by Lisa Edmonds
We’d been unable to find out anything more about Catherine’s condition; even Cyro couldn’t get any information other than she’d been taken to Moses’s compound. Malcolm and I had been on high alert for the past several days, watching for anything or anyone suspicious, but everything seemed normal.
In the meantime, the city was obsessed with identifying “Storm Girl” and the mysterious man with her. Darius Bell even offered a substantial reward for information. His attorney released a statement claiming Bell wanted to reward the woman who’d saved him and dozens of others from the fire, but I knew better. Bell wanted a powerful mage on his side in the war against Moses. He might not be the butcher Moses was, but he was still the head of his cabal and he would be every bit as ruthless as my grandfather. He’d had Malcolm tortured to death and recalled all of his bound ghosts, killing dozens of mages in the process. I harbored no illusions that I would be any better off as his prisoner than if Moses got me.
And then there was my agreement with Valas…
“Hey.” Sean kissed my temple. “Don’t let it get too dark in there, Miss Magic. Think about sunshine and umbrella drinks and crystal-blue Caribbean water. Can’t you almost smell the sea?”
I closed my eyes and nestled my head against his chest, my nose filled with the scent of forest. “Paradise, here we come.”
Epilogue
“Can you believe this place?”
I looked up from my umbrella drink as a tall black woman with a halo of curls slid onto the barstool next to me. She wore a teal bikini with a wrap tied around her hips and oversized sunglasses.
She grinned at me and signaled to the bartender. “Give me one of those,” she said, pointing to my drink.
The bartender gave her a smile and began mixing her drink.
“What are you drinking, anyway?” she asked me, peering at the coconut on the bar in front of me.
“It’s rum punch, and it’s the best rum punch on the island.”
“I love rum punch.” She pushed her sunglasses up onto her head. “I’m Ree.”
“Alice. Are you from the States?”
“Yep, California.”
“Me too. What city?”
“San Francisco area.” She took her drink from the bartender and handed him a twenty from a little pouch around her neck. “Keep the change,” she told him.
We drank for a bit. I gazed through the palm trees at the ocean and marveled that there could be so many different shades of blue all in one place.
“Hey, I love your bracelet,” she said.
I smiled self-consciously. “Thank you.”
On our first day on the island, Sean had given me a bracelet made of tiny seashells. I told him I didn’t want anything for my birthday. He informed me that it was an “I love you” present. I said I didn’t think that was a real thing people did, but he insisted it was. The bracelet was the first gift I’d ever allowed him to give me, and I was trying not to be weirded out about it.
“What brings you to the Bahamas?” I asked as I finished my drink and signaled for another.
“I just had to get away.” Ree nursed her drink. “Work has been absolutely insane lately. I’m so busy that I hardly ever get to take a vacation. Then yesterday I decided either I had to take a break or I’d go bonkers, so I booked a flight and voilà!” She used her coconut to gesture around us at the palm trees, beach, and sea. “Here I am, in paradise.”
“What kind of work do you do?”
“I’m in IT. Yeah, I know, I’m a nerd.” She laughed. “Computers and networks and stuff like that. Super boring. What do you do?”
“I’m an administrative assistant.” That was my go-to answer when strangers asked what I did. Telling people I was a private investigator usually resulted in a million nosy questions and I just wanted to enjoy the sunshine and my rum punch.
“Sounds about as interesting as my job. You here by yourself?”
“No. My boyfriend had to make a phone call, so he went to our room for a few minutes. He’ll be back soon.”
“He left you here by yourself?” she teased. “He must trust you not to get into any trouble.”
“I’m not sure what kind of trouble I could get into around here, unless it involved falling out of a palm tree or stepping on a sea urchin.”
“Hey, you never know,” Ree pointed out. “Some people can find trouble anywhere.”
“Not me. I stay far away from trouble.” I managed to say it with a straight face. I took my new drink from the bartender.
“How long are you here for?” my drinking companion asked. She placed her empty coconut back on the bar and shook her head when the bartender asked if she wanted another.
“Four more days. It’s been heavenly to just get away.” In fact, I was starting to wonder why on earth I would want to ever go back, despite the dangers of spiny sea urchins and having sand in places I didn’t know you could get sand.
“Oh, I agree.” Ree put her sunglasses back on. “Having a getaway is crucial, especially when life spins out of control. Hey, is that your boyfriend?” She pointed over my shoulder.
I turned. Sean waved as he headed for the little bar where I’d parked myself while he’d gone to make his daily phone call to the office. He wore a brightly colored shirt, left unbuttoned, and board shorts. He’d managed to turn dark brown in just the three days we’d been here. I couldn’t help but notice how many stares he got from other women as he strode across the sand.
I watched him approach and decided we needed to return to our cabana so we could get back to what we’d been doing for most of the past three days.
When Sean joined me at the bar, he gave me a sizzling kiss that sent liquid heat rushing through me. He inhaled and his eyes went golden. “You know how much I love how you look in that bikini,” he murmured, his lips near my ear. “But I love how you look even more without it.”
Oh, we definitely needed to get back to the cabana.
I didn’t want to be rude, so I turned back to where Ree had been standing to introduce Sean, but she’d vanished. Huh. Well, I had been ogling him for much longer than was necessary. She probably got bored and left.
“How were the drinks?” Sean asked, nuzzling my neck.
I shivered at the feeling of his breath on my sun-warmed skin. “Really great. Rum punch might be my new favorite beverage. Next to Scotch, of course.”
“I think I’ll order one to take back.” He moved away to get the bartender’s attention.
I slid down off my barstool and reached for my drink. A small folded piece of paper was tucked under the coconut.
The outside flap had a little drawing of a bottle with a skull and crossbones on the label and a long-stemmed rose.
With a frown, I opened the note. Inside was a short message, written in a neat, feminine hand. Catherine is awake. If you need help, call me.
Beside that message was a single word—the name of a woman everyone thought had been killed five years ago in an accident at Moses Murphy’s cabal headquarters. It was a name I hadn’t used since the night I fled the compound and left that life behind.
I stood frozen in shock, the note crumpled in my hand, my heart pounding so hard that I was sure everyone on the island could hear it.
Bottle of poison. A rose. Cyanide Rose. Cyro.
I looked around but saw no sign of Ree. Her empty coconut remained on the bar, but the straw was gone. She’d taken it with her. No DNA left behind.
Sean joined me, a coconut in each hand and a big grin on his face. “I figured we both needed one for the walk back.” His smile faded. “Everything all right?”
“Fine.” I forced a smile and took the coconut he was offering, the note hidden in my other hand. “Thank you. I was just thinking I could really use a drink.”
He laughed and put his arm around my waist as we headed down the path that led to our cabana. I finished my drink before we got halfway there and left the empty coconut on another of the hotel’s many bars.
The
note I tore into tiny pieces and flushed down the toilet when I got back to the cabana. I washed my face at the sink and stared at myself in the mirror. My eyes looked shadowed.
Having a getaway is crucial, she’d said.
Catherine is awake.
If you need help, call me.
I heard Sean’s voice in my head. Remember you are loved and you don’t have to face anything by yourself ever again.
“Alice?” Sean called through the door. “You okay?”
I dried my face and opened the door. “I’m fine,” I assured him. “Too much rum punch. Race you to the hammock!” I took off running down the hall.
With a laugh, he gave chase. I let him catch me before we got to the door.
We never did make it out to the hammock.
THE END
* * *
Thank you for reading! Did you enjoy?
* * *
Please Add Your Review! And turn the page for a sneak peek of book 4 in the Alice Worth series!
ALICE WORTH SNEAK PEEK: BOOK 4
I ran through the trees, moving as quickly and quietly as I could. Small twigs and branches I couldn’t see in the dark whipped across my face, leaving scratches that stung mercilessly. Behind me, sirens blared and bright lights swept across my path, searching for targets. I thought of the snipers on the walls of the compound and my back itched, expecting to hear shots and feel an impact at any second. I ran faster.
I chanted swear words in my head as I ducked under branches and dodged the searchlights. Where the hell is Arkady?
I had little time to worry about my partner’s fate. Dark figures moved in the trees to my right, heading in my direction. I veered left, hoping to find cover and a chance to regroup while I came up with a strategy for avoiding capture.
I stole a glance at my watch. Only a little over an hour until sunrise. Dawn meant safety and hopefully escape. I’d survived this long—surely I could make it just one more hour.
A twig snapped behind me. I dropped to my stomach in the mud and held perfectly still as stealthy footsteps passed less than ten feet away. I held my breath as they went by, my heart pounding in my ears.
I waited until my pursuer was out of earshot before I belly-crawled through the mud to hide behind a downed tree and catch my breath.
If Arkady was still out here, she’d be headed in the same direction I was going, hoping to either meet up with me or reach a secure position to wait it out until our rescue arrived. I heard shouting back in the direction of the compound, but I couldn’t tell what they were saying. If those shouts meant she’d been captured…well, I’d have to deal with that later. Either way, I couldn’t stay where I was. I needed to keep moving.
I listened hard but heard only the usual chorus of nighttime insects, rustling leaves, and branches creaking in the wind. I moved to a crouch and peeked over the top of the tree trunk.
Nothing.
I rose slowly and grimaced at the mud covering the front of my long-sleeved black tee, borrowed BDU pants, and combat boots. I’d actually thought I looked fairly bad-ass and had a little bit of Arkady-style swagger, but that was before we’d tripped some kind of perimeter alarm near the compound, given away our position, and had to split up to avoid capture. And before I’d had to crawl through the mud.
I swung my legs one at a time over the downed tree and continued heading east. As an earth mage, my affinity to the land meant my internal compass was stronger than most, and I’d certainly appreciated being able to tell which direction was which tonight. Heavy cloud cover meant lack of moonlight with which to see or navigate, but I knew which way was east. With any luck, I’d make it the rendezvous, find Arkady waiting there, and get the hell out of Dodge.
Just as I thought that, the earth literally fell out from under me.
One second my boots were on firm if muddy ground, and the next I was falling. It happened so quickly that I didn’t even have a chance to do anything more than gasp.
My body landed briefly in what felt like rope webbing. That broke my fall, but then the webbing gave way and I was falling again. I fell about four more feet and landed face-down in—of course—more mud. The impact knocked the wind out of me and left me stunned, unsure of what had just happened or where I’d ended up.
I raised my head, spat out a mouthful of mud and leaves, and found myself in a pit about the size of two graves, six feet wide by ten feet long and ten feet deep.
And I was not alone.
Arkady Woodall, my new best friend and the person I wanted to kill most in the world right now, grinned at me and picked leaves out of her hair. She was sitting with her back against the side of the pit, and she—almost unbelievably—was covered with more mud than I was. “Hey, Alice. Are you having fun?”
“Am I having fun?” I hissed, pushing myself up on all fours with a grimace. I spat out something slimy I didn’t look at too closely. “I have mud in my boots, mud in my bra, and mud in my…never mind. No, I am not having fun!” I sat down with a squelch.
She laughed. “Liar.”
I flipped her off and pushed muddy hair back from my face. “When I said I’d do a girls’ weekend with you, this is definitely not what I thought we’d be doing. A two-day intensive survival camp? Really?”
She rolled her eyes and pulled a twig out of her hair. “What did you think we’d be doing, champagne brunch, mani/pedis, and seaweed wraps? You know me well enough to know I wasn’t taking us for a spa weekend. And hey, look at this.” She wiped some of the mud off her face and held up her hand. “People pay hundreds of dollars for mud treatments at spas, and it was included here at no extra cost.”
“This mud smells like something died in it, Arkady.”
“That probably makes it even better for your skin.”
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, so I made a sound that was a little of both. “I’m so tired. And cold. And thirsty. And I smell like…God, I don’t even want to know what I smell like.” I looked up at the top of the pit. “How long are they going to leave us in here before they let us out?”
“They’ll come get us at dawn.”
I groaned. I was getting perilously close to whining. “That’s almost an hour from now! Why not just come get us? We lost. We surrender. We’re dead. Why make us suffer more?”
“You signed off on the rules, same as me.” She settled in more comfortably. “Just think of it as more time for us to bond.”
“I think I’ve already bonded with you as much as I want to for one weekend. We bunked together last night and we had to use the communal showers in the locker room together this morning, remember?”
“Oh, yeah.” She grinned again. “That was fun. It was like being at summer camp, right?”
I’d never been to a summer camp. Activities like that weren’t an option when you were a prisoner of your grandfather’s crime syndicate from age four through twenty-four. I’d rarely gone beyond the walls of his compound for months at a time, much less spent weeks away at camp, doing whatever it was non-mage kids got to do at such places.
“Yeah, just like summer camp,” I said after a moment. “So, how many times have you made it to the extraction point without getting caught?”
“Twice.”
“Out of how many attempts?”
She rested her forearms on her knees. “I’ve lost count. They change it up every time—different traps, different patrol routes, different objectives. It’s never the same challenge twice. That’s why I like it. If I could beat it, I wouldn’t get better. I’m here to improve my skills, not to win.”
“I don’t see why the two should be mutually exclusive,” I grumbled. “Or why we have to stay in this pit until sunrise.”
“They’ll actually probably come get us sooner than that. The last time, it was only about twenty minutes before they got me out.”
“The last time? How many times have you fallen into one of these?”
She frowned at me. “That’s not the point, Alice.”
�
��So, a couple of times.”
“Four times,” she muttered.
I laughed.
Arkady made a pfffft sound. “Hey, you think this is bad, you should try getting caught in a snare and dangling upside down ten feet off the ground by one ankle. Then you really want them to come get you quickly.”
“I don’t remember that from the orientation.”
“Yeah, they discontinued that one. Something about too much risk of head injury and the insurance company was going to cancel their coverage.”
“Insurance companies are such killjoys,” I said dryly. “Head trauma, spine injuries, blah blah blah.”
“No kidding.” She looked completely at ease sitting in a mud pit in the deep woods. “So, how are things between you and Sean since you guys got back from the Bahamas?”
“It’s been good,” I said, smiling despite how cold and gross and miserable I felt. “Really good. This two-day getaway with you is the longest we’ve gone without seeing each other since we got back.” And I missed him more than I’d ever admit to anyone, even Arkady. I’d had a hard time falling asleep last night without him next to me, even as exhausted as I’d been after nearly twenty hours of running around trying to evade capture by the camp’s employees.
“You two thinking about maybe moving in together?”
I shook my head. “We haven’t talked about it.”
In fact, Sean had hinted once or twice about the possibility, but I’d ducked the conversation. I saw no way for him to move into my home, which was much smaller than his, and the thought of members of his pack coming and going from my house all the time, invading my space, made me almost break out in hives.
Likewise, I couldn’t just move in with him; my basement was a heavily warded fortress that had taken nearly five years to create, and giving that up didn’t seem like an option, not when recent events made it likely that I might be found by my grandfather and I’d need all the protection and backup I could get.
Sean seemed content not to push the issue for now, but I had a feeling that at some point he’d stop being oblique about it and force me to address the possibility of cohabitation. I was not looking forward to that discussion.
