Perilous Waters (29 page)

Angie’s face remained still. She was being careful. Kaitlyn had begun to recognize the mask that fell into place when Angie wanted to keep her feelings to herself.

“Her baby was glowing,” she said. “It was the only option.”

“What makes you the judge of that?”

Angie pressed her lips together. Her normally serene blue gaze churned like twin whirlpools. Finally she turned, speeding down the hallway without answering.

Julia hurried after her. “Lay off her,” she said, glaring back at Kaitlyn. “You’re always looking for a way to cause a problem.”

“Didn’t you see what she did?” Kaitlyn declared, her eyes narrowing to slits. “She used
dark magic
. Anne Bonny, the maids—she changed their understanding of what happened in that room. Do you understand? Do you realize the power that gives us?”

“Angie only does what’s right,” Julia snapped.

“I don’t care about ‘right’. I care about the magic.”

Julia stopped in her tracks and faced Kaitlyn. “Haven’t you had enough of dark magic?” she cried, holding up her scarred hand so close to Kaitlyn’s face, she flinched and pulled back. “Or did you forget what happened last time?”

~ Chapter 25 ~

Julia

Other
than the rapid rise and fall of her chest, Kaitlyn seemed unaffected by the statement, but Julia had the feeling her silence said more about her feelings than anger would have.

Julia bit her lip. Kaitlyn’s scar was a sensitive subject.

“Sorry.”

“Shut up.”

Julia lowered her eyes and turned. “We need to find Angie. Come on.”

Kaitlyn followed her down the narrow corridor. A dark-haired lady in nothing but a corset and stockings watched them lazily from a doorway. Heat crept up Julia’s cheeks at the way the way the woman stared at her.

Julia let out a grateful breath when she spotted Angie sitting at the top of the stairs.

“Angie—”

Her head remained bowed against her drawn-up knees. “We should find the cave,” she said without lifting her head. “There must be a reason why Anne Bonny told us about it.”

“It could be where one of the jewels is hidden. Treasure, after all.”

Angie nodded, standing at last. “Come into the stairway. No one can see us here.”

Julia linked up with the others. Magic surged in her veins and they dissipated again in a soft shimmer of light. She didn’t know where she was sending their wispy essences. She collected an image in her mind… the cave that Anne Bonny had described. Almost immediately a patch of land rose against her consciousness, lush and tropical in the midst of the dazzling ocean.

The ocean spread out before them. She sensed Kaitlyn’s panic snaking through her mind, but just as quickly, she felt the reassurance of Angie’s calming power.

Their formless bodies sped to the location she held in her mind. She lowered their mist-like bodies to the sandy shoreline, not allowing them to solidify completely until her outstretched foot touched the ground.

They landed. No rolling, no tripping, no residual momentum propelling them forward. Just a light touch of feet to sand. She glanced at the other two, her breath pent up in her chest as a realization dawned on her. “Didn’t you see a vision of our deaths at a beach, Kaitlyn?”

Kaitlyn glanced up and down the deserted beach. “We won’t die. Not with our powers. Besides, no one’s here. In the vision there were pirates on the beach, and we were separated. I had gotten to you guys too late.”

Angie’s brow puckered as she knelt beside Julia. “How soon before you think you can Journey us back again? I don’t want to put us in danger until we know we have a way out.”

Julia bit her lip. “I’m not sure. I used a lot of power earlier on the minotaur.”

Angie settled beside her. “We’ll rest for a bit to be sure. As long as we stay together, it will be okay.” She glanced up at Kaitlyn. “You can make us invisible if we see any pirates. Armed with the knowledge of what you saw in the vision, we’ll know that they’re coming. You’ll know not to separate from us.”

Kaitlyn nodded, taking a spot in the shade next to Julia. Angie stretched her legs out and leaned back on her elbows, staring at the lapping waves.

Julia relaxed, running her fingers through sand that felt silkier than cornstarch. The tide was so mild its soft rush didn’t even move the crabs making their slow way across the sand. Her eyes drifted shut, and without meaning to, she searched for Ethan once more.

“It doesn’t seem like a coincidence that the creatures were there,” Angie said after a while.

“I was thinking the same thing,” Kaitlyn said. “It’s almost like they knew. Like… they were waiting for us.”

Julia shivered at Kaitlyn’s tone. She opened her eyes, giving up on the frustration of not finding Ethan’s essence. “What do you mean?”

Angie drew up her legs and rested her chin against them. “The Sorceress and Indira must know where we’re going to be. Indira was able to manipulate the winds of time and see visions,” Angie said softly, her voice nearly lost in the calm rush of the ocean. “She could have seen where we were going to go. That means we’ll have to be extra careful. We don’t have Ethan to tell us when creatures are nearby.”

Ethan… Brian. The jewels. Julia sat up. “I wasn’t able to form the connection with Ethan.”

Angie stood, offering Julia her hand. “Something might be wrong. Let’s start looking for the jewels.”

The white sand and shimmering ocean reflected the sun as they rounded the rocks. At the end of a path along the coast, a cove lay before them. The tide was stronger here. Waves crashed against the dark rocks, filling the sandy patch of land with water that quickly receded. Within the formation of crags and rocks, a dark opening yawned in grim welcome.

“The cave,” Julia murmured.

They
headed down the bluff, splashing as they maneuvered the rocks.

Julia expected the cave would end in a wall, but as they continued through the black cavern, she felt a growing sense of unease. It wasn’t like a cave in movies. Long passages twisted and disappeared into darkness, making it seem like the blackness beyond might lead to the center of the Earth. “H-h-how far do you think it goes?”

“Hard to say,” Angie said. “Illuminate.”

A bright orb of white light appeared above her. Kaitlyn and Julia echoed the spell. The forbidding passages sprung to life with pale glowing lights that followed them like eerie pets. The whole place glistened, and they sloshed through watery muck as often as solid ground.

“It smells like old fish and rotten seaweed in here,” she said, her softly spoken words echoing loudly through the cavern.

“Do you have to be so gross? We can all smell it.”

Julia tried breathing through her mouth, but nothing worked to rid herself of the nastified smell. “De-stinkify,” she called out. “Aroma! Freshness!”

“What are you doing?” Kaitlyn’s annoyed voice echoed back at them from the depths of the cavern.

“Trying to discover a spell that will make it smell less horrible in here.”

“You’re the weirdest person I’ve ever met,” Kaitlyn whispered.

Julia gave her a sideways hug. “I love you, too.”

Kaitlyn shrugged her off with a disgusted sound. Julia stifled a laugh, but the teasing she planned to continue came to an abrupt halt as they rounded a corner. The cave opened up to a whole new network of twisting passages.

“Do you sense that?” Angie asked.

Julia didn’t need to ask what she meant. She felt a deep longing to follow the second passage to the left. She would have already been running through it if not for the fact that the ground was covered in a slick, slippery substance. The only way to the passage was along a very narrow strip of rock with a sheer drop into darkness below.

“Careful,” Angie said. “Look at how the cave floor opens up to that deep pit of ocean. There’s no way up if you fall in… the sides of the cave don’t angle at all.”

Kaitlyn curled in on herself a little. Julia held out her hand. The dark-haired girl didn’t hesitate, holding her fingers tight as they moved forward. The moment they touched, the scar on Julia’s hand prickled with strange warmth. Kaitlyn touched her own scar with her free hand, her eyes shifting back and forth as she blinked back confusion.

I feel you, sometimes
. Kaitlyn’s words were barely a whisper through Julia’s mind.
The cursed blade…

I know.
Julia squeezed her hand tight.
I feel you, too.

They hugged the wall for the entire length around, until they finally reached where the passages split off into deeper parts of the cave. The pulsing need to follow the corridor took on a life of its own, filling Julia with a sense of
rightness.
She had the feeling she knew exactly what would be at the other end of the passage when she reached it.

“The jewel,” Kaitlyn said, and Julia could hear the smile in her voice.

“Yes, but there’s something else. Don’t you sense it?” Angie’s voice dropped. “The darkness. This cave is overflowing with it.”

Julia frowned, her head tilting as she tried to get an idea of what Angie was talking about. “How do you feel anything besides the crazy intense power of the jewel?”

“Wait,” Kaitlyn said. “I feel it too, but barely. The jewel is… masking it.”

“Not exactly masking it,” Angie said. “I don’t think it’s intentional.”

Julia’s lips turned down further. Why couldn’t she feel it? They continued along, the passage narrowing for several feet before abruptly widening. She tried harder, doing everything she could to ignore the jewel’s call, but all she knew was that the jewel was in here, and it lured her more strongly than she remembered.

“If you tune the jewel out, you can really feel it now,” Kaitlyn said.

“The portal,” Angie said, her words rushing out. “Forget the jewels—”

Except that wasn’t going to happen. Around the next curve, glimmering against the magical light of their three wispy spheres, lay an enormous mountain of gold and jewels.

“Wow,” Julia breathed. She had forgotten that she and Kaitlyn had been holding hands in the dark cave. As it was, their magic hummed along each other’s consciousness, and within it, Julia felt the pulse of Kaitlyn’s desire for the jewels. It was such a physical thing, she was surprised it didn’t have a color of its own.

The three of them looked through the great pile of jewels and gold. So much treasure, she thought, and for a crazy minute she wanted to roll around in it, but stronger than the lure of riches was the force of the jewels. Something deep and powerful compelled her as she dug through the cold, damp metal. Her knuckles scraped against sharp edges as she became more frenzied. It almost felt like she wasn’t controlling her own body. The need for the jewels became an animal inside her that needed to be fed.

So close. Almost… almost…

Her hands wrapped around something round as a jolt of power soared through her body. She sat back on the pile of gold and looked, her orb of light floating down close.

The jewels!

Not just one, but all three interlaced in a crown.

Her breath caught at the delicacy of it. Fragile gold wires entwined with sparkling leaves and tiny flowers, each of the vine-like strands looping in and around themselves to reach the centerpiece. A gem so perfectly blue, it looked like the ocean. Another as green as the side of the hills on the way to San Francisco. But it was the center gem that mesmerized her, crimson and faintly heart-shaped. Her blood grew warm. The longer she stared at the deep red gem, the more she felt as though it wanted her to use it… to connect with her somehow.

The deep red gem sparkled in the darkness as if from its own inner light. Slowly she lifted the crown, sensing its longing to be worn. Sensing its hunger.

“You found it,” Kaitlyn said, moistening her lips as her eyes locked on the crown.

“Oh my,” Angie exhaled.

Julia had to force herself not to hold it away from the other two girls, who reached out to stroke the curving, golden lines of the crown.

“All three jewels,” Kaitlyn said.

“Together,” Angie added.

“If one of us wears it, it will be safe,” Kaitlyn said in a voice heavy with longing. “No one can ever take it off.”

Her eyes found Julia’s. The hunger there was so strong. Julia held the crown tighter, afraid Kaitlyn would tear it from her hands.

“No,” Angie said. “All three jewels will be too powerful. The magic would control us, not the other way around.”

“Maybe. Or maybe, one of us is strong enough to master it,” Kaitlyn said.

Julia’s grip intensified. “I-I think Angie is right.”

“We have the jewels. As soon as we seal the portal we can go back and help Brian.”

Kaitlyn pressed her lips together as her dark lashes swept downward. She returned her attention to the treasure, but Julia didn’t loosen her grip on the crown. “We may as well take some gold, too,” Kaitlyn continued, lifting a string of pearls above her chest before dropping it neatly into her cleavage.

“This gold isn’t ours,” Angie began.

“Oh give me a break. These pirates stole it in the first place, and Anne Bonny told us to take some.” She placed a gold chain around her neck, and soon her wrists were laden with bracelets and her fingers covered in rings.

“Let’s just leave,” Angie said. “The pirates might be coming back for their treasure soon.”

“Aye,” a rough voice echoed. “That we will, lass.”

The three of them screamed at the sound of the pirate’s gravelly voice. The noise bounced against the curving stone walls as a wave crashed from somewhere deep within the cave.

A blade slid against her throat, and before Julia could use the crown, it was wrenched from her hands. “Oh no!”

“Damn it to hell,” Kaitlyn cursed harshly. “I told you one of us should have put it on! You guys are both idiots.”

A stab of despair pierced her heart as a pirate took hold of her. She was too far from the others to form their connection and freeze time. Angie blasted one of the pirates, but another raced up to her.

“Sorcery,” one called out.

“They’re the devil’s brides. They’ll curse our gold, or take it for themselves with their magic.”