Perilous Waters (26 page)

“Hold on,” Kaitlyn said. “I want to watch this.”

Angie tapped her fingers together. She couldn’t leave Kaitlyn alone in here. There was no telling what she might do.

“I am your rightful husband,” the man said, “and I’ll see you whipped for adultery.”

Jack Rackam stood. The man took a stumbling step back.

“F-f-forty lashes at the post,” Anne’s husband continued. He swallowed and took out a handkerchief, blotting his brow before adding, “‘Tis what Governor Rogers stated.”

Jack rested his hand lightly on Anne’s shoulder. “I told you, James. I’ll buy a divorce by purchase. ‘Tis all straight and legal, and old Rogers said ‘twould matter not whether Anne were whipped or divorced, so long as fees were paid one way or another.” Anne rose to her feet and his hand slid to her hip. “The lass doesn’t want to be with ye. Best accept it and make some gold for yourself to nurse your wounded heart.”

Anne turned slowly to face Jack, a venomous smile growing like a serpent along her lips. With a flash of barred teeth she shoved Jack away with both hands. “And I told you, Mister Rackham,” she yelled, her cheeks bright and her livid eyes burning, “that I’ll na be sold like an animal. If ye want to make me yer wife, you’ll do it like a man ought, or not at all.”

A hush fell over the tavern. Calico Jack watched her for a moment, his dark eyes assessing her, even as admiration crept over his gaze. “Like a man ought, ye say,” he murmured, a smile curving up his stubbled face.

James Bonny pressed his handkerchief to his forehead again, his eyes darting from Calico Jack to Anne. “I’ll not mind the words of a pirate. C-come along, then,” James Bonny said, hesitating on his next word, his pale cheeks flushed as he took her by the arm. “Wife.”

“Don’t call me yer wife, ye white-livered sack of hog slop.” She wrenched her arm free as a guard appeared at the doorway.

“Governor Rogers’ men are outside,” James Bonny said, standing straighter now that there was a man with a gun behind him. “You’ll have the law to answer to, and you’ll make me a proper wife yet.”

More men came into the tavern and Anne Bonny gave Jack a final, seething glare as she was forced outside. “I’ll go with ye,” she said, elbowing a guard that tried to take her arm. “But ye won’t be touching me, not without my say-so.”

Angie kept still as the tavern erupted in noise and confusion. Jack’s eyes remained narrowed on the doorway after the guard took Anne away.

“Holy crap,” Julia murmured.

Angie’s mind wouldn’t slow down, absorbing every moment with a fiercely beating heart.

“That was the most bad ass thing I’ve ever seen,” Kaitlyn said.

Angie swallowed, releasing a pent-up breath. “Indeed.”

~ Chapter 21 ~

Julia

“Does
Jack Rackham look a little like Ethan to you?” Julia asked as they walked along the street toward the coast.

Kaitlyn rolled her eyes. “You’re so obsessed with Ethan that you’re seeing him in a famous pirate?”

Julia laughed a little, trying to make it seem like she had just been joking. “I’m not obsessed with him.”

“I go into your head every time we touch,” Kaitlyn said. “You miss him. You think of him all the time. That sounds like obsession.”

“Sounds like love,” Angie said softly.

“It can’t be love. I don’t know him well enough to love him.”

“Maybe… or maybe your souls know each other,” Angie said. “Maybe you’re meant to be. Like, fate.”

“We choose our own fates,” Julia murmured.

“Love is a crock, anyway,” Kaitlyn said, her scar puckering as her mouth turned down.

Julia bit her lip, letting her eyes fall shut as they walked. She didn’t want to summon Ethan, she only wanted to check how things were going with Brian. She nearly stumbled as Ethan’s form took shape in her mind. A wave of warmth and appreciation flowed from Ethan’s connection, but the moment was cut short by a deep, raspy voice. Her lids fly open.

“Where are ye goin’ now, lasses?”

Julia halted, her heart in her throat. Two men appeared from around a corner, blocking their path.

“To our ship,” Kaitlyn said, and without missing a beat she strode right past them.

Julia hurried after her, but it was obvious they weren’t going to lose them that easily. She tried to keep her eyes lowered the way Angie did, but nervousness always made her do the wrong thing. She found herself lifting her gaze to the men as she passed by, and as she did, she caught the man’s eyes shifting from black to red as he watched her.

“Oh no,” she whispered. Without realizing it, she stood frozen in place.

Angie tugged at her hand, urging her forward, but Julia shook her head.
Those guys… aren’t guys.

Creatures,
Kaitlyn said as the men… or rather, non-men… advanced.

Stay together,
Angie said.

Julia pulled them toward the alley, but Kaitlyn held them back.
What are you doing? Let’s kill them now. Two less creatures to worry about.

Angie hiked up her skirts and broke into a run. Julia followed, almost tripping in her gown. “Don’t leave me behind,” she cried as the other girls flew ahead.

“Then run faster,” Kaitlyn yelled.

Grunts echoed through the alley. Julia’s lungs burned. She forced her legs to pump faster. She heard snarls and snuffling noises. “I can summon Ethan,” she said, sure that the creatures were inches from her neck.

“No! We can do this,” Kaitlyn said. She spun around with her hands held in front of her, wrists together and fingers splayed apart.

Angie followed suit, hands held out as power formed in her palms. If they had goggles and top hats, they could be steampunk superheroes in their ruffled, lacey gowns.

“Hurry up,” Kaitlyn yelled. “I’ve got left.”

Julia hobble-ran to take her place beside them in time to see the creatures storming at them.

“I’ll take the one on the right,” Angie said as the creatures’ eyes glowed red. “Julia, blast one if we miss, otherwise be prepared to Journey us.”

Julia gathered her magic as fast as she could. The mark on her hands sent a pulse of satisfying heat through her body. Images of white-eyed beings with serene, otherworldly faces drifted through her mind.

Fulfill your destiny, Daughters
,
came a whisper through time.

The creatures lunged, horns bursting from their skulls as they took on full minotaur forms.

Kaitlyn’s magic shot first, with Angie’s following quickly after, but the creatures anticipated the bolts. Wood splintered as Kaitlyn’s magic hit a beam, causing an awning to come crashing down.

Angie screamed, tumbling to the ground as she dodged the minotaur’s fist.

Julia blasted it. The minotaur roared and reared as Julia’s magic pierced its back.

“Kaitlyn,” Julia yelled, hearing her strangled grunts.

Kaitlyn attacked the other on her own. Julia aimed her power at the monster as Kaitlyn sliced at the creature’s arm with her dagger. It released her and she quickly sent it a beam of energy.

“I’ve got this one,” she yelled. “Just keep blasting the other.”

Julia nodded, turning in time to see the minotaur take Angie by the face and slam her head against the ground.

“No,” Julia cried, blasting and nearly missing the creature. She sent it more power, adjusting her aim. It roared and arched in pain. Angie, on the ground, rolled onto her back and lifted her hand. A ball of light shot at the creature’s chest.

The creature drew a rasping breath and fell forward. Angie scrambled backward, trying to escape, but it landed on her lower body.

“Help,” she said, her small body twisting and writhing to free herself from the slumped creature.

Kaitlyn walked behind the minotaur, taking its shoulder with both hands and rolling it onto its side. Angie wriggled free. Kaitlyn’s chest heaved. Her flushed cheeks gleamed with dark, dripping blood.

“Oh my gosh,” Julia said.

“It’s not my blood,” she said. Her fevered eyes looked almost eager as she glanced down at the slumped minotaur. “I wounded the other minotaur when it was choking me, but I dropped my dagger.”

Angie stood and carefully approached the other minotaur. “We don’t know how long they’ll stay stunned.” She picked up Kaitlyn’s dagger. As calmly as she had the first time, she made quick work of the beast, pulling its head back and slicing its throat.

“Wait,” Kaitlyn said as Angie returned to the other. “Julia and I should learn to kill them, too.”

The inky fluid on her body began dissipating. Julia looked to where the other creature lay, its body disappearing in time to the blood on Kaitlyn’s body, until all of it vanished in a black, sulfurous mist.

“They have to die,” Kaitlyn said in a low voice. Julia’s heart hammered against her ribcage as Kaitlyn took the dagger from Angie. She grabbed one of the demon’s horns, tugging its head back as her dagger came to its throat. “If Angie can do it, so can I.”

Before Julia could form another thought, the blade entered the unconscious creature’s neck.

The creature’s crimson eyes flew open.

“Holy crap,” Julia said.

“It’s not fully stunned,” Angie yelled, lifting her palms.

The minotaur roared, tossing Kaitlyn like a rag doll across the alley. Angie blasted the creature again as blood poured from its neck. Wildly, with teeth-bared, it swung its head back and forth. It raised its massive, fur-covered fists to the sky. Bolts of pure black energy rose behind it.

“The creature is forming a time rift,” Angie said. “It’s going to escape.”

“Not if we follow it,” Kaitlyn said.

Behind the creature, the time rift swirled like a black whirlpool. The darkness already began swallowing it.

“Hold hands,” Angie cried. “Kaitlyn, take hold of the creature. When we’re in the rift, whatever you do,
don’t let go.
”

“We’re going after it?” Julia tried to pull back. Angie had almost been killed!

“We can’t separate through time,” Angie said forcefully, tightening her grip on Julia’s hand. “Do you understand?”

Kaitlyn grabbed the creature. The moment she did, everything ceased to exist.

Silence.

Utter noiselessness. Sightlessness. Julia remembered clearly the time she had been sucked into the echidna’s time rift. Now, just as before, her body sailed on a sea of fear. Dark energy in its purest form flowed through her being, making her a part of it. It was as though she were no longer a person at all, but a mass of disconnected fragments at the mercy of a maelstrom of evil.

The strange paralysis stretched beyond the bounds of time. No air. No light. No sensation. Nothing except terror and the need to fill her soul with anything she could find in order to eliminate this vast emptiness.

Almost as quickly, the world burst forth in an explosion of sensation. Her entire body felt as though it had been torn apart at its very core only to be thrown back together at hyper speed, sending shards of needle-like pain through her. Too much noise and sensation. Too many colors and shapes. Julia wanted to scream. Bile rose in her throat. She fell to her knees.

Grass. Sandy ground. The sound of the ocean. Julia tried to separate each thing that her senses were being bombarded with.

“Restore,” Angie said, her voice sounding parched and weak. When she spoke again, it was with conviction. “The minotaur is heading down the bluff. It’s bleeding.”

Kaitlyn healed herself as she rose. “If we don’t kill it now, then we went through all that for nothing.”

Julia healed herself too. Her body reacted immediately to the power of the Fates, craving the bright white magic that flooded the emptiness left by the rift. “So much better,” she whispered, taking the hand Angie offered as she stood.

“Get ready to blast it,” she said, keeping hold of Julia’s hand as she chased after the minotaur.

Julia forced herself to keep up, pumping her legs as fast as they would go. The moment they were within range, Kaitlyn shot a beam of energy at it. Julia could tell her magic was running out. If not for the creature’s stab wound, the faint bolt of power wouldn’t have fazed it. As it was, the minotaur fell forward, trying and failing to get up again.

“You guys keep blasting it,” Kaitlyn said, taking the dagger from its sheath. “Pump it with magic until I’ve made sure it’s dead.”

Julia didn’t argue. What little magic she had left formed in her palms. She grunted with effort and sent every ounce she had left into the demon’s body. Kaitlyn raised her blade. With a fierce roar, she began hacking at the monster, thrusting savagely until blood soaked her gown and sprayed across her face.

Julia choked back a cry. Far from Angie’s efficient, emotionless kill, Kaitlyn looked almost demented. Her mouth pulled back and she bared her teeth. It wasn’t until the nether began reclaiming the creature’s body that she stopped, confusion playing out in her crazed eyes. With a shuddering, deep breath, she lifted her head. Julia sucked in a breath.

Kaitlyn was crying.

Tears formed clear, crisscrossed rivulets down her blood-soaked cheeks. Her shoulders shook as her head fell forward into her palms. Her long, dark hair fell around her face and body as she curled in on herself, almost disappearing.

Julia moved forward instinctively, but Kaitlyn held her hand up, stopping her with one whispered word.

“Don’t.”

Moments later, the nether’s darkness began reclaiming its possession. Every drop of blood dissipated. The creature itself grew darkly transparent as tendrils of black mist rose around it like greedy, grasping fingers. One of the wisps slithered toward Julia. She sucked in her breath, scooting back from it.

All at once the vaporous darkness caved in on itself. The grassy bank became devoid of any trace of demonic powers. Kaitlyn’s tear-stained face and rapid breathing were the only evidence that the creature had existed at all.

“We should rest here for a bit, and then go into the city,” Angie said. “We can find out where we are. And how far back or forward in time we went.”

Kaitlyn sheathed her dagger, wiping her face with the hem of her skirt before leaning back into the grass. She sniffed. “There could be more creatures. If we’re lucky, they’ll lead us to the portal.”