by E. G. Foley
“Huh?” Jake asked.
“Nixie,” Dani said in excitement, “remember that spell you did on the edge of the Seaweed Forest, when you made yourself invisible? Well, why don’t we put the orb in my new hatbox for safekeeping? We’ll hide it away somewhere in a closet so it just blends in, plus you can turn the orb invisible. That way, if anyone even finds the box, all they’ll be able to see is the hat inside. The orb would still be invisible.”
“Brilliant.” Jake gazed at her in dreamy pride.
Dani turned bright pink.
“Well,” Nixie said, “technically there are ways to track unseen magic in a building if somebody’s really determined. But…for the time being, I think that sounds like it could work.”
“I agree,” Sapphira said, nodding.
Lil heaved a sigh of relief.
Isabelle threw her arm fondly across Dani shoulders. “It’s like Archie says: a simple solution is always the most elegant.”
“Hear, hear,” said Jake.
“I should go and check on him,” Nixie murmured, glancing toward the house.
“Invisibility spell first,” Jake advised.
“Right. To the hatbox!” she said.
“Follow me,” Dani replied, beckoning to the black-clad witch. “The rest of you stay, though. The fewer of us who know exactly where it is, the better. See you soon.” Dani sent Jake a little parting smile that made his heart clench.
Nixie joined her, and the two girls hurried back up to the villa. Jake watched Dani reach down and scoop her dog up into her arms when Teddy came running halfway down the beach steps to meet her.
Isabelle and the mermaids trailed the pair. “Aren’t you coming, coz?”
“Aye,” Jake said absently, but before he followed the girls, he cast the sea a wary glance over his shoulder. Surely that brief dolphin ride wasn’t enough to have led the Lord of the Locker straight to them.
Was it?
# # #
“Capitaine! Capitaine!” a distant voice shouted.
“Well, sounds like we have news,” Davy Jones taunted his captives. The three glowering mermen remained in their cages nearby: King Nereus, Tyndaris the warrior, and old Pomodori.
Jones glanced over curiously as his squid-headed boatswain raced into the Coral Palace throne room. He could see by the wild flailing of the tentacles atop the former Frenchman’s head that he was in a state of agitation.
“Capitaine!”
“It had better be good tidings, Lebrec.”
“Oui, Capitaine!” The ugly but loyal fellow skidded to a halt. “Monsieur Carnahan sent me, sir! You were right about Taormina.”
Jones shot to his feet with a grin. “Ha! You found the brats that took my orb?”
He nodded eagerly, tentacles whipping about. “We just received reports of de sea and de weather acting verra strange in a cove near Isola Bella. A storm blew out of nowhere, and moments later—poof!—it blew away.”
“Aha, so the little devils have been experimenting with my Atlantean trinket, then.” Jones scowled with jealousy to have missed the demonstration, but shrugged it off. “Tell me more.”
“A great waterspout dropped from de clouds, Capitaine, so we followed it,” Lebrec continued. “It led us right to them.”
“Excellent,” Jones growled. “Now all we need is the full moon…” His thoughts churning like the deadly currents off Cape Horn, Jones considered his next move. “Pinpoint the cove’s coordinates and tell Carnahan to ready the men.”
“We’ll be going ashore, Capitaine?” Lebrec asked eagerly, all his squidy tentacles pausing to hear the answer.
“Indeed, we are, Mr. Bosun. In two nights’ time. And we won’t be comin’ back empty-handed.”
CHAPTER 20
Dreams & Shadows
Out of sight, out of mind.
After they had carried out Dani’s simple plan for concealing the orb, it was easier to put Archie’s dangerous demonstration behind them.
Finally, the day started getting back to normal.
Nixie went to see if the boy genius was all right, and Isabelle accompanied Miss Helena on an excursion to the fashionable shops in Taormina, while the mermaids wiled away the time studying the flowers in the garden.
Jake and Dani, however, still trying to pretend that everything was normal between them, strolled to the kitchen to see about a snack.
“You know,” she said, as she perused the offerings in the pantry, “maybe Davy Jones will just forget about the orb and lose interest.”
Jake chuckled and slung his arm around her shoulders, giving her a fond half-hug, unable to resist her dauntless optimism.
“What is it?” she asked.
“I’m just glad you’re here, O’Dell.” He lowered his arm before she got suspicious, but in truth, she didn’t seem to mind. “So, what are we making?”
The chef was not on duty yet, so they had a jolly time fixing themselves a prodigious snack. Dani seemed delighted and yet mystified at how nice he was being to her. He didn’t even have to try.
After that, the day was spent doing absolutely nothing, either lounging on the beach or in the dappled shadows of the garden. It was blissful. Red and Teddy kept them company. They read books for a while side by side, drank lemonade, and eventually called the others together to play a few rounds of shuttlecock and battledore on the beach.
They exchanged discreet looks of relief to see that Archie and Maddox had apparently made up. Jake wondered if Nixie had had something to do with that. For dinner, they ate pizza: a very good day.
There were no further disasters, no battles, no attacks, no natural catastrophes, no dire news. Just a clear blue sky and a dreamy new world of startling happiness that he’d never quite experienced before.
To Jake, the wonder of it all was enough for now. He was in no hurry to spell it out for Dani any more than he already had on the boat, about how his feelings toward her had changed. He’d always cared for her—and they had always looked out for each other, in good times and bad. But he liked her in a new way now; that was all he knew. It was all a little confusing, truth be told.
Thankfully, though, Dani was not the sort of girl to force him to say stuff or push him into things he wasn’t ready for. He found it especially cute that now and then she seemed a little shy around him for the first time ever.
Before they knew it, night came. The pleasant day waned, the waxing moon rose, and the starry night descended over the seaside town and the breezy villa. Eventually, everyone ambled off to bed.
Dani and he bade each other reluctant goodbyes, having barely been out of each other’s sight the whole day. They each retreated to their separate rooms, he with the boys, she with the girls.
After such a lazy day of doing nearly nothing, though, Jake found he could hardly fall asleep that night. He was too happy to be calm. It was bizarre.
Across the room, Maddox lay down on his cot and heaved a great sigh.
“How are your ears?” Jake inquired.
“Fine now,” Maddox said.
Archie took off his spectacles and slid himself down into his bed, and, at length, Jake reluctantly did the same. Red decided to sleep in the boys’ room that night, and tried to curl up by Jake’s feet, but he was much too big. Laughing fondly, Jake kicked his lion-sized pet off the bed and made him sleep on the floor beside him instead.
The big mythical beast curled up in a circle and tucked his wings around him, resting his beak on his massive front paws.
But long after the other boys and the Gryphon had fallen asleep, Jake lay wide awake with his arms folded under his head, unable to wipe the smile off his face. Through the open window, the night breeze blew, the stars danced, and the fat moon gleamed.
He would not have admitted it for anything, but he kept thinking about Dani’s freckles and her dimples, and the twinkle in her eyes. How could he not have noticed these things very much before? Was he blind?
Restlessly, his thoughts ranged back to the callous way her
tribe of wild elder brothers used to treat her in the rookery, and he wanted to use them for bowling pins. Gazing up at the ceiling, Jake pondered all the times the carrot-head had saved his neck or refused to give up on him when everybody else had or talked him out of a fury…
Compared to all that, how could he ever have possibly fancied himself smitten with Sapphira?
Bellissima, he thought, drifting off at last…only to be woken up a short while later when Archie jumped nearly out of his bed and let out a muffled cry, obviously jolted from one of his infamous dreams.
Opening his eyes to slits, Jake looked over and sent his cousin a mild scowl. In the darkness, he could just make out the shape of Archie in his pale pajamas, sitting up. “You all right over there?” Jake asked in a groggy mumble.
“Oh—yes, coz, sorry. I’m…fine, thanks. G-go back to sleep.”
Easier said than done, Jake thought. “Don’t step on Red,” he whispered, pointing to the floor beside his bed as Archie pushed to his feet and shuffled out to get a glass of water and splash his face.
“Right,” Archie said, but close as they were, it only took the strained tone of his whisper to alert Jake that it must have been a bad one.
Concerned about him, Jake got up and followed.
“What did you see?” he murmured when he caught up to Archie drying his face in the sink of the lavatory down the hall.
Archie shook his head, looking dazed without his glasses. “I’m not sure.”
Jake leaned against the doorframe, folding his arms across his chest. His cousin looked a bit shaken. “Dream or vision?”
“Hard to say.”
“Nightmare?”
Archie nodded uneasily. “There was this cave…or cavern.”
“Like the one you carried Nixie out of on Nisáki?”
“No. Huge. And black.” Archie stared at nothing, as though still seeing it in his mind. “It was all…honeycombed, with hollowed-out alcoves around the walls, almost like storage shelves. Each one big enough to fit a coffin.”
“A coffin? What else?”
“There was a huge machine built like a column in the center—possibly hydraulics of some sort—pumping like a heartbeat. Almost like it was…something alive. Something evil.”
“Go on.”
“It was pumping out…I’m not sure what. Some sort of liquid, through a mess of clear rubber tubes. They flowed out from the machine in all directions…feeding into the alcoves.” Then Archie looked at him, his brown eyes darkened by wonder and fear.
“This doesn’t sound like an ordinary dream.”
“No. But Jake—I’ve had this one before.” He hesitated. “I know what’s in those alcoves. What the tubes connect to.”
“What?” Jake said.
“People,” Archie whispered. He looked scared. “I don’t know who they are. But there were dozens of them, each with a tube running from the machine into his arm. Lying under glass coffins—like Sleeping Beauty in the fairytale!”
“Were they dead?”
“No! That’s just it. They were in some sort of coma or stasis—just like the fairytale. I’m not sure if the machine was sucking the life force out of them like Garnock was doing to the souls of the mining children in Wales, or if it was actually keeping them alive.”
“Did you hear any words spoken to explain it?”
“No.” Archie shook his head. “There was just the awful, deafening heartbeat sound of that huge pump in the middle of the cave. Like a timpani drum, booming over and over again, endlessly…”
Gooseflesh crept down Jake’s arms. “Lord, no wonder you’re not sleeping,” he mumbled. “What do you think it means?”
“No idea.” Archie’s eyes finally focused as he returned to the waking world, the dark vision receding. “I’m glad I finally told you, though. I’ve seen it a few times now. I must confess, it’s become a bit unsettling.”
“I’ll say. Maybe we should tell Aunt Ramona about this.”
“Yes.” Archie nodded. “You’re probably right.”
“You should go back to bed, Arch.” His cousin looked haggard. “Try to get some sleep—and stay away from those little Italian coffees tomorrow. You really need to relax.”
“Thanks, coz.” Archie clapped him on the shoulder as he headed back toward their chamber. “Goodnight, then. Oh, aren’t you coming?”
“Nah, not yet. I could hardly fall asleep the first time.”
“Now I feel bad.”
“Don’t. It’s not your fault.”
“Aha. It’s Dani’s,” Archie said slyly, then shuffled on. “About time!”
Jake flashed a grin, but admitted nothing aloud.
After his cousin had disappeared, Jake walked up silently, barefoot, onto the rooftop patio, where he took a deep breath of the silky night breeze, feeling even more awake than before.
The stars twinkled overhead and the moon shone. Archie’s latest vision was disturbing, but even that was not enough to dim the freshness and delight of Jake’s first-ever amore.
He glanced toward the girls’ shared bedchamber, but of course he would never dream of waking them at this hour just so he could say hello to Dani. She might welcome it, but Nixie would never let him live it down, and Isabelle would start grilling him for details.
Jake did not mind taking a seat on the rooftop patio alone, however, staring up at the night sky for a while, and savoring his new, romantic feelings.
It was so weird growing up.
Ha! Right on cue, a shooting star went streaking by overhead, but he didn’t even know what to wish for.
In this moment, he already had everything he wanted. Except his parents back, of course, but that was just being greedy.
Savoring this rare moment of complete contentment, he leaned back on one of the outdoor chaise lounges, only to have the folding part creak and collapse under him, making a loud clatter. Cursing under his breath at the chair and at his own klutziness, he jumped up and righted the offending furniture, then decided to get dressed and go for a walk.
It was a beautiful night for a good, long stroll—a passeggiata, as the Italians called it. A ramble around the quaint old city would no doubt help to work off his restless energy.
Lord knew, if he stayed here, he’d only end up waking everybody up. Clearly, a thirteen-year-old in love for the first time was too jumpy a creature to sit still in silence without causing accidental havoc.
Tiptoeing back into the boys’ shared chamber, he levitated the clothes he had laid out for tomorrow across the room and into his grasp without disturbing the others. Neither Red nor Maddox stirred, and Archie was now snoring softly.
Jake carried his clothes down to the lavatory and quickly changed into them. Once he was dressed, he retrieved Risker in case he ran into any trouble. Aunt Ramona’s protective spells covered the whole town from magical threats, but if he intended to go walking about in the dead of night—just like in his old thieving days—it was only sensible to bring along some means of defending himself.
He slipped the magical Norse dagger, sheathed, into his boot. But the truth was, he did not really expect any trouble.
With the moon not yet full, Davy Jones was still confined to water, besides which, neither the undead pirate king nor the Dark Druids knew where Jake was. As for ordinary nighttime threats, if he did meet some local hoodlums, he wasn’t too concerned. Hadn’t he just exploded a towering rock monster into gravel using nothing but his mind?
He could take care of himself, thank you very much.
Such thoughts sent him strutting more than walking out of the villa. His newfound sense of himself as a very grownup young man with a “particular lady friend” had him feeling as big and bulletproof as Derek Stone.
I hope his mission’s going well, he thought, reminded of his mentor.
Then he slipped out past the tall wrought-iron driveway gate and headed out on his solitary nighttime stroll. Maybe he’d go window-shopping as he walked. If he saw some little trinket or trifle t
hat Dani might like for a present, he could come back and buy it for her tomorrow.
He couldn’t remember if he had ever got her a present before of any kind… Hmm. I’ll have to make that up to her.
With a smile on his face and his shoulders squared with confidence, he strode up the cobbled avenue lined with palm trees toward the sleeping hilltop town. Once through the old Norman arch at the Gate of Messina, Jake found he had the dreamy, ancient city to himself. He continued down the stately main thoroughfare, the Corso Umberto, gazing at buildings from many different centuries that lined it, from a medieval church built atop the ruins of a temple to Jupiter, to the occasional rococo villa, with a smattering of smaller, newer shops and houses crammed quaintly between them.
It was intriguing to see the normally busy town deserted at this late hour. The only signs of life came from inside a taverna, where adults were making merry, drinking wine, and listening to bouncy Sicilian folk music played on mandolins and accordions, accompanied by tambourines.
The streets were empty, though—no foreign tourists clogging the winding side lanes, the chatty cafes and trattorias closed for the night, the countless church bells silent.
Jake found it peaceful, wandering the palm-tree-lined avenue, all bathed in the soft gold glow of lantern light.
He passed by the turn that led up to the spectacular ancient amphitheater carved into the hilltop—the Teatro Greco, built in Plato’s day. It might be fun to have the whole place to himself, he mused, maybe try out the acoustics down on the ancient stone stage, and he decided to stop there on the way back if he still felt like it.
For now, he continued straight rather than being tempted off into any of the winding, narrow side streets. Some had ancient shallow stairways that curved off, up or down into the shadows, and that rather intrigued him, but he had no desire to get lost at this hour. He and his friends had visited the town a few times, but he still didn’t know his way around here all that well.
Hands in pockets, he strolled on down the main avenue, admiring the flowery black wrought-iron balconies on buildings of pastel-painted stucco or ancient stone, ornamental carvings over the doorways. Icons of the Virgin Mary watched him from every corner, from humble garden statues to gilded mosaics set into the ancient stone walls.
