Perilous Waters (19 page)

The silence that followed hurt. Her heart cried out, rebelling against being cold with him, but Kaitlyn’s words tightened like a ribbon around her heart. Her pride had never mattered to her before, but now it did. She wouldn’t be so accessible to Ethan after what he put her through, no matter what his reasons were.

You don’t have to worry about us,
she continued.
We can manage the mission without you… other Daughters of Fate didn’t have a Guardian and they did fine.

She was met with more silence, and although they each had their emotional walls built up, she could still watch him, and she couldn’t help herself from wanting to see.

He rose to a sitting position, not breaking their connection even when he opened his eyes. How was he so good at this? It was like he knew everything about the magic.

She kept her own eyes shut, the connection growing slippery as he moved from one room to another. Brian came into view… younger by two years but already his brother’s equal in size. They spoke for a moment before Ethan cocked his head to the side.

Brian thinks I should be with you guys.

But then there would be no way for him to get back. What if his brother needed him?
No, it’s okay. Stay with your brother.

But I’m supposed to—

You don’t have to be here,
she said, acting as if whether he came or not couldn’t matter to her less.
I’ve been managing fine without you up until now, haven’t I?

She waited through more agonizing silence. Her heart grew heavy and swollen, feeling so full that the ribbon of control Kaitlyn had helped her tie nearly snapped. Her lips parted on her next breath. She didn’t care about her pride. She would tell him she missed him. She would say she still thought of him before she fell asleep at night. She would tell him—

Promise me,
he said, his voice hesitant and low,
if anything bad happens, promise me you’ll summon me. Please?

Something in the way he asked caused her heart to squeeze up so tight it skipped a beat. She bit her lip, knowing he must have felt it happen. Mortification poured over her and she hid behind a more abrasive tone than necessary.
I promise, geez. Just, stay with your brother. If he starts turning Scylla, things might go bad. You shouldn’t leave him alone.

She watched his shoulders fall. He nodded once, then said something to Brian, who shrugged and walked off. Ethan returned to his bedroom. He lay down and shut his eyes. Faintly, in a faraway voice, muffled by his barrier she sensed words not meant for her ears.

I want to be with you.

She pressed her lips together. Was he looking at her now, as she looked at him?

The girls were waiting. She didn’t have time to worry about what Ethan was feeling. She should be letting them know what was going on, but… she didn’t want to let go of Ethan. Not yet.

Ethan? How do you keep the connection between us when your eyes are open?

You’ll learn,
he said, his voice tinged with a strange sadness.
But with my eyes open I can’t see you. I can only maintain the connection with your voice.

Julia kept her mind on Ethan and tried opening her eyes. The moment her lids lifted, she saw the world around her and the connection slipped away, as quick as a balloon’s string through her fingers. “Oh!” she cried.

“What’s wrong?” Angie asked.

She was tempted to tell Angie what was wrongs… what was
really
wrong. That Ethan made her heart feel like it was breaking. That her chest felt as though there was an elephant sitting on it, and every now and then when things seemed normal and she was happy, she would feel a stab of pain in her heart and miss him so bad she wanted to cry. But all of those feelings for someone she barely knew didn’t make any sense. Ethan hadn’t even been her boyfriend. And Brian, who had been her boyfriend… she hadn’t cried for him. Not even once.

What was her heart mourning? What did her heart know that she didn’t?

She sensed Ethan trying to talk to her again, but she was tired of feeling these feelings. She had a mission to worry about, and she had spent too long talking with him as it was. When he called her again, she didn’t reply, giving him the same silence he had given her so many times.

“Brian is still changing,” she finally said, her eyes focused on the other Daughters. “That’s what’s wrong. The Scylla poison is taking stronger hold. Ethan… Ethan opened up to me,” her voice dropped to a husky whisper. “He showed me what Brian’s going through. Brian’s trying to hide it from Ethan but it’s more than just the black veins under his skin. He’s acting differently. And his eyes,” she swallowed against the knot in her throat. “Ethan says they’re going back and forth… sometimes they look normal, but sometimes the pupils are like—like—”

“Like snake eyes?” Kaitlyn supplied. “With slits for pupils.”

Julia nodded.

“He’s a goner,” Kaitlyn said.

“He isn’t! We’ll find a way to save him,” Julia said, remembering Indira’s words. “We can travel back through our own timeline. Change what happened. This time I won’t go into the water—”

“It’s not possible,” Angie countered, her pale brows lowering.

“You’re talking about joining with Indira,” Kaitlyn accused.

“I’m not. I’m talking about finding the jewels.” Her voice hardened as her mind formed a plan. It was crazy but… what if they really could use Indira’s advice without accepting her help? “Indira said there was a way to move through our own timeline, and she can’t lie.”

“It would mean using dark magic,” Angie said, her voice hard and unlike her. “Don’t… don’t suggest this again.”

Julia swallowed. Dark magic? “What if the jewels could still help? What if they were combined with an even greater power?”

Kaitlyn’s gaze grew sharp. “Meliah’s power, to enhance her healing.”

Julia nodded. “We could take her the jewels. If we work together to heal him while Meliah helps, we might be powerful enough.”

“No,” Angie said. “That would mean finding the jewels… the talisman, artifact, whatever it is, and returning to our own time before the task is completed. We already know it’s forbidden.”

Julia stared at her friend, biting back words that sprung to her lips about how freaking uptight she was about their magic. “It was forbidden last time and we did it anyway.”

“And we let creatures into our own world,” Angie said, her enormous blue eyes pleading with Julia. “We can’t ever do that again. It’s the one thing we’re trying to prevent most of all, don’t you see?”

Julia couldn’t see. Not with Brian’s life hanging in the balance. “This isn’t just about the Fates anymore. It’s about our friends.”

“We can’t put the mission before anyone. Not even Brian.”

“Are you kidding?” Julia fumed, heat rushing up her neck. “You’re going to let him turn into a creature because of your addiction to following the rules and playing it by the book?”

Angie’s pale face looked stricken and Julia immediately regretted her words.

“Sorry, sorry, I didn’t mean that—”

Kaitlyn snickered. “Yeah. You did.”

“Shut up.”

“I’m not the one being harsh this time,” Kaitlyn said. “Maybe you should do the shutting up.”

Julia saw a flash of red as she took a step forward, but Angie came between them. “Both of you hush,” she said, her cool presence working like medicine on a fever. Julia gave Kaitlyn a hesitant, apologetic nod. Kaitlyn lowered her eyes briefly, nodding once as well.

“That’s as close as you two will come to making up,” Angie said, glancing at them both with an endearing smile that even Kaitlyn returned. “We’re wasting time,” she continued. “What if we finish the mission first and then focus on finding the Jewels of Time. We can go back to the present once we have them, and since our task would be complete, we wouldn’t have to worry about the creatures.”

“It might be too late.” Julia dug her hands through her hair. “Brian is changing more and more by the second.”

Angie pressed her lips together. “If he changes fully…”

“He’ll be a creature forever.”

“And he would be a servant of the Sorceress.” Kaitlyn added, glancing up at Angie. “We would have to kill him. Ethan wouldn’t be able to do it.”

Julia watched the war of emotions playing out across Angie’s sweet face. Her head fell forward as her eyes squeezed shut. “You’re right. We can’t let that happen to him. It-it would be wrong, and moreover, it would endanger the present. The threads of time already showed us what would happen if he commanded an army of Scylla.”

“Does this mean we’ll look for the jewels first?” Julia asked, hardly daring to hope.

Angie nodded, though her eyes tightened.

Julia’s chest collapsed with relief.

“As soon as we locate the jewels,” Angie continued, “we’ll return to the present and take Brian back to the beach. We’ll need to use our powers in connection with Meliah, so that means we have to bring her out from the Timeway.”

“Maybe this can help.” Julia took out the seashell, ridged on one side and smooth on the other. She offered it to Angie. “Meliah gave it to me. When we left Atlantis and I got separated from the nymph guy, the shell started to glow.”

Angie took the small, simple item. “It looks so ordinary,” she murmured, turning it over in her palm. “When it glowed, did you feel any power emanating from it?”

Julia remembered the way the ocean’s pressure had lifted. How, despite leaving the nymph’s side, she had been able to breathe. “I felt something. I wonder if it has the same magic as the golden light. Even without the nymph near me, I was still been able to breathe underwater.”

“If Meliah infused this with her magic, it could be a powerful artifact. We need to take it the ocean and see what it can do.” She handed the shell back to Julia. “You might want to make it into a necklace so you don’t lose it.”

Julia closed her fingers around it. “Good idea.”

Jules?

Julia’s brows knit together. What did he want now? She was tempted to ignore him again, but she should keep him updated with their plans.
I was telling the others what you told me.
She broke their connection when he didn’t reply, noticing Angie’s questioning glance. “Ethan. I wanted to tell him our plan.”

“Oh god,” Kaitlyn muttered, her back against a tree and her eyes on her nails. “Not this again. You’re going to be at his beck and call forever.”

Julia glared at her before shutting her eyes and finding Ethan again.
We’re going to find the Jewels of Time and use them to help Brian. We’ll come back as soon as we have them.

If I nudge you, will you answer me?

Julia’s cheeks warmed at the request.

Please?

She exhaled.
Fine. I will.

Ethan let go of the connection first. Julia fought the urge to cling to it, wanting so bad for things to be okay between them and knowing they never could be. Even alone in their minds they built walls and shut each other out. Even when they were connected, they were as far apart as two people could be.

“Wow. Are you crying?” Kaitlyn mocked.

“No!” Julia turned her head away, unable to keep from sniffling. Her cheeks burned worse than ever, and the more she tried to contain her emotions, the more they seemed to come to the surface. After a few seconds she managed to say, “I’m fine. Let’s get started.”

Angie’s brows peaked above her wide, powder-blue eyes, but she nodded once. “I guess you can’t summon Ethan with his brother on the brink of turning Scylla. We’re really on our own.”

“We’ve got this,” Kaitlyn said, rising. “You won’t need to summon Ethan. Let’s go find the jewels, kick some demon ass, and finish this. I bet we’re home before dark.”

Angie’s mouth slanted in a doubtful frown. “We need to find appropriate clothing. As it is we aren’t going to blend in at all. If we don’t do something about that, we’ll probably be accosted, maybe worse.”

“Accosted?”

“She means raped,” Kaitlyn said.

Julia’s hands grew clammy and she closed them into fists. “Geez, way to be blunt.”

One of Kaitlyn’s brows lifted, but her gaze was steady. “If you fear something so much that its name makes you nervous to even say it, you’ll never be strong enough to fight it.”

Julia didn’t know what to make of Kaitlyn sometimes… no, wait. She never knew what to make of Kaitlyn.

Angie headed down the bluff. Julia and Kaitlyn followed as she maneuvered through lush, dark green bushes. Flowers that looked like orange birds poked their heads up through tall leaves.

Julia looked beyond the row of shops ahead, toward a large house in the distance. “We could swipe some clothes from someone. I guess it should be a rich person’s house since they can afford it. What do you think?”

Angie’s brushed her white-blond hair along her ear, her head listing to the side. “It’s stealing but… I suppose we don’t have much of a choice.”

“We’re going to save their lives from monsters,” Kaitlyn said. “Who cares if they lose a few dresses?”

“Rich people can buy themselves more, anyway,” Julia said. “I mean, if we took from poor people… that would suck. Maybe a dress costs them a month’s salary.”

Kaitlyn rolled her eyes. “I guess a poor person would know.”

Heat prickled in Julia’s chest. “Living in an apartment without a maid isn’t skid row, jerk.”

Kaitlyn’s lips parted, but she was silent a moment. “I didn’t mean anything by it,” she finally said.

Julia’s brows lowered. She didn’t know how to react to Kaitlyn’s neutral tone. In fact, Kaitlyn confused her more than ever lately. “Just. Careful what you say.”

Kaitlyn’s eyes softened before she abruptly turned away. “Are we all done fighting and making up? Seriously, if we were dating we would be having make-up sex by now.” She stood and headed toward the road. “Let’s go already. Creatures are swarming the portal and dooming our world, as Angie keeps reminding us.”

“Since we don’t know Spanish,” Angie said. “If we need to talk to anyone, Julia and I can use your mind, Kaitlyn. We can temporarily learn Spanish from you.”

“You mean, dive into my thoughts?”

“Yes, but—”

Kaitlyn squinted at the horizon. “No.”