Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 68040 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68040 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
“Holy shit, this is hurricane-level,” Giles yells.
“I’m going to fly up, just to see what’s happening out there. I won’t be gone long. Please, stay here. If it gets worse, go back into the restaurant.”
“Be careful,” Lorelei says, slipping her hand into mine. “Please, just be careful.”
With a nod, I shift into the bird and take flight, looking down at what’s happening below as well as trying to see what’s going on out in the ocean.
About a mile offshore, everything is calm. The sun is shining. There’s no storm.
Knowing for sure it’s it who’s come to stir up trouble, I circle back to the restaurant and see the others huddled around Lorelei as if they’re trying to get her attention.
Her eyes are wide, and she’s staring out at the tumultuous water.
She’s hearing the fucking music. I know it.
As soon as I’m near the ground, I shift back into myself and hurry over to the others. “What’s going on?”
“She’s in some kind of a trance,” Lucy says, her voice unsteady, her gaze not leaving her cousin. “Lorelei, honey, wake up.”
“She’s hearing the music.” My voice is flat and hard as I reach out to take Lorelei’s shoulders in my hands. “Lora.”
Usually, that’s enough to bring her out of the grasp the song has on her, but not this time.
“Baby, come out of it. Lorelei.”
She shrugs me off and begins walking toward the pier. Her steps are sure and quick, and we hurry to keep up with her.
“She’s not going into that water,” Breena decrees.
“Of course, not,” Jonas says, but I see what Breena does. It is pulling her to the churning harbor.
“Lorelei. Stop walking.” She ignores my hard, demanding voice.
Just as we’re halfway out to the end of the pier, an enormous wave comes up over the side and grasps Marydell, as if human fingers are plucking a kernel of popcorn out of a bucket. Then, it takes her over the side and into the water’s depths.
“Oh, my goddess!” Lucy shrieks. “Marydell!”
“Lorelei!” I’m practically screaming in her ear, but it’s as though she’s gone deaf. She’s not responding to me at all. I see she’s begun to tremble as she walks, her teeth chattering. She’s so pale, so cold, and the hold it has on her sends pure fury through me.
It won’t take Lorelei.
As we near the end of the pier, the water splashes up once more, dumping Marydell back onto the wooden planks just feet from where we are.
The other onlookers have already fled back to safety, so it’s just us with Marydell.
And Lorelei, who’s still being held prisoner.
“Repeat after me,” I say, then run through the hand motions for one of the most powerful banishing spells I know. “Gods, goddesses, ancestors, and guides, lend us your strength for us to make strides. Guardians protect us and shield us from harm. Angels lend weapons to take up as arms. Banish this evil, vanquish from sight, cut the cord of its sinister blight. We call on the sacred—three times three. This is our will, so mote it be!”
Everyone but Lora repeats after me, and together, we chant the spell over and over again until the water recedes and the wind dies. Lorelei shakes her head as if trying to clear it and then looks over at us with a frown.
“How did we get onto the pier? Boy, it’s cold.” She shivers, pulling her shawl around her tightly.
“Marydell,” Lucy says, running back to the other woman lying lifeless on the platform. “Oh, goddess. Marydell, come back to us.”
“Holy shit,” Giles says softly, squatting next to Lucy and keeping her from touching the woman.
Marydell’s eyes are stark white, her skin already gray, and the expression on her lovely face is one of terror.
“It terrorized her before it killed her,” Breena says. “The cards were right. There was nothing in them because she would be nothing very soon. Oh, I should have told her. Maybe she would have gone home. I should have told her.”
“It’s not your fault,” Giles soothes her, rubbing her back in rhythmic circles.
“I know, but it feels like it is. I was warned, and I didn’t tell her.”
“I don’t remember anything,” Lorelei admits slowly, staring down at Marydell with horrified eyes, gripping her shawl even tighter. “The six of us were going to have dinner at the restaurant, and it got so stormy while we were talking.”
“You heard the music.”
She blinks up at me, confused at first, and then she frowns. “Oh, you’re right. I heard the music. It’s so beautiful, you guys. Did you all hear it, too? Where’s the band?”
“No band,” Giles says grimly as he wraps his arm around Breena, tugging her against his side. “It’s fucking with you, Lora. There’s no music.”
“No, I—”
“Stop it!” Lorelei’s head whips around to me, clearly surprised by the harsh tone of my voice. “Just fucking stop it, Lorelei. Stop defending it. The music isn’t real because it is messing with you. And all you do is deny it. I can’t keep you safe if you won’t work with me.”