Carol sighed. “I just got off the phone with Deva. One of her cooks burned his hand, so she’s going to be even more stressed.”
“How could he have burned his hand when the place isn’t even open after the flood?” I asked, feeling confused.
“I don’t honestly know,” Carol said, shaking her head. “Deva’s been having some serious bad luck lately.”
“That’s an understatement,” I mumbled, my heart aching for all Deva had been having to deal with lately. Her restaurant was her baby, but the world didn’t care much about that right now.
Daniel’s truck pulled up outside. He got out and hurried inside like he was being chased, which told me he was coming with bad news even before he rushed over to me to give it.
“What’s wrong now?” I asked, gut churning.
“Alma Sanchez checked out of the motel.”
I froze. “Why? It’s not the full moon yet.”
He shook his head, and though he didn’t say it, I knew what he was thinking. This wasn’t good. With her checking out, we didn’t know where she was going or what she was planning. We hadn't exactly known that before, but now we had no idea where she was, which meant we couldn’t figure out the rest of this puzzle.
We were in trouble, and we only hadonemore day to figure out how to get out of it.
19
EMMA
"Trav,how's college been treating you?" I smiled and waited for my son to respond.
"It's good. Classes are tough but I enjoy them." He chuckled. "How are you? How's Uncle Henry?"
Best not to get into that. "That sounds great. How's Jacqueline?" He'd been dating her for a little bit now. She was a sweet girl.
He hummed before saying, "Wonderful. It's going really well. Mom, I haven't told her yet, but I think I might be falling."
I was so happy for him. "Oh, Pumpkin. That's so good to hear." It sure did feel nice being out here on the back deck and looking at the wonderful view of the water. "Well, my dear. I just wanted to check in on you. Do you need anything?"
"I may come in soon, bring Jackie and a bunch of laundry." He paused for a second. "You know we're planning to travel after graduation, but we've talked about it, and we were hoping you might have room for us in Mystic. At least until we find our own apartment."
My heart soared. "There's nothing I'd like more. You can have all the room you need, and Jacqueline, too."
We said our goodbyes, and I put the phone down with a smile on my face. My son wanted to come live with me after college. Not his father.
Big, fat score. As I considered Travis moving here, the reality of my situation settled in.
We hadoneday until the full moon and no more answers.
Despite that, it'd hit me when I woke up this morning. If I was going to either lose my powers or be punished for keeping them, I couldn’t obsess about it. I needed to find ways to still find some joy in my life. Otherwise, what was the point of all of this? I loved my powers because they'd led me to my new life, but if I stopped enjoying them, my powers didn’t really matter.
With that in mind, I did what I’d been wanting to do all week, I'd gotten up early, leaving Daniel to get more sleep, and slipped into my swimsuit. Outside, the air still had the chill of morning, but also the heat of summer. The waves crashed on the shore, beautiful, and calling to me like a siren. I dropped my towel on the chair on the porch, then ran out along the white sand until I reached the water.
It was cold, but I already knew it would be. This was the warmest the water got. It would get better as I got used to it. Knowing that, I waded deeper into the water, then dove into it, shivering as my head went under.
Resurfacing, I kicked out as far as I could, vigorously, only slowing when my legs began to burn. This was my life. This was Mystic Hollow. A place so beautiful that few people would ever experience living somewhere like it. Every day I got to look out the windows and see the water and the sand, but I also got to actually step into it. It was like living a dream. Pair that with my best friends and my sweet Daniel, and I was lucky, with or without my powers.
It was silly to worry about all of this too much. Even if it was time to give my powers away, I'd accept it, but only if I had to. I wasn’t about to give some awful woman my magic when she might make the world a worse place, not if I could help it.
When I'd rested enough, I was ready to head to shore. I could've stayed out here all day, but that wasn't an option. My swim had made me feel better, sure, but I still had a major fight ahead of me.
I started to swim when something grabbed my ankle. I wasn't alarmed, knowing not to panic in the waters, as my parents had taught me. I was perfectly fine until whatever had my leg yanked, pulling me under the water. I went under so fast my lungs weren't full. I wasn't sure I had enough air to last a few seconds. There wasn't enough oxygen in my lungs to be able to handle being under the water very long, but I tried to keep calm. Panicking would only make things so much worse.
It must have been seaweed, or a piece of debris tangled around my leg. I was prepared to try to free myself when whatever it was yanked me lower and lower, like someone had hooked me to an anchor.
