They set out on the task at hand, methodically removing the boards from the damaged portion of the boat. Cori returned shortly, gaining a few gruff nods of thanks from Auggie as she presented him with a new extension cord.

  It wasn’t long before the men were dripping in sweat over the miter saw, Cori handing them new boards from the dock that she had carefully measured up against the damaged ones. Adrian pulled his polo shirt off as the sun blared down on them, and he couldn’t help but notice Cori’s cheeks flush as she diverted her eyes away.

  Something primal flared inside him at her response, but he pushed it aside.

  She watched and worked alongside them with bright-eyed attention, asking how they were intending to overlap the boards to assure weatherproofing. She made a clever suggestion about the water seal that made Auggie raise his eyebrows. The old man smiled at her, growling out an approval.

  After they applied the first coat of paint, Cori grabbed her bag. “Well, I should probably take off and get some work done,” she blurted.

  “I thought my brother had promised to show you how to steer the sterndrive,” Seth returned. Adrian glared at him, but his brother flashed him an impish smile.

  “Oh, right. I’ll gather my stuff, then,” she said. Another flush rose on her cheeks as she left them to retrieve the keys for Anne’s boat. Auggie whistled softly into the air as he watched her walk toward the office.

  “Not too often you meet someone who looks like that who has half a brain for boat building,” the old man chuckled.

  Adrian felt his hand clench on the saw, his knuckles whitening with tension.

  “Well, she’s a scientist,” he ground out. “It’s not a shock that she knows how to do something as simple as nailing boards together.”

  Seth cleared his throat as Auggie chuckled some more, handing Seth a beer from his faded cooler.

  Adrian watched Seth plug the new extension cord into the outlet and head toward the boat. Auggie sat down on the milk crate and cracked open the beer, one foot in the pool of gasoline. The cord dragged into the pool as Seth trailed it back to the boat. As it powered on, a sense of dread rose in Adrian’s chest, but his brother worked on. Unfazed and unharmed.

  As Auggie and Seth worked on, Adrian stared at them, a chill sweeping over his skin. If Seth had used Auggie’s extension cord, they may have set a fire. An electrical fire. Cori’s hunch and her strange obsession with the extension cord didn’t make any sense at all. Unless it wasn’t a hunch. Unless it was more than that.

  He patted himself dry with a towel and pulled the pale blue cotton polo back over his head as he made his way along the dock toward Anne’s boat.

  Cori was there, head bent over her tackle box, assembling one of the electronic trackers Anne used. He and his family helped Anne frequently. It took only moments for Adrian to guide the tracker to just the right depth in the water.

  It looked as though Cori had taken the gadget apart and put it back together again. Her laptop was open to a spreadsheet, as she cross-referenced a map of the harbor. The midday sun was high in the sky, and Cori’s sweatshirt was tied around her waist, her hair cascading over her sun-kissed shoulders as she bent over her work.

  She was so distracted she didn’t notice his approach. She startled, a nervous smile on her lips. “Fixing the boat is taking a little longer than Seth expected?”

  “He underestimated how much damage his massive skull could inflict.” He shrugged, rolling his eyes. The air around him was lighter, energized even, at the prospect of getting out on the water, but something inside him felt heavy.

  She was hiding something.

  “The sterndrive doesn’t seem too different now that I am looking at it up close,” she said. “I know the in-drive is more contained, but this shouldn’t be too difficult to get a hang of, right?”

  He approached the tiny boat and stepped onto the deck of the vessel with heavy boots. “You turn it the same way.” He showed her, steadying the gears as he held the key in the ignition. The motor sputtered to life beneath their feet, the water surging around them. “Why don’t we pull out of the harbor?” he suggested. The breeze kicked up around them as the tiny yet powerful boat crept through the water.

  She carefully steered the boat though the maze of docked and moored vessels, gauging the response between the steering column and the speed of the motor.

  He scrutinized the way her fingers easily grazed the switch, knowing just when to flip the gear. “You know exactly how to sail a sterndrive, don’t you?”

  Her eyes flared with golden flecks of light as a guilty smile played at her lips. “No. I’ve always had a natural way with boats, I guess.”

  He swallowed a lump in his throat. Another lie.

  The coast snaked upward to the east just north of town as he pointed out landmarks that he liked to use to guide his boat home.

  “You don’t have an onboard GPS?” she asked him, as she tracked her position on the screen.

  “We’ve never really needed one,” he said with a shrug. Other teams had used them, but the more experienced families, especially the ones who had been fishing off the coast of Farley for generations, usually relied on the tried and true landmarks. The lighthouse to the north, the markers on the marina at the Farley Center, and the rocky island to the south made an almost perfect equilateral triangle.

  “What’s on the island?” she asked. Goose bumps dotted her bare arms as she pulled her sweatshirt up around her shoulders, the crisp wind intensifying the farther offshore they traveled.

  “Mostly brush, one small cave, a few abandoned fishing cabins at the cove, and rock on the periphery,” he explained. “Seth and I go out there every once in a while to camp, but it’s too windy most of the year. We don’t go as much as we used to.”

  He smiled to himself at the memories of camping with his brother as teenagers and the times they had stolen beers from his dad’s cooler.

  “You can only dock on the north side, the rest of the island has too steep of an embankment. It only takes about twenty minutes to hike it, end to end.” He saw her shiver as her gaze swept over the desolate island. “Mainers call it Cetus Island,” he continued. At this, her gaze shifted to his face, amusement playing on her lips. “What’s so funny?” he asked.

  “Nothing’s funny,” she said, biting her lip. “That’s just an interesting name for an island, that’s all.” She pursed her lips together, crossing her arms, a laugh breaking free.

  “The island’s shaped like a whale if you look on the map.” He spread the map out, smoothing the corners. “It’s named for the constellation of Cetus, the sea monster. Have you heard of it?” Now he was laughing, and he didn’t know why. Nothing about the island, or its name, had seemed amusing to him before.

  She smiled, scrunching her nose as though she had told herself a secret joke. “I’ve heard of it.”

  “Damn it,” he thought. She was adorable.

  The late afternoon light dipped over the coast, the warm rays reflecting in sharp angles over the tops of the towering evergreens onshore as they swayed. The motor quieted as they bobbed on the water.

  Despite the water growing colder underneath, every droplet around them drank in the golden warmth from the sun, swelling with heat and magic.

  The light glinted off the golden bracelet around her wrist, and before he could stop himself, he reached for it, turning the little sun over in his fingers.

  Her hand stilled, but she didn’t move away.

  He traced a slow line toward the moon and the star that circled her hand, stopping over the delicate skin of her wrist, memorizing the lines of her palm as he turned her hand over on his own.

  “You said the bracelet was blessed with a charm for luck?” he asked.

  She nodded, her lips parting as his fingers grazed her wrist. The wind picked up, tossing a wavy strand of hair over her eyes.

  He lifted his other hand automatically to brush away the strand of windswept hair, and he ran his fingers softly through it as he tucked it behind her ear. The boat was almost still now, as he traced the line of her jaw. She didn’t move. Didn’t pull away.

  He wanted to etch into his brain the way her face looked in the golden light. Even though he had seen her for the first time only yesterday, he felt like he had spent a lifetime looking at that face. Every curve seemed familiar, as if it was part of a dream he had only just now remembered.

  The electric energy within him surged to life as the boat swelled underneath them, the water rising and bending to his will. She leaned forward, the shift under the boat narrowing the distance between them, as the golden embers in her eyes flared to life.

  Cori

  His hand was still touching her wrist, lingering there. She allowed her magic to surface, finding his aura—full of heavy, smoky need.

  His gaze, deep and blue as the water swirling around them, dipped down to her mouth, and the heaviness between them grew, wrapping around her in a way that made her want to simultaneously lunge for him and dive into the water to escape.

  When a vision of his eyes had wafted into her dreams, she would awaken breathless and warm as though something inside her had been stirred. The heaviness of his aura pierced through her, cracking something open that felt familiar yet new, waiting to take root.

  She had always been in tune to the people around her, sensing their emotions, even their intentions like whispers on the wind. Most of the time, this power felt like a burden, but at this moment, she was fed by his energy. It flowed out of him with an intensity that she couldn’t help but drink in. He angled his head toward her, his lips dangerously close to hers. The water surged again under the boat, the dizzying force of his magic surrounding her.

  But this—this was like nothing she had felt before. She couldn’t just sense his aura, she could sense his magic, and for a fleeting moment, the weight of the tide itself rose in her blood. She realized she had been holding her breath as panic gripped her and she broke the physical connection between them, pulling her wrist from his hand as she pulled back in her seat.

  He shivered as the tether between them broke, and her heart nearly stopped. Holy Mother, did he feel it, too?

  His lips parted, trying to formulate his words. “We should head back,” he said after a moment. The sun had dipped below the trees, the sky pink and streaked with clouds, as it gave in to the late afternoon.

  She nodded quickly, but a part of her, the part that was connected to her instinct and her heart, wanted to float there on the water with him forever, leaving all the uncertainty of the past three thousand days behind her.

  She smoothed her hair hastily into a ponytail and pulled her sweatshirt around her shoulders.

  He gripped the steering wheel, his knuckles white. “Do you mind if I drive?” he asked.

  She nodded again, her voice betraying her with the inability to make a sound.

  He pulled the key from the ignition and handed it to her. The boat surged under them, the power of the water propelling them toward the shore.

  Auggie and Seth were perched on the crates in front of a portable television, beer cans strewn at their feet, as they watched the Red Sox game.

  Auggie’s filthy shirt was wrapped around his neck, his wrinkled skin browned and withering over what probably used to be very muscular shoulders. A cigar dangled from his mouth as he slammed his open hand onto the side of the boat. “That was a strike,” he grunted.

  “Mind the paint, old man,” Seth said absent-mindedly, as he stood up to get a better look at the replay. Auggie glowered at him. “How were the driving lessons?” He cocked his head toward Adrian.

  “Good. She didn’t need me at all,” Adrian said smoothly, rubbing a hand through his hair.

  She swallowed a lump in her throat. Maybe she needed him, but not in the way he meant.

  “Well, even though my brother’s a dumbass, I’m glad you came to help us,” Seth laughed. “If it wasn’t for you, it would’ve taken us twice as long to weatherproof the boards.”

  “Yeah, we appreciate it,” Adrian said slowly. His eyes connected to her for a moment before he gazed down at the electrical cord still draped in the pool of gasoline. Fire isn’t usually a problem for me—unless it’s an electrical fire.

  The pit of her stomach tightened and turned over. The heat of Adrian’s aura had cooled now, replaced by something she couldn’t quite place.

  “Ayuh’ we do appreciate yer,” Auggie said gruffly. “The young lady came out here today to help you out—hard tellin’ not knowin’ why,” he continued. “Least you can do is take her out to a drink, ya ungrateful bastards.”

  Cori

  The brothers led Cori to the aged boardwalk that connected the Farley Center to the road. They walked past the parking lot, now emptied of cars and trucks at the day’s end. The sun had lowered, and in the late afternoon light, the early glow of the moon broke through the pale blue sky.

  She tipped her head up as the moon tumbled onward on its orbit, the venerating movement above humming with soft reassurance.

  Her mother’s head, highlighted with silvery gray, bowed over a teacup as a kettle whistled on the stove. The cord of the phone dangled behind her as she twirled it in her fingers. “Enzo, we’ve been through this before.” Her voice was tinged with exasperation. “You’re making a difficult situation even worse. If things are so bad at the restaurant…”

  Her voice broke off as her brother’s muffled voice argued through the receiver. She turned off the stove and poured the steamy water over a sachet of tea leaves as a sigh huffed out of her.

  “I’ll try my best,” she said, her shoulders slumping. “Pick me up at ten o’clock.” Then her mother—her always serene mother—slammed the phone back onto the wall.

  Her pounding heart slowed as her Eye released its grip. The brothers were a few paces ahead of her now, thankfully oblivious to the pause in her steps while receiving the vision. She had never seen her mother get angry before. While many things may have changed during her absence, it seemed incredibly out of character for her mother to hang up on Enzo like that.

  Enzo had been with Calvin yesterday.

  It was possible that Astrid didn’t like the idea of Enzo putting himself in harm’s way. Her stomach turned as she wondered if the meeting about the prophecy was still taking place. Hopefully Enzo had convinced him to call the whole thing off by now. He had been worried about the restaurant while he was at the hotel with Calvin, but now he was arguing about it on the phone with his mother.

  She chewed on her lip, overwhelmed knowing that there was no comfort she could give him from three thousand miles away. No encouraging words she could share with him.

  In one hundred days, she would be back where she belonged. Anne would understand. The project she had been hired to oversee could easily be wrapped up in a few months, maybe a year at the most. It was normal for academics to travel from one project to the next, and she had already researched ecology groups out in California. As soon as the solstice was behind her, she would send out her résumé.

  Ahead of her, Seth laughed at something Adrian said, and he punched his brother playfully on the arm. A small sliver of hope cracked from her heart, deflating it. She shoved her hands deep into the front pocket of her sweatshirt, pushing the thought aside.

  They led her to a small walking path that connected the marina to the shops. She wondered that there may be a viable social scene in Farley, after all.

  They strode past an open-air seafood restaurant looking out onto the water, bustling with customers dining alfresco. Next door, a coffee shop was nestled into a building bedecked with cedar shingles. Spying the extensive pastry cases inside, she made a mental note to stop there the next day.

  Across the cobbled pathway, there was a florist and a yoga studio on a side street that was dotted with charming little lampposts and benches. At the end of the path, a lively brick building was flooded by the sounds of music and laughter.

  “Probably not as nice as the bars you’re used to,” Seth said as he ushered her in the door. “Carl keeps most of the good Mainer breweries on tap, though, and he makes wicked good nachos.”

  Cori had not been inside a bar in a very long time. Defending her thesis was full-time and lonely work, and she had made it a point to keep away from social situations throughout her time at Yale. Most of the other students had family and friends come out to celebrate after the doctoral awards, but Cori had celebrated alone with a bottle of wine in her apartment. The fewer people she knew, the less suspicion there would be.

  A wave of anxiety rose within her. It had never been easy for her to meet new people, and yet here she was at a bar with two new friends.

  Friends who were witches.

  She breathed in the air, laced with the oil of fried food and the sweet tang of fermented hops, as they made their way past the bar toward an empty booth.

  “Well, look what the tall, handsome fisherman brothers dragged in,” a familiar voice called out. Jordan turned the corner, beer in hand wearing designer jeans and a Bob Dylan T-shirt. His other arm was locked elbow to elbow with one of the most stunning women Cori had ever seen.

  “Cori, this is Jess.” He turned toward the beautiful girl on his arm with purpose. “This is who I was telling you about from the office. The new scientist.” He winked at Cori, and she gave them an awkward wave coupled with a tentative smile.

  Seth shifted on his feet next to her. His laid-back and playful essence had hardened, and his aura was now teeming with heated tension. This was who had distracted him before he crashed the boat, and now she could see why.

  Jess had blond hair braided into two perfect plaits that cascaded over her shoulder from under a baseball cap. She wore an ironically simple white T-shirt that was tucked into a pair of faded jeans, but she oozed glamor and sexy confidence. Jess eyed Cori up and down and gave Jordan a nod.

  Jess was every girl who used to effortlessly flirt with boys and go to parties in high school. Every girl that Cori looked at with longing and self-deprecation in her heart from behind the pages of a science textbook.

 

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