Falling Light (Game of Shadows #2)(55)

The only thing I can think of is the Lake, Nicholas said. Your boat engine was dead last night, but it still brought you here in the storm, and it did so more quickly than you could have traveled on your own.

She spun to face the others. “What if you asked the Lake to help us again?” she said to Astra. “Then we might have a chance to reach them in time.”

Astra’s jaw angled out. She said between her teeth, “I won’t do it. It’s too great of a risk.”

The sickness in the pit of Mary’s stomach worsened. She couldn’t look at Michael. She walked to the fireplace hearth and grabbed her shoes.

“Mary, stop this,” said Astra.

Mary ignored her. She jammed her feet into the shoes and snatched up the poncho.

Michael angled his head to watch her. It was the only part of him that moved. His hands were fisted at his sides.

Astra pointed her knife at Mary, as she said to Michael, “Stop her from doing something wasteful and stupid.”

Then Michael moved. He strode to the metal door. He punched out a quick sequence of numbers, opened the door and walked inside a room. The door swung shut behind him.

Mary went beyond pain and turned numb. Of all the things he could have done, he simply walked away. It was incomprehensible to her.

“Come on,” she said to Nicholas. “You’re going to have to teach me how to start and drive a boat.”

The ghost silently followed her outside and down the path to the pier. While the sun was shining, the wind was sharp. It would be colder out on the water. She barely spared a glance at the bullet holes that dotted the side of the boat as she shrugged on the poncho and climbed aboard.

Nicholas’s raging energy had subsided. When she was standing in the cabin, staring at the all the strange knobs and dials, he finally spoke.

Mary, he said gently. If Astra won’t ask the Lake for help, there’s no way that you can make it in time.

She shook her head as she gripped the wheel in both hands. The tears that had been building finally spilled over and streaked down her cheeks.

“I’ve been on a boat exactly three times,” she said. “And that’s counting last night. I always meant to make time to go out on the water more. But I was always so busy. Sometimes after a really brutal shift at work, it was all I could do to get carryout on the way home. So you’re going to have to tell me how I start this damn thing.”

Nicholas’s warm presence surrounded her, as if he had taken her in his arms. She could still feel his pain through the contact, and yet he still tried to comfort her. He said, I should go to be with them.

“Don’t,” she told him sharply. She scrubbed her wet face with the poncho. “Don’t go. If he senses you, he’ll destroy you too.”

They’re my family.

If she could have physically laid hands on him, she would have. “Sacrifice is one thing,” she said. “Suicide is another. Please don’t go. Stay with me instead.”

The sense of closeness to him eased, as though he drew back, but he still lingered.

How far away were Jerry and Jamie from the shore? The next few hours would be excruciating.

Not that the Deceiver would necessarily kill them in the next few hours. He might choose to hold on to them for days. The thought made her want to vomit.

A streak of movement outside the window caused her to lift her head.

Michael ran down the steep path. He was dressed much as he had been in her dream, in a black T-shirt, black cargo pants and combat boots. He wore weapons—a hunting knife strapped to one thigh, a handgun and an automatic rifle slung over one shoulder—and he carried another heavy black bag, but still his big body conquered the distance with impossible lightness and speed.

She stared as he jogged down the pier and threw the bag onto the boat.

He gave her a pointed look, eyebrows raised. “You weren’t going to get very far with the boat still moored to the pier.”

She burst out laughing, and she didn’t care if it sounded like a sob. “I haven’t figured out how to turn it on anyway.”

He untied the ropes that held the boat to the pier and threw them onto the deck. Then he leaped aboard and stepped into the cabin. The force of his presence filled the small, enclosed area.

Nicholas retreated further. He hadn’t promised her that he would stay, but he also didn’t leave. She sensed him hovering at the railing toward the front, as if he could make them go faster by force of will alone.

She stepped back to give Michael room and watched as he opened a panel and connected a few wires together. Only then did she see the ignition keyhole. The boat growled to life. Expertly, he shifted into reverse and they pulled away from the pier.

Then she repeated what Nicholas had said. “We’re not going to make it.”

“Probably not,” he agreed. “But we’re going to push as hard and as fast as we can go. We won’t stop until we reach Charlevoix, and we have an answer one way or another.”

When the boat had pulled clear of the pier, he spun the wheel and gunned the motor. They roared out to open water.

The floor shifted rhythmically underneath her feet, and she adjusted her balance to the dip and swell. When she felt like she could walk, she edged closer to Michael, who stood with his feet braced wide apart. She raised her voice to be heard over the motor. “What made you change your mind about going?”