Leashing the Tempest
Page 18

“You can do better,” Kar Yee said. “A lot better.”
I shrugged at the demon. “You don’t really want this deadbeat. Do you?”
Three heads turned toward the captain, all of them wearing angry frowns. After a long moment, she said, “I suppose not.”
The captain slumped against the wall, a look of absolute relief slackening his face.
“Release him from his pact and find someone new,” I encouraged the demon.
She paused for a moment, thinking. “On one condition. He must bring me new men every fortnight until I chose a new husband.”
The captain made a face.
“Sounds fair to me,” Kar Yee said.
“Only if you give me your word that you will not kill him, or the men he brings,” I said. Then added, “Or anyone else on this boat.”
“I give you my word and solemn oath,” she said.
I nodded, then spoke to Christie. “Go on. Promise her you’ll bring her potential husbands.”
“How am I supposed to do that?”
“You’ll think of a way. Start your own ‘hedonists cruise’—I don’t care.” The local Hellfire Club would be all over that shit; he could make a small fortune.
“All right, I promise,” the captain said unhappily.
I looked at Lon. “Can we trust her?”
“She’s not lying.”
“I do not break my promises,” Onna said, slanting accusing eyes toward Christie.
A loud noise made me jump. It took me a moment to realize that it was a horn blaring, and it was coming from outside the yacht. Jupe stood on the bunk and stuck his face in the porthole window. “Coast Guard! We’re saved!”
A collective sigh of relief circled the room. Holy Mother of God, was I happy.
“You’d better hurry,” Lon said.
Yeah. Probably not wise to have a demonic monster trapped inside the boat while we were being rescued.
Lon skirted the trap and stood guard in front of Kar Yee and Jupe, flare gun in hand, while I palmed his pocketknife . . . just in case. Then I did my best to look at all three pairs of Chre I pal Onna’s eyes and said, “I accept your oath and honor mine in return. You are free to go.”
I swiped one bare foot across a corner of the triangle, breaking the binding.
Onna shook herself like a wet dog and jumped out of the trap. Quick as a whip, she lunged at Christie and pinned the man to the wall. He shouted out in terror and turned his head to the side.
Onna wrapped webbed fingers around his chin and forced him to look up at her. “You broke all three of my hearts, Richard. If you fail to honor this new oath to me, this time I will tear your skin from your bones and bury you alive at the bottom of the sea.”
“Sounds reasonable,” he mumbled.
“Goodbye, Richard. I will see you in a fortnight.”
She spun around and surveyed the room, then bowed her heads at me, one after the other. “If we meet again, I will hold you in regard as an honest mage.”
Awesome, and God I hoped that never happened.
And with that, she exited the room and disappeared down the hallway as a muffled voice called out to the Baba Yaga through a megaphone.
• • •
It took hours to sort everything out with the Coast Guard. Lon gave them an official statement about the lightning strike—omitting details regarding both Jupe’s and the captain’s knacks and, of course, Onna. While Christie led them around for an inspection of the yacht’s damage, we waited for a dispatched towboat to haul the dead Baba Yaga away. Once we got back to La Sirena, Christie was taken to the hospital for concussion tests. He started to tell us goodbye, but took one look at the displeasure on Lon’s face and thought better of it.
After seeing Kar Yee back to her car, Lon, Jupe, and I piled in Lon’s SUV and headed back home. The dashboard clock said it was after nine. It felt like one of the longest days of my life.
“Seat warmers, please,” I begged. My clothes were still a little damp beneath the blanket the Coast Guard had provided.
“On it,” Lon said as he fiddled with controls and pulled out of the nearly empty boardwalk parking lot onto Ocean Avenue. Everything around was closed and dark, apart from the lights crowning the walls of Brentano Gardens Amusement Park across the street.
“Okay, lay it on me,” Jupe said from the backseat. “How much trouble am I in?”
“I haven’t decided yet,” Lon said as headlights from a passing car beamed slices of light across his face. “But it’s probably going to involve manual labor and all of your weekends until Christmas spent indoors.”
Jupe sighed dramatically. “I thought so. I bet Kar Yee never wants to spend time with us again.” Oh, he was probably right about that. He blew out a long breath and crossed his arms over his chest. “I wish we’d never gone.”
Dammit. Even though he’d acted like an asshat today, I hated seeing him all dejected and mopey. He was a hot mess, sure, and I knew his dad was secretly fantasizing about dum Cingain.ping him on the side of the road, but I just couldn’t help it: the kid turned me into Silly Putty.
“Look on the bright side,” I said. “We did learn a few things today.”
“Like that I was right about the mermaid ghost?”
God help us, we’d never hear the end of that.
“Like that your knack doesn’t last forever,” I said. “And you might not be able to correct a command once you’ve given it.”