Chapter 46
Chapter
Forty-Six
I swear the world stands still.
It’s a cliché, I know. Like saying “my life flashed before my eyes” when describing a car accident. But clichés exist for a reason, and the moment I see that tattoo on Ethan’s arm, everything else ceases to matter. Donovan’s probably still ranting, but I can’t hear a word he says. I can’t hear anything but my own heartbeat, thumping in triple time.
I’ve known Ethan for two years. Never in all that time, other than his obsession with punctuality, has he been so much as grumpy. If a surfer dude had a baby with a tech bro, it would grow up to be like him. The man collects Funko Pop dolls, for God’s sake.
And yet…
The flecks on his sleeve are blood. When I zero in on them, I can see that well enough. The tattoo is fading even as I watch, but it’s definitely there.
Which means he’s one of them.
Ethan. My boss. The one whose salary made it possible for me to buy my cottage. The one whose job offer ensured I would stay in Sapphire Springs.
Has he been watching me, this whole time? Did he keep me here, for his own ends?
A sick feeling swirls in my stomach as I think about Ethan’s insistence that Donovan and I collaborate on this project…a project whose nature he’s been oddly secretive about. One whose intricacies I still don’t understand. About how, the first time I saw the scroll-and-dagger symbol, Ethan was standing right next to me. About how he demanded Donovan and I attend this retreat.
Something is badly wrong here. And he’s at the epicenter of it.
He’s probably somewhere in his early fifties. Which means he could’ve been there when my parents died. Maybe, he even could’ve been the one who killed my father. The one who gave the command to kill Donovan in my premonition. Surely I would’ve recognized his voice—but maybe Blood Witches can disguise how they sound.
I know one thing for sure. I have to get away from him. From them. And I have to take Donovan with me, before they do something terrible to him.
Forcing my gaze away from Ethan’s arm, I paste a smile on my face. “This was a wild experience,” I babble. “I’m glad I did it. Really. And I’m relieved Cooper came to find us, because otherwise we might’ve been stuck in there forever. But as you can see, I need a new shirt. And Donovan and I have a lot to discuss. Issues that came up when we were, um, working through our differences. Excuse us, please.”
Ignoring Cooper’s protests, I grab hold of Donovan’s arm and tow him away, back up the stone steps that we descended to reach the escape room. I half-expect Ethan to chase after us, but he doesn’t move. Nor does Cooper, his good little lapdog.
I have no idea why they’re letting us leave. But I’m going to make the most of it.
Donovan twists in my grip, trying to get free. “What are you doing? I was right in the middle of?—”
“I don’t care what you were in the middle of. Trust me, none of it matters.”
“Oh, it matters. This was a fucking lawsuit waiting to happen. He needs to understand that.” Donovan sounds so indignant, I’d laugh if I wasn’t afraid for my life—and his.
The stairs are steep, and by the time we reach the top, I’m breathing hard. Donovan, damn him, is unscathed. “Where are we going?” he says.
I look desperately to the left and right. Where can we go that we won’t be overheard? Where will we be safe?
Through the trees, I see a flash of blue. A lake, maybe. Which means there might be a boat.
It’s a crazy idea, but it’s the best one I have. “This way,” I say, and take off through the trees. There’s a trail, but it’s narrow, and my shoes aren’t meant for hiking. Branches slap at my face as I plow through the woods, heading for the slice of blue in the distance.
“Have you lost it?” Donovan says behind me. “There are probably ticks in here!”
Wow. There are Blood Witches on the loose, our boss is probably a homicidal maniac, his brother is hell-bent on killing him, and there’s raw power bubbling up out of the ground—power that the two of us triggered, because our attraction to each other is strong enough to destroy the world. But heaven forbid we be bitten by a tick. A giggle escapes me, then another. “They don’t matter, either,” I manage to get out.
“Tell that to the three hundred thousand new cases of Lyme disease that are diagnosed in this country each year,” he huffs as we crash through the trees that border the end of the path and spill out onto a small, sandy beach.
I was right—it is a lake. A large one, with a rowboat moored at the foot of an oak tree. I make straight for it, with Donovan behind me. “Help me push this toward the water,” I say, shoving the boat out of the grass and onto the sand.
Donovan gives a disbelieving snort, but he doesn’t protest. Maybe he’s given up. Instead he mutters, “Fine,” and grabs hold of the boat. Together, with me pushing and him pulling, we get it to the water’s edge. I climb in, and Donovan regards me, eyebrows raised. At last, he gives the boat one final shove, pushing it into the water, and steps in after me.
“Do you know how to row?” I say as the boat drifts away from the shore, guided by the wind.
“It’s a little late to ask that. But yeah. I told you, I was a Scout.” He peers at me. “I’ll make you a deal. I’ll row, and you talk. Whatever the hell’s going on here, you know a lot more about it than you’re letting on.”
“Okay,” I say, glancing back nervously at the trees. No one is following us—yet. But I don’t know how much time we have.
Sighing, he grabs the oars and dips them into the water. The boat snags on something—a rock? a branch?—and for a terrifying moment I think we’re going to get stuck. But then Donovan digs the oars in harder, his muscles flexing, and with a horrible scraping sound, the rowboat judders free. I grip my seat, the wood hot under my palms, as he pilots us deeper. “Now,” he says. “Your turn. How do you really know my brother? And what’s the deal between the two of you? This time, I want the truth.”
“And I want to give it to you. But I don’t think you’ll believe me.” I take a deep breath. “I wasn’t lying when I said I met Cooper for the first time when I tackled him out of the path of that bus. He is a cop, yes. But he’s also involved with something else. Something…bad.”
A wary look flickers in his beautiful irises. “You mean, something illegal? Like, corruption?”
Inspiration strikes. There’s no freaking way Donovan will believe that his brother and our boss are witches. But if I go with something more mundane, maybe I’ll have a chance of pulling this off. “Yes. I think he’s in it up to his eyeballs with Ethan. Cooper doesn’t want me anywhere near you, because he knows I’m onto him, and he thinks if the two of us spend enough time together, I’ll tell you what I suspect. The way I’m doing right now.”
Donovan’s shoulders bunch as he digs the oars into the water again. Droplets fly from them, sparkling in the sunlight, and I watch them scatter, feeling strangely hypnotized. It occurs to me that the further I’ve gotten from the ley lines, the less crazed I feel, and the better I can think. They did something to me, made me lose control of myself, just like Cooper warned me they would. And maybe some of the things he did and said were because he’d lost control of himself, too.
Why would he warn us to get out of the room with the exposed ley lines before Ethan arrived? Why wouldn’t he want to show them to Ethan? Now that my mind is actually working again, none of this makes sense to me. What kind of game is Cooper playing?
“What about all that crap about ley lines and power, then?” Donovan says, interrupting my train of thought. “Why would Coop say he warned you about them? And what was he talking about when he said someone sent him to stop you, before you killed us all?”
Oh, crap. “I can give you two answers. One you won’t believe. The other you might accept.”
He glares at me. “All I want is the truth.”
I give “the truth” one last desperate try. “Would you believe that your brother is a witch, that he knows I’m cursed to see the future but have no one take my premonitions seriously, and that he wants me to stay away from you because he knows I foresaw your death? That on our wedding day, you’ll die at the altar? That there are ley lines beneath Sapphire Springs, wellsprings of magic, and Cooper thinks if you and I are together, we’ll break those wide open and destroy the world?”
Donovan gives me a disgusted look from beneath lowered brows. “Not this again. Christ. You had me row all the way out to the middle of this goddamn lake so no one can hear us, just to feed me some stupid fairytale?”
Exasperation floods me. “What do you think those lines of blue light were, then, Donovan? How about the mini-quake that caused them?”
“I have no damn idea. Bad engineering. Toxic chemicals. Not fucking Tinkerbell!”
The wind gusts, blowing my sweaty hair back from my face. I breathe in the smell of the lake, brine laced with a faint hint of sulfur, and try again. “If you don’t like that explanation, then let’s go with the idea that your brother’s unhinged, and he’s in league with our corrupt boss.”
“That’s a serious accusation, Rune.” We’ve reached the center of the lake, and he stills the oars. “I admit Ethan didn’t demonstrate the best judgment today. But it’s a far leap from that to an accusation of corruption.”
“Look,” I say desperately. “What do we actually know about the purpose of the database we’re working on, or the client we’re working on it for? When’s the last time you were given a project with so little information to go on?”
“Well, never, but I’m sure Ethan has a?—”
“A what? A good reason? I’m telling you, something’s fishy at Smashbox. Why would Ethan need Cooper up here to work security? Security for what? It’s a freaking mountain retreat. Besides, who the hell has a retreat with an escape room like the one we just went through? Something isn’t adding up.”
The sunlight gleams off Donovan’s black hair as he tilts his head. “I hear you, Rune. I don’t disagree. But what would you like me to do about it?”
I draw a deep breath of the briny air, then go for it. “I want you to hack into Ethan’s personal files.”
His eyes widen. “Excuse me? That’s a serious violation of privacy. Not to mention, illegal. I’ve told you and told you, I’m not a hacker.”
“But you know how to, right? It’s a matter of morals, not ability, yes?”
Donovan nods, grudgingly. “Yes, but?—”
“Just think about it. It’s a matter of doing something illegal this one time, or maybe being party to a whole bunch of illegal acts to set up and market a database whose purpose we don’t understand.”
“This isn’t fair, Rune.” He shakes his head, as if to shake me out of it. “You know I w?—”
It’s possible he was going to say any number of things: You know I won’t. You know I will. You know I want you. But before he can get any of them out of his mouth, the water beneath us heaves, like we’re in the midst of a storm-tossed ocean. Whitecaps shudder across the surface of the lake, and the boat rolls heavily to one side, then the other. Cold water splashes over the side of the hull, dousing me, and I shriek, clinging to my seat for dear life.
“Shit!” Donovan’s face pales as he reaches for me. His fingers graze the skin of my arm, their touch sending that familiar electric sensation shooting through my body. And then the wind picks up speed, a rogue wave breaks across the bow, and the boat capsizes, sending us plummeting into the lake.