Before I could answer, she stepped back into the portal and it snapped shut behind her.
“Haoxin?” Warner asked.
“Pretty, pretty,” Kandy said. Despite the fact she was clinging to the sentinel, her predator nonsmile was firmly back in place.
“Yeah,” I answered both of them. “Can you read their identities by their magic? I mean, when a new guardian … ascends? Do they retain or embody the magic of their predecessor along with their names and titles?”
“Some. Enough,” Warner answered. “Though I’d never met Haoxin before.”
I opened my mouth to question him further, but he turned and began swimming in the direction Haoxin had indicated. I couldn’t see any land. I wondered if the guardian’s eyesight was just that much better than mine, or if she simply knew what way to head through experience.
Warner, who carried Kandy on his back as if she weighed no more than … well … a bag of cotton candy, was quickly outpacing me. His long arms and strong legs cut through the blue water with minimal backsplash. I sighed. I wasn’t such an accomplished swimmer, but I could stay in the water for hours without much effort.
Pushing thoughts of what else long arms and strong legs would be good at out of my mind, I followed Warner. Haoxin had taken an immediate shine to the sentinel, so at least lust-wise, I was in good company. Though, after spending ten months or so in and out of the nexus — as well as in and out of conversation with Drake — I’d ascertained that there weren’t exactly dozens of eligible dragons hanging around, so maybe Warner was just fresh meat to the guardian … as maybe I was to Qiuniu.
I wasn’t sure when all my relationships had gotten so complicated, though it might have been when the vampire had shown up outside of my bakery. More likely, it had been the moment Sienna had walked into my life. Problem was, I didn’t think I could survive without people to care for. So, all I could do was what everyone else did — cherish the good relationships and attempt to avoid the bad. I didn’t have a great track record doing either, but I was sure as hell trying.
CHAPTER NINE
Swimming wasn’t exactly conducive to conversation, but after what felt like an hour — though was probably just ten minutes — I started to feel a little lonely paddling along after Warner. Granted the sentinel wasn’t big on chatting in general … or rest breaks, it seemed.
Still, the ocean felt very, very vast, and that vastness was isolating. Vancouver wasn’t exactly a bustling metropolis, but it wasn’t tiny either. I was constantly surrounded. By magic, by people — human and Adept. But here, if I fell far enough behind Warner, I might get lost and never, ever be found.
Then I began to wonder what was swimming beneath me, and what sort of strange fish the ocean’s denizens thought I was. Then I started to fret.
“What about sharks?” I asked, getting a mouthful of salty water as an answer. I’d never learned how to properly front crawl with my face in the water. “Are there sharks in these waters?” I couldn’t remember if sharks preferred warmer or colder water. “Great whites?”
“What would sharks want with you, alchemist?” Warner called back as he lifted his head to one side to breathe. He didn’t bother pausing. He was also getting far too accomplished at the art of snark.
“You don’t think they’d at least try a test bite?”
Kandy laughed. She was clinging to the sentinel like a freaked-out barnacle, but still, she had the gall to giggle at me.
“Glass houses, wolf.”
“You’re the biggest predator around here, Jade,” Kandy said. “Except maybe the dragon here. I haven’t formed an opinion about him yet.”
Warner stopped swimming. Kandy’s head momentarily went underneath a wave. Hacking and spitting out water, the green-haired werewolf clambered up onto the sentinel’s shoulders, even as I realized he’d managed to touch ground.
I hadn’t thought we were anywhere near land. In fact, I still really couldn’t see anything ahead — but then, I was madly squinting from the sun reflecting off the water.
I kicked my feet down but went under when I didn’t touch the anticipated solid ground. Warner widened the gap between us as he pushed through the water like an army tank, or whatever the waterborne equivalent would be. My arms were screaming with the effort of the last few strokes, the pain made worse because I knew the ground was so near.
Warner was head and shoulders out of the water by the time I got the tips of my toes to touch. I didn’t even want to think about how utterly destroyed my boots were. I was fairly certain the leather wouldn’t bounce back from a saltwater bath. Warner’s jacket, too … though seeing as his clothing was somehow a manifestation of his magic, maybe he was actually walking around naked all the time —
A wave crashed over my head. I choked on a mouthful of water before I realized I needed to spit it out. The surf picked up strength, and I had to fight against it to retain my footing. But even like this, walking was quicker than swimming.
I was up to my waist before I actually saw land. The white sand was difficult to distinguish in the bright morning light, but the greenery beyond made it obvious we were walking toward an island. I’d never known a beach to taper like this. The beaches I knew dropped off deeply after a dozen feet or so, depending on the tide. But then, I usually couldn’t see all the way through the water either, like the clear view I now had of my ruined — but still pretty — black boots.
Kandy jumped off Warner’s back, landing up to her knees in the water, and then made a mad dash for the beach. Her green hair was fluffier than I’d ever seen it. It also looked practically dry. Though it was early in the day, it was still warm. If I let the sun dry my hair and didn’t tug on the curls too much, I shouldn’t look like a complete wreck. I wasn’t sure about my outfit, though.
The beach stretched for miles and miles in either direction, without a single rock or shell that I could see. A dense forest stood a dozen or so feet from the sandy shore. Well onto the sand now, Kandy tugged her T-shirt off over her head to reveal a sports bra. She then yanked off her jeans, one soaking, clinging leg at a time. Thankfully, the werewolf had excellent balance.
Between Kandy and me, Warner was almost clear of the water himself. Until he suddenly whirled around, stumbling as he looked at me … or rather, turned his back on Kandy’s striptease. He looked so utterly aghast that I had to laugh.
“That’s a lot of skin for a five-hundred-plus-year-old dragon,” I called to Kandy.
The werewolf barked out a laugh, but continued to unabashedly wring the water out of her jeans. She’d already jogged over to the nearest tree she could find and hung her T-shirt over a branch. Which was odd, because I thought tropical trees were all supposed to be palms. The forest behind Kandy had some palms along its edge, but most of the trees looked a lot like super-skinny pines.
Warner didn’t seem to want to look at me either. Still ankle deep in the water and utterly soaking wet, he cast his gaze left, then right as if determinedly scoping out any possible security issue on the beach. This was an attempt to cover his obvious embarrassment.
“If you hang out with shapeshifters, they get naked,” I said. “Often. You’ll get used to it, sixteenth century.” I stepped by the sentinel and finally got my wet ass out of the water.
I, at least, would find a stand of trees to strip behind. Not that I was sure I could call the jungle that spread out before me simply ‘trees.’ For that matter, I wasn’t sure it was actually a jungle either. Where was Wikipedia when I needed it? Oh, yeah. With my utterly waterlogged phone in my completely ruined, beloved satchel.
The entire area thrummed with the wild, natural magic I associated with grid point portals, but I was surprised to feel it this intensely this far away from the portal. Oddly, with every step I took I felt like I was somehow crushing microbes of magic underneath my feet.
Unstrapping my knife was easy enough, though the leather of the sheath was stiff. But I absolutely loathed taking off wet jea
ns. It was the most undignified, ungraceful, and frustrating thing in the world of clothing. And I knew. I owned and operated a lot of bras — aka torture devices — and wet jeans were worse. By the time I got mine off, I was covered in freaking sand — me and the jeans. It was even in my hair and mouth, though how that had happened, I had no idea. I might have lost a bit of time to my white-hot rage.
“You okay in there, dowser?” Kandy called from somewhere deeper in the forest. She was obviously already patrolling. Half naked. Warner was probably about to have a heart attack. Though, it was sort of lovely that a man —
“You didn’t get bit by a snake or anything, did you?” Kandy continued.
“Snakes!” I shrieked. “There are freaking snakes in here? And what do you mean by ‘or anything’? What else is there in here to bite me?”
Kandy’s laugh faded as she continued to scout farther into the trees. The fact that the werewolf just casually expected there might be snakes hanging around didn’t help my mood.
After I got the jeans off, I realized my mistake. Was I just going to wait around here for my clothing to dry? Freaking hell, use your freaking head, Jade. Damn it.
I stopped to breathe deeply. Why the hell was I stressing out about such a stupid thing? Because I couldn’t freak out about the treasure hunting mission that had become super intense super quickly? Because I had to prove I was brave and capable? And therefore something else had to snap?
I asked for this responsibility … well, at least sort of. I’d asked to police Blackwell, at least. To be judge and jury in regards to the sorcerer. And Pulou deemed this more important. Hissy fits about wet jeans really weren’t becoming. Thank God, I was currently surrounded by trees and not judgement-happy vampires and dragons.
I started wringing my clothing out. I was going to have to put it all back on, wet and covered in sand.
Kandy appeared before me wearing a new blue tank top, green lycra shorts, and holding a swath of red and orange material. Material that turned out to be an ankle-length sarong.
“Umm, you went clothes shopping in the jungle, and orange was the best you came up with?”
Kandy snorted and tossed the skirt over my wet head. She’d found me an orange tank top and flip-flops as well.
“The town is, like, literally ten steps over that ridge.”
I pulled the skirt off my head to see Kandy pointing off into the jungle. “Literally?”
“Well, I jogged.”
“So like a thirty minute walk for a normal person?”
Kandy bared her teeth at me.
I laughed. “And what about being half naked with crazy green hair and wet American dollars?”
“They didn’t even blink twice,” Kandy said, “I got this for the sentinel.” She held up a T-shirt that was painted in a swirl of blue and greens.
I was fiddling with threading the ties of the skirt through its holes around my waist. “That’s at least a size too small —”
“Exactly.” Kandy flashed me her predator grin and took off toward the beach.
Damn it. I tugged the orange tank top on over my still-wet bra. Like I needed to see Warner in clothes any tighter than what he was already wearing. And the swirl of green and blue would only emphasize his eyes …
Damn, damn, damn it.
“Are you having some trouble, alchemist?”
I spun around to find Warner watching me as I strapped my knife to my right thigh. “No trouble.” I shook my head, straightened to let my skirt fall back into place, and very deliberately did not check him out. He was wearing the T-shirt Kandy had found, along with a pair of beige shorts. Warner’s gaze lingered on my leg, but I was fairly certain it was the knife that had caught his attention, not my thigh. All dragons could see magic, even through Gran’s invisibility spell.
Warner lifted his gaze to meet mine, and I realized that I’d been staring at him despite vowing not to.
“You are beautiful, warrior’s daughter,” he said.
My mouth literally dropped open at this admission. Then I noticed he looked displeased, so I snapped it shut.
“It’s perturbing that something so beautiful could be so deadly,” he continued as he closed the space between us. “But that’s how nature works, isn’t it?”
“Perturbing?” I mocked, holding my ground at his advancement. “Also, Mr. I-tear-demons-in-half-with-my-bare-hands, who are you calling deadly?”
“It was the combination I was remarking on,” he answered. “All dragons are deadly. You more so, and not just because the far seer referred to you as ‘dragon slayer.’ ”
“He was talking about you,” I said.
“He didn’t even notice I was in the nexus.”
“He sees all.”
“Exactly my point.”
Okay, I’d been lost since the beginning of this conversation, and was only more so now. Bravado didn’t seem to be getting me through this time. “Just what are you accusing me of?”
He looked surprised. “Nothing, warrior’s daughter. I was simply putting the pieces together. You, the map, the knife, the werewolf, the vampire, the witch … and now here we are.”
“Doing our duty, like good dragons.”
He inclined his head. “I’ll need a weapon.”
“You could have mentioned that the three times we’ve been in the nexus in the last twelve hours.”
He shrugged. I ignored the way this gesture tightened the T-shirt across his pecs. I was pissed at him. I didn’t really know why, but I wanted to be pissed at him, so I clung to the feeling.
“Why? You already have a blade perfectly suited to me.” He cast his gaze to my ruined satchel, which I’d propped on a tree root in the hopes of keeping it out of the sand. I hadn’t opened it yet, because I was afraid to acknowledge the extent of the ruin.
“That blade is not for you,” I said.
He looked at me, all dark and serious. “The knife scares you, alchemist. I can take it off your hands.”
“I take responsibility for what I make,” I said. “You seem to do fine with just your hands.”
“The knife would do even better.”
“I don’t trust it.”
“You don’t trust me.”
I couldn’t deny that — not with utter truth — so I spun away, grabbed my satchel, and headed toward the beach, following the taste of Kandy’s magic.
∞
The map had led us to the Abaco Islands, a group of small islands within the Bahamas. Apparently, the grid point portal dropped us vaguely near the village of Hope Town, which we reached after much swimming and some walking, of course. While I’d been wrestling with my jeans, Kandy had done some quick but thorough scouting. The green-haired werewolf was currently pouring over a pile of tourist brochures she’d picked up along with the clothing.
I pulled out the map and tried Kandy’s trick of placing the key over the tattooed image of the key, carefully aligning the colors so that the missing green line was accounted for. The magic of the map shifted underneath my fingers again, but with more flash this time, and a mouthful of smoky dragon magic.
“We’re closer,” Kandy said as she peered over my shoulder.
“Yeah, if we’re reading it correctly at all.”
“We are,” Kandy pointed to a small black rectangle that had now appeared on the green portion of the map. “That’s the lighthouse.”
“Once again, if we weren’t just superimposing our guesses on a bunch of pretty green and blue blobs that were once tattooed on the back of a guardian dragon.”
“Not a lighthouse,” Warner corrected Kandy. “A doorway.”
I flinched. That was the second time the sentinel had snuck up on me. He was good at muting his magic, but not that good. It was the natural magic that thrummed sleepily around me that dulled my dowser senses.
“Yeah,” Kandy countered. “A doorway in a lighthouse.”
“A lighthouse?” I asked, just to get in on t
he conversation like I was an active participant and all.
“On the other side of the island, see?” Kandy unfolded the tourist map she’d picked up along with the brochures. “The island is long and skinny, and we’re currently here on the other side of this low ridge.” She pointed to a specific spot on her paper map. “The lighthouse is in the middle of town here, on the beach opposite and a bit north of us. There’s a path just over there.” She pointed toward the trees farther up the beach.
She placed the tourist map alongside the tattooed map so we could compare them. They weren’t identical, but the tourist map was obviously intended to be easy to read rather than overly detailed.
“That’s how this stuff works, right?” Kandy asked. “Treasure hidden in landmarks or monuments? Like in Indiana Jones.”
“If this were a movie, I wouldn’t be wearing orange.”
“It looks great on you.”
“Funny how you found green Lycra shorts for yourself.”
Kandy shrugged, then grinned at me wolfishly. Great. It seemed that if Kandy had her way, I’d be adorned in pretty skirts every day.
“Show us this lighthouse, wolf,” Warner demanded. Well, it sounded demanding to me. Kandy didn’t seem to mind.
The green-haired werewolf took off across the beach as I rolled the map and tucked it back into my ruined, waterlogged satchel. I’d dumped the contents and most of the water out, then repacked it with what I could fit. Thankfully, I could lace my boots to the strap, but I couldn’t do anything about the sand that now permeated every inch of everything I owned. And the chocolate was gone. Melted away, I guessed, seeing as all I’d found were waterlogged wrappers. I really didn’t want to deal with that reality at all.
Kandy disappeared into the pine forest. I followed with Warner at my heels, still feeling like I was crushing the natural magic underneath my feet as I walked. I remembered Gran saying that magic was dying as the earth was slowly being polluted and destroyed by humanity. Here, that didn’t feel like the case at all.
I wondered how many witches lived near grid points. At least the grid points that connected over or near land. Witches borrowed magic from the earth. Well, when they weren’t ripping it from other Adepts through bloody sacrifices as Sienna had done. Thankfully, black witches were rare. The Convocation made sure of that.
Shadows, Maps, and Other Ancient Magic (Dowser Series Book 4) Page 14
