Turning Tides (Elements, Book 3) Page 3

  “Once I go in…” She didn’t finish. Elementals weren’t meant to be trapped inside. She needed constant access to nature, and more specifically to her element. This small cottage perched on the edge of the ocean would soon feel as much a prison as any county facility ever could.

  “I know. It won’t be long, I promise. And there’s a fireplace.”

  She nodded, but the tension I’d noticed earlier ratcheted up several notches. She looked like she wanted to sprint back to the seaplane and learn to fly the damn thing herself, if that’s what it took to get off this island. This wasn’t her natural habitat. She’d only come with me to offer moral support. It’s what she always did.

  Now, it was my turn to do it for her.

  “Come on. I’m better company than those behind you.” I reached out a hand, and she only hesitated a moment before taking it. With a gentle tug, I pulled her into the house and closed the door on the gathered crowd.

  Sera turned in a slow circle, studying her prison. The cottage looked like an issue of Coastal Living had exploded all over the room. The color scheme was primarily blue and white, and far too many of the decorations had a starfish theme. It was as comfortable and bland as any luxury hotel, with any hint of personality deliberately removed.

  “It’s only temporary.”

  Sera’s face was drawn and tight, and she ignored me in favor of loading up the fireplace with wood, despite the fact that it was seventy-two degrees outside. A flash of her magic, and a fire blazed. She sat before it, absorbing its power, and I sat next to her.

  Though I didn’t consciously stretch my forbidden magic toward the flames, the proximity was enough to feel renewed, and for the despair of the day to ebb slightly. Sera’s shoulders relaxed, as well.

  “Hungry?” I asked. Neither of us had eaten anything since a plastic-tasting breakfast in the Reno airport.

  She shook her head.

  “Thirsty?”

  “Anything stronger than water around here?”

  “Please.” I jumped up and headed toward the small kitchen. “It’s an island full of near immortals who never have to work or worry about their livers. What are they going to do but drink? Plus, I think my aunts technically own this cottage, and they always kept booze stashed around the island.”

  I rummaged through the cupboards, calling to Sera across the breakfast bar. “Lots of dried soup mixes, some pasta, pancake mix, of course.” I bent and opened the last cabinet. It was a temperature controlled wine cellar, fully stocked. We wouldn’t need to be sober for the next month, if that was our wish.

  “Good news is I found the booze. The bad news is it’s all wine.”

  “And so my punishment begins. Is there a cab, at least?”

  I pulled out several bottles until I found a big Australian cabernet sauvignon. I uncorked it, grabbed two glasses, and returned to my spot by the fire. Sera grabbed the bottle from me and took a hefty swig. She grimaced, finding the high-end wine vastly inferior to cheap tequila, but she still filled her glass.

  “So, you want to talk about what happened or do you want to get drunk?”

  “I can multitask.” She took another long gulp. “What the hell happened out there?”

  I shook my head, helpless to offer any plausible explanation.

  “Could this place be bugged?”

  I had no idea. I knew nothing about how the island was run these days. I supposed anything was possible. “Doubtful, but I can’t say for sure.”

  She nodded, and our eyes met in silent understanding. We could talk about the murder, about Sera’s involvement, about possible explanations, but we couldn’t say a word about my fire side. It wouldn’t take much for someone to put the pieces together—a single throwaway comment, a flash of rage darkening my eyes—and I wouldn’t even be given the time to defend myself. I’d be too busy being dead.

  Sera took another hefty swig of wine and topped up her glass. The bottle was already half empty, but that meant nothing. Fires can burn off any excess booze, meaning Sera could maintain the perfect level of intoxication as long as she wanted to. “So, I narrowed it down to three possibilities, each less likely than the last.”

  I took a sip of my own glass, much smaller than Sera’s. “You’re ahead of me. I’m leaning toward the island housing an invisible dragon at the moment.”

  “One, I lost control for the first time in my life and somehow failed to notice it happening.”

  I wrinkled my nose. An invisible dragon was more plausible than Sera losing control.

  “Two, there’s another fire hidden somewhere on the island. There were several buildings within magic range of the council. Someone could have hidden there.”

  “Someone who snuck on the island without anyone noticing them, who will need to continue to hide now that all transport off the island is shut down?”

  “I didn’t say these were good theories,” she reminded me.

  “And the last?”

  She lowered her voice. “There’s another fire somewhere on the island, hiding in plain sight.”

  Our eyes met in silent understanding. In the sea of blonds on the island, there was no chance one of them was a fire—unless they were, like me, a dual magic. Neither of us wanted to even speak the words, lest anyone overhear, but we were both aware of the possibility.

  It was unlikely. Dual magics were extremely rare. They only resulted from the pairing of two different full-blooded elementals. Full-bloods were uncommon enough, and they weren’t especially fertile. Plus, any full was well aware of the risk of bearing a dual magic. Immediate death to the child, and a century of imprisonment to any parent who concealed the abomination.

  Once, there’d been many more dual magics. However, when elementals are capable of producing floods, tsunamis, ice storms, earthquakes, avalanches, rock slides, and forest fires, it really helps if they’re in their right mind. The previous dual magics weren’t, and one after another they were slaughtered. Now, there was just me, and a sad man locked in a mental hospital on the California coast, and the two others Josiah found after a long search.

  And yet, another dual magic was the most plausible explanation for Lake’s death.

  It also meant, if someone else was using fire on the island, I had a way to find them. It wasn’t a method Sera would approve of, I knew, and I tried to school my thoughts into a neutral expression before I gave anything away. Her eyes narrowed, letting me know I hadn’t been that successful.

  Before she could say anything, the doorbell rang. I barely had time to stand before it rang again several times in short succession.

  I opened the door to see several familiar faces crammed in the doorway. My three aunts rushed in, followed by my much calmer mother. Before I could even speak, I found myself in the middle of a group hug, my aunts wrapped around me while they alternately cried about how unfair it all was and scolded me for staying away so long.

  “I missed you, too,” I said. They were nuts, every last one of them, but they were family. “Sera has a bottle open.”

  Their faces instantly brightened. Marie, the middle aunt, shook her head. “Just one? That will never do.” She bustled into the kitchen and pulled out a bottle of white from the wine cellar. Georgina, the oldest, followed and grabbed a light red.

  It was strangely comforting to see that there was no occasion, even a gruesome murder and their niece’s best friend standing accused of the crime, that didn’t call for copious amounts of wine. These days, I felt like my life was constantly changing, the ground shifting beneath my very feet, and I was glad to see a few things remained constant.

  Tina was the youngest of my aunts, only a century old. She joined the others and began filling glasses.

  I offered my mother a tentative smile. Her brows drew together, revealing a crease on her forehead that hadn’t been there when I left for college. I raised my index finger to her face, smoothing out the line. “We’ve been through worse,” I reminded her. “We’ll figure this out.”

  She blin
ked, just once, but with that simple move her face transformed. She was the oldest of her sisters, the first born of my unusually fecund grandmother, and she carried the air of responsibility seen on older siblings the world over. But she was still a water, and she rarely stayed in a bad mood for long—particularly when there was wine nearby.

  I turned from her to the last people who’d stepped through my door. “Lana?” My voice rose sharply on the single word. If Santa Claus had ridden through the door on a reindeer with a technicolor nose, I wouldn’t have been much more surprised.

  Lana Pond was a half-water who lived less than an hour from our cabin in Truckee. I’d only met her once, when I’d still believed I was, like her, half-human. She’d pointed me toward her brother, Trent Pond, the institution-bound dual magic who helped show me what I was. As far as I knew, she had no idea dual magics even existed.

  Lana was loopy and odd but mostly harmless. Unfortunately, she was also one of the few who’d seen me lose control of my water magic. If she started telling stories to those who understood what that loss of control could mean, she’d quickly go from mostly harmless to a woman capable of ruining my life, if not ending it entirely.

  “Aidan!” Lana exclaimed. “I haven’t seen you since you visited me and…”

  Marie returned with a glass in either hand. I grabbed one and thrust it toward Lana, hoping to distract her. Fortunately, a pretty piece of dust could distract Lana, and soon she was exclaiming over the oaky notes in her chardonnay.

  I swallowed, fighting panic, and grabbed a second glass just for me. Lana couldn’t be here. Not with the council, not with her knowledge. Either she needed to get off this island immediately, or I did.

  I caught Sera’s eye. She’d never met Lana, but she’d heard about our encounter. “Lana Pond,” I mouthed, tilting my head in the other woman’s direction.

  A mask dropped over Sera’s features, as it often did when her thoughts were in turmoil. She whispered to my mother, whose eyebrows leapt in alarm.

  I’d never met the man at Lana’s side, but I was certain he was the stone I’d spotted in the crowd earlier. A strong one, too, based on his traditional coloring. He was average height, and there didn’t appear to be a single part of his body that wasn’t covered in a muscle of some kind. His short hair was a medium brown undiluted by highlights, and his eyes were a dark slate gray. He was handsome enough, if your taste ran to body builders who looked like they smiled twice a year.

  Me, I preferred a man who could destroy this one in an arm wrestling match, one who smiled damn near every time I walked in the door. I felt a sharp pang for Mac, still in Tahoe and expecting me home in a couple of days. We weren’t together, exactly. We’d agreed to wait to take the next step until I’d resolved my issues with the council and knew what my future held. At the time, it seemed the mature thing to do. With this new delay, I was beginning to regret that decision. Maturity is seriously overrated.

  Forcing my thoughts back to the man in front of me, I stuck out my hand. “Welcome.”

  He shook my hand somberly. I suspected he did most things somberly. “It’s nice to meet you, Aidan. I’m David Flint.”

  One of the old names, too. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been surrounded by so many strong elementals.

  These were supposed to be my people, but my thoughts and my heart kept returning to an A-frame cabin by the Truckee River, where shifters and elementals were equally welcome, regardless of how much magical blood they could claim.

  Lana’s heart, however, was clearly right in front of me. “Isn’t he lovely?” She wrapped her arms around his waist and leaned her head on his shoulder, her face soft and dreamy.

  David gave her an indulgent smile and pressed his lips to her forehead in a warm kiss. In a way, I guess it made sense. Someone as batty as Lana would likely do best with a man who had patience of a saint, someone stable and reliable and predictable. In other words, a stone. I guess there really was someone for everyone.

  That pang hit again, sharper than before, insisting I was too far from Mac. Whatever was happening on the island, I needed to figure it out quickly and get back to Tahoe. Every cell in my body yearned toward him. Being with him made everything else just a bit more bearable.

  “What brings you by?” The question was more abrupt than I’d intended, but Sera and I needed a night of drinking and plotting, and only one of those looked to be happening now. “I mean, aren’t you all scared Sera’s going to burn you to ash?”

  David cast a speculative eye toward Sera. Somehow, his face grew even more rigid. He was seriously considering my question. “Until she is convicted, I’d rather not behave as if she were guilty. Also, I can’t imagine any reason she would want to incinerate me or Lana.”

  Stones always were a serious and pragmatic lot.

  David nodded at my mother. “Fiona assured me that Sera was innocent and asked me to study your porch to see what kind of camera you need. A branch of my family owns a home security company, so I guess that made me the best option.”

  I nodded, grateful. Without Vivian and Simon to help, I hadn’t thought how we’d manage the surveillance camera on an island full of luddites.

  “I’ve been granted permission to fly into Bellingham tomorrow for the camera. Until it’s set up, Lana offered to stay with you. A witness, to confirm that Sera doesn’t leave.”

  “That’s very… kind. But aren’t you worried Sera will hurt you, Lana? If you’re sleeping, you won’t be able to defend yourself at all. Perhaps you should stay far away.”

  While we spoke, my mother and Sera inched closer to us. Hearing Lana’s offer, my mother didn’t even attempt to pretend she wasn’t eavesdropping. “She’s right, Lana. No reason to take an unnecessary risk. Please, come stay at my house. I have a lovely guest room already made up.” The offer was graciousness itself. No one would ever guess she was trying to keep us apart—or keep Lana under tight surveillance and away from the council.

  Lana laughed, light and airy. “Don’t be silly. Look at that face.” She gestured toward Sera. “It’s such an honest face. I don’t know why we’re going through this charade of gathering evidence when it’s so obvious she didn’t do it.”

  Sera looked between me and Lana, as if unable to believe this woman even existed. Her face, it should be noted for the record, looked very much like she could kill someone at that moment.

  “Even so,” I continued, “I think my mother will stay. We haven’t seen each other much lately and…”

  Lana shook her head, already dismissing my words. “And she’s your mother. Her testimony will never be believed. I, however, have no reason to lie for you.”

  That’s what I was afraid of. Still, as much as I dreaded having to watch my every word and action while Lana was around, it beat letting her run around the island unsupervised.

  Lana was already heading toward the back of the cottage. “Now, which bed is mine?”

  “The pink one,” Sera and I announced in unison. Then, with a long look at me, Sera drained her glass before refilling it to the top. I suspected she had no plans to burn off the alcohol that night.

  Chapter 4

  To our unending joy, Lana proved to be an incompetent witness. It took two glasses of wine before she was leaning against David’s shoulder, a decidedly slack look on her face, and she made no protest when he guided her toward the second bedroom. He left soon after with a promise to return the next morning and trade Lana for a security camera. I thought we were getting the better end of that deal.

  My aunts wandered off a few minutes later, their last bottle clutched in Georgie’s hands. Before leaving, they covered my cheeks with enthusiastic kisses and insisted they didn’t believe I was guilty of murder, not for a second. My aunts never had been good with details.

  My mother left with them, though she first murmured quiet promises to help exonerate Sera. They were vague words, though, and I knew she didn’t have any real idea where to begin.

  The moment we
were alone, Sera turned to me. “No.”

  I raised both eyebrows. I was pretty good at filling in the blanks with Sera, but even I needed a little more to go on.

  “I know how you’re planning to find the other fire. No.”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” It was a lie, and about as successful as all the other ones I tried to tell her.

  She listened for Lana’s quiet snores, then pulled me into the kitchen and turned on the water, disguising our voices. “You are not going to wander the island while accessing your fire side, looking for someone else doing the same.”

  “No one would expect it, which means any hidden fires on the island wouldn’t try to hide their magic from me. It’s the best way.”

  “To be discovered? To learn how far you can push it before something in you snaps? It’s not worth the risk.” She shook her head, the issue already decided in her mind.

  “Shut up. You are worth the risk. You’d do the same for me. Don’t deny it.”

  “I’m not a freaking dual magic, either, which means I’m a hell of a lot more stable than you are. It’s not even apples and oranges. It’s apples and tractors. We can’t begin to compare our magic.”

  I opened my mouth to protest. I was perfectly stable. Sure, I might occasionally want to scream and throw things in a way a proper water would never do. It was possible I’d done two entire pushups the other day before I came to my senses. And yes, maybe I was aware of my fire side as I never was before, the individual threads of magic becoming dangerously familiar.

  Oh, and there was the part where I might have given Mac a small measure of my elemental magic when saving his life after an FBI agent shot him, a freak occurrence I couldn’t even begin to explain.

  Really, stable is such a subjective term.

  “Well, we need to do something. You have a better idea?”