28. Adrian
Adrian
H e heard Seth’s voice before he even opened his eyes. “It's our early day, youngblood. Rise and shine.”
He sighed into his pillow, realizing that it was well before dawn. Seth was always energetic and happy, no matter the time of day, and this was extremely irritating. Adrian groaned and rubbed his eyes as he rose from the comfort of his pillow.
He had been deeply asleep, dreaming of something warm and soft. He groaned at the hardness that was coupled with an uncomfortable fullness below his waist as the cool air beyond his bedsheets hit him with an unpleasant chill.
His shoulders and arms were sore, having volunteered to man the chain all day yesterday. Seth had offered to take over, and David had warned him he would pay for it, but he had needed to do it. To think less and work more. To pour the frustrations and uncertainties of the past several days into the manual labor of the task at hand. He had pulled in at least a hundred traps single-handedly yesterday.
Sure, he had willed the water to help him. No human could have done it, but it took a physical and mental toll. It was cathartic to work that hard, to pull the energy away from his racing thoughts, and siphon it into the water.
Today he would pay, but it was worth it .
“Shower,” he grumbled, walking out to the kitchen where Seth was scrolling through his phone as he drank his cold-pressed juice.
Not only was Seth an insufferable morning person, but he also didn’t even require coffee to achieve his unnatural level of morning vigor. Adrian wondered if there was any espresso in the pantry.
He lingered in the shower just long enough to make Seth impatient with him. Once a week they would aim to be finished before noon. David called it their “early day,” and the purpose of the endeavor was to get home early enough to help Hannah on the farm. It was always easier to get a few hours of work under their belts before the sun set in the summer, but the days were slowly getting shorter now, yielding to the fast approach of the cold autumn.
If they could empty enough traps before noon, David would consider it a success. There were few things that bothered David more than a late start on the early day, and as much as it brought him joy to watch Seth pace, Adrian didn’t feel like dealing with his father’s temper.
As they made their way downstairs, the headlights of the truck were waiting for them, casting an eerie cone of light through the morning fog.
“Took you long enough,” David muttered from the front seat. He was scrolling through emails on his tablet as Fleetwood Mac played softly on the radio.
Adrian climbed carefully into the back seat, trying not to wince at the stiffness in his shoulders as he straightened his seat belt. He saw his father’s eyes on him in the rearview mirror.
“Morning, Pop,” he said, feigning energy.
“We’re late because Adrian was jerking off in the shower,” Seth griped.
Adrian swiftly smacked the baseball cap off his brother’s head.
David’s eyes narrowed. “Are you going to need to ice your wounds after you refused anyone’s help to haul those traps yesterday?” David’s words were stern, but there was an edge of pride within them.
Seth scoffed from the front seat, and it took all his restraint not to reach forward and knock off his brother’s baseball cap a second time in retaliation for his mockery.
At their core, despite their teasing, they understood. The week Seth had dropped out of college, he refused help with the traps. Eventually he separated his shoulder. Poor Hannah had to deal with him sulking around the farm for two whole days before she pleaded with David to let him come back to the rig.
“I’m good,” he said, eliciting a dubious sound from the front seat. Even though David and Seth could tell something was on Adrian’s mind, they would never pry.
“Humph.” David raised his eyebrows in the rearview, clearing his throat. “Looks like you boys are on your own this morning. I’ll drop you off at the dock, but I need to head down to Rockland first thing. We might get a new contract with a restaurant chain down there. Up-and-coming, farm-to-table place. If I play my cards right, we might get a double deal.”
Anytime a restaurant or market picked up a contract with their fishing company and the farm simultaneously, David called it a “double deal.” The last time David had negotiated a “double deal” it was paired to an investment in a new fishing company. A 50 percent stake in a new rig in Portland. It had taken them months to recoup from the losses when the inexperienced crew eventually went bankrupt. Unease settled down in Adrian’s stomach, but Seth clapped David on the shoulder.
“Good news, Pop. We can try to get done by noon and help Mom. Rain last night probably drove the fish down, but we might get a few good bugs out there with this weather.”
Adrian nodded. “We got it.”
As David pulled the truck away from the dock, Adrian’s eyes immediately scanned the parking lot. There was only one other car, Auggie’s truck, and one delivery van. No silver hatchback in sight. He didn’t expect her to be out here this early, but his eyes scanned for her car nonetheless .
They made it to the first buoy one hour before sunrise, the legal time you can start pulling up the lobster lines. Adrian again insisted on doing the pulling and hauling as Seth sorted through the catch, measured them, and baited the empty traps to go back on the line.
They made their way to the rest of the buoys, and found themselves with a decent haul, all before noon. Seth was measuring the last trap, methodically throwing back the lobster that were too big or two small to harvest. Adrian finished rebaiting the last trap and squinted through the sun to the south.
“Does it feel like rain to you?” he called out to his brother.
“Not at all, why?” Seth put down his calipers and walked down the stern of the ship where Adrian was slumped down, gazing over the horizon. “You alright?” No teasing or mockery colored his tone now.
“I don’t think so.” He shook his head as his eyes grazed over the water. “You know that feeling of heaviness you get when it's about to rain?” Seth nodded knowingly. “I feel that way now, but it doesn’t feel connected to the water.”
Seth said nothing, but he walked toward the cooler. He turned off the engine and handed his brother a sandwich and a beer. “You’ve seemed a little off these past couple of days. Don’t look too much into it.”
Adrian pulled a deep sigh. “I am off my game. I don’t feel like myself.” He shook his head. “I’m probably just overthinking it.”
Seth chuckled softly as he unwrapped his sandwich.
The delivery truck was waiting for them at the dock when they pulled up. After the weigh-in, they felt good about what they had accomplished in a short period. They were securing the boat to the dock, wrapping elaborate knots to the hooks when Adrian felt it.
A piece of crumpled paper materialized in his hand, scraping up against the rough calluses of his fingers.
Shocked, he unfurled the piece of crumpled, stained paper and saw a shaky scrawl of a blue ballpoint pen. One word.
Cetus .
He stood straight up and clenched his jaw, unexplained fury rising in his chest. Without stopping or questioning, without one breath of hesitation, he untied the knots and felt a surge of water roar to life under them.
“What are you doing?” Seth yelled over the roar of the engine. He didn’t answer. Once they were out of range of the curious onlookers on the dock, Adrian killed the motor and willed the boat forward with his magic.
The crest behind the boat was high and wide as they barreled toward the island, turning sharply toward the south past the rocks of the inlet. He could sail there with his eyes closed, but even at this speed, it would take them at least fifteen minutes to get there.
A nervous tension rippled over his skin. She was in trouble . He had no idea how he knew this based on one word on a crumpled-up piece of scrap paper, but a fire in his blood urged him forward.
Seth staggered to him, unsteady with the rush of wind and water that surrounded the boat and propelled it to an unnatural speed. He approached carefully; concern etched on his brow.
“Adrian, listen to me!” he called over the wind. “Slow down; you’re going to wreck the boat.”
Adrian unclenched his fist and slowed the rush of the water under them, but he didn’t change his course.
He didn’t know how to explain this to Seth. He opened his mouth, but no sound came, as though the connection between his brain and his tongue had been severed. “Cori’s in trouble,” he said shakily. “She sent me this.” He handed his brother the ominous paper message.
Seth blinked down at the scrap of paper, dumbfounded. “Is she trying to tell you she’s at Cetus Island?” he asked with confusion. “She sent this to you? How?” He turned the stained paper over in his hands. “Why would she be out there? This is one word on a piece of paper. How do you know she’s even in trouble?”
“I just know,” Adrian snapped back at him. He had kept nothing from his brother, and if what he expected was correct, now was not the moment to keep secrets. “She sent me the paper with magic.” Seth blinked down at the paper. “There’s more. Cori isn’t a Charms witch.”
Seth’s eyes widened. “What are we talking about? Why would she send you this? What makes you so sure this is even from her, or some kind of cry for help?”
“I just know!” He shot back at him, fire burning his icy blue eyes. Seth stepped back, crossing his arms patiently in anticipation.
“Cori is a Celestial witch,” Adrian said hastily. “She made some kind of crazy prophecy years ago, and she has been living life undercover as a Charms witch because there are a bunch of bad-guy witches out there who want to murder her so the prophecy doesn’t come true.” Bitter dread rose in his throat as he realized she might already be dead. “Someone broke into her house Saturday night and left a pentagram. We found it when I walked her home after the bar.”
Seth was at a loss for words as he processed this unexpected information. He paced up and down the deck several times. Adrian had never seen him speechless before. “So—so you think someone is trying to kill her right now?”
“Yes,” he said through clenched teeth, trying to restrain the speed of the water. “I don’t know what’s going on, Seth.” He was breathing hard. “I just have this sense about her. When she sent me the message, I felt like something was wrong. I could feel her fear. I just knew.”
He closed his eyes, remembering the way he felt the essence of her magic course through his blood the moment he touched her on the boat and the intensity of their kiss.
Seth raised his eyebrows at him. “Wow.” He shook his head, trying to wrap his mind around his brother’s response to a little piece of paper with one word scrawled on it. “I mean do you think… Do you think you guys are?—?”
“I don’t know.” Adrian ran his hand through his hair and closed his eyes tight. He had never expected he would meet another witch in this small town and always anticipated that he would find a nice human and settle down. Until this week, it had never been in the cards to have the same connection with another witch that his parents had with each other.
It had never bothered him before.
Even in the magical community, fated witches were the exception, not the rule. He had never considered what it would be like if it happened to him. But from the first moment he sensed her magic, even before he knew who she was, he wasn’t the same.
There was a restlessness that kept him awake at night. From the first moment he saw her on the beach, staring out at the water, something in him had shifted. When he looked at that note, he had seen her handwriting and knew it was from her, even though he had never seen her handwriting before.
Despite the lack of words on the page, he knew there was panic in the letters.
Adrian looked up at his brother, desperation etched into his face. Seth’s own expression changed. “Let’s get there as fast as we can,” he said. Adrian let out a relieved sigh as he sped up slightly, only this time he wasn’t propelling the boat alone.