find I would do many things for you. I take care of you, yes?”
“Yes.”
His eyes locked onto mine, and the intimacy was immediate. Our connection was no longer a filmy spiderweb but a braided rope. I held perfectly still, afraid if I moved I’d ruin the moment. Deliberately, he used his arm to curl me closer and lowered his mouth to mine. The kiss was soft, languid. More than sexual, way beyond a touching of lips, this kiss tasted of promise and commitment. In that moment, I was utterly held, cradled in space and time.
Bang, bang, bang. Logan’s knock on the rain-drenched window interrupted the moment. He dangled a key from his fingers and pointed at room number four before jogging back under the cover of the second-floor walkway. Reluctantly, I gestured to Rick, and we followed. Logan murmured something to me as I filtered out of the rain and into the space between the bed and the dresser.
“What did you say?” I asked. “The rain was too loud.”
“Julius,” he said, pointing his thumb through the open door. “Do you think he’s okay out there by himself?”
Polina smirked, smoothing back her wet hair. “What are the options? Do you think the local humans will be comfortable with a group of us carrying a casket into a place like this in broad daylight?”
“Listen, I don’t need the attitude, lady. I was just asking the question,” Logan said, dripping on the carpet.
“What’s your problem?” Polina shot back.
“I’m just getting a little sick of you criticizing everything I do.” Logan opened his mouth to say more, but I cut him off by clearing my throat and placing myself between them.
“Julius will be fine. I locked the doors to the hearse. Why don’t you come inside?” I asked. Logan was still leaning his shoulder into the open door.
“I like to watch the rain.”
Logan shot Polina one last sharp look then turned to stare at the rain sheeting over the parking lot beyond the overhang of the second-floor walkway. I didn’t think it was about the rain. It was about air and space. The more the better between him and Polina.
Rick toed a stain on the carpet that looked suspiciously like blood, his nostrils flaring. “How long must we stay here?”
“Until sunset,” I said. “Once Julius wakes up, we’ll approach Kendra.”
A crack of thunder shook the room, and Polina used the back of her hand to spread the orangey-brown curtains to see outside while avoiding Logan and the door. “If she doesn’t approach us first,” she said.
“Where does she live, exactly?” I asked Polina.
“I don’t know for sure. I’ve never been to her place. But judging by the signs, she lives inside the wildlife refuge at the mouth of the Columbia River.”
“What signs?” Rick asked.
“Witches always live in rural and forested areas. They don’t do well in big cities, not even metal witches. The wildlife refuge is surrounded by water and out of reach of humans. It’s the most likely place. Of course, there will have to be a cemetery nearby.”
“If it’s out of reach of humans, how do we get there?” Logan asked.
Polina shook her head and snorted. “You won’t be coming. Grateful and I will have to use magic to get there, and even then it’s dangerous. We’re on a water witch’s home turf. Kendra could crush us under a tidal wave in a heartbeat.”
Lightning cracked, the light and thunder cutting off Logan’s heated response. I had a feeling Kendra was listening. Could she hear us through the rain? Were we welcome here?
“I smell…” Rick poked the stain on the floor again with his toe, his nostrils flaring.
“What?” I threaded my fingers into his. “What do you smell?”
“It is like… fish. Fresh fish.”
Polina’s eyes widened. In a flash, she crossed the room, hooked an arm around Logan’s chest, and hurled him behind her to the back of the room. I didn’t have to ask why. Two scaly beasts appeared in the open doorway. Frogmen—that’s what came to mind—although their scaly skin was flesh-colored, and they could pass for human from a distance. Close up, they had wide mouths and gills under each ear, but the harpoon guns in their hands seemed to be their primary mode of communication. They poked the business end at Polina and made an awful, grating croak, motioning toward the parking lot with their heads.
My redheaded sister flashed me a look of genuine fear. “Kendra invites us to her home and insists our male guests join us.”
Frowning, I glanced from
Rick to Logan, then at the sharp harpoons pointed at our throats.
Logan put his hands on his hips. “How can we refuse?”
Chapter 19
Kendra
The two frogmen ushered us out into the rain, where I had to cup my hands over my eyes just to see. A third frog joined the group with a bag of scuba-style masks, small containers attached to the front. Oxygen? I wasn’t sure.
The frogman handed one to me and grunted, poking the barb of his harpoon into my chin. “Oww,” I said, stepping back into Rick. “Hold your horses. I’ll put it on.”
“Grateful,” Rick said. He turned to me and glanced down at his arm. His skin bubbled menacingly.
“Not now,” I said under my breath.
He shrugged as if to suggest he had no control over it. A scaly hand with webbed fingers shook my shoulder, leaving behind a slick of oil on my shirt—quite the accomplishment in the pouring rain. I placed the mask on my head as the frogman showed us, and watched as Logan, Rick, and Polina did the same. I could breathe easily with it on, although the respirator made it difficult to hear anything else.
With a grunt, the frogman motioned for us to slide the masks up to our foreheads. “Was that some kind of a test?” I asked. He didn’t answer me.
I looked around for a transportation device. Would they take us to Kendra in a seashell? A magical surfboard? The frogmen led us to a military-style Jeep. I forced myself not to look in the direction of the hearse or to search the sky for Poe and Hildegard. If they could avoid detection, they might be our only hope if things went sour.
Rick squeezed my hand as we smashed into the backseat, four across. I could feel the energy coming off him. His beast was close to the surface, his protective instincts impossible to deny, but now was not the time for heroics. I needed to meet Kendra and enlist her alliance, not start a witchy war. I stroked his arm, trying my best to calm him. Could he even shift completely without me pulling the strings? Probably not, and maybe that was a good thing.
“Don’t worry. I’ll take care of you,” I heard Polina say.
I turned around to tell her I could take care of myself but found she was talking to Logan, who was doing his best not to panic as the Jeep lurched into motion. A bumpy twenty-minute journey later, we reached the coast. The frogs drove us to an abandoned marina and down a boat ramp.
“What are they doing?”
“Oh shit,” Logan said.
We all pulled the masks into position as the Jeep plunged into the ocean. The vehicle filled with saltwater and soon the only thing keeping me from floating to the ceiling was my seat belt. Rick squeezed my hand. Seaweed masked the windows and the occasional fish wriggled in the mass. As I watched the bubbles rise between us, and saw the small container of oxygen connected to the mouthpiece, I wondered how much air we had. I didn’t doubt it was enough to take us to Kendra. I questioned whether there was enough to get us out again.
I turned at Logan’s muffled scream. The skull of a skeleton poked out from the hull of a sunken ship beside us. I could feel the dead here. Lots of them, and they weren’t mine. This was Kendra’s graveyard.
Slowly, we ascended, breaking from the seafloor and driving toward a bright light. The Jeep broke the surface and the water drained away from the interior. I tried to draw a breath through the respirator and got nothing. Breathless, I pulled it off my head. I was right. This was a one-way ticket. My canister was empty. Beside me, the others removed their masks, one by one.
We arrived inside a brightly lit cavern with iridescent walls covered in crustaceans and anemone. Rudely, the frogmen pulled us from the vehicle and prodded us forward with their harpoons. We followed obediently through winding passages of stone until modern conveniences increasingly replaced natural wonders. A carpet, a light, a chest of drawers. The frogmen stopped us in a quaint sitting room decorated in beach décor, complete with a shell lamp.
“Do we wait here?” I asked. No waiting was required.
“I’m sorry I can’t offer you refreshments. You caught me off guard when you came into my ward without permission.” Kendra, the witch of Astoria, walked into the room with the straight back and squared shoulders of a ballerina. Lanky in stature, she sported a short pixie cut of black hair and eyes as blue as the waters we’d traversed to get to her. Her sophisticated sheath dress was the color of a sand dollar. She circled Logan, her gaze lingering on his lower body in a way that made me uncomfortable.
“Hi. I’m Logan.” He thrust one hand toward her. She didn’t shake it.
“Is the human a gift or some kind of a pet?”
“He’s with us,” I said. “Not a gift.”
She turned her attention on Rick. “And this one?”
“Not a gift either,” Rick answered for himself, stepping closer to me.
“My caretaker,” I explained.
Her eyebrows rose. “Caretaker. I haven’t seen a witch with a caretaker in a century.”
“Now you have.”
She inspected the two of us with her icy blue gaze. “What brings you to my ward?”
Polina removed the mask from her forehead and shook out her long red hair, still wet from our journey. “Do you remember me, Kendra? I’m Polina, the Smuggler’s Notch witch. We met vacationing during the Gold Rush.”
With a slight narrowing of her eyes, Kendra gave her head a little shake. “Sorry. The 1840s are nothing but a blur. I was into some rough magic back then. Anyway, this doesn’t look like a social visit.”
“Uh, no.”
“I’m sorry to surprise you like this,” I said. “My name is Grateful Knight, and I came because I need your help.”
Kendra sank into a cushioned rattan armchair in the corner. “My help? Why on earth would you need my help?”
“It’s a long story.” I bent my knees to sit on the sofa beside her but she objected.
“I didn’t invite you to sit.”
I straightened my knees. Her expression wasn’t angry exactly, but terse. She occupied the beachy rattan like a queen on her throne, and perhaps she was. This was her territory. We were at her mercy.
“What are you?” she asked. “My senses are twitching. You are a witch for sure, but there is something more to you, yes?”
I started talking. I told her about Tabetha, the goblins, and even Hecate, although I twisted the story a bit to imply that the goddess wanted me to unite the elements in order to set things right. During my story, my hand had risen to cover the mark on my chest. I hoped it looked like a natural movement, hand over heart, a vow of honesty.
She took it all in without saying a word.
“I’m here because we need your help to unite the elements, so I can cast off Tabetha’s power. I don’t want it. I don’t need it. I want to make things right again,” I concluded.
Kendra leaned back in her chair, eyes darting to Polina. “And you have agreed to help her?”
Polina nodded. “She’s a good witch, Kendra. She only killed Tabetha to protect herself. She never meant to break the natural law.”
“Yes, well, despite what you’ve said, I highly doubt the goddess gave you permission to unite the elements. While I believe you when you say that someone wants you dead, I do not believe that someone is the goblins. Goblins are mercenaries. You’ve admitted to me that you’ve broken the natural law and have power over two elements.” Kendra’s fingers stroked a large conch shell on the side table next to her. I wasn’t sure if water witches used wands, but I was relatively sure the conch was a magical object of some kind. One I didn’t want to tangle with. “Why should I believe that you two aren’t colluding to kill me to get what you want?”
“We came here to solicit your help. If the answer is no, that’s fine. We’ll find someone else,” I said.
“Are you denying that you deceived me about having Mother’s permission to unite the elements? If you lied about that, how can I trust anything you say?” Kendra squeezed the conch and the sound of the ocean powered through the room.
I wa
sn’t the only one who noticed the conch. Polina placed her hands on her hips and shrugged her shoulders with a huff. “Mother was the one who gave Grateful permission to kill Tabetha. She opened her up to this and now doesn’t want to live with the consequences.”
“You might think you’ll be on her good side if you kill me,” I said. “But don’t be fooled. You’ll be the next on her hit list.”
Kendra removed her hand from the conch. “I’m not going to kill you.”
A collective sigh of relief came from the four of us.
“But I’m not going to help you. Whether or not your intentions are pure, no witch in her right mind would help you.” She stood and smoothed her dress. “It’s too risky.”
I frowned but nodded. “I appreciate your honesty. If you could give us a ride back to our motel, we’ll be on our way.”
“Of course. Simply leave the human as a gift to me, and I’ll have my frogs return you to your room.”
Logan, who’d been passively listening to this point, perked up. “Excuse me? The human is not theirs to give.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but Polina beat me to it. “He’s with us,” she said.
Kendra shook her head and pointed at her chest. “I should be compensated for my time. You came into my ward. I had to bring you here. The least you can do is leave the human.”
“Does anyone care what the human thinks of this plan?” Logan yelled.
“No!” Polina and Kendra said together.
Logan’s mouth dropped open, positively stunned.
Kendra hooked her arm under his. “Come, my pet. You’re mine now.”
“I said no!” Polina yelled, and the walls shook and cracked with her anger. A trickle of water ran down the interior.
“What are you doing?” Kendra snapped.
“High mercury content in the water,” Polina said through her teeth. “Return the human.”
“I don’t think so. I think I’ll keep him.” Kendra pulled Logan toward her.
“He’s ours.” Polina pulled him back.
“You know, I do remember you, Polina. You pulled this same shit with that boy by the river in 1849.”
Mother May I (Knight Games Book 4) Page 12