by Bonnie Lamer
“The little twit wad can speak,” Taz growls.
Oh, he heard it, too? With a long suffering sigh, I say to my Familiar. “I think there’s something wrong with us, Taz. It’s not them, it’s us. We’re the ones with the problem.”
“The girl speaks in riddles not meant to confuse. Yet this poor crab knows not what to muse. Tis it kismet or fate on this strange date that has brought me so far beyond my ability to purview?”
Taz cranes his neck so he can stare up at me. “You heard that, right?”
I nod slowly. “The terrible use of purview as a rhyme with muse, yes, I heard it.”
Taz plops down on his haunches, the crab completely forgotten for the moment. “You are taking this rather calmly. Has all the stuffing been removed from your brain and replaced with straw as I’ve long suspected?”
“I’m hearing a crab speak in terrible rhymes and you think I’m going to be bothered by your insults? Besides, you hear him, too, and you’re not exactly freaking out about it.”
Taz looks from me, to the crab, to the tree line behind us. “We could drag a bit of wood over here for a fire and have crab legs for breakfast. That would solve our immediate problem.”
I purse my lips and shake my head. “I’ve never really liked crab.”
“He’s small. I didn’t really want to share anyway.” Taz starts walking toward the trees. “I’ll be right back.” I assume he is going for firewood.
“I won’t really let him eat you,” I assure the crab. Great, now I’m speaking to him. Her? I open my mouth to ask which gender it is, but snap it closed again. Does it make me crazier asking the talking crab whether it is male or female? In the big picture, does it really matter?
“Tis good to know fairest of the Fae, that my life knows no danger today. In case your pet does not know this yet, I shall now disappear into the ocean’s spray.” The crab scurries across the sand and disappears into the water as promised.
I glance back over my shoulder to see Taz dragging a rather large stick my way. “We are not having crab legs for lunch,” I inform him. “He left.”
Disgusted, he drops the stick to the ground. “One little crab. You couldn’t manage to snare one little crab? You do know you have magic, right? It can be used for such things.”
I tilt my head and ask, “Would you really eat a talking crab?”
“Yes.” I believe him. “Or we could have at least brought it back with us.”
“I considered that, but everyone already thinks I’m crazy. Insisting I caught a talking crab doesn’t seem like the best way to prove that I’m not.”
“But it actually spoke,” Taz points out in slow, measured words as if I’m an imbecile.
“Did it?” I counter. “Did it really?” It could just be another joint delusion. Since he doesn’t seem to know how to respond, I change the subject. “I think we need a new approach. Obviously, there is something going on and we’re not going to figure it out on the beach far away from everyone. We need to go home.”
“Where they want to put you in a straitjacket and force feed you Jell-O? Good plan.” Because Taz is a part of me, created from my psyche, he understands references to things from my old world even though he never lived there.
“Yeah, we need to convince them not to do that.”
“Wow, you really are a brainiac.”
Ignoring his snide comment, I continue. “We need to convince them that we don’t actually believe that Kegan and Alita are married.”
“We? They have no idea what I believe since the only one who can understand me is you. You’ll be locked in the crazy room all by yourself.”
“Felix knows,” I point out. Taz’s little shoulders slump in defeat and he doesn’t interrupt again. “We’ll tell them what you suggested earlier. That I’ve developed a new power. The ability to see the future.”
“And your first vision was so powerful that you couldn’t discern it from reality,” Taz nods, growing to like the idea. “They are big enough morons to actually believe it.”
“Watch it.” My family may think I’m crazy at the moment, but they are still my family and I’m feeling guilty about calling them wankers earlier. Even if it was just in my head. Standing up, I glance at the water trying to catch a glimpse of red. No such luck. The crab is gone. “Come on, let’s go home.”
“Alright, but there had better be some bacon left over from breakfast,” Taz grumbles. “I’m not starving myself over this insanity.”
6 Chapter
I teleport us to the beach in front of the terrace. I am not surprised to find Kallen there pacing. He turns worried eyes to me as soon as he senses my presence. In a wary voice, he asks, “How are you?”
I paste a bright smile to my face. “Not crazy, how are you?”
“I never thought you were crazy,” he assures me. Surprisingly, he means it. I don’t feel a trace of a lie in his words. “I am simply worried there is something going on which we have not figured out yet.”
I nod in agreement. “There is.” I brace myself to tell an out and out lie to my husband. Good thing he’s not a walking lie detector. “I believe I have a new power.” I feel dirty and deceitful lying to him. I am seriously going to have to find a way to make this up to him after I figure out what the hell is going on.
I am not the most convincing liar, so it is not surprising when my husband stares at me doubtfully. “A new power?”
“What might this new power be?” Dagda asks from the doorway. How does he always manage to make dramatic entrances? Must be his special Fairy talent. His annoying special Fairy talent.
Squaring my shoulders, I bolster my courage to tell lie number two. “I believe I can see the future.”
Dagda is as dubious as Kallen was. “You are a seer now?”
I nod and attempt to explain what I suspect is going to be a complicated lie to maintain. “I believe I saw a possible future for Kegan and Alita. Since it was my first vision and a powerful one, I confused it with reality. How was I to know I suddenly gained a new talent?”
Neither of them are willing to believe me yet. I glance down at Taz and find him inching away from me. That certainly doesn’t help my case. I catch his eye and glower at him, and he reluctantly moves closer to me once more. We are in this together whether he likes it or not.
“What is this of a new talent?” Isla asks from behind Dagda. She must have heard our voices.
“Xandra claims she can see the future,” Dagda explains, his eyes never leaving mine as his gaze bores into me. What, does he think if he drills deep enough with his eyes he’ll peel back my soul like a banana and find the truth in the center? Could happen, I suppose. That’s kind of what Tabitha does with her ability to see into souls.
To my great surprise, Isla isn’t immediately disbelieving of the idea. Instead, she comes out onto the terrace and points to one of the chairs at the table. “Sit,” she orders. “Explain.”
With dread giving me feet that feel like coconuts, round, heavy and sloshy all at the same time, which makes walking much more difficult, I slowly make my way up the terrace steps to the indicated chair. I sit. I explain. I explain in great detail the courtship and eventual hand-fasting of Kegan and Alita that I saw in my ‘vision’. I explain the pregnancy and the magic the baby wields. I explain the birth and the magic I used to essentially create an ultrasound. They wanted details, I give them details. More than they ever imagined possible, I assume. When I am done, a thick silence has descended over the terrace. Since I have been speaking for the last half an hour, I wait for someone else to cut through it.
Isla is first. “That is quite a lot of detail.”
I nod. “Which is why I thought it was real.”
She’s doing the peel your soul like a banana thing with her eyes now like Dagda did earlier. I pretend not to notice. Finally, Isla says, “My visions are also quite detailed. When I first began having them, it was difficult sometimes to determine if they were memories or visions. I often did not know if t
hey had already occurred or were simply possibilities. Of course,” she adds, “I was six at the time.”
I cock my head and quirk a brow. “Was there an insult in there somewhere?”
A slight smile touches her lips. “If so, it was unintentional.”
“Sure it was,” Taz snickers and I nudge him with my foot. Hard. He grumbles awful words in my direction and escapes into the house in search of food.
“At any age, I am certain it would be disconcerting,” Isla continues, her expression thoughtful.
“You truly believe she now has the sight as you do?” Dagda asks her. Doubt is still lingering in his eyes like a dog unwilling to give up its favorite bone.
Rising from the chair she took across from me, Isla replies, “We shall see.” With that cryptic remark, she heads back into the house.
Kallen reaches over and takes my hand. “I am sorry I was not more sympathetic this morning. It must have been frightening believing the world had changed so much in a day.”
Yes, it certainly was. And it hasn’t stopped yet. I refrain from making this comment aloud, though. After all, I have deceit to keep up. “I’ll get used to it,” I assure him with a forced smile. Actually, I have no intention of getting used to it. I intend to figure out what is going on and put things back to normal. I have simply bought myself some time and freedom to do the necessary investigating. It is a shame that investigating is not really a talent of mine. Kallen is better at it, I think ruefully. He won’t be much help this time, though.
A wicked grin spreads across Kallen’s face. “Come on out, cousin. No need to hide anymore. Xandra will not have you married off to anyone in the next hour or so.”
Kegan comes through the terrace door muttering something I am glad I can’t quite understand. He stops his muttering when Dagda cocks a brow in his direction. I think in his annoyance with Kallen he forgot the King was there. “I was not hiding,” he says in a louder voice.
Kallen snorts. “No, merely daydreaming about how you wish it was all true.” I try to hide a smirk. He probably was. Wait, it is all true. Of course Kegan wants it, and why would I mock him for it? I want it all to happen again, too.
“Hand-fasted and a father? At my age? Ridiculous,” Kegan scoffs. “Why would I shackle myself like that when I am so young? I am not an idiot.” He gives Kallen a pointed look.
“Hey!” I exclaim. It was not just Kallen he insulted there.
Realizing this, color rushes to Kegan’s face. “Sorry,” he mutters.
With a chuckle, Dagda rises. “I will leave you to sort this out on your own.” Before he disappears into the house, he adds over his shoulder, “If you have more visions, I want to hear about them immediately.” Of course he does.
“Sure,” I reply half-heartedly. There will be no more visions, as I am not truly psychic, so it’s kind of hard to get excited about it.
Frowning, Dagda stresses, “I mean it.”
“Uh huh.” Realizing he isn’t going to get a better response, Dagda leaves the terrace. The dog with the doubt bone is still in his eyes and my tepid response isn’t helping. Too bad. All I needed to do was buy time. I am not going to build this farce up any more than I need to.
Kegan plops down in a chair and stretches his legs out. “You do not seem very excited about having the sight.”
I shrug. “Seems like a bother more than anything.”
It begins with a deep rumbling. My chair begins to shake as does the table in front of me. The terrace itself trembles. I turn worried eyes to Kallen who is already out of his seat and staring out over the ocean. I jump to my feet next to him. “What’s happening?”
“I am not certain,” he claims, but I am unconvinced. He has an idea of what is going on.
“What do you think is happening?” I press.
His eyes dart to me and then back to the sea. “I do not want to alarm you without due cause.”
I’m getting more frustrated by the second as the terrace continues to sway beneath our feet. The whole structure is getting stress cracks from the motion. The house behind us is moaning as it too begins to sway. “I’m already alarmed.”
Muttering a foul curse under his breath which takes me a second to realize is not intended for me, Kallen pulls magic. A lot of magic. My eyes follow his and I understand. Several foul curses leave my own mouth as I pull my magic. A lot of it.
I feel the terrace fill up behind us. More importantly, I feel their magic. I hear Mom’s frantic words to Dad, “Take Zac and run!” I don’t turn around to see if he does as he’s told. I think he will. He knows Mom needs to stay and throw her magic in with ours now that she can. It is more important for him to make sure Zac is safe than stay here with us.
“Can we stop it?” I ask Kallen.
“We will certainly try.”
“Alita,” Kegan says softly, the pain in his voice piercing my heart. Her parents’ cottage on the shore will likely not survive this. I reach a hand out to comfort him but he is already gone, tearing down the beach in that direction. I don’t try to stop him. There isn’t time.
Geology was never my best subject, but even I now understand what the rumbling and shaking is all about. Somewhere, deep under the ocean, a volcano has likely erupted. “Join hands!” I call to the others. “We need to link our magic if we have any hope of stopping this!”
They do as I demand. Kallen’s hand is firmly grasping my right one and Isla has taken hold of the left. The others line up, clasping each other tightly, joining us as a single unit to fight Mother Nature. Out of all the foes I’ve come across, I’ll admit it. She is the most frightening.
The tsunami is easily a thousand feet tall and stretches as far as the eye can see in either direction. It doesn’t take a genius to determine the amount of destruction it will cause. The village will be leveled. Fairies will die. The powerful may be able to save themselves and hopefully some of those around them, but many, many Fairies will die. I can’t let that happen.
Tightening my hold on the hands in mine, I focus on the wave. It would be impossible to build a wall of magic tall enough and wide enough to block it. When it comes to pitting magic against natural disasters, natural disasters generally win. The only thing I can think to do is diffuse it as much as possible. I rack my brain, trying to come up with a spell.
When it comes to me, I shout it toward the water ready to devour us. “Land and sea ready to converge, innocent lives taken when submerged. Mother Nature’s rage come to life, lashing out causing peril and strife. Let our magic temper this water storm, let the particles of sand rise uniform. Stand together against nature’s beast. A solid structure from west to east. Create a barrier much too difficult to mount, reduce this destructive wave to a gentle fount.”
Even before the last word of the spell has left my tongue, the sand particles are stacking themselves one upon another. Binding themselves, fusing as one. Within seconds, they have piled themselves into a massive wall which stretches as far to the left and right as the eye can see. It’s going to work. It’s going to stop the tsunami. Or, at least, slow it done.
Only…it doesn’t.
7 Chapter
The last thing I remember is the water crashing through the flimsy wall of sand. What was I thinking? How could a skinny wall of sand keep millions of tons of water at bay? I don’t know if it was really that much, but does it matter? It was a lot of water. And it all came down upon us. My last thought as my body was crushed beneath the water was that I at least I got to die holding onto Kallen. That’s when I lost consciousness.
Now, my eyes pop open and I sit upright. “The tsunami!” I shout, ready to defend myself against mother nature again.
The sun is so bright, it takes a moment for my eyes to adjust. I expect to find myself on the beach, or amidst a pile of rubble that used to be the mansion. But, no. I’m in bed. My and Kallen’s bed. Our room is still intact and the sun is streaming through the windows. Did the spell work after all?
Rubbing sleep from his eye
s, Kallen rolls over. “The tsunami? What strange dream were you having?” he yawns.
Dream? My head twists back and forth searching for signs of wreckage. I did not dream the tsunami. I know I didn’t. Just like I didn’t dream Kegan and Alita being hand-fasted. Wait. Maybe it was a dream. All of it. Turning hopeful eyes back to my husband, I ask, “Is Keelan doing well?”
Kallen frowns. “Do you not mean Kegan?” He stresses the G in his cousin’s name. “And what would be wrong with my cousin that has you so concerned with his well-being first thing in the morning?”
Okay, so that really happened. I am still in a hell where Keelan doesn’t exist and Kegan and Alita are not hand-fasted. Not wanting to push the topic any farther, I shake my head. “Nothing. Something bad happened to him in my dream. I’m still trying to shake it off.” Biting my bottom lip, I try not to ask, fearing the answer, but I can’t help myself. “Was there a tsunami yesterday?”
Kallen chuckles and pulls me back down next to him. “You do have vivid dreams. I certainly hope you dream of me on occasion. Me doing very naughty things with you.”
I can’t help but smile. “I don’t need to dream about it. I have you in real life.”
Giving me a delicious morning kiss, he grins against my lips. “Yes, you do. Perhaps we should practice some of those things right now.”
I should jump out of bed and try to figure out what is going on. There was a tsunami. I know there was. But, I can’t seem to tear myself away from my gorgeous husband’s passionate embrace. Not that I’m really trying. I meet his kisses with my own rising excitement until a good portion of the next hour slips by in a blur of delirious pleasure.
A loud scratching at the door eventually brings us screeching back to reality. Kallen groans and rolls onto his back. “You should teach the beast some manners if we must keep him.”
“It’s completely hopeless, I’m afraid. Let him in.” I would use my magic to open the door, but I’m afraid I would exert too much and blow it off its hinges. “Come on in, Taz.”
