Smoke and Ruin

Four

Halen rushed to check on Dax. As much as she hated him, a gold arrow would be a death sentence for both of them. If she didn't have magick to fight, then all would be lost. Like a lion protecting its kill from the rest of the hungry pack, she dragged him through the kitchen into the laundry room. When she tucked a towel under his head, he released a rushed breath.

She jumped back. "Dax? Are you awake?" She poked him with the tip of her sneaker, but he didn't budge. "Can you hear me?" She nudged harder, but he lay still as stone. "Well, just in case you wake up, I can't have you roaming around." She shut the laundry room door, then wedged a chair up against the handle. She had seen this trick in a movie but had no clue if it worked. So, just to be sure, she slid over all three bar stools, creating a barricade against the door. Her fortress might contain Dax, but it wouldn't protect him from the Hunters.

"Ugh. Why did you trust them, Nat?" She couldn't believe her sister banded with killers. "What kind of lies did they feed you?" A terrible thought crossed her mind. What if Asair and Natalie had died at the hands of the Hunters, too? No. She shook her head. She couldn't think this way. Jae would have protected them. She was a powerful dragon. But how would they find her if she was on the run?

Halen checked the oven clock; too long until she met with Peter. She could blow the storage locker door open with magick, but if the Hunters were already in Rockaway, then it would draw them right to her. She had no choice but to wait.

She headed upstairs to her mom's room, where she opened the computer, hoping she had left more clues. Scanning the pictures, tears choked her when she stopped on one. Halen remembered this day well; her father was supposed to visit, but of course, he was a no-show. But her mom, like always, had made the best of the day. They had folded newspaper pages into little boats to float down the canal until the night sky had bloomed with stars. Her mom had pointed out the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper while their paper armadas floated out to sea. It had been a simple day—a day she would give anything to repeat.

She checked the time again. Peter wouldn't be off yet. "It doesn't hurt to be early." She headed down the stairs. Besides, she could scope out the RV park before Peter arrived. If Hunters were in the area, then she wouldn't allow Peter to be caught in the crossfire. He had suffered enough.

Halen slid on her parka and tucked the elixir in her pocket, just in case. She should take the coral and bone beforehand, but she didn't want to waste a single drop if a threat didn't present itself. She double-checked the stool barricade, leaned her ear to the door to listen for movement, and when all seemed well, she set the alarm and headed out. Checking both ways, she searched for signs of Hunters. Not that they would hide. There was nothing subtle about the pack of immortals. If they were here, she would know, or she would be dead already.

* * *

She inhaled the crisp, salt air as the wind brushed her face. The ocean called to her, begging her to come out and play. Being this close to the water—to the driving force of her magick—twisted her inside out. Before the mermaids, before Elosia and the water stone, the ocean simply beat the shore, but now its energy thundered in her chest, rolling with the rhythm of her heart. The last time she traveled down these streets, she was simply Halen Windspeare: messed up student, freak who blacked out in class, girl who sketched the sea. Not that she ever felt normal. But at least she had thought that she was human, that whatever had caused all the horrible things around her to happen, there had been a scientific reason, a cure.