The End of Magic (The Witches of Echo Park #3)(96)

"Boy, does that thing stink," Lyse said, holding her nose.

"It's . . . the blanket our dog, Angelbetti, slept on when Laragh and I were kids."

"Well, it still stinks," Lyse teased. "But it's a good stink."

Niamh gave her a tentative smile in return.

"She was the stinkiest dog that ever existed. But the most loyal and kindest and sweetest dog ever," Niamh said. "I miss her even now."

The talk of her childhood pet seemed to cheer Niamh up, knocking away some of the fear that had been circling her.

"As much as I like this boat, I don't think we're where I need to be," Lyse said as the percussive crash of waves broke against the beach.

"I don't want to leave here," Niamh said. "It feels safe."

Lyse shook her head.

"Nothing's safe in the dreamlands."

"I know," Niamh said, softly, her eyes downcast.

As if to remind them of the truth of this, Lyse felt the water beneath them begin to churn.

"We need off this boat," Lyse cried. "Now!"

She grabbed Niamh's hand and dragged them both to the edge of the boat. She pushed Niamh off the side, then followed her overboard just as the boat was caught in a giant riptide that yanked it backward like it was a toy.

Niamh screamed as they watched a giant whirlpool open up under the boat, sucking it down into the icy depths of the sea. Lyse grabbed Niamh's hand and began to run for shore. She didn't stop to look back, she just held fast to Niamh's hand. The water was freezing as it lapped at their ankles, the cold water trying to stop them from reaching the beach. Lyse imagined her feet were engulfed in flame-and then they just were, the heat pushing back the tentacles of ice water and helping Lyse to pull them from the clutches of the sea.

The sensation of heat and flame dissipated as they reached the shore, but Lyse didn't stop running. She knew the water wasn't done with them yet, felt its need to consume them, and she had no intention of letting that happen.

"Don't stop! Keep running," Lyse screamed-and then she felt it. It was like the entire sea was being sucked back by a giant vacuum cleaner, and the powerful wave that Lyse knew was coming terrified the hell out of her. 

"It's a tsunami!" Lyse cried. "We need a wall-something to block it!"

"If you imagine it, through me you can make it happen," Niamh yelled back at her.

Lyse did as Niamh said, imagined a wall so tall that nothing could ever breach it, and channeled the other woman's power through their physical connection. She felt the wave behind them, towering over their path like a twenty-story skyscraper about to crash onto them-but she knew that the wall she and Niamh had built would keep them safe.

"Keep going forward! Don't stop for anything," Lyse screamed into the wind, her words looping back to Niamh.

"Okay!" Niamh yelled back, but because she was behind Lyse, her response was barely a whisper in Lyse's ear.

She knew Niamh could be trusted to listen and act accordingly. Things were crazy, the world out of control-hell, they weren't even in the real world-and so long as Niamh trusted her, she knew she could get them out in one piece.

As she ran, she imagined that the sand beneath them was actually a set of steep stairs-and then a set of steps was forming beneath their feet as they climbed. They were buffeted by the wind, making it hard to keep their footing. So Lyse wished the wind would die down-and the thought was hardly in her head before the wind died away.

She could hear the crash of water against stone and knew the wave had come into contact with the stairs. She wondered if the onslaught of water had washed the path behind them away, or if the stairs she'd imagined into being were made of sturdier stuff.

"I can feel water on my back," she heard Niamh murmur behind her. "Like little tentacles trying to touch me."

"Ignore it," Lyse called back to her, still holding on tight to Niamh's hand.

They left behind the arid sandscape as they climbed, the bright sunlit sky turning thick and hazy with moisture as they climbed ever higher. They were being led up into the atmosphere, the blue sky becoming not just something to admire but something to be touched. The color began to melt away around them, morphing from a crisp, clean blue to a more foreboding shade of gray-green that reminded Lyse of a bruise.

A drop of water fell on Lyse's head and then another on her nose. The wave was getting smart-it was letting itself condense into the atmosphere and then it was going to rain all over them.

"Shit," Lyse said, coming to a stop in the middle of the stairs-which continued to grow higher and higher above them until they disappeared into the clouds. She didn't know what to do. She hadn't expected the wave to follow them.