by Mara Webb
The person dragging me let go and I fell to the floor, scrambling up into a sitting position and clenching my fists. Where was Miller? Would Kate be able to read my mind if I was on the other side of the island? Would anyone know we were here? How do you project a thought? Another punch struck against Ryder. My magic sparked again. Kate, please hear me. What good was it having a friend that was a mind reader if you had to be in the same room for her powers to work?
The fabric over my head was swiftly removed and I was able to see the legs of the man standing in front of me, hands ripping the tape from my mouth. I glanced to the side and saw Shaun looming over Ryder’s body, then back at the overalls of the man that I hadn’t expected to see.
Wyatt.
15
“You’re too nosy for your own good,” Wyatt said by way of justification.
“Oh? So, you should be allowed to murder somebody and get away with it, would that be better?” I complained. The sound of my voice seemed to have brought Shaun’s attention my way, leaving Ryder on the ground writhing still. It seemed that the bag that was over his head had been removed before the punching had begun, his bloody lip made my heart race with anger.
“I didn’t kill her,” Wyatt explained. “So that shows what you know. You think you’re so smart, but you have a lot to learn.”
“Enlighten me,” I smirked. I just needed to keep him talking long enough for my powers to come back, then I would get me and Ryder out of here. Once we were safely away then we could call the police, call Miller.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Wyatt grinned. I really hadn’t been expecting the sinister old man routine from him, but appearances can be deceiving. Maybe it would turn out that Shaun was the brains behind the whole thing, probably not though.
“Cindy found something, and you wanted it,” Ryder said, his voice strained.
“Yeah, she said it was really valuable, priceless was actually what she said,” Shaun added. “We made a deal.”
“What sort of deal?” I asked.
“Access rights,” Wyatt replied. “I told Shaun here was going to be the only person here with permission to cross my land and have tour groups rappel down to see whatever she found on that cliff.”
Something didn’t add up. He would never let Shaun trample across his land. It had been a trick to lure Shaun into doing what Wyatt wanted.
“I don’t understand, why kill her?” I pressed.
“Shaun is the one that took care of that for me,” Wyatt grinned. “Cindy and I had different ideas about her discovery. She seemed less than cooperative, despite reminders that it was on my land, so technically belonged to me.”
“It only belongs to you at low tide,” Ryder said. Shaun kicked him in the leg to shut him up. My magic swelled in my hands; I knew I was close now.
“That’s why you were arguing, was that the night she died?” I asked.
“Mr. Wyatt came and said he’d tried his best, you know?” Shaun shrugged. “We waited until it was gonna be high tide, meaning that the cliff wasn’t Wyatt’s no more, then I sent her over the edge. She was going to take pictures or whatever and then show me later on.”
“That wasn’t what you wanted though, was it?” I said. “You didn’t want anyone on your land, so why make a deal with Shaun that you had no intention of sticking to?” Wyatt smiled at me. “Cindy wanted to sell pictures, but you wanted to sell the thing she’d found. What was it? Gold?”
“You dangle a carrot in front of a horse to make it walk, I dangled the idea that he would get the only permit to cross my farmland and rappel down those cliffs. I have no idea what she found, but she was real excited about it,” Wyatt chuckled. “So, it had to be valuable. Sell off something like that and then I’d have more cash than I knew what to do with!”
“But you didn’t even know what she’d found. You had her killed over some mystery item that you might not have even been able to sell! She wanted to leave it there, but you wanted to sell it off, that’s why you argued,” I said, speaking faster and faster as the ideas came to me. “You lied to Shaun about your intentions, then had him do your dirty work because he’s too stupid to figure out what you were doing.”
“What?” Shaun murmured, as if to highlight my point.
“What was your plan after you sold it and Shaun didn’t get the access rights to the cliff? Were you going to have him killed too?” I asked.
“No, I would just say that he had misunderstood me. I assumed he’d forget about it and move on, he’s not got a lot going on between his ears, you may have noticed,” Wyatt grinned.
“How did you convince him to kill Cindy?” Ryder asked.
“I just said there would be a lot of money coming his way if he did, simple men have simple pleasures. He saw dollar signs and didn’t hesitate to cut her rope and send her hurtling down the cliff side. I was the one that pointed out that he should go and take all of the climbing equipment away so he couldn’t be tied to her death. That idiot left her harness on though, didn’t you?” Wyatt huffed.
“I thought you just meant ropes, man,” Shaun shrugged. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Wyatt had basically just said that he tricked Shaun into murdering Cindy, and Shaun was too dumb to have even noticed. He was just all brawn.
“Well, no matter. The only way to get this all tidied away is to get rid of you two. Shaun can then go and get whatever it is on the cliff that had caught Cindy’s eye and we will be millionaires,” Wyatt grinned.
“You don’t know if there is anything there worth selling, are you seriously about to add two more murders to your rap sheet?” I protested.
“Money is a powerful motivator, Sadie,” Wyatt smiled. “Think of all the lovely things I could do for my wife with a million dollars!”
“Are you insane? You will be going to prison, not the mall,” I grunted.
“I can’t see how this could backfire on me now, can you?” Wyatt said. Yes, I could think of a million ways this could backfire. Suppose he actually murders Ryder and me, then goes to the cliff and they discover that she found a rare bird or something. You can’t sell a rare bird. Cindy would have done all of us a real solid if she had just told Wyatt what she’d found. His greed was clouding his judgement, big time.
“What about when the police find out?” I countered.
“Oh, your little boyfriend?” Wyatt said. “I’ll just tell him you went off with this one,” he pointed to Ryder. “If he thinks you are with another man, he won’t come looking for you.” I would not be allowing myself to be killed by these two morons. Of course Miller would look for me, of course you can’t kill three people and get away with it. This was ridiculous. He was so convinced he was going to cash in that he’d lost his mind.
“What do you want me to do here, man?” Shaun asked. He had produced a gun from his waist band, and I could feel my pulse quicken.
“Shoot them and drag them out for the wildlife to finish off. I don’t know, I didn’t really plan on having to do this today,” Wyatt complained. Oh gee, sorry to be a major inconvenience.
Shaun carefully checked the chamber, inspecting the number of bullets he had loaded, and then looked at me, then Ryder. He was trying to decide who to shoot first, right? There was a moment, a brief glimpse in his eye, that let me know who he had chosen.
He lifted his arm to aim the gun at Ryder, and I released the power from my fingertips, bursting out of the restraints on my wrist. The cabin flooded with the blue light that had become indicative of my powers. Wyatt seemed to turn on his heels as I leapt up from the ground. Shaun turned his attention to me and fired. I heard shot after shot ring out.
The blue light made it impossible to see, like staring into the sun, but I heard a thud as someone hit the ground. A sharp pain pierced my shoulder and I staggered backwards. The clicking of an empty gun trying to fire suggested that Shaun was done.
The light faded and I could see Wyatt on the ground, shot multiple times in the crossfire as Shaun had attempted to hit me with bull
ets. At least one of them had met with his intended target though. I was bleeding.
When I’d used my magic to free myself from the tie around my wrists, it seemed I had done the same for Ryder. He stood, punched Shaun so hard that he passed out immediately, and then ran to me.
“Sadie,” he said, leaping over Wyatt’s body and crouching beside me. I was leaning on the wall, sliding down it as the blood loss made me feel lightheaded.
“I don’t care what anyone says, being shot really hurts,” I smiled, wincing at the pain as I collapsed down to the floor.
“You really shouldn’t be wasting your energy on lame jokes.”
“I don’t think I have enough energy to use my powers, so lame jokes are all I’ve got. Sorry,” I said. My head tilted over towards my right shoulder; the effort required to keep me sat up was becoming too much. “I don’t feel good.”
Ryder scooped me up and marched toward the door, kicking it so hard that it came loose from its hinges. I tried to reach up to put my arms around his neck, wanting to hold tight, but I couldn’t. Next thing I knew he had managed to get me into the truck and closed the door. He ran back into the cabin and reemerged a few seconds later with a set of keys, likely from Shaun’s pocket.
“Brielle,” I muttered as he climbed behind the steering wheel. If we called her, she would be able to use her magic to get to us immediately. I felt as though I was about to lose consciousness and I really didn’t want to die in the woods. I didn’t want to die at all, not again, but being shot in a dirty cabin didn’t feel like the way to go.
“They took our phones,” Ryder said, anticipating why I was saying her name. “Probably threw them out the window on the drive up here. I’ll get you help, Sadie.” He pressed his right hand against my thigh for a moment, then threw the truck into reverse.
At some point on the drive, I closed my eyes. I had no strength left to stay awake and even with Ryder shouting my name over and over, I fell into a strange sleep. I could still feel the movement of the truck, the speed at which we were flying over the bumps in the road let me know that Ryder was racing back to civilization.
It wasn’t a dreamless sleep. I thought about sitting at the dining table in my house, staring up at the family tree on the wall and staring at the faces of my relatives. I knew Hallow Haven wasn’t finished with me yet. I just knew it. Maybe it was my subconscious fighting to keep me alive, or maybe my powers were trying to protect me, but I was sure I would be okay.
“How did you end up like this? Again?” Sitting across the table in my dream was my Aunt Darcy. She had a grin on her face, the same type of smile that a parent gives you when they catch you doing something you shouldn’t be doing.
I still didn’t know what Darcy was exactly. When I had first met her on the dark island, I had come to realize that I was one of the few people that could actually see her. I had drowned, briefly may I add, but that mini-death experience had made her visible to me. She could only be seen by those that had died and then been brought back.
I was also able to hear her voice if I plunged my head underwater in a deep bath. It was the reason I now took showers exclusively. Yet, here she was, in my dream.
“Why are you here?” I asked.
“That’s no way to speak to your favorite aunt,” she smirked. “Besides, I’m here because you appear to be trying to die again. It’s almost like you are actively looking for ways to get hurt.”
“I got shot!” I protested. “I didn’t do it on purpose!”
“You were trying to save your guardian,” she said. “Your magic is getting stronger, but you still have a lot to learn.”
“Is there a spell to undo a bullet wound?” I asked.
“Not quite, at least, not one you can perform on yourself,” she said.
The vision of my dining room started to rattle, and my eyes flickered open briefly to see the reality of my situation. Ryder was still hurtling along the road to get me somewhere that I could be helped. Thunder roared overhead and I knew that it was Ryder’s doing. He could control the weather, and his emotions were getting the better of him.
“Sadie?” he said, grabbing hold of my arm to tilt me back enough to see his face. “We’re nearly there, stay with me.”
I glanced out of the window, expecting to see the trees thin out as we approached the high street in search of the doctor’s office. We were on a road I didn’t recognize, and I winced as I tried to sit up enough to get a better look. Where were we going?
16
I didn’t stay conscious for much longer. The rest of the truck ride happened with me passed out on the passenger’s side, leaning against the door, but this time no dreams came to me. I had a vague awareness that we had stopped moving at one point, and I felt arms around me as I was lifted, but I kept my eyes closed.
I heard Ryder’s voice. I heard another person speaking to him, they were screaming at each other in fact, and then I woke up. Slowly at first, but then my eyes opened wide as I tried to take in my surroundings.
How much time had passed? I was lying on a bed with a thin cotton sheet over me, the reassuring beep of machines monitoring my heartbeat echoed through the room and I tried to figure out where I was.
The walls were pale green, plastered in such a way that there were completely smooth and devoid of any artwork or photographs. There was a window, but the drapes were pulled across. Birds tweeting outside made me think that I wasn’t anywhere near Brielle’s office. Why would Ryder have brought me here? Why wouldn’t he take me to Brielle? She was the island doctor, who else would be able to fix me up?
There was a chair in the corner, barely big enough for someone to sit comfortably on it, yet somehow Ryder was curled up and resting his head against the back, sleeping. He wasn’t wearing a shirt, the bruising on his arms on full display. This was a hospital bed; I recognized the cot sides and the small remote that would elevate me into an upright position. I groaned as I stretched over to grab the device, waking Ryder.
He gasped, as if waking from a nightmare, then looked over at me. “Sadie,” he said, relief thick in his voice.
“You look worse than I feel,” I smiled, taking in the full view of his bare torso and noticing just how badly beat up he was. Shaun had been punching him mercilessly in that cabin, which reminded me that we’d left an unconscious murderer in the woods. He had a bandage wrapped around the palm of his left hand, slightly blood stained. Although I’d been shot, I couldn’t help thinking he’d gotten the worst of it.
“Don’t worry about me,” he said, suddenly at my bedside and holding my hand. His skin felt cold and when I recoiled at his touch, he pulled back. “Sorry, I have, er… poor circulation in my fingers,” he smiled.
“You should get that looked at,” I replied, taking a deep breath in and grimacing as the movement reached my shoulder. “What happened? Where are we?”
“You got shot,” Ryder said.
“Oh, really?” I smirked.
“Yeah, weird that you forgot that part,” he laughed. “Anyway, I guess when you used your magic to break out of the handcuffs, or whatever they had tied our hands with, you tired yourself out. The whole room was bright, I’ve still got the after image in both of my eyes. It was like someone took a photo with the flash on and they were standing one inch away from my face.”
“Sorry about that,” I grinned.
“You were muttering something, I couldn’t quite make it out, but you had gone pale, and I didn’t think you would make it back to the other side of the island to Brielle, so I brought you here instead,” he explained.
“And here is…?”
He didn’t answer, or at least he didn’t get the chance to. The door swung open, and a figure stepped through.
“You’re awake.” Who was this? Another step brought him to my bedside and, although the skin was paler and the brown hair on his head was slightly less wild, I could see instantly that this was Ryder’s brother. He was wearing a long-sleeved shirt, so I couldn’t see the tattoos t
hat Effie had raved about, but the nose stud clued me in.
“Jared?” I asked.
“I didn’t realize you talked about me that much,” the man laughed to Ryder, punching him playfully in the arm. The fist landed right above one of the purple bruises on his tricep and Ryder pressed his lips into a thin line as he reacted to the pain.
“It’s only because you went on a date with Effie that she knows about you,” Ryder complained.
“Keep telling yourself that, I bet you love talking about me,” Jared smiled. He reached over to touch the gauze that was taped over the wound on my shoulder. His skin was ice cold, but when I flinched, he didn’t withdraw, not like Ryder had. He seemed to inspect the injury, then press the tape back down to secure the dressing.
“Are you a doctor or something?” I asked.
“Oh, I’m something all right,” Jared nodded. The door was still open, and I saw someone else approaching the room. They stepped to the side as both Jared and Ryder walked out, both of them bickering with each other as they went.
“How did you end up in a place like this?” Darcy asked, walking into the room and dragging a chair to my bedside.
“What are you doing here?”
“My niece gets shot and dragged to a cabin in the woods for medical treatment, seemed like a good time to intervene,” she smirked.
“Where’s Miller?”
“Honey, I’m not here to give you an update on your boyfriend,” she laughed. “But I’m sure he’s going out of his mind with worry, men can be so emotional.”
“I thought you didn’t come to the main island,” I said. “We are still on the main island, right?”
“You are. I made an exception for you, seeing as how you conjured me in a dream. It’s only polite to make an appearance after that,” she said, leaning back in the chair, putting her feet up on the end of the bed and crossing her right foot over her left.