The smell of smoke entered the cabin, then a moment later Darion tackled the captain to the floor. Becca flipped over, and stars continued to litter her vision as she searched for the gun. The pentagram was broken, scattered where her hand had brushed it, and a small flame licked at the ropes that used to hold Darion. Spotting the gun next to Bastian, she had no time to deal with the growing flames.
Bastian started to move, and she stepped on his hand. Picking up the gun, she turned on the pathetic man on the ground. She didn’t have a stomach for shooting anyone, but with her head still pounding, she didn’t have a problem with payback and slammed her boot into his temple.
She turned the gun on the captain. “Stop.”
The man was a fighter, not willing to let go of Darion, even with smoke rising from his clothes. Too tired to use magic, she did everyone a favor. Stepping close to the struggling pair, she placed a bullet in the man’s thick thigh. The shot echoed in the small room, making her ears ring.
The captain sank to the floor, profanities streaming from his mouth.
“Shut up,” Becca ordered. “Or the next one is in your mouth.”
He glared at her but didn’t say another word.
She kept the gun aimed at the captain and Bastian. “You okay, Darion?”
“Yeah, fine.” He stepped back massaging his hand.
“Good. We ready to go?”
“Almost.” He retrieved some rope from on the desk and proceeded to tie up the men.
The captain grunted in pain as his legs were forced together. “If not us, someone else will grab you two. With a bounty this big, running away won’t work. Lazaro’s reach is far and wide.”
Darion tied the rope a little tighter, anger radiating off him. “Guess we’ll have to make sure you don’t follow.”
Once they secured the men, Becca motioned to the fire, expecting him to put it out.
Darion, eyes lit with a dark magic Becca rarely saw, shook his head. “That is only the start of it.”
They left the men and headed towards where Navina was hiding.
Becca grabbed Darion’s arm. “You’re not really going to burn those men alive, are you?”
“I should, but no. The fire will burn slow. It won’t kill them, but I can’t say the same of the other fires.”
“Other fires?” Becca stopped in front of the janitor’s closet. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know.
“There is only one way for them not to follow: keep them distracted. I started a few fires in other places, to keep the men busy—nothing major.”
She opened the door only to find Kai alone as he struggled to sit up, a frantic look in his eyes. The smell of smoke probably worried him, and it should.
“Where is she?” Becca glared at Kai. If Navina was hurt, he’d have more to worry about than a fire.
“You left Navina here?” Darion asked.
“Yes, but I guess it’s too much to expect her to stay in one place.” She turned back to Kai. “Where did she go?”
“I don’t know. What’s going on with the boat?”
“Nothing you don’t deserve.” Becca slammed the door. “Where would she go?”
Just then Navina turned the corner, Becca’s bag slung on her shoulder. “About time.”
The tension in Becca’s chest relaxed with relief at finding Navina at the same time she itched to strangle the girl for worrying her. She realized she may never be ready to be a parent.
Chapter Eighty-Four
Elizabeth’s legs shook from fatigue as she slouched in the chair, and it was barely after breakfast. It creaked under her weight even though she doubted she was over a hundred pounds lately. Black dots of exhaustion danced in front of her vision.
“She needs a break.” Nikki brought her some iced tea. “Setting her health back won’t help her protect herself.”
“She’s right,” Andre said. “We have to leave today.”
“We need weeks not hours, and maybe she can be the tool we need.”
Caleb stood up, ready to fight. “She’s not a tool.”
“Of course not,” Richard waved away his concerns. “But she needs to be, or you need to push back your time table. She has the power, even with no demons for fuel. She has a potential I’ve rarely seen.”
“We’ve discussed this, Richard,” Andre said. “Right now, Lazaro is missing a member of the coven. If we can weaken a couple more of his people, then we may have a fighting chance.”
“You’ll create chaos. A power vacuum many powerful magicians in the world will want to fill. And you’re not strong enough to fill it, not without demons.”
“He’s not alone.” Elizabeth had been thinking about the imminent battle and her role in all of this. She handed the iced tea back to Nikki. “I’m ready to try again.”
“You shouldn’t wear yourself out,” Nikki warned her.
Elizabeth shook off her concern. She had the drive back to rest; she needed to learn what she could while she was there with Richard. “I want to try to see a vision.” The words sounded funny to her. She never tried to force a vision, just took them when they came. But they needed this, Becca needed this. Maybe if she could direct a vision, she could help Becca.
“You know the spell, child.” Richard knelt by her side, his blue eyes showing a new energy that he didn’t have when they first showed up. “Just don’t pull too much magic. Start small.”
Closing her eyes, she focused on the energy crawling on the inside of her skin. She didn’t know how to explain the magic coursing through her veins. At first, she thought it some nervous tick or anxiety, but as the morning had progressed, she learned to channel that power. It turned into an energy she could mold and control.
The Latin words flowed easily from her lips. Instead of the exhilaration she felt at the dining table the day before, she was pulled into flashes of a vision. One that felt beyond her control. Richard stood there with an anger in his face. Andre was there as well, surrounded by beautiful women, a lot of beautiful women. They were fighting, their beauty turned savage. Then the scene flipped to Richard on the ground, blood trickling from his mouth.
Elizabeth instinctively pulled back, fear coursing through her body. She wanted an answer but wasn’t ready for it. A scream pierced the air as she woke to the present, then she realized she was the one screaming.
Caleb must have pushed the others away, because he held her hands and kneeled in front of her. “Elizabeth, come back. It’ll be okay.” He murmured kind words enticing her back to the present.
She placed a hand on his, letting him know she was back. “Thank you.” The world spun around her, while she felt like she floated through it.
They all waited as she caught her breath.
“I saw snippets of a fight.” Head pounding, she looked up at Richard. “You fought, and you fell.” Her throat caught on the words as they hurt for her to even acknowledge them.
This kind man would fight at the side of the rebels and he wouldn’t make it.
“You saw my death?” he asked, with more curiosity than fear.
She bit her cheek for a moment, pushing back the exhaustion and emotion that wanted to overtake her. “I saw Andre fighting with beautiful women, beautiful and vicious. And you on the ground, blood coming from your mouth.”
Andre put a hand on his shoulder. “If it makes you feel better, she saw me almost die as well.”
“It’s not death that scares me, young one.” Richard kept his gaze on her. “It’s being used as a tool. If I die fighting to right all the wrongs I’ve committed, then I’d die happy.”
Stepping up on the deck, adrenaline fed Becca as she gripped her knife. Shouts rang out around them as the sun crested over the horizon. The orange and reds of the morning mixed with the smoke rising from the deck. Amid the chaos, the three of them headed to the life boats. She scanned the minds of those nearby, most frantic and worried, racing to get the fire under control.
Across the deck, Becca noticed one of the escape boats mo
ved ever so slightly, the tarp on top sliding off it. “Save your power,” Becca told the girl. They may need them once they hit the ocean.
They continued forward through the open section of the ship. Men raced across, shouting. Becca hoped they would be ignored with the craziness but that was too much to ask.
One man grabbed Darion as he passed. “Come on, we need your help with the fire.” The last word came out slow as he realized he was talking to the only pyro on board. “Hey—”
Becca cut the man short with a spell. Grabbing a hold of his mind was tricky. The panic made it hard to influence, but sometimes the easiest way to influence a mind was to tell it a lie not too far from the truth. The men need you to fight the fire, go.
Pausing, he let go of Darion and turned around.
“Let’s move.” Darion grabbed Navina’s hand and hurried towards the boat.
Another man stopped and pointed at them. “Stop the pyro!”
Becca struggled to grab a hold of the man’s mind, but he fought her hold. After what she’d already done, she didn’t have the power to control a mob. If she was touching Darion, they could combine magic, but he had Navina and his energy had probably been extinguished as well being tied up all night.
They arrived at the boat. Darion lifted Navina over the edge and into the rescue boat. Feeling something at her back, Becca turned around and pulled her knife in time to stop the approach of a younger crewman. “Go put out the fire. You don’t want this fight, trust me.”
He had his own weapon, a good sized iron tool of some sort. “Just give us the pyro, and you two can go.” He swung forward with the tool.
Navina must have spelled him, because he appeared to trip over something. Becca stepped around him, slicing along his thigh. Nothing deep, the man didn’t deserve to die over the mess they caused, but enough for him to second guess getting up. He hollered and dropped the iron, which was now red hot and smoking.
“Get in the boat,” Darion told her.
As small flames grew between them and the mob, she turned and climbed inside. Darion was right behind them. They released the crank, so the boat slowly lowered towards the ocean. Voices hollering on board continued to grow.
Darion shouted, and she turned back towards the ship just in time to see Bastian on the deck, gun in hand. The gun exploded, and in the next second Becca was airborne, flying out of the boat.
Chapter Eighty-Five
Becca had always wondered what it felt like to die, to float into the great beyond. Now drifting, she thought it peaceful. Any pain her body felt was distant. A weightless feeling took over as she flowed along the path of nothingness. She could have continued like that for seconds, minutes, or even hours and been content.
Instead, a nagging voice pierced the calm facade. Wake up, Becca, and kick. Dammit, Rebecca. Fight! Her sister’s incessant cries broke the trance and pain shot up her shoulder and head.
Becca gasped for air, but only found water. Choking, she finally got her legs moving. Once she broke the surface, she coughed up the water, struggling to get air. With one arm completely useless, she attempted a one arm paddle to stay afloat. It took a minute for the water to clear. Then she rolled on her back, exhausted from the fight. Her shoulder burned as her body swayed with the swells of the ocean. The boat grew smaller by the minute. Fire danced among the large cargo containers, and she wondered about everyone else.
Are you okay? Her sister returned, loud in her mind.
I’m alive and conscious.
Don’t scare me like that. Elizabeth told her. Caleb isn’t too happy with you either.
This one isn’t my fault.
He said that you’d say that. Sometimes the girls’ bonds went beyond words, like when Elizabeth shared her visions. Now a feeling of love and gratitude poured into Becca’s mind.
Tears flooded Becca’s vision. I love you too. She swiped at the tears. Now, I need to focus on where Darion is or dry land.
Caleb suggested, taking over a dolphin’s mind and hitching a ride. Elizabeth laughed, a sweet emotion in Becca’s mind.
Not a bad idea, but I think I may have to be more practical. But if a shark starts to circle, I’ll work on it. I’ll stay in touch.
Becca closed the connection between them. While she loved her sister, Becca didn’t want to share her pain or let Elizabeth know just how bad things were. Becca rolled over to assess the situation, and her knee struck something hard. Reaching down, something sliced open her palm.
It was a reef, a long expanse of coral. She placed her boot on it, trying to gain balance with the power of the tide. Sitting up to see, she found the shore wasn’t far off. And a couple miles down the beach, Darion and Navina were pulling the raft in. Becca summoned the energy to move and prayed no one from the boat followed them.
“Look, it’s Becca.” Navina pointed down the beach a mile or so.
Relief flooded Darion at the sight, yet it was too far to see if she was okay. They finished pulling the raft up on the shore, and Darion took off down the beach. After his night tied up with the captain, his body ached and cried out in protest, but he didn’t care. Every step put him closer where he belonged, with Becca.
As he approached, he looked over every inch of her, checking for injury. When Bastian shot her, Darion had tried to explode the gun before Bastian could fire, but he was a second too late. And that second almost cost Becca her life.
“You could have died.” He pushed a heavy wet strand of hair out of her face, exposing her red and weary eyes.
“And leave you?” Her sarcastic smile lit up his world. “Never.”
“Where were you hit?” His panic was only put off by the fact she was standing.
“My shoulder.”
Damn, damn, damn. She needed a doctor, and they were in a foreign country knowing no one. He wanted to look, but knew they needed shelter first.
“I think it went straight through, if that helps?”
“It does. But I’d love Doc right about now.”
Navina stepped closer. “I think I spotted another raft out there. We may want to go now.” The young girl had been through a lot in the past twenty-four hours, and Darion had to give her credit for holding it all together. But the worry was evident on her face, and Darion knew they had to move.
“Let’s go.”
Unfortunately, finding shelter took a bit longer than Darion had wanted. They were a good hour or two from the village, and the only water they had was a small bottle Becca had in her bag. Darion didn’t dare go back to the ocean in case they were spotted, even if he wanted to take the time to distil ocean water with magic, something he hadn’t had to do since middle school. But Navina and Becca didn’t complain. They used an extra shirt to put Becca’s arm in a sling to stabilize her shoulder.
Not far from the beach a jungle grew like Darion had never seen before. Tall trees and greenery were everywhere, connected by vines like large webs carrying through the forest. Once Navina even swore she saw a small monkey. As they traveled through the thick foliage, a steady silence permeated the group, only accompanied by the light noises of insects and animals.
They stopped at the first sounds of human life as they came upon the docks. Even though he’d be surprised if the boat made it into the harbor, Darion didn’t want to chance anyone recognizing them. So, they headed further inland.
Another hour had passed, Becca had slowed down, flinching at any movement of her arm. The young girl looked worn as well. They didn’t complain, but that almost worried him more. Becca should have been giving him a hard time over a number of things. When he first glimpsed the small town, worry and desperation made him go in. They couldn’t afford to be picky any longer.
They skirted the edge of town and a woman walked with a basket of food. With his limited knowledge of Spanish, he asked her where a place to stay was. The woman, roughly about their age, wore a necklace in the shape of a pentagram. She looked them over carefully, focusing on their eyes, her gaze lingering on Navina.
The woman crossed herself and mumbled something in Spanish. Then she gestured for them to follow her. Navina stepped up to follow the woman. Becca and Darion exchanged a glance.
“We don’t have a lot of options right now,” Darion reminded her. “Just keep up your shields.”
She nodded, and he noticed the sweat gathering at her temples. She must be having a harder time than even she let on. Not a huge surprise to Darion, but it reaffirmed his decision. They needed to rest.
Another quarter mile brought them to an old house. The walls consisted of some mix of mud and cement. The brown thatch roof looked like one good storm would tear it off, but it was bigger than the others he saw.
Before they went in, the woman turned to address them in better English than Darion’s Spanish. “My husband has an extra room he rents out for money. Do you have money?”
“Yes. I have money.” Darion and Becca both had hidden and sewn coins into their clothes and bags.
The woman stuck her hand out, expecting the money now. Before Darion could cut out the coins, Navina dug through the bag and found the money pouch. She placed one silver coin in the woman’s out-stretched hand.
The woman inspected the coin. “Good. One coin, one night.” She focused on Darion again and spoke slowly. “Any demons?”
He shook his head. “No demons.”
She pointed to Becca and Navina. “No demons.”
Both agreed.
Then the woman entered a house. She called out something in Spanish. After a moment, a tall man with sandy hair answered the door. Instead of the dark skin of an islander, he had the light skin of the north. The same gold pentagram necklace lay on top of his white buttoned up shirt. He looked several years older than the woman. Not that it was any of Darion’s business, they just needed a room, but he needed it to be safe.
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