by Angel Payne
“Yeah.” Harry chuckled. Thank God. “Make it the good stuff.”
“Tell him it’ll be on his doorstep.”
Long silence. Harry drummed fingers on one of his knees. Peered around the tent, seeming baffled that nobody else was around. “Well…I came to see how you were doing. Guess I know now.”
“Probably more than you wanted to.”
“Nah.” He contradicted the retort with a tight hug and heartfelt growl. “Never.”
He kept up the squeeze for a really long time. I was the one to finally break away—a first for us. “Don’t you have an award-winning movie to be making?”
He rose to his feet then pulled me up, too. “Errr…yeah. The team’s packed up and ready to head back to Sancti. They’re waiting on me.”
I smiled my approval. “Evrest has arranged a car for me…to the airport.”
His brows arched. “Now? Today?”
I nodded, using it as a distraction against more tears. “Yeah, now. Today. I—I can’t stay here any longer, Harry.”
Comprehension washed his face. He cupped a hand around my nape and squeezed but didn’t go for another hug. The coolest thing about becoming friends with an ex? They knew when you didn’t need the touchy-feely as well as when you did.
“Be safe, rock star.”
“Kick ass, Mr. Dane.”
It wasn’t my final farewell of the day. Ahead was the drive along the coast to the airport—and the goodbye I’d have to give to Arcadia itself. I swallowed hard, already knowing the trip wouldn’t be easy. This beautiful island and its enchanting people were woven as deeply into my heart as their king.
I sighed while gathering my bag from the couch. The rest of my things, packed up from the room in Sancti, would be waiting in the airport transport.
Before I closed the duffel, something pulled my attention between the cushions of the couch. I yanked on the black material, discovering it to be a man’s T-shirt.
Tentative whiff. Then long inhalation, my eyes drifting shut.
Driftwood. Ocean. Spices. Sage. My man.
No. Not anymore.
I’d thought I was all out of tears.
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
I palmed the moisture off my face, unwilling to dilute the scent in the shirt—because it was so going home with me. After carefully folding the fabric, I reached in to make sure it had a secure place in the bag, toward the bottom—
Where my fingers knocked against something hard. Something I hadn’t put there.
A box?
A…velvet box?
With a frown, I pulled the square-shaped container out. Slid my fingertips across the luxurious black velvet along its top, as well as the symbol embossed in shiny crimson there. A dove with wings that turned into sun rays.
I pressed my other hand to my lips, capturing my gasp of awe. With an evening gown, elbow gloves, and better hair, I’d be ready to rock the Pretty Woman take-off—only without the opera trip and an orgasmic ending to my night.
But there is the man who wants to take care of you forever…
I replaced the gasp with a snort. “Taking care of me doesn’t mean hiding me.”
Bravado aside, there was no fighting the curiosity about what lay in the box. Evrest had clearly wanted me to find it later, but that wasn’t washing with the girl who dealt with sealed gifts as well as unmapped driving routes. In short, not well.
As soon as I pushed back the lid, gasps were in order again. When I remembered to breathe once more.
Laying against the ivory satin inside, a shimmering gold chain supported a delicate pendant fashioned out of light green tourmaline…the exact color of his eyes.
The glittering stone was carved into the shape of a lightning bolt.
Beneath its place on the satin, words were embossed in gold.
Fortune favored me.
I closed the box. Clutched it to my chest as I sank to the floor next to the couch, struggling to suck down air…wondering if breathing was ever going to be a natural function for me again. And not really caring if it was.
All I had to do was tell him yes. Just direct the driver to take me on to Sancti, where Evrest would give me the keys to the villa fashioned of fantasies. The life of my dreams…
Where I’d always be the king’s dirty little secret.
His true love, but his life’s afterthought.
That wasn’t a dream. It was an excuse.
And somehow, in some way, I’d face each day without it. Without him.
No matter how impossible each of those climbs felt now.
“Creator give me strength,” I whispered.
Then hit the repeat button on it constantly during the next half hour.
Right after climbing into the Sprinter, in which I was the only passenger. Again after my call to Mom, which had rung straight through to her voice mail. After calling Dad, same result. And again, unsuccessfully, before pulling the square jewelry box back onto my lap—then taking the necklace from it and fastening it around my neck.
Clutching the pendant in one hand and my phone in the other, I hit the speed dial for Faye.
I had no idea why I dreaded the moment she’d picked up—until she did. Before she was done gleefully gasping my name, the now-familiar sting invaded my whole head and spilled out my eyes. “Cam? Honey?” Her tone switched from joy to alarm as soon as she heard my sniff. “Oh shit, girl. Are you okay? What’s going on?”
I grabbed a tissue—these transports literally came with everything except the kitchen sink—and honked into it. Gawd. I was as much of a mess as the weather. A sudden squall had blown in off the sea since we left Asuman, now slashing sideways rain against the speeder’s windows. “I—I’m coming home, Faye. Now. Today. Will you be all right with me taking my files back sooner than expected?”
A nonplussed huff. “Well…sure, dear. But why? Cam, talk to me. What’s happening?” More pathetic whimpers from my end led to, “Or dare I ask this…who’s happening?”
I half-expected her conclusion. Faye could turn a run to the store for tampons into a full-on romance novel starring her own swarthy sheikh. It shocked me that her money came from the polar opposite, a world of ledgers, pinstripes, and Dow trends. The contradiction normally made me giggle. Today, it was my solace—and a reason to bawl harder.
“Oh, Faye. Oh, God. It’s…such a mess. And it hurts so much.”
She joined a little sob to mine. “Honey. I wish I was there to help right now.”
“I know.” I dumped the words out with a little shame. But the truth was, given a choice to magically teleport anyone here right now, it’d be her.
“Okay. Start at the beginning. What’s his name and how did you meet him?”
I hoped she was sitting down. After ensuring the driver really was into the newest Colplay tune on the radio, I murmured, “Evrest. His name is Evrest.”
Silence.
Until now, a word I’d assumed as nonexistent in Faye Mellencamp’s world
“Errr…Faye?”
“Your ‘mess’ is Evrest Cimarron?”
Her outburst was oddly therapeutic. I actually giggled. “You need a second to process?”
“I may just.”
Her words were obscured by the Sprinter’s screeching brakes. “Holy shit!” I cried as a drenched figure ran into the middle of the road, arms stretched out, pleading with us to stop. I burst the words out again when taking in every detail of the fool. A woman. Blonde. Huge eyes, tiny boobs. Panic so potent, it’d made her suicidal. “Holy shit. Novah?”
“Stop!” she screamed. “Please! Stop! Help us. Help us!”
“Faye, I’ll call you back.”
After clicking the call off, I threw the phone onto the seat and bounded out of the van. Rain instantly pelted, temporarily blinding me. Still, I shouted, “Novah? What the hell are you doing—”
She practically tackled me in a desperate embrace. “Thank the Creator! Camellia! I do not know what to do. I—I cannot think—”
“No.” She jerked back, face crumpling. “I cannot. I cannot! He is out on the rocks. He is trapped there!”
“Damn.” I peered across the road—at the turnout we’d used a few days ago, on the way to Asuman. Minos Beach again. And those huge Bull Rocks.
“Th-the s-storm,” Novah babbled. “I was trying to get to him myself but the weather turned so fast, kicking up the waves—and now he cannot swim back in.” She grabbed both sides of her head as if her brain would explode. “Oh, Creator. Dear Creator, help him!”
“Whoa. Okay sweetie, calm down.” Her panic was like a living creature, scaring the crap out of me. “Who’s trapped out there? Enock?” Crazy notion. Grown men were supposed to do the thinking with their big head and not the little, but entire YouTube channels had blooper reels as proof of the opposite.
“No.” She slammed it back with irritation born from sheer panic. “No. Not Enock. Tochi. My son.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
‡
“Your what?”
My comeback was meet with bared teeth. “Can we speak of this later? Camellia, I will not have a son if we do not do something!”
She was right. One look at the huge waves across the street was proof enough of the point. But I also observed a weird rip current pattern between the breakers. Maybe, just maybe, a strong swimmer could use the flow to their advantage, getting pulled to the rocks without expending a lot of energy. The return trip was going to be the bitch. Yeah. A really strong swimmer was needed.
Good news? I pretty much knew where to find one.
That was also the bad news.
But another look to the rocks, and the small boy huddled atop them, left me no alternative. With the right wallop from the right wave, that boy was going to be swept right off his perch—into one of those dangerous whirlpools.
I raced to the driver’s window and motioned for him to open up. “Call emergency response services. An extreme emergency call is code red, right?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Use it. And…you’d better call the airport, too. I’m going to be late for that charter.”
I grabbed Novah’s hand and dashed over to the beach. We hopped the guardrail and sprinted along the sand, the wind kicking wet sand and sea spray at us. I barely noticed, my head too full of more prayers—and a silent plea to the boy all alone out on that big boulder. Hang on, kiddo. Please.
At least he had the sense to hoist onto a bigger rock, though now that we were close, I noticed another ugh factor about the situation. Black moss, shiny as the green stuff but worse because it blended, coated the whole boulder Tochi had claimed.
“Damn,” I muttered.
“What?” Novah volleyed. “What, Camellia?”
I refocused her—and me. “How old is he?” I demanded while peeling off my T-shirt. I didn’t want to face the possibility of those rocks in my bra but couldn’t afford the drag. My leggings and Doc Marten’s would have to stay. Needed them for essential footing.
“T-ten.” She got the answer out between chattering teeth. It wasn’t that cold but she was that scared. “M-my aunt has raised him as my cousin but he is mine. He has such a fiery streak. Wanted to prove his worth to the older boys at school, so they dared him into an initiation of conquering the Bull Rocks by himself.” She erupted in fury, hissing hard. “Little boktards. Bratty fools!”
“Ssshhh.” I yanked her into a fierce hug. “He’ll be back in your arms in minutes. I promise it, Novah.”
I meant every word. Her tears, iridescent blue against the gloom of the storm, shivered in her eyes. For the first time, she seemed to comprehend my purpose. “Wait. Camellia—you cannot mean—to try this—”
“You know how you grew up around horses? Well, I grew up at the water’s edge—in Central California.” At her confused scowl, I assured, “I’m no stranger to big rocks, my friend.”
Conflict still twisted her face but she nodded and let me squeeze her again. “Creator bless you, Camellia.”
The sweet trust of her words brought a shit-eating grin to my face. After thumbs-upping her, I turned for the water, amped by a surge of adrenalin. In contrast to the despair I’d been swimming in since this morning, the energy felt—well, awesome.
It didn’t stick around for long.
Very quickly, I learned that that energy had a knack for morphing into fear—the kind that could consume a body and shake a lot of muscles. Though I was right, to a degree, about using the strength of the rip current, I’d neglected to think about the tricky eddies they left behind. Crevices that were probably just puddles when Tochi came out here were now hidden pools leading to make-out sessions with razor-edged rocks.
As I inched closer to Tochi, I could already see that he’d learned that—the hard way.
No wonder he clung to that boulder like a damn tree frog.
Which meant my real work hadn’t yet begun.
“Tochi!”
Sure enough, when I yelled it from the rock just beneath him, the kid barely moved. A tiny jog of his head was the only sign he hadn’t passed out or died. Thank God.
“Tochi—your mom sent me.”
Better response. By a little. He turned and shot me a terrified stare but that was all I got. About twelve feet of sheer black rock separated us, all at a sixty-degree angle. It felt like the side of El Capitan to me, and I wasn’t a scared shitless ten year-old.
“My name is Cam. I’m here to help, okay?”
He struggled to keep his grip. I actually hoped he’d lose it, since I was now ready for the catch—and we had to get out of here soon.
“Don’t want any help!” His falsetto sliced across the wind.
Calming breath. Or at least what I could manage under the circumstances. “Why not?”
“I broke the rules. Maimanne and Paipanne told me how dangerous it was but I came, anyhow.”
“Because of the boys who teased you at school,” I retorted. A wave bashed in, harder than the others. Dammit. Tide was rising. “So it’s not entirely your fault.”
“Is too!” A shrill wail now. “I broke the rules. I deserve to die!”
Sheez. Boys and their pissing contests, and the really ridiculous results. But I couldn’t fling that at him now.
How to get him down by making sense, too?
“Hey, buddy. I get it, okay? You wanted to prove your honor to those guys. And you were willing to face danger for it. And yeah, you went yes-yes to a big no-no by doing it—but it all sounds like a decent break-even in my book.”
Tochi tilted his gaze down again. Kept it fixed on me this time. “You speak like Spiderman.”
Yay, Internet. “Well, you look like him—but the web is wearing off, Spidey. If we don’t get you down from there, the Goblin’s going to make one of these waves into a force we can’t fight, and then we’re both going down.”
Good sign. At least I got a conflicted grimace now. “I—I’m scared.”
So am I, Tochi. So scared, even my bones started to chill because of it. As another wave crashed in, feeling three times worse than the last, I searched my brain for some more brilliant nuggets of ten year-old wisdom. Nada. The light had gone out. I was dark.
But I should’ve realized something about my new relationship with darkness.
At its blackest point, it gave back the best shit.
Like a brand on my skin, I suddenly remembered the pendant against my chest. I fingered it with a mischievous smile. Thank you, Evrest.
“Can you see this?” I yelled.
“Kind of,” Tochi replied. “Is it a lightning bolt? Like the boy wizard?”
“It’s a lightning bolt—like the power of Minos.”
His eyes widened. “What?”
Note to self. Tell Novah that Minos trumps Dumbledore.
“Yeah. The—uh—sorcerer who gave it to me—said he cut it straight from the Bull Rocks
themselves.”
“How?”
“Sorry. Didn’t ask. It would’ve been rude. It was a gift.” I held the bolt a little higher. “But he did tell me I could wear it to the Bull Rocks and be granted total safety—though the power would only last for fifteen minutes.” I let the pendant drop. “So the clock’s ticking, buddy. You ready?”
It was now or never.
Thank the Creator, Tochi realized it too.
As he slid down the boulder to me, I swore I heard Novah’s scream on the wind.
After that, it was nothing but a lot of water. And yelling at Tochi to hold on tight (like he needed the reminder). And struggling, rock by rock, stroke by stroke, breath by breath, until my feet hit sand—
Right before a wave rammed me with linebacker force.
Toppled. Tumbled. Flooded. Off my feet. Into the sea…
I latched on to Tochi and prayed again. Hard. For a long, crazy minute, we were ice cubes in Poseidon’s blender, grinded and tossed and pummeled by a force we couldn’t see or control. The wave was too huge for any kind of defensive footing. It had swept us at least eight feet off the ocean floor.
When the world stopped whirling, we’d either be beached or dead.
Whump. My fingers spread against solid ground. I took a tentative breath. Another. Ish. Sand in the teeth. Shells in the bra. Kelp in the hair. My girlhood dreams of becoming a mermaid definitely didn’t include this.
The adventure still had the happiest ending I could imagine. I smiled while watching Novah clutch her little boy, raining zealous kisses over his dazed face. Tears welled. For the first time in a long time, happy ones.
My expression fell as Novah turned and pointed frantically at me—directing a trio of medical guys. What the hell? Was I bleeding? Missing a limb? Quick glance down. Everything seemed to be here. Wow, my boobs had even stayed put in the bra. No blood on the sand, either.
“Guys,” I protested, “hey—I’m good. I’m good, okay? Tochi’s the priority. He has some bad nicks on his arms; looks like the sharper rocks got in some digs at him—”
“Miss Saxon.” The lead medic shot a don’t-fuck-with-me scowl. “As you can see, we have colleagues attending to the boy. Ellis, Roarke, and I have orders to make certain you are fully checked out before we transport you to the hospital.”
