Trouble in a Bottle-- first Chapter!

 You know the drill!  Here's the first chapter of Trouble in a Bottle, the second book in the Forgotten Hollow paranormal cozy mystery fantasy series!

Ceian, Betsy, and all the animals (PUPPIES!) are off having another adventure where Earth crimes collide with ones from off-planet!

The ebook releases September 18th and can be preordered here.

Here's Chapter ONE!

Chapter One

 

 

It had been a blindingly busy day at my teahouse, The Fainting Goat Tea and Spice. We’d been open for a month, and I’d almost felt like I had the swing of things. A week ago, birders came in for an odd migration. Apparently, this year was unusual in the arrival of some sort of rare coastal seabird, and the birders flocked, no pun intended, to Forgotten Hollow.

I’d lived in Forgotten Hollow for a whopping four and a half months but had somehow not known about this bird.

I liked birds, I guess. Never really thought about them. But now it was their fanciers, or at least a small group of them, that I could do without.

I stumbled to the front door of my cottage, wanting nothing more than to collapse on the sofa and watch I Dream of Jeannie with a frozen dinner and ice cream. A glance across the yard showed me that the barn door was open, so most likely Tiberius and his goat friends were inside. My friend Keith had created an automatic door opener for the barn to allow Tiberius to get in and out at will.

Tiberius looked like a large goat. In reality, he was a jinn, like me, and not from Earth. Unlike me, his natural form was seven feet tall, blue-skinned, with wings that reached about ten feet in width. I looked like a tall, green-eyed, slightly exotic woman of possibly East Indian descent.

I am a parolee here on Earth. After serving a hundred years in my bottle, for a crime I knew I didn’t commit, I’d been released here to prove that I could be a functioning member of a society. Any society. The Eltrisphere, a collection of worlds far from this star system where Tiberius and I came from, discovered Earth a few hundred years ago.

No one could find a good use for it, so they made it their secret parolee test grounds. They already had plenty in our own system, but enjoyed branching out.

The humans had no idea of any of this, and I had to keep it that way.

The only human person in Forgotten Hollow, or at least human-looking, who knew about the Eltrisphere or me was Keith. An aging hippy and a citizen of the Eltrisphere, he’d been secretly living on Earth for over forty years and was currently dating my dear human friend Betsy.

Keith and I worked hard to keep Betsy, Martha, and Jamie, along with the rest of the town of Forgotten Hollow, from finding out anything about us or our worlds.

It was for their safety as much as or more so than ours.

Tiberius was supposed to be my guard during my parole, and he still was—but he annoyed the wrong people on the Eltrispherian High Council, and so they changed him into a goat whenever he was awake. He became himself as soon as he fell asleep.

Not helpful and a big nuisance.

I looked around for the orange feline menace, but Lucie might be in the barn too. The puppies and their mom, Hadari, also from the Eltrisphere, were hiding in a section of tall grass in the abandoned next-door yard, but they kept jumping at each other and giving themselves away.

All was right with my world, aside from my complete exhaustion. With a nod at the yard, I opened the door, dropped my keys, and started swearing.

The contents of my cottage were floating. Mostly in the location they would normally be, but far closer to the ceiling than they should be.

My swears turned to screams as my jinn bottle dove toward my head. I caught it in one hand and shut the door with the other. I now had a gate on my driveway, so getting to the cottage unannounced was difficult, but not impossible. Who would sneak into my cottage and put a spell on everything? Keith, Lucie, and I should be the only magic users in Forgotten Hollow. Keith was currently out of town, but should be home soon. I seriously doubted he would do this.

I didn’t see the cat, but I yelled anyway. “Lucie? Are you doing this?” My bottle, far prettier than the one on that TV show, tried to pull free a few times, but finally settled down.

Lucie looked like a regular Earth cat, but he was also from the Eltrisphere. Unlike Tiberius, cat was his natural form, and a month ago, he and I both regained access to our magic. I’d been taking it slow and only rarely using magic. The hundred years that I’d spent in my bottle as a prisoner were without magic. When I first arrived here, I’d had my magic back for a few hours, but then my keeper, a cranky cherub named Xieth, took it from me, along with Lucie’s.

Tiberius looked like he should be magical, but he wasn’t.

Clutching my bottle and ducking when belongings hovering in the air swung too low, I stalked around the cottage.

Lucie didn’t have an approved way into the cottage if I was gone, but even before he got his magic back, he could pick locks alarmingly well.

The living room, kitchen, bathroom, my bedroom, and the guest room were all empty. If it wasn’t him, what happened to my stuff? Flying household goods weren’t common on Earth or the Eltrisphere.

Everything was slowly lowering when I heard the most annoying sound ever. The chime that indicated Xieth was calling to me.

I tried pushing the bookshelf to the floor. Xieth’s appearances came through a framed landscape painting of my bottle in a field on the wall, and the bookshelf would be noticeable if it were still floating. I had a minute or two to make things look normal.

Or say goodbye to my magic. And possibly my parole on Earth.

I took a few calming breaths as I tried to think of a spell to lower my belongings without smashing them to the ground.

As one, everything drifted back to its place, and Xieth’s horrible visage took over the landscape painting. I put my bottle back on the bottom shelf of the bookcase and stood up to face him.

“Ceian? What took you so long? Has something happened?” He scowled as he looked around what he could see of my living room.

I gave him my best exasperated and exhausted frown. “I was trying to get inside. It's been crazy at work.” My being successful in a business was part of my parole requirements. It was added proof that I was safe to return to the Eltrisphere worlds as a functioning member. I’d always liked tea and exotic spices, so that’s what I went into.

“Hmmm, nothing else? You seem frazzled.” He waved the fingers of one pudgy hand at me.

I put my hands on my hips. “It’s been a rough week at the teahouse. I told you two days ago about it.” Okay, I’d barely started whining at him about the birders when he cut me off and ended the call. But he often didn’t listen to me unless it was information he wanted.

A month ago, Xieth found out about some nefarious things occurring on Earth, ones not involving humans. I was still his parolee, but myself, Tiberius, and even Lucie were Xieth’s eyes and ears down here now.

“Ah, yes, well. Anything else? Anything important?” He was already looking down at his desk for whoever he had to annoy next.

“Nothing important for you.” I had to watch my words, and as it was, I did feel a slight tightening in my throat. Jinn couldn’t lie, not if we knew the truth. It could choke a jinn until they passed out or died. Or so the old stories said. I had no intention of testing them.

It was easier, in a way, to get around it with humans. But citizens of the Eltrisphere who knew of jinn restrictions could use it against us.

However, having Keith in my corner had proven helpful. He was a slanaigh, a species of powerful empaths and magic users, and had no problem with lying. He’d also been married to a jinn until she passed away long before he came to Earth. He would step in when he could, when dealing with people in Forgotten Hollow, to keep me from having to tell the truth or choke to death.

“Hrmph.” Xieth waved his left hand dismissively and held up a sheaf of papers. “Keep me updated on anything odd. Carry on.” He cut the call before I could respond.

I waited until the landscape painting reappeared and then flicked a switch on the side. I’d accidentally left the screen blocker off this morning, which meant Xieth could have popped in while things were flying about. I’d make sure not to do that again.

A while ago, Keith had made a blocker so that Xieth couldn’t listen without the screen being open. Then, a week ago, he added the screen blocker. When in place, Xieth couldn’t pop in until I cleared it.

On a day like today, that could have been catastrophic, but I didn’t want to use it too often, as both Keith and I were worried that Xieth would figure it out.

And also realize that it was beyond my current magical ability. He had no idea about Keith being on the planet, and we needed to keep it that way. But between the crowds at the teahouse and whatever set off my possessions and furniture flying, I was willing to risk the block for a few days.

I pulled out my cell phone and called Keith. Only got his answering machine. Before he left town for something a few days ago, he’d been working on fixing up the property next to mine. Hadari and her pups lived there some of the time, my barn the rest of the time. I was slowly introducing the massive black-and-tan Hadari and her startlingly fast-growing puppies to the citizens of Forgotten Hollow as my newly adopted dogs.

The only problem was that when I first met Hadari, she was called Brutus and was owned by a human criminal. A lot of convincing was taking place to make sure people didn’t think they were the same dog. My three besties, Betsy, Martha, and Jamie, were all sure that Hadari was much prettier than Brutus. Not to mention, Brutus had clearly been a boy.

All three believed it completely, even though none of them had ever seen much of Brutus. No magic needed, simply the power of suggestion, combined with adorable puppies.

I gave my cottage another round of checks to see if anything could have caused the flying. But didn’t find anything. Now that everything had landed, not a stitch was out of place. I should be more worried about it, but after this past week, I was too exhausted to care.

Why people who were in a rush to watch birds wanted to go to a teahouse every day was way beyond me.

Teas were for leisure, catching up with friends, and relaxing. Not seeing how quickly the tiny sandwiches and sausage rolls could be ingested and tea downed before running out looking for the lily-bellied sap sucker. Or whatever the rare seabird’s name was.

It wasn’t the bird’s fault, but some of the people chasing them so annoyed me that I couldn’t keep the birds’ real name in my head for more than a few moments.

Hannah said I had a mental block and not to worry about it.

As if thinking of her triggered it, my cellphone rang. It was Hannah.

“Ceian! I wanted to see if you’d like to drop by for dinner and try my new fruity and fabulous pie? Betsy and the girls said they’d be here in half an hour.”

Hannah was the owner of Hannah’s diner, the single most delicious place to eat in town, in my opinion. I glanced at my freezer, thought of the bland frozen food inside, and smiled. “I’d love to. Let me take a quick shower, check the animals, and I’ll be on my way. Thank you!”

“See you then! Ride safe!” She ended the call, and I ran for the shower. Yes, I should stay home and work out logistics for the next birder invasion at the teahouse tomorrow, but the temptation of an amazing homemade meal and a new type of pie was what this crazy day ordered.

Showered and changed, I reconfirmed that the switch blocking Xieth was in place, then locked up the cottage and ran to the barn.

I wasn’t worried about Lucie; he did what he wanted, like Earth cats. But Tiberius was a different issue. He had been a centurion guard before this goat thing happened and still had that mindset.

Sometimes he forgot he was a goat.

My swearing when I pushed open the barn door completely might have been heard on whatever distant planet Xieth lurked on. The place was in shambles, and there were no goats in sight.

“Tiberius? Where are you?” A month ago, I’d ended up with half a dozen normal Earth goats. Tiberius wasn’t as happy as he would have been with a group of armed centurions, but he found company in the goats. But not a hoofed foot was in sight.

Damn it. I wasn’t up for another round of evil people trying to get to me by grabbing my friends. I ran around to the side of the barn and found Tiberius and the six Earth goats snacking on the long grass that grew there. Or had grown there. It was over half gone now. I’d meant to trim it, especially since we seemed to have a lot of secret meetings out there in the past.

He looked up with a clump of grass in his mouth. “What? You were taking too long to trim this.” He swallowed. “And it’s tasty.”

“What happened in the barn?”

He gave a goat version of a shrug. “Lucie was up to something. Chased a bird or two into the barn, then they all took off.”

I rubbed my eyes. With my luck, my non-Earth cat was chasing some very rare Earth birds. “How long ago?” My stomach growled and reminded me that I needed food.

“Two hours ago? Maybe?”

No way that I could catch up or even try to find him. “Okay, I’m going to Hannah’s. If Lucie comes back before me, tell him to go into the cottage and wait for me.” I nodded at one of the goats who glanced up, then went back to eating. The Earth goats didn’t seem to care that Tiberius spoke to me, but they also usually ignored me unless it was feeding time.

Leaving the goats, I got my bike and walked to Hadari’s yard. Hadari and her babies were hoxien wolves. Massive black and tan dogs that looked like a Bernese Mountain Dog mixed breed; at least that was what Martha said when she saw them.

They were also one of the most universally feared animals in the Eltrisphere and should never have been brought to a planet like Earth. Two of the puppies, Hadari said they hadn’t chosen their names yet, bounced out of the grass at my approach, then dove back in. Hadari got to her feet with a wide doggie grin.

“Leaving again?” Her English was still hesitant sometimes, but much stronger than it had been. She usually spoke one of the common Eltrisphere languages, Sihlia to Tiberius and her puppies. Neither could be spoken in front of humans for obvious reasons.

“Yes, dinner. Can you keep an eye out for Lucie? I think he’s getting into trouble somewhere.” I wasn’t sure that he hadn’t been the one behind my possessions floating, but I had no idea as to the why of him doing it.

“Gladly.” Her toothy grin broadened. Unlike many human cats and dogs, Hadari and Lucie usually got along, and he often babysat the puppies. But Hadari was extremely aware of his ability to get into trouble.

 

 

 

Mystic's Scepter. Lost Ancients #11 (Lost Ancients Dragon's Blood #5 ;)) FIRST CHAPTER

 Releases on JUNE 3rd! Preorder available NOW!

Preorder here!

(This is an unproofed copy)

Chapter One

 

 

We’d been stuck on this island for just over three months when the invasion came.

Unfortunately, it came right as the sun was fighting its way to wake us all up. Also known as the official time every morning, when I fought to hang on to a tiny bit more sleep. I was pretty sure Alric, Covey, and the rest of my companions were trying to do the same.

The screeches and yells of our invaders became familiar as they increased in volume. Then they were joined by the sound of stones being thrown against the roof and walls of our small hut.

It was the faeries, and none of us were going back to sleep.

Alric was in bed next to me, and he sat up quickly. Immediately, one hand held a spell, the other held the knife he kept under his pillow. His bright green eyes were annoyingly awake. I loved Alric completely, but I wasn’t going to touch him right now.

“It’s the girls, I don’t think we have to worry.” Be annoyed, yes. Worry, probably not. I wasn’t sure why they were throwing rocks at our hut, though. My faeries must have found something new to create mayhem with.

Great.

Alric paused on the edge of our bed, tilted his head, and nodded. He released his spell, tucked away his knife, and threw a loose shirt over his sleep pants. “But what’s that buzzing sound?” He stalked to the door. It was only a few steps, but it didn’t hinder his stalk at all.

I hadn’t heard a buzzing originally, but I did as the faeries came closer. “I have no idea. Maybe we’re better off not knowing?” One of the few advantages of being trapped on a magical island was that the faeries couldn’t accidentally destroy something beyond here.

One of the major downsides was that we were trapped here with them.

I gave serious consideration to simply pulling my covers over my head and ignoring everything.

But the thumps and buzzing sounds were getting louder. There was no way any of my friends didn’t hear the attack; we all had separate bedding huts, but we weren’t too far apart.

I rolled out of bed and slipped a robe over my bedclothes.

“The sound is too high-pitched for Bunky or Irving.” I didn’t move any closer to the door as another thought hit me. “You don’t think Flower and his brownies have done another experiment, do you?”

The last time our resident troop of reformed brownies tried to improve island conditions, they’d managed to blow up a section of our island. This island hadn’t been massive to begin with, and we needed all the space we could get. Luckily, no one had been hurt.

Flower had promised to refrain from such further endeavors. Which, while well meant, probably wouldn’t last.

Alric flung open the door.

Tall, blond, stunning, and fierce was the love of my life. I wasn’t expecting the manly yell of terror he gave as he jumped backward.

Three blurs of color came zipping erratically into the hut. None of them were flapping their wings, but holding on to two ends of fishing line wrapped around large, shimmering, green beetles. Ones with serious navigation issues. Or perhaps the girls had been sharing their limited store of remaining ale with the bugs.

I doubted that would happen.

Garbage Blossom, Leaf Grub, and Crusty Bucket, along with their weird bug companions, were the only ones who came inside our hut. More faeries flew around outside, laughing hysterically, and at least five more were flying around with the same beetle setup these three had.

Judging from the shouting coming from my friends further into our camp, there were plenty over there as well.

“Garbage!” I yelped as my maniacal orange faery and her beetle careened too close to my face. She was laughing too loudly to hear me as she pulled on the strings like reins to steer her bug. None of the faeries with their odd steeds were flapping their wings, even when their beetle dipped them toward the ground or a wall.

“Garbage Blossom, what are you doing?” I raised my voice, but she continued to laugh and ignore me.

My little blue faery, Crusty, lost hold of one of her ends of string. The beetle she was flying shot out of our hut, and Crusty, also still laughing, slammed into a wall and slid to the floor.

Leaf saw the entire thing and doubled over in laughter. Which caused her to release her bug strings. Fortunately, Leaf remembered she could fly and flew before she crashed.

Her beetle fled through the still-open door.

“I’s wins! Me’s!” Garbage zigged around the room as her beetle did a few laps, bumping into Alric, me, the bed, and the chairs at least three times. “Yous goes now!” Garbage hovered in the air as she released her bug, and it followed its friends outside.

“Girls, what are those things and where did they come from?” We’d been stuck here for three long months. Something like those weird drunken beetles would have been spotted long ago.

Alric went outside but shook his head. All the beetles had taken off.

“Theys likes us. So comes heres to play.” Garbage looked around the room and shrugged. The excitement was over, and she was rapidly becoming bored. “Byes!”

She and her two companions zipped away before I could get more information.

“What was that?” Covey stalked up to our open door. She was still in bedclothes, and her fingers were flexing. They hadn’t gone claw-like yet, but no one should annoy her right now; she was on the edge.

A trellian in berserker form was not something sane people wanted to face.

“Some sort of flying beetles with a horrible sense of direction. Not a clue as to where they came from. The girls were useless. How could we have missed seeing them before?” Once we’d realized we were trapped here for a while, Padraig, Alric, and our other old school researchers, including Covey, worked on investigating the island top to bottom.

Nothing could get off this island. Not the faeries, constructs, or our siramage, an extremely powerful magic user, Cwin. She was usually extremely calm for a grimarian, but we all avoided her for two days after that discovery was made. I was pretty sure I’d seen smoke coming from her fur.

The faeries, who could pop in and out of reality at will, were also stuck. Which hadn’t made any of them great company for a while, either.

“They could have been dormant. We haven’t completed a full season cycle on this island. I’d better go hunt down the others across the island; this could be important.” Covey’s fingers went back to normal, and she shuffled around in her slightly bedraggled pajamas.

When I first met Covey, she’d been fascinated by the rumors and myths of the vanished elven people. Thanks to Alric, we found the elves. Or they found us. So, Covey turned her focus to my people, the missing Ancients.

We found out that I was one, but not what happened to my people. She was still fascinated, but we were currently stuck here with nothing to chase down, information or relic-wise.

It probably made sense that, being trapped on this island and without access to research materials, Covey had turned to plants for study. Plants and rocks were the only things here. We had a lot of scrolls to study, but unfortunately, they were all safely tucked away into the magical, tiny black faery bags. And no one could get into them. The only thing Lorcan and Siabiane could sort out was that the interior of the bags must exist in the same in-between area the faeries went to when they vanished. And this island was blocking all of that.

Which had been fascinating for about half a day. Then reality kicked in. All that wisdom, time to research as much as they wanted, and no way to get to it left a bunch of annoyed researchers.

“You want to disturb Padraig’s experiment on the other side of the island for some weird drunken beetles? The faeries have probably forgotten about them now.” But I wasn’t sure about that. Garbage had far too much fun winning her improvised game to give it up yet.

Padraig, Cwin, Lorcan, Siabiane, Mathilda, and Marluk had gone to the far side of the island to conduct studies on ways to break whatever kept us here. Marluk’s magic was gone, but he had a lot of information about magic and this part of the world.

Our resident pirate captain, Jadiera, came into the clearing to join us. She, Marluk, and her regular crew had been fixing her ship, The Dangerous Lady, since we crashed here. It seemed to me like it had been as fixed as it could be a few weeks ago. But no one was taking chances on not being ready to flee when we sorted out what was keeping us trapped.

We could only go about a hundred feet out from the shore before we hit an invisible wall—all the way around the island.

“Did anyone else notice a mass of flika beetles tear by here about ten minutes ago?” Jadiera seemed calm, but I noticed her thick hair was tousled. She was a fierce fighter and an excellent seafarer, but she liked to be active. She’d grown up in an island kingdom far south of us, but she was never restricted to a single island.

“Is flika another name for drunken bugs? Because those things fly worse than Crusty on a five-day bender.” The memory of living through that sent a shiver up my spine.

“That would be a good description of them. Shiny green purple bugs about this big?” She held her thumb and forefinger out in a semicircle.

“Looks about right. The faeries were using them in a game.” Alric glared at the clearing sky. “They took off right after the bugs did.”

Jadiera also frowned at the sky, but she looked far more worried than unbalanced flying bugs should warrant. “I recall my father telling me about the flika bugs. Even brought me home a dead one he found on a journey to the far north. Most bugs can’t handle the cold; those can. And while they might be able to handle this weather briefly, they shouldn’t be able to for long.”

I looked around as Covey and Alric processed the information. Although Jadiera seemed freaked out, Alric and Covey were excited. Somehow, those weird bugs arrived here recently.

“Maybe the others found a way to escape after all. We can get out of this place!” Covey waved us all off and ran to her hut. Probably to pack.

“While it would be wonderful, and I agree it is extremely odd that these things appeared after three months here, I don’t know how we could have missed a way out.” Jadiera still sounded worried. “Let me see if my faeries have answers.” She had her own group of faeries from when she’d met Garbage, Crusty, and Leaf when they’d been out on an adventure a while ago. They mostly hung out with Garbage and the extended crew, unless they were needed for something specific.

Jadiera’s faeries were far more helpful than my group.

Within a few minutes, ten faeries came into range, led by a bright yellow faery. “Is do’s?”

That was Sparkle Slug, the leader of Jadiera’s faery tribe. None of them had sounded like this until they were trapped here with the larger group. All the faeries spoke their own pidgin, but my crew seemed to change it up a lot. And corrupted any faeries around them.

“Have you seen any shiny beetles? They fly oddly?”

“Noes. Maybes?” She grinned and zigged to the side. “Good game.”

“Do you know where they came from?” I’d continued to try to call my original three back, but they’d taken to ignoring me more than before since we’d been here. Being trapped in one spot wasn’t something they were used to.

“Water.” She nodded.

A green faery pushed her. “Noes, trees.”

“Mountains!” Came from another.

“Builders find thems!” The faeries called our troop of brownies, Flower and his eight, as well as Siabiane’s constructs, Welsy and Delsy, builders. They had built all of our structures when we first got here. But I’d never heard them use the phrase about brownies in general.

I doubted any of the brownies found those drunken beetles; Flower would have bragged about it.

Soon, more faeries flew in to give their opinions. Garbage, Crusty, and Leaf weren’t there, but I recognized a lot of them.

“Thanks, ladies.” I looked at my sleep clothes. “Since this is going nowhere, I’m changing clothes.”

“I’ll join you.” Alric was still watching the sky when we went back to our hut.

“Do you think this is a way off of here? Maybe a secret tunnel, like those that connected the islands to the south?” I quickly changed and fought to keep the hope from my voice.

If someone had asked me at any time in the past few years if I would like a three-month vacation where nothing bad could get to my friends and me, I would have jumped at it. We had plenty of provisions, thanks to Jadiera’s ship, The Dangerous Lady; they were mostly dried tack, but they worked. The island itself had fish and various edible fruits and vegetables. Welsy and Delsy found some seeds in a box that had drifted to the island at some point. They managed to grow a good amount of produce.

And after what we’d all been through in the days leading to our crash, it had been great.

For the first few days.

The destruction of the town of Bailinsea had hurt all of us. But we had the scrolls and other relics rescued from the former town.

Not being able to get into the faery bags had crimped things, as we couldn’t do much-needed research into the mass of disasters and what they were heading for.

The faeries were inconsolable when they realized not only couldn’t they leave, but they couldn’t go into the bags and get ale. Jadiera’s crew donated all of their alcohol to them to try to calm them down.

They were almost completely out now. I’d warned the girls to ration it, but it was a foreign concept for them, so I knew they hadn’t been.

“I’d like to hope there’s a way off we missed.” Alric looked splendid in bedclothes, but his normal all black ensemble was always stunning. “But we went over every inch of the island. With every spell anyone could think of. It’s sealed tight. We can go a short distance offshore, but that’s it.”

“Then where did the bugs come from?” We went back out into the common area in the center of the small huts.

Covey bounced up, looking far too perky. “I agree with Taryn. Those beetles are something unique. What are they eating here? I would have noticed if any plants were ravaged.”

“You are still going to pull Padraig and crew off their studies?” I knew not having access to the scrolls, and whatnot had been as hard on Covey as the lack of ale had been for the faeries, but being willing to disturb another’s scientific study? That was unheard of for her.

“This could be an important aspect of what they’re doing. They were examining the far side of the island to see if there was evidence of past inhabitants. Maybe that’s where the bugs came from.”

She was more excited than I’d seen since the first week of us being here. At first, she’d been certain she could find a way off the island. We couldn’t have been the first ones here, after all.

Then there was a week of moping. Also, something I wasn’t used to from her. That was my area, not hers. Then she discovered plants.

Foxy came into the open area, looking sleepy. “What’d I miss?” He must have been on the final night ocean watch. Marluk had heard rumors in Bailinsea that sometimes people had escaped this place, so we all took turns keeping watch on the beach. There was a shimmering veil past the closest reef, which surrounded the island.

We hadn’t seen it flicker once.