Ancient Magic (Dragon's Gift: The Huntress #1)(49)

Ten hours. That’d put us there midmorning, their time.

Aidan took the seat next to mine, and I realized that Nix and Del had consciously left it open. I glared at them. They shrugged.

I should have been used to how good Aidan smelled by then, but I wasn’t. I wasn’t used to anything about him. I’d never been like this over a guy, and it was starting to drive me nuts.





As it turned out, we needed the boat that Aidan had arranged. The flight had been uneventful and the drive through the mountains equally so. By the time we landed, we were close enough to our prey that I finally felt the invisible string around my waist. We followed it to the coast.

My dragon sense led us to a jagged piece of land that jutted out into the sea.

“Here,” I said.

Aidan pulled over. I climbed out of the car and gazed out at the choppy gray waves. Nix and Del came to stand at my side.

“Excellent,” I muttered. “Another boat ride.”

“Can you tell if he’s on an island or a boat?”

“I don’t feel the target moving,” I said. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t. My senses weren’t quite that good normally. “So it’s probably an island. Could be wrong though.”

Aidan looked up from the map on his phone. “There’s a port about fifteen minutes from here, and the boat that I arranged isn’t far from that. I’ll have them meet us.”

“Nice,” Del said. “I could really get used to traveling with this guy.”

I glanced at Aidan. He’d changed into a midnight blue sweater, and the wind whipped at his dark hair. His wealth did make things more convenient. I wished I liked him because of it. If I only liked his money, I could just ditch him and go find another rich guy who wasn’t powerful enough to sense that I was different.

But no. I liked him for a lot of other weird reasons. And every one of them didn’t matter because I’d definitely have to stay away from him when this was over. Aidan would eventually figure out what I was. I could feel it.

“Let’s go,” I said.

We climbed back into the car. The drive to the port took about fifteen minutes. It was a tiny one, just a fishing village on the coast with a few houses scattered on the hill above. Half a dozen brightly painted boats bobbed on their moorings. A large white yacht was motoring toward the small dock as we climbed out of the car.

“Is that it?” I asked Aidan.

“Yeah. A friend’s boat.”

“You have fancy friends.”

“Some. At least this one loaned me his boat.”

“You loan him your plane?” I asked.

“I would, but he has his own.”

I shook my head. I might have a trove of treasure stashed away in my secret closet, but that was just because I scrimped and saved everything we made from the shop. It wasn’t a tiny amount of money because treasure hunting paid well. But it wasn’t like my wealth improved my life. It just fed a compulsion that was almost as annoying as it was pleasurable.

We walked onto the dock as the cold sea air cut through my jacket. Aidan carried the brown paper package. A thank you present for the boat’s owner? How did he manage to be so polite while we were on a job? I guess I had to give him credit.

The boat didn’t even tie off to the dock. It just pulled up and we hopped on. There was a rowboat hanging from davits at the back and a pilothouse on the second level in the front. The deckhand who led us to the pilothouse was some kind of low-level water witch from the smell of his magic. Vaguely fishy. Higher-level supernaturals normally smelled better. It was an unfair part of magical life.

The pilothouse looked like it ran a spaceship. The captain was a big guy, a shifter of some sort. I couldn’t tell from the smell of him because it was harder for me to ID shifters, but I hoped he was some kind of shark or whale or something.

“Welcome aboard, Aidan,” the captain said. His Scottish brogue was thick. “Mr. Carridy sends his respects.”

So the owner wasn’t on board.

“Captain Alden. Thank you for taking us,” Aidan said. “Cass? Can you point us in the right direction?”

I focused on the feel of the string around my waist and turned to face the direction from which it pulled.

“That way,” I said, pointing to the left. Port, I thought it was called. “I don’t know how far. A few miles?”

“Are ye certain?” Captain Alden asked. “I’ve run these waters for twenty years. There’s nothing that way. Not until the North Pole.”

“Of course there isn’t,” I muttered. “Just my luck. Ghost island.”

“I suppose it’s possible,” Captain Alden said. “Wouldn’t be the first time magic has been used to hide an island.”

I closed my eyes and focused on the thread about my middle that pulled me northwest. The connection was strong. “It’s that way. I can’t feel precisely where it is, but well before the North Pole.”

“All right then, we’ll head that way. You can tell me when it’s close? I don’t want to run aground.”

“Yes. It still feels miles off.”

We stared silently out at the sea as the motor rumbled and waves slapped against the hull. Fog was starting to roll across the water, concealing the gray waves. The effect was eerie and added to the tension inside the pilothouse. I tried to keep from bouncing on my feet. No one needed to know how anxious I was. We could handle this. We’d survived a decade on the run. This was just one little hurdle. Get the scroll, destroy it. Risk averted.