Something catches my attention outside the transparent dome covering the light, a movement in the water.
My breath stutters.
Gunner growls, a low note that sends a shiver up my spine.
“I told you to stay put,” Caleb snaps out, emerging from the stairwell beside me.
I’m frozen in place, watching whatever is out there with increasing trepidation.
“I think I know what the ward is for,” I tell Gunner, not caring if Caleb thinks I’m a weirdo. Probably better if he does, anyway.
“What the hell is that?” Caleb’s voice is strangled, and I can’t tear my eyes away from the dark, sinuous shape in the water.
It blinks, and just as quickly, it’s gone.
Seven
“Who’s Ward?” Caleb asks.
I finally wrench my attention back to him. He’s holding the flashlight aloft, scanning the water for signs of, well, signs of something that should be totally impossible.
“Ward? Uh, he’s a friend of a friend’s husband. That’s all. Remember Sylvie? She moved to Texas and I went down there to visit and Ward uh does er telecom contracting and he was talking about electricity or something and I bet that’s what happened here.”
I’m fully aware that my little monologue makes no sense, but I’m selling it like it’s a platter full of a new flavor of fudge.
“You know, with the power going out. A surge. Yeah.”
“You didn’t see… the thing? In the bay?” Caleb’s still sweeping the flashlight over the waters and I avoid the temptation to send a little magical mental poke out after it.
I’m not sure I want to know what that was.
“Did you get the generator working?” I ask instead. I mean, better to deflect than to lie. Probably. I have no idea what Ward did for work but neither does Caleb, so there. “Why isn’t the light working?” I poke at the still-dark light.
Thankfully, the ward fizzled out at some point while we were staring at the giant unblinking eye in the water.
Well. Maybe thankful shouldn’t be paired with that turn of events.
Shit. Maybe the ward disappearing is why we were staring at aforementioned eyeball.
Not great!
“It’s a mess and needs to be repaired. I put in a call to Posey earlier today but she was backlogged with coffee machines.” He scratches his beard. “It should be working now, though, the generator powered up the rest of the house. I honestly couldn’t tell you.” A shrug, but there’s nothing lackadaisical about it.
No, my guy Caleb is taking this light situation extremely personally.
And now, thanks to the damned ward and giant eyeball, I am too.
“Okay, uh, well, I’m not technically inclined, and I’ll just be in the way, and I have an early day, so thanks for dinner. I’ll leave the toffee on your table.”
I don’t wait for him to answer.
I’m not sure I have time to wait for him to answer, even if I wanted to.
“They’re going to decommission Watchmere Light,” Caleb calls after me. “That’s the reason I’m here.”
It stops me in my tracks, and I gape up at where he’s leaning over the stairs, fiddling with the mechanism on the back of the light.
“They can’t decommission the lighthouse.”
