The magic resisted for a moment, then receded so quickly the deck seemed to disappear beneath me, and I fell.
***
Sunlight.Warmthonmyface.The scent of fresh coffee, the smell of fried egg and potato.
I tried to sit up and couldn’t quite succeed.
“Dinesh,” I whispered, trying to open my eyes.“Dinesh.”
A flurry of motion and then a wet tongue laving my face, paws on my chest, fur under my hands.
“Pearl.You’re all right, my darling…” I mumbled.
“Rooster, my sweet Rooster.”
Dinesh’s dear voice came from a short distance away, before the scrape of a chair on wood and footsteps coming near.Then he was beside me, touching me carefully, helping me to a sitting position as I opened my eyes.
“Good morning,” he said with a lovely smile.
Oh, he was so handsome.
I gave Pearl a little shove.“That’s enough, now.Good girl.”She moved off me and immediately curled up at my side, giving a contented sigh.“Is it morning?How long have I been—”
“Sleeping?Since yesterday.Since you…since you sent that damned demon back to where the monster belonged.”
He sounded inordinately proud of me.
“I’m so drained.I may need to rest some more.”
“Simon.I’ve no doubt you’re exhausted and will take some time to recover.What you did…I mean, what you did up there.That was…I can’t begin to describe the event.”
I gave him a weak smile.“Impressive?”
“Dear God.I had no inkling of your powers, even with what I’d seen before.”
“I’m not sure what came over me.”
He gazed at me in all seriousness.“I think you were fed up.And you’d decided enough was enough.”
“Yes.I suppose I had,” I said.“I don’t recall what happened before I came to my senses, except that the experience seemed a terrible dream.And then you were talking to me.And you sounded so frightened.”
“Rooster.You were hanging off the mast when we caught sight of you, looking out to sea like you wanted to…to…”
“Fuck.”
“I woke up in our bed and saw the rope untied and laying on your pillow.You must have…or the demon must have…”
“I was on the rail?”
“Crouched there, your hair flying madly in the wind, staring out at the ocean.You stood, balanced so precariously…”
“And almost fell.”
“Yes.I nearly perished at the sight.But you grabbed onto the rope and we came and took you down.”
I frowned, remembering.“Someone mentioned my arm…”
I lifted a limb from the sheets, pleased that I could, then examined both arms, turning them this way and that.They were uninjured and unmarked.
