39. Adrian
Adrian
H e awoke with a start. Had he fallen asleep? He couldn’t even remember who had drifted off first. He squinted in the darkness. Oh Goddess, what time is it?
After a few moments of searching, he found his cell phone on the bedside table. Four thirty. Thankful to his internal alarm clock, he slid out of bed and showered off, savoring the hot water. He riffled through the kitchen carefully to avoid making too much noise. After brewing a pot of coffee, he scrambled some eggs and buttered a few pieces of toast, setting aside some for Cori on a separate plate. He zipped up his jacket over his coveralls and covered her eggs with foil.
His phone lit up as a text alert from Seth flashed on the screen.
Want me to pick you up?
Sure, thanks
Want to tell me where the fuck you are?
I’ll walk
Stop being a baby. Be there in five
Adrian rolled his eyes in at his brother’s teasing as he shrugged his jacket over his shoulder. He locked the door behind him, lingering for a moment to seal it with the protective charm Cori had taught him, as the wheels of the truck rolled to a stop on the gravel.
He settled onto the warm leather of the passenger seat after tossing his bag into the truck bed. An extra green juice was perched in the center console, and The Decemberists were playing on the stereo.
Seth handed the juice to his brother as he shifted into drive. “Just in case you were feeling tired this morning. Made an extra for you.”
“Thank you.” Adrian took the tumbler happily. Despite his annoyance at Seth’s teasing, he appreciated the kind gesture. He closed his eyes, taking a large swig. “Ugh, didn’t expect the celery.” He coughed, forcing down another large swig.
Seth shrugged. “Gotta get the toxins out.”
As the truck crept down the slope of the cliffside, Adrian craned his neck to watch the sky. The moon was setting over the trees, casting an eerie glow over the water as the sun opposed it to the east. He squinted hard at the moon, trying to sense its magic. The drum of the tide seemed to beat through his veins.
No matter how far away from the ocean he was (and he admittedly had never strayed too far away from it in his life), he could feel it around him. He could feel the hum of the magic in the vapor of the clouds and in the groundwater under his feet.
He looked up again at the moon and beyond it to the stars peppering the morning sky, trying to sense the same hum, the same pull of magic.
Unlike the ocean, which felt full and deep and alive, the sky seemed immense and cold in its magic. How was it for her? When she looked up to the sky, was she overwhelmed by the magnitude of the magic there? A magic he was sensing despite its vast occupancy in the surrounding universe.
He shivered as he pictured her face gazing up, her delicate features soaking up the magic in the moon's glow as her eyes emitted the gold of Celestial magic. Magic from stars occupying a place in the universe light-years away.
If the magic in the surrounding water was infinite, what was it like to tap in to a power that was infinite?
The jolt of the truck shifting into park startled him, and he shivered again as he unbuckled his seat belt. Seth was pulling his jacket around his shoulders as they unpacked their gear from the truck bed and made their way to the dock. They weren’t alone.
“Rise is 6:14 a.m. today, we can be on the water in fifteen minutes.” Seth started prepping the rig as Adrian warmed up the engine and mapped out their route. The heavy clomping of boots announced David’s presence on the boat.
“Your mother packed up soup and sandwiches for lunch,” he declared as he set down a large cooler and thermos. “Feeling more like winter every morning this week.” He pulled his hat over his head and turned up his collar to cover his scruffy neck.
He looked out over the tops of the trees, already turning gold. He took a deep breath of cool, crisp morning air. The chill traveled down his throat and permeated his bones as the boat pulled away from the dock.
As they crested over the waves and the shoreline thinned behind them, he could not help but feel like he was swimming toward something that was frightening and immense.