Part 4 (1/2)
”My parents too.” Tally edged closer. ”I got the word. Home before midnight, or else.”
”Me too,” Evelina said. ”The aunties want me at the beach house.”
”It's happening,” Tally breathed, the old fear clouding her eyes.
”I can't wait to see it.” Abby gave a gleeful chuckle. ”They say it's quite the spectacle-violent even.”
Tally nodded. ”The warlock compet.i.tions are more physical.” She sounded quite the expert. ”According to my mentor.”
”Their trainers are certainly intense.” Evelina s.h.i.+vered remembering the ominous warning from Leviticus Wilkes, Frankie's trainer. He seemed determined to keep them apart and protect his charge at all cost. Apparently this time he'd succeeded. Frankie didn't want anything to do with her.
”But...” Evelina shrugged. ”We'll be on the sidelines. We won't be involved.”
”I know. It sucks!” Abby wore a look of disgust. ”We're benched.”
”Novices don't see much action.” Tally didn't sound disappointed, as she continued in the same pragmatic tone. ”We're there to observe and perform menial tasks as necessary.”
”Like what?” Abby scrunched up her face. ”Better not be cleaning. I hate cleaning.”
”Next year,” Tally continued as though she hadn't heard. ”As apprentices we'll act as pages, and the next year, when we're mentors, we'll be security.”
A slow, wide grin spread across Abby's face. ”Can't wait for that.”
”Can't wait for what?” Cliff Robinson strode toward them out of the gloom. Evelina's flesh tingled as she peered past him into the darkness, knowing Frankie couldn't be far behind.
”Power,” she said with a laugh. ”She's hungry for it.”
”That's my Abby.” Cliff slung his arm around Abby's shoulders and grinned. ”She's a fighter, not a lover.”
”Nice.” Abby gave him a jab in the ribs with her elbow. ”Very romantic, Robinson.”
Evelina spotted Frankie chatting it up with a curvy blonde in tight, white shorts. Her spirits sank. She could almost feel herself growing taller and skinner as she watched them through the crackling flames.
She turned her back on the amber glow of Frankie's tan amidst the sparks, slipping through the humming crowd.
The tightness in her throat eased as she wandered down the beach under the moonlight, while the wind whipped her hair and the tide pulled at her feet under the wet sand.
It wouldn't have worked anyway. Wasn't that what people were always saying? Time Keepers and Water Witches led different lives. They weren't meant to be together.
That's why her parents were dead.
It would be crazy to make the same mistake.
She stopped to gaze out at the rolling ocean, wondering where they were and if they were really watching over her as Grammy Crimm promised. There had been no Cosmic Calls. If they loved her, why hadn't they attempted to contact her yet?
Sometimes she felt angry with them for leaving her here alone. But it wasn't them she blamed. It was the forces behind the black magic that took their lives, and ruined hers.
A glint of light in the waves jerked her back to reality.
It disappeared, then flashed again as it bobbed closer to sh.o.r.e.
Evelina hurried up the beach following its progress, keeping it in sight.
The bouncing spark of light angled to sh.o.r.e, then disappeared.
Evelina scanned the sh.o.r.e as she jogged along, but couldn't find it. Whatever it was must have sunk, or melted away. It was gone.
Her toe hit something hard.
”Oww!” She bent down to discover a green bottle jutting out of the wet sand. A green slimy film encrusted the once smooth surface. Barnacles and other small mussels poked out, like the bristles on an old hairbrush.
She held it up to the moonlight.
There appeared to be something inside-paper.
Her pulse quickened.
A message in a bottle.
She sucked in a deep breath, then pulled the cork.
Pop!
A white mist snaked out.
The force of it flung the bottle from her hand.
It dipped and looped, beginning to write in the air above the surf, against the inky starlit sky.
Count the coins at Cutthroat Cove.
The words floated above her like wispy ghosts.
Then, just as suddenly, they melted away.
Evelina reached down to retrieve the bottle in the sand. She tipped it upside down, then gave it a shake. She lifted it up attempting to peer inside.
But there was nothing else.
Frankie appeared out of mist. ”Where did you get that?”
Her mouth went dry.
It was difficult to make out his sun-kissed features in the dark with the battering wind tearing against them like salty fingers. ”I found it. It washed up on sh.o.r.e.” She pointed to the spot. ”Right there.”
”You don't find Wave Wires,” Frankie deep voice rattled up and down her spine. ”They find you.”
”Oh.” A Wave Wire. So, that's what it was. ”You mean, like a heat seeking torpedo or something?”
He smiled. ”Something like that.”