Seeker (Shadows) (15 page)

His lips meet mine in a soft kiss, and then a harder one before he pulls away smiling.

“I’ll be right back,” he says.

I don’t get a chance to think about what he’s doing before he’s out the door into the storm and running toward the mast where he snuck in last time.

Now
? He’s going
now
?

“We have time!” I yell as I rush outside into the pelting rain. “We’ll be stuck here for days.”

He turns sideways as I hold my breath, knowing I can’t keep him here.

Kara runs past me and leaps toward him just as he steps through and disappears, collapsing her into a heap on the deck.

My heart sinks like it did the first time, especially with all the new knowledge we have of the shadows and what a trip there might mean. What trying to help them might mean. The scars on Kara’s leg are horrifying.

“Dammit!” Kara screams while crumpled on the deck of the boat, and the rain hurts it’s coming down so hard. Ocean starts to pick her up, but she shoves him away and stalks past me to the back deck.  Ocean walks around where Dean and Addison are standing, open-mouthed at where Landon just disappeared. They’ve seen it before, but it’s still shocking, and I can’t believe he left after what we’ve learned.

Kara’s left bloody marks on the boat, probably cut open her knees and hands on the deck grips. The red runs in small rivers as the rain washes it away.

I step down the stairs onto the back deck feeling almost numb
because he didn’t give me a chance to say goodbye and
she’s
sobbing. The man she loves isn’t the one who disappeared. She doesn’t get to sob like this.

“Why did you let him go? He’s going to die! We’re all going to die, or something worse! Something more horrible!” she screams.

“Shut her up,” I yell, not needing anything to make me fall apart, because one wrong word and I might.

“We can’t be arguing like this!” Dean says.

Kara’s still sobbing and screaming as Ocean keeps pulling on her because now she’s trying to move toward me, and he’s holding her back.

“Take her back downstairs!” I yell to Ocean.

“I’d rather drown in this mess than be here for whatever happens when Landon returns!
If
he returns.”

Ocean’s holding her wrists now, and whispering in her ear—though, it doesn’t seem to be doing any good. There’s such venom in her voice that my chest aches with it, but I reach
out to touch her anyway, needing to know what’s in her future.

Desperation. The candlelight. Screaming and pleading to change minds.
I search the picture I’m getting from her for Landon but don’t see him.

Does that mean he won’t be there?
Why do we go forward? My chest aches so hard it feels as if it’ll swallow me whole.

“Don’t touch me!”
Kara shrieks.

She starts thrashing again, and a few kicks almost get me, when Dean steps
forward and grabs her legs, balancing her between him and Ocean.

“Now who’s in the right?” she yells as her body writhes trying to break free. “You’re holding me here against
my will! Is that what you want? If anyone’s the bad guys here it’s
you
!”

“I got her!” Ocean’s voice booms through the boat. “Just back off!”

Dean drops her legs and steps back, and we all stand a little stunned at his forcefulness. I’m second-guessing Landon’s decision to let them out of the room at all.

His voice even subdues Kara, but only slightly. She’s still hiccupping and shaking and her very real fear makes mine almost crippling. Despite the
summer storm temperatures still being sweltering, I’m shivering and soaked. “I’m taking a shower,“ I say. “Bang on my door if anyone sees Landon.”

“You might not see him.
You could have just lost him forever.”

Before
thinking I rush for her and slap her across the face, burning my hand and sending fury through her eyes. “You and I are done right now. I’m probably the person closest to being on your side except for Ocean. Don’t screw with me.”

But I’m only maybe on her side because of the desperation I feel from her sometime in our future, but I won’t say that. Not to her. Not out loud. I turn and take the steps down to the side of the boat that Landon and I share.
Share
. Landon and I. Because he
will
come back.

I’m so stupid. Landon wants to marry me. So foreign and weird and adult.
Instead of taking the showed I wanted, I step around Dean and Addison to the back deck and hope Landon comes back. Why couldn’t I have just said yes while I had the chance?

EIGHTEEN

Kara

Dean and Addison back off as Ocean half carries me downstairs, but I hear the door lock click as soon as we’re in our room. So much for trust.

“Can you breathe?” Ocean asks.

My whole body goes limp, and I begin to wonder if I have any fight left.
“I’m failing so badly. How can it all be going so horribly? They’re moving forward as if I’ve said nothing in warning. Are they that stubborn? Stupid? Am I just really bad at a job I used to think I was good at?”

Ocean pulls me into him and wraps his arms around me, putting my brain in that fuzzy, swirly place that I’m starting to love. Maybe not thinking is the answer for me right now.

“We’re all learning together,” he whispers. “We’ll figure this out.”

“I’ve already learned, Ocean.”

“I know.” His hands rub up and down my back. “Let’s hope Landon makes it back safe and then we can sit down and talk again.

“When you kissed me on the sidewalk, that was my first kiss.” I’m not sure where the words come from or why they’ve come out now, but they’re hanging between us making me feel stupid for admitting and even more stupid for bringing it up.

Ocean stops but doesn’t move away.

His body tenses and I’m just about to pull away, when he tightens his arms around me.

“I’m sorry. It should have been better. Different. I just…”

I squeeze my eyes tight even though I’m too close to look at him anyway. “You said.”

“Yes. I said I couldn’t remember ever wanting to kiss a girl more, and I meant it.”

His words are like stepping stones putting all the falling pieces inside me back together. Or at least some of them. The rest will be up to me. I’m just not sure if it’ll be worth the effort. If they set th
e shadows free, it won’t matter.

“
You know what?” He stands back and holds my shoulders with his hands. “We need a game. Distraction.”

Distraction feels impossibly far out of reach.

“I have no idea how we’re going to—“

Ocean knocks on our door, trying to get someone’s attention.

“Um…” Definitely Dean on the other side. “Do you need something?”

“A pack of cards? A snack?” Ocean asks.

“I’m not sure I want to open the door,” Dean says. “Not without Landon here.”

Ocean sighs. “Okay. I get it.”

Dean sighs on the other side. “Give me a sec, but don’t come out because I have more room than you out here and I’ll be ready with Kara’s taser.”

“Fair enough,” Ocean says. “I’ll ask my girl to reign in her fury.” He winks at me behind him.

I’m a little proud of the fact that there’s a healthy respect for what Ocean and I can do—and maybe also that he called me his girl.

There’s some shuffling in the kitchen and quiet voices.

“What’s my dad eating, huh?” Addison hollers down.

Of course it would come back to this.

“Whatever he likes!” I yell back. “We’re not barbaric. He’s damn picky about how his shirts are laundered, too!” I’m just guessing here since he was neatly pressed when we saw him.

Guess it works because she’s quiet.

The lock clicks and Dean tosses in a deck of cards, a few sodas, some chips and more cheese and crackers. “We didn’t have time to grocery shop,” he says as he closes and locks the door again.

“Now.” Ocean turns and smiles wide rubbing his hands together like a dork. “It’s time for distraction.”

“There is no way some crackers and cards are going to help me calm down.” At least I don’t think so.

“Follow Micah’s lead. Take a shower. I’m sure a boat this size has a water-maker. You know, it turns ocean water into fresh water.”

“I know what a water–maker is.” I sigh. Fine. Shower.

My hair is probably a greasy mess and even though my clothes are dirty, it’s better than nothing.

The hot water soothes my raw nerves, and relaxes my body in a way I thought it couldn’t
, even though my elbows bump into the sides of the small bathroom while I do it. It’s not like we can’t stop the group from moving forward if we
had
to. It would be hard, but we might be able to tackle the four of them with some planning. And it’s not even like they’ve decided for sure. But one of two things will happen with Landon:

One – the shadows will take him now and use whatever gifts he has for as much gain as possible, or Two - they’ll try to convince him how good they are and how much they’re in need of his help.

I glance at my dress as I rinse off and bring it in the shower with me to wash. Worst case is that I’ll be stuck wearing a blanket for a while, though the chances of my dress drying in this humidity are slim.

When I’m done, I wrap the large towel around me as tightly as I can before stepping out.

“There are clothes in here.” Ocean taps the closet as his eyes focus very carefully on my face. “I’m next.”

I open the closet and there are packages of unopened underwear, and a few tanktops for girls, tees for guys, shorts, pajama pants…

Why?

And where did it all come from?

I decide I want to be in dry clothes more than I care where the clothes came from so I quickly get dressed in PJ shorts and a tank as Ocean showers in the tiny bathroom.  Then I remember we’re on the boat with an Insighter, which means that Micah’s compulsions are probably strong enough to prepare for us. Interesting that our fate of being here was decided so long ago. Wonder if her or my dad saw us here first? And why he couldn’t warn me if he had?

The wind and rain continue to make a deafening noise as they slam into the side of the boat, and I know that probably forever, however long my forever is, this sound is going to bring me right back to this tiny room.

Three days ago I would not have been able to dream this situation.

“So, it’s like war?” I lean back and breathe in the smell of shampoo and Ocean when I should be paying attention. Though, he’s becoming a less scary distraction with every hour we spend on this boat.

We’re cross-legged on the bed, each with our backs to an opposite wall and me with a mouthful of ranch Doritos.

“Yes. But we have the added bonus of asking the other person a question when we win.”

“This sounds an awful lot like truth or dare without the dare.” I narrow my eyes and think that we’re sort of getting along and I’m teasing him a little, which migh
t even be like flirting. Maybe I’m already distracted.

He shrugs and flips over his first card. “A five. What do you have?”

“Surely I can beat a five,” I say as I flip over a two.

Crap.

Ocean grins. “Have your parents always been in The Middle Men?”

“Always.” I nod. “I don’t think they meant for that roll to pass down in families, but it sorta happened. People need to rotate out of the house pretty often because the energy gets weird with the same people all the time, and it ended up easier leaving just a few people in charge
to rotate everyone else in and out.”

“And one day you’d like to do it.”

“Yes,” I answer before thinking.

It feels like my answer almost saddens him because he frowns, even though I’m guessing he’s trying to hide it.

“We do some really amazing things, you know. It’s not all to get gain.” I’m feeling defensive and he hasn’t even said anything. Though, I’m not sure I could defend everything Mom has going on. Or why we feel the need to make so much money off of the Chinese government, or North Korea…

“I know. Your dad told me.” But his voice is soft and sad making me wonder if his reaction has something to do with his mother.

Before I ask him how he got so close with my parents so fast I flip over another card. “King.”

He flips another five.

“How long before you knew you weren’t alone in your gift?” I ask.

“My mom.” He sighs. “My mom is the same as me, but she played it off as something different. She never leaves the confines of our very small town and I’d never seen a shadow until I left, but she warned me. She said they sensed magic, just like her and I.”

“You and your mom are close.” A pang of envy hits me because the relationship with my parents isn’t like Ocean and his mom.