Chapter 21
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Daphne
The next few days of the contest were filled with various competitions and group dates. I still hadn’t had my one-on-one with Travis yet, but he kept giving me charms, so I guess he wanted me to stick around. I didn’t want to know how I’d feel if he didn’t.
He had the same air about him as he had that day in Wickedville when fans were asking for autographs, like it was simply a part of his job, his duty to perform.
Maybe that was why he had a private plane, beyond the obvious convenience, because he loved flying where he was far above the chaos of his world. I felt a twinge of sadness that I couldn’t see him doing a thing he enjoyed so much. And I saw red when I remembered that Mia had.
I wasn’t jealous by nature but with Travis...it was different. I felt almost territorial.
After the latest charm ceremony, Sarah and I realized we weren’t needed for anything the next day, so we decided to finally go rock hounding and explore the sea caves on the northwest side of the island.
I didn’t think she believed me at first, that I really wanted to go, but I looked her square in the eyes and told her, “Girl, we’re going!”
At dawn, with our backpacks loaded, we headed out in a rental car and got to the top of the trailhead a few hours later.
The hike down to the sea caves was steep but not too treacherous given the well-constructed stairs, landings, and hand railings. Regardless, we made our way carefully. Twisting an ankle when we had a lot of walking to do would ruin our plans for the day.
The constant roar of the ocean, screeching of gulls and the smell of the fresh sea air had me smiling from ear to ear.
I loved the feel of the energy here and wished I could bottle it up and take it with me.
At the thought of going home, a pit formed in my stomach, but I shoved it away.
I was determined to find joy in the here and now, and not worry about all that.
When we got down to the rocky beach, Sarah consulted the map she brought, which wasn’t the stupid one from the hotel, and pointed to the left.
“There’s supposedly a small stream that dumps into the ocean just to the north of that sea stack. People find a lot of moonstones there. Wait—hold on.” Consulting the map again, she pointed to the right instead. “It’s that way.”
I didn’t care where we went. We were going to have an adventure regardless.
“And what about the caves?” I was looking forward to the rockhounding, but even more excited for the spelunking. “Maybe we should do that first since we won’t be able to once the tide comes in and blocks the access.”
Sarah pulled out a small tide book from the front pocket of her cargo shorts. “The tide is still going out. Let’s check out the stream bed since it’s on the way to the caves and then we’ll go back to hunt for stones later if it looks good.”
I nodded eagerly. “And I heard there’s a great sea glass beach somewhere around here too.”
Sarah grinned, reflecting my excitement. “Sounds like a plan to me.”
Picking our way along the beach, we arrived at the mouth of the little stream that flowed from the gap between the two sea cliffs.
Then we followed it up about twenty paces to a rockfall and— Oh Lordy, the stones!
I was the first to find one and nearly screamed when I spotted a milky white oval nestled among the gray.
Delicate rose and blue mineral veins spread across the surface.
Like hunting for sharks’ teeth or foraging for mushrooms, once we knew what to look for, they seemed to jump out at us left and right.
We’d each collected maybe ten or twelve of them of various sizes and colors when I remembered that this was just supposed to be a quick look.
“Hey, should we go to the caves now? We can come back to this later and not be rushed.” The last thing I wanted was getting trapped inside a cave at high tide.
Sarah was washing off a moonstone in the stream and stood up. “Yeah, you’re right. I could literally do this all day. Look at this one.”
She showed me a milky pink stone with veins of blue and purple.
“Gorgeous!”
We made our way along the beach, just below the line of seaweed marking high tide because the traction was better on wet sand than dry.
Just beyond a particularly large sea stack, we spotted the craggy opening of a cave, and my heart lurched.
I doubted there’d be stalagmites and stalactites, but I still couldn’t wait to get inside.
I wondered if Travis had ever been here. Surely, he had since he grew up on the island. He and his friends probably got into all sorts of trouble exploring the caves.
“How much more time do we have?” I asked, recalling the warning signs at the bottom of the stairs, telling visitors to be mindful of the tides.
Sarah looked at her watch. “About an hour. Plenty of time to find a treasure chest or two.”
We scrambled over a few boulders and then we were inside. I was grateful my new friend had told me to dress warmly, because it was frigid in here. The cave opening was about twenty feet tall and curved around into the inky darkness.
Sarah brought us both a head lamp, so I fastened mine like a headband, clicked it on, and illuminated the craggy walls around us.
The cavern was fairly narrow, its damp walls covered in slippery moss.
Not a stalagmite or stalactite in sight—but that didn’t make it any less amazing.
There were a few rocky ledges on both sides and the remnants of a few campfires.
Guess the cave didn’t go completely underwater at high tide.
“Is the whole coast dotted with these sea caves?” I picked my way carefully over the rocks embedded in the sand. I liked the way our voices sounded in here. Muffled and echo-y at the same time.
Sarah nodded, her headlamp bobbing up and down. “The dragon cliffs are still several miles up the coast, but they’re very territorial. Non-dragons venturing too far will get singed. Not that we’ll go that far, but hopefully they’ve got it well marked.”
Spotting a piece of trash on a nearby ledge, I climbed over a large boulder to retrieve it. I hated when people didn’t pick up after themselves. “I haven’t seen a dragon yet,” I told her. “Do you know if they come into town much?”
“I’ll bet you have seen one just didn’t know it. They’re shifters too.”
I gave a low whistle. “Amazing to think I could’ve walked by an actual dragon and not realized it. I hope that’s not being rude or obtuse,” I added quickly.
“Don’t worry. It’s not.” Although she was slightly in front of me and I couldn’t see her smile, I could hear it in her voice.
“I keep forgetting this is all new to you. Full moon is coming, so I’ll probably see if I can join one of the local packs when they go for a moon run.
Although I don’t necessarily like being with a group of people I don’t know, I’m not comfortable lone-wolfing it in a place that’s not familiar to me, either. ”
Being in the contest must be challenging for her given that she was so introverted, which made me all the madder at her family for forcing her into this. “Can you ask Jada? Or Travis? Maybe you can go with their pack.”
“Nah.”
My head snapped up in surprise. “Why not? I’m sure they’d be happy to have you.”
“It might be a conflict of interest.”
Then it was a good thing I couldn’t tell her about the book and being in Wickedville with Travis the other day. “I’m really glad I met you. I just wish...” I swallowed, searching for the right words. “...that all of this wasn’t temporary.”
“Yeah, me too,” she replied softly.
We hadn’t gone too far—there were so many things to look at—when the alarm on Sarah’s watch went off. “Time to turn around and head back,” she said.
“You set an alarm?” To say that woman was prepared was an understatement. She’d ordered our lunches, arranged for the rental car, and checked out our gear from the hotel.
My headlamp illuminated her face, and I saw her big grin. She was loving this as much as I was. It was fun to see her so happy for once. “I didn’t want us to get too distracted and get caught in here at high tide.”
“Good thinking.”
But when we made our way back to the entrance and rounded the last corner, we both gasped. The water had risen so much that it almost completely covered the entrance.
“Oh, my gods! How could this happen?” Sarah grabbed the tide book from her cargo shorts. “It says right here...” Her voice trailed off, then she got all choked up. “I must’ve read it wrong. I’m such an idiot!”
“Let me see.” Trying not to panic, I took it from her and could totally tell how she had confused the high and low tide times. One was light blue and the other was dark blue. “You’re definitely not an idiot.”
“Let me see if I can get out and go for help,” she said, ignoring my protests and removing her backpack. But as she scrambled over the rocks, she slipped and came down hard.
“Are you okay?” I asked, rushing over and helping her up.
“Yes.” She vigorously rubbed her elbow. “I’ll be fine.”
But I could tell she wasn’t. “How can you do that?” I pointed to the submerged entrance.
“I’ll just shift into my wolf form—that won’t scare you will it?—and go for help.”
“But your arm.” I remembered the warning Travis’s doctor told him. “It won’t heal properly.”
“The moon’s energy is waxing toward full moon. It’ll actually heal more quickly.”
I continued protesting that we could just wait it out here, but Sarah was having none of that. “This is my fault. I won’t have you suffer because of me.”
“I’m not going to suffer, Silly. Besides, you drowning isn’t going to help.”
“My wolf is a strong swimmer,” she assured me. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Realizing I couldn’t talk her out of it, I climbed onto the highest ledge I could find.
When I turned around, she’d already shifted into her wolf form.
She had a beautiful, shiny red coat and was about half the size of Travis’s wolf.
With a short bark, she jumped into the dark water.
I stood rooted to the spot, heart pounding in my throat, and watched as she swam through the mouth of the cave.
And then she was gone.