Ashes on the Waves (6 page)

“Let’s go,” I whispered, taking her hand.

“Go where?”

I pulled her to her feet. “Anywhere but here.”

“Invisible things are the only realities.”

—Edgar Allan Poe,
quoting William Godwin,
from “Loss of Breath,” 1832

S
low down, Liam. I can’t keep up.” Still clutching her hand, I lifted my arm to prevent her fall as she caught her toe on a root in the path. She was unfamiliar with the landscape and wore a ridiculous pair of shiny shoes that barely covered her feet. “I mean it. Stop!” she shouted.

I stopped.

“What’s wrong with you? That guy bellows, and you run like a scared rabbit.”

She didn’t understand, and there was no time to explain. “Please, Anna. I’ll tell you why when we are out of view.”

“But I—”

“Please. Indulge me.”

She nodded. “Fine, but don’t drag me, okay?”

I released her hand and started back up the trail to the lighthouse. She followed along behind me, picking her way over the rocks and roots. Pa’s shouts rang in the distance. He’d probably figured out I wasn’t in the shed by now.

When we reached the top of the hill, we sprinted behind the lighthouse and I had Anna duck down to stay out of view while I retrieved the key from where I’d hidden it behind a loose brick in the retaining wall. We pressed flat against the back of the lighthouse and crept to the front. The metal door opened easily and n.t s shouts I pulled Anna in with me before locking it tight. The walls of the lighthouse were thick enough to drown out Pa’s yelling. In the complete darkness, Anna’s fast-paced breaths mingled with my own over my hammering heart.

“Wow. You went all James Bond on me there, Leem,” she whispered.

I had no idea who James Bond was, but the sound of her breathy whisper was entrancing. And she was close. If I had leaned forward, we would’ve made contact. I took a small step back to prevent what would have been a certain disaster.

“How long do we have to wait here?” she asked.

“Not long,” I answered. Soon, our breathing slowed and her nearness was no longer painful. Surely Pa had given up his pursuit and had returned to the harbor by now. I felt my way around the brick room until I found the wooden ladder to the observation deck.

“Where are you going?” she whispered.

“Up. Follow me.”

“I can’t see you.”

“Follow my voice. I’m over here.” I kept talking until her hands met my chest. “There’s a ladder behind me.” With one hand still on my chest, she felt for the ladder.

“Got it. Going up.” To my surprise, she climbed up into the darkness without hesitation. “I’m at the top. Now what?”

I was right behind her on the ladder. “There’s a trapdoor above you. There’s no lock. It’s a bit weighty, though.”

She grunted and then light burst through the widening crack of the hatch as she pushed it open. I admired her graceful ascent into the now-perfect square of sunshine. When I emerged, she was sitting on the deck, leaning back against the casing that used to hold the lamp when the lighthouse was operational.

“If we stand, we’ll be spotted,” I said, joining her.

She flashed a gorgeous grin. “No duh. Leave the Sherlock Holmes stuff to me and you stick to Bond, okay?”

“You’re making pop culture references. I’m not familiar with those men.” I peeked over the edge just enough to see Pa staggering down the final hill to the harbor.

She folded her legs under her. “Is he gone?”

“Yes.” I leaned back against the casing.

“So dish.”

“I beg your pardon?”

Her blue eyes appeared endless in the sunshine. “Why do you run from him? You told me he hit you when we talked in the store, but there’s more to it than that, isn’t there?”

“Yes.”

She waited, but I was unwilling to reveal more.

Her eyes narrowed and she crossed her arms over her chest. “Oh, no way. You don’t get off that easy. You said you’d explain why you bolt every time he raises his voice.”

A gull screeched in the distance, barely audible above the sea wind. “Pa has a terrible temper and doesn’t approve of me in any way.” That was kind, actually. He hated me. “When he drinks, he . . . he’s not himself.”

I’d hoped that would satisfy her, but it didn’t.

“And . . . ?”

“And I’d rather not end up at the bottom of a cliff like Connor MacFarley’s wife.” Though I was sTho="1sure the entire island would applaud that outcome.

She brushed aside some hair that had blown across her face. “My God. You think he’d kill you?”

I knew he would. “Perhaps, but that’s not an issue now. You said you needed my help.”

“Yeah, well, that seems unimportant now. I don’t have a crazy guy out to kill me.”

“Nor do I. He’s gone. Please tell me what’s troubling you.”

She hugged her knees to her chest, put her chin on her knee, and closed her eyes. She said nothing for a long time—so long, I thought she had dozed off. Finally she opened her eyes and spoke. “I think I’m going crazy.” The wind whipped her hair across her face again and I resisted the urge to pull it aside. Poor Anna. She looked so tired. “Honestly, I think I’m losing it.”

“Dòchas will do that.”

She pulled her hair back and held it. “What? What does Dòchas do? How? Why?” Her eyes pooled with tears.
“Why?”

My own eyes stung in sympathy. “I don’t know why.” In her case, it made no sense. “What’s happening that leads you to believe you’re going mad?”

She released her hair and it blew in all directions, obstructing my view of her face. “I’m hearing stuff—voices and screaming.” Her shoulders rose and fell with a deep breath. “All night at the mansion, something screams. Terrible, terrifying screams. And when I get near the water, voices call me to join them—and I
want
to.” She swept her hair away and met my eyes. “I’m scared, Liam.” A tear breached her lashes and shimmered as it made its way down her flawless skin. Unable to help myself, I brushed it away with my thumb. She leaned her face into my touch.

And I was undone.

I pulled my hand away and held my breath. It was essential I focus. She wanted my help. What was it she needed? Certainly not what my instincts were dictating. I stood and grasped the railing, deliberately keeping my back to her so she couldn’t tell I was shaken.

From this height, I could see most of the island. At the docks a few fishing boats bobbed next to their buoys. Seal Island was the only thing that broke the expanse of blue sea beyond the yawning mouth of the harbor.

“You think I’m crazy, don’t you?” she asked.

“No.”

“Ronan does.”

I spun to face her. “You told her?”

She pushed to her feet. “I asked her what the screaming was at night and she acted like I was a total nutcase. Told me it must have been something I ate or the caffeine in the coffee you brought.”

“Brigid Ronan knows exactly what you heard.”

She joined me at the railing. “What was it, Liam?”

It was safer for her if she knew and she was ready now. “Otherworlders. The Bean Sidhes, in particular. You heard them in the woods as well.”

“And the voices when I get near the water are really the blue guys that sink ships my uncle used to talk about?”

I nodded. “The Na Fir Ghorm.”

“You think they’re real.”

“I know they are.”

Her brows drew together. “You believe there are things communicat sgs 1">“I kning with us that we can’t see.”

I turned leaned against the railing. “Without a doubt.”

She shook her head and strolled to the other side of the deck, overlooking the estate and cliffs. I joined her and we stood side by side in silence while she processed. She was smart. This would be hard for the intellectual and analytical sides of her to accept.

“Don’t you think there are logical explanations for this? I mean, have you ever seen one of these things?” she asked finally.

“I’ve never seen an Otherworlder, but many have.”

She put her fists on her hips in defiance. “Who? Some whacked-out ignorant villagers?”

I moved to the side of the lighthouse overlooking the woods. “What is the shape of the earth?”

She followed. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Just answer me. What is the shape of the earth?” In the distance, Megan was playing with a dog on the path. It bounded through the underbrush to retrieve whatever object she’d thrown. It was too far to see her face, but since she was the only child on the island, it was certainly Megan.

Anna made that peculiar laugh-through-her-nose sound. “The earth is round—spherical.”

I faced her. “How do you know?”

She rolled her eyes. “Because I’ve seen it.”

“Have you?”

She threw her hands up. “Oh, come on! Are you telling me the earth is not round?”

“No. But imagine the reaction when scholars, with no satellite images to prove it, told people the truth they’d been taught all along was wrong. They were asked to accept that mankind was residing on a spinning ball in space when in fact the earth appeared flat.” I gestured to the horizon all around us. “The proposed reality was based on something that was invisible.”

She made a frustrated huff. “This is different.”

“Yes, but the analogy works.”

“No, not really. This isn’t science.”

“It is, nonetheless, reality, whether it be scientific or otherwise.”

She ran her hands through her hair. “You could be wrong.”

“So could you.”

In the brilliant morning sunshine, her eyes flashed the dazzling azure of a tide pool, nearly taking my breath away.

She stomped her foot. “You’re frustrating, Liam!”

“You’re beautiful, Anna.” Time stopped—as did my breathing.
Oh, God.
I’d done it again. Without waiting for a reaction, I retreated to the other side of the light housing.
Stupid, stupid, impulsive idiot.

She approached from the opposite side of the deck. “I think I know why you do that,” she said with a smile, running her fingers along the rail.

I did too. “Enlighten me.”

“Well, I thought about it a lot last night.” She clasped her hands behind her back. “You’ve never been around a girl, have you? I mean a girl your own age.”

Unwilling to make eye contact, I stared out at the harbor. “No.”

“So, you’re just kind of freaking out because you’r scauwhy e outside your comfort zone. You’ve never been up against the real deal before.”

The real deal.
I smiled in spite of my mortification. “That sums it up well. My interaction with people has been limited, to put it mildly.” No one would dare get near me except my ma and Francine. “I’m way outside of my comfort zone. I apologize.”

“It’s all good. You’ll get better at it.”

“One can always hold out hope for improvement.”

I glanced over and she winked, causing my heart to stutter in my chest.

She spread her palms wide on the railing. “So, why the screaming things? What do they want?”

I was relieved she’d moved the topic away from my faux pas. “The Bean Sidhes wail in mourning for the wrongfully dead.”

She continued to stare out at the horizon. “Like murdered people or something?”

I took a deep breath. “Yes, they mourn the murdered.”

“So does everybody here hear them?”

I glanced over. She was leaning forward, eyes locked in the distance, which made it easier to talk to her. “No. Only some people hear them.” If I were lucky, she’d leave it at that.

“Who?”

So much for luck. “Those with ties to the dead.”

She stood up straight. “So, I’m tied to somebody who was murdered?”

“It would appear so.”

“Who?”

I shrugged. “I have no idea.”

She paced in small, agitated circles. “But you hear them too.”

There was no need for acknowledgment. It was a statement, not a question.
Please leave it at that,
I begged inwardly.

She stopped pacing. “Why do you hear them? Who was murdered?”

I closed my eyes and held my breath, willing her to let it go.

“Who?”

I met her eyes directly. “My birth mother.”

“Oh, my God. Your mother was murdered? I’m so sorry, Liam.” She placed her hand on my arm. “You said she died at your birth. Who killed her?”

I stared down at the patch of trees where she had died. Even from this distance, I could spot the simple cedar marker I’d made as a boy to honor her.

I did,
I confessed in my head. It was an answer I prayed Anna never discovered.

An uncomfortable silence stretched between us and I was desperate for a change in topic. “I should get down to the shop,” I said.

“But what about your foster father? Won’t he be at the harbor?” Anna tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.