Magical Misfire (6 page)

“Oh yes someone is,” I murmured, touching my nose to the top of Merc’s head. “But let’s try not to, Merc. I’m not dressed for swimming.”

When we reached the top of the stairs, Tom the crewman unhooked the chain, let us pass by, and then hooked it across the stairs again. “I’ll expect you to be back to work in five minutes,” Tom told Oliver, who’d moved next to me. I felt gunmetal against my ribs.

Bryn stood a foot away, watching silently, but I felt his power buzzing through the air. I opened my arms and let Mercutio hop down. The woman in the dress who’d ratted me out stood a few feet away. Satisfied that the crew had me in hand, she sauntered off.

“That blurry photograph in the newsletter didn’t do you justice,” Oliver said, his breath warm against my neck.

“I’m not photogenic.”

He grinned. “Anyone can take a bad picture.”

I shrugged. “Yes, but I’m one of the best at that.”

Oliver moved so that his body was behind me. “Here’s the deal, Lyons. In about five minutes, they’ll start setting off fireworks. It will cover the sound of me shooting you guys. I’ll roll your bodies down the stairs, toss the gun in the water, and go on about my business. They’ll suspect me but they won’t be able to prove anything.”

“You’ll get gunpowder on your hands,” I said.

“Gloves,” he said.

I looked down and found that he did have latex gloves on. I blinked and looked back at his face.

“I’ve got nothing against you, Lyons. I’d rather not shoot you, and I definitely don’t want to shoot a beautiful girl. All you have to do to avoid getting shot is retrieve the spell and give it to me.”

Bryn’s eyes were blue-black and dangerous. I stiffened, waiting for a blast of magic, ready to spring aside when Oliver was distracted, but it didn’t come.

“We’ll give it to you,” Bryn said.

“Bryn, no! We need it.”

“We don’t,” Bryn said. “We’ll have another chance to cast a spell to fix things.” His voice was so reasonable and soothing, but I heard a note of something underneath. Something I recognized. Confidence. When he’d said we didn’t need the spell anymore, he’d meant it. He made straight A’s all through school, and he’d already read Sal’s spell. I’d have bet a year’s supply of cocoa that he’d memorized it.

“Are you going to give him the paper or do you want me to?” Bryn asked me.

“I will,” I said, sliding a hand down the front of my dress. Queen Victoria would not have been amused.

“If she were my girl, there’s no way I’d have sent her fishing for it rather than dive in myself,” Oliver said.

Bryn shrugged. “I’m busy.”

“Busy figuring out how you’re going to disarm me? I wouldn’t try it, Lyons.”

“Good grief,” I muttered, blowing out my breath. The paper had slipped pretty far down, but I got my fingers on it and plucked it out. I held it over my shoulder to Oliver who snatched it.

“Thank you, gorgeous,” Oliver said, cocky now. “Let’s take a stroll to the front of the boat.”

“Put the gun away,” Bryn said, moving to block our path.

“I will. After the spell’s cast. See, Sal wouldn’t tell me where her spell was hidden. She said I wasn’t the right kind of wizard to cast it successfully. You’re no water wizard, Lyons, so I take it that your girl here is some water sign. That’s why Sal thought she could master the spell?”

“Oliver,” Bryn said in a low voice. “One patch of rough water could make your finger jerk. If that gun goes off, even accidentally, and you hurt her, I will kill you where you stand.”

Oliver and Bryn locked eyes.

“I won’t hurt her as long as she does exactly what I tell her to do.”

Each of their faces was carefully blank. I wouldn’t have played Texas Hold’em with either of them for a million dollars. “Oliver, that’s enough threats now. You don’t have to stick a gun in my ribs to get me to help you. We came here to do Sally’s spell, and you can have the treasure, whatever it is, since I’m sure that’s the part you’re after. Bryn’s got too much money already, and I wouldn’t trust a treasure from a strange witch. As long as you don’t try to hurt anyone, we’ll let you have it. Won’t we, Bryn?”

Oliver looked at Bryn questioningly. “Your word?”

“Yes. I didn’t come here for profit. The only thing on this ship that I care about is wearing a blue velvet dress.”

Aw, that deserves a kiss
, I thought.

“Okay,” Oliver said, giving me a little shove toward Bryn.

Bryn’s hand shot out and pulled me to him. Magic sizzled like bacon in a pan, and I planted a kiss on Bryn’s cheek. “Thanks for saying that. I like when you’re sweet,” I whispered.

Oliver gestured with the gun for us to get moving toward the stairs. “Listen, Lyons, I’m sorry,” he said. “It’s not personal. I have to take precautions. The captain’s been held at gunpoint twice by people looking for the spell. Now that I’ve got it, I’m not going to let anyone take it away from me. And you two have a deadly reputation.”

A burst of noise signaled the start of the fireworks.

“Well, I can see how you might think we’re trouble,” I said. “For a while the World Association of Magic made us outlaws. Like Billy the Kid!” I laughed. “Kind of surprising, right? In the twenty-first century? Especially since we almost never get into shoot-outs.”

Oliver grinned and beckoned us to walk.

As we did, I said, “And just so you know, Oliver, when we end up in a gunfight, it’s never about money.”

“All right,” Oliver said softly to Bryn. “She’s pretty great. If I have to shoot someone, it’ll just be you. Not her.”

“So generous,” Bryn said dryly.

“Which way is the starboard side?” I asked. “We have to do the spell from there. Remember what Sal said?”

Bryn nodded, and Oliver pointed. He kept us in front of him, wanting to be sure we didn’t bonk him on the head or something. I guessed I’d have been on my guard, too.

We moved to the rail in a deserted spot close to the back of the boat. Oliver stood below a light and smoothed out the page.

He stretched out a hand and read the spell slowly. I can’t feel anyone’s magic except Bryn’s, so I leaned toward him. “Anything happening?” I whispered.

“With the spell? Not a thing,” Bryn said, his arm tight around my waist.

Oliver raised his voice on the last words, frustrated. “Goddamn it! It has to work. I need this. My mom’s going to lose her house. This was supposed—” He spun toward us. “You try.” He thrust the paper at me but Bryn waved it aside.

“We’ll do it together, Tamara. I’ll whisper the lines in your ear and you say them aloud,” Bryn said to me.

I nodded. When we mixed our magic, it was powerful and more precise than magic I cast on my own.

“Open your purse. Prepare to set the merrows free when I say the words ‘mystic maze.’”

My heart thumped in my chest. This was it. The moment of truth. Christmas was still three weeks away, but I was really, really hoping for a miracle. I opened my purse and pulled the water-filled bag to the top. I worked the knot loose so it was open. The merrows swam in a circle, making water slosh over the top of the bag.

“Just a minute,” I hissed at them. “We’re going to get you home.”

“Ready?” Bryn asked.

“Yep,” I said, widening my stance to steady myself.

Bryn rested his mouth next to my ear and whispered magic-laced words. I recited the words just after he did, holding the bag over the side.

Where the remote seasides ride

In ocean’s bosom unespied

From the small ship that rushed along

The listening wind received this song

What should we do but sing its praise

That led us through the mystic maze

Unto a sprite, so long our own

Return a size that once was known

She makes the swells our shores to meet

And throws the treasures at our feet

And makes the hollow seas that roar

Return the lovely pearls to shore

This sung she in the faery boat

A hopeful and a cheery note

And all the way, to guide her rhyme

With beating waves, she kept the time

5

At first only a swirl of air and magic signaled that anything was fixing to happen. In the span of heartbeats, the calm sea began to rattle and hum. Lightning streaked in the distance.

My right arm jerked, my elbow banging the rail as the plastic bag exploded when the three merrows were restored to normal size. They crashed into the water, disappearing into the darkness.

My left wrist twisted as my purse expanded and dragged me down to the deck. I struggled to shove the strings off as it stretched and tore.

A large wave slammed into the side of the boat, tipping us thirty degrees. People toppled over.

Jenna and Lucy, dressed in flouncy Barbie clothes, burst onto the deck, fully grown.

“It worked!” I cried triumphantly.

Jenna and Lucy clutched each other, screaming happily.

Then another wave hit the boat so hard it was cocked to about a sixty-degree angle. Bryn, who has forethought in spades, had hooked an arm around the rail and grabbed me. My hand shot out and caught Mercutio, but everyone else slid and rolled across the deck, including Oliver, Jenna, and Lucy.

The captain swung the boat’s wheel, trying to get us facing the waves so we wouldn’t capsize. Lightning slammed into the deck, causing splinters of fiberglass to erupt. Terrified people screamed and shouted. Rain poured down, and crew members rushed to deliver life jackets to passengers.

“We need to outrun the storm,” Bryn yelled, pulling me toward the control room where the captain and another officer were frantically trying to maneuver.

“Here,” I said, taking two life jackets from a crew member.

Bryn ignored the life jacket, lifting me up and depositing me under the awning of the wheelhouse.

“Listen, we have to protect the ship from the storm so we can get to land before the merrows come. If they sink the ship in rough water, people will drown, life jackets or not.”

“Oh,” I said, alarmed.

“You need to get out of that dress.”

“What?” I squeaked.

“We’re better at sharing power when we’re skin to skin, and if the boat sinks, I don’t want fifty pounds of fabric dragging us down.” He spun me away from him and yanked the laces.

“Bryn!” I yelled. “You can’t do that here.” I grabbed the front of my dress to hold it in place.

A wave hit the boat and flung us against the wall. My entire side throbbed with pain.

“Damn it!” I yelled, and Mercutio yowled.

“Tamara,” Bryn snapped, pulling the laces open.

“Okay!” I said, turning to face him yet away from anyone who might be watching. I pulled my arms out of my sleeves. The dress flopped to the floor, so I was topless and wearing only cut-off jean shorts and my booties. I crouched and removed my shoes as Bryn jerked his coat off and dropped it. He unbuttoned his shirt and when I stood, he put it on me. I started to button it, but he brushed my hands away, leaving it open. Then he dragged me against him. My skin and nipples tingled as soon as they came into contact with his body. Magic surged.

The boat lurched and was it my imagination—? No, we were definitely lower in the water. Mercutio yowled.

“Hang on to me,” Bryn yelled over the noise of the people and the storm.

I wrapped my arms around his neck, pressing my breasts against his chest. He kissed me hard enough on the mouth to bruise my lips, then he sucked my magic into him. He pulled me to the doorway, looked up at the sky and whispered a spell in Latin to the heavens.

I felt his magic whirl around us and steady the boat. Wind and waves battered the barrier he erected, but it was solid.

“What the hell?” a crewman murmured, watching the weather lash at the ship.

“Captain, get us to shore!” I yelled.

“What are you— What happened to your dress?” the crewman demanded.

“Never mind me!” I snapped. “You have to hurry.”

A grinding sound from the motor alerted us to a new problem. It sounded like the noise a cheap mixer makes when trying to stir cookie dough that’s too thick for it. The motor wasn’t strong enough to overcome the circular current. We were pulled into a slow spin.

“The merrows,” Bryn said. “They’re under us.”

“For Pete’s sake! We freed them! They should be grateful!”

“Give me another kiss. Let’s see what we can do to protect ourselves from them,” he said, taking us farther out of the shelter of the wheelhouse.

“Here,” I said, tipping my mouth up.

He bent his head. His lips were cool and firm against mine. His arms locked around me. He raised his head as the boat tilted a few feet. “Brace us,” he said, “I need to pull a lot of power from you.”

I let go of him and reached overhead to grab a metal bar near the doorway.

“Got it?” he asked.

I nodded and felt Mercutio’s fur against my leg, pressing to steady me, too.

Bryn’s mouth came down against mine. Searing magic drove through me. The boat wobbled—hell, the whole world seemed to wobble.

Our bodies swayed, but I held tight, my arms burning from the strain of holding us in place.

Bryn’s breath caught and then he sucked in power. I trembled as his voice vibrated against my skin. My body wanted his.

“Okay, let go,” he said.

My hands opened, releasing the bar, and he propelled us to the rail, my feet not touching the ground.

He whispered words in Gaelic and thrust magic into the water. A pair of merrows burst from the sea, rising like porpoises above the spray. They screeched at us.

“Leave us alone!” I yelled. “We don’t want to hurt you but we will if we have to!”

They completed their arc, graceful and fierce, and plunged back into the water.