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I tighten my grip on Willow's hand while we edge along the cliffs, following the stranger.
He turns toward us. "You can stop trying to hide. I saw you two before you came around the cliffs. Might as well come to my house for dinner. Hope you like fish."
Trusting a stranger seems unwise, but I am quite hungry, and Willow must be too. I have no weapons, but I'm bigger and stronger than this man, just as my brother remade me to be. So I let the bloke guide us around an outcropping, where he has a makeshift tent set up using what looks like a vinyl tarpaulin and several pieces of tree branches.
The man drops his load on the sand. "I'll get the fire started. Either of you know how to gut a fish? If not, you can start the fire while I handle dinner."
"I can gut the fish," I say.
Willow wrinkles her nose. "Ew. That's way too icky."
The only reason I know how to prepare a fish for eating is because my father loved fishing. He would take me and Sefton to his favorite river, then show us how to gut the fish he caught. I'd hated the sport, but I wanted to spend time with my father. Sefton always thought it was a ridiculous way to waste time.
The stranger offers his hand to me. "I'm Grant Larson."
I shake his hand. "Daxton Stainthorpe, but I prefer Dax. And this is Willow, ah…"
"Willow Greenwood," the girl says. Then she shakes Grant's hand too. "I don't use a nickname."
"Can't tell you how nice it is to meet both of you," Grant says. "I was beginning to think nobody else had survived."
I glance around. "This area clearly hasn't been touched by the Echo."
Grant's brows rise. "The Echo? Is that what they call it? At first, I thought it was a meteor, but then the crazy lightning started, and the demons flooded out of the hole in the sky."
"Where are we?"
"You're on the Lost Coast. Fitting name, hey? I used to come here to go hiking before… Well, you know."
"I'm afraid we have no idea where the Lost Coast is." And I will not admit to him that the girl and I were thrown into this region by magic. Not until I decide if I trust him.
"Not from around here, huh?" Grant says. "The Lost Coast is in Humboldt County."
"I'm not familiar with that area."
"California, buddy. You're in Northern California."
Chapter Twenty-Six
Allison
I wake up slowly, like crawling up a muddy slope in the pitch dark. What happened? A fog envelops my mind as if I've been drugged, which slows my progress in rising from sleep. But slowly, I begin to sense things—the rustling of leaves in the wind, the warmth of sunshine on my face, cushy softness beneath me, and the scent of leather. Why would I smell that? With more effort than seems possible, I pry my lids open and try to make sense of my environment.
This is the bedroom I've slept in since coming to Fallenmouth. The window is open, allowing a pleasant breeze to waft through the space. The leaves on the ash tree rustle, though I can only see the top branches. I realize I'm lying on the bed, on top of the covers, but I can't seem to move my arms or legs. Blinking rapidly, I struggle to clear the haze. At last, I understand why I feel immobilized. It's not sleepiness holding me down.
Leather straps tie my hands to the headboard rails and my ankles to the footboard posts. Sefton must've ordered his minions to tie me to the bed. I'm spreadeagled and can't even move enough to scratch my nose.
Where are Dax and Willow? Did Sefton kill them?
I can't worry about that right now. First, I need to get free of these bindings. But if I tap into my Echo power to do that, I have no idea how much energy I'll have left for either zipping myself to wherever Dax and Willow are, or for opening those boxes in the cellar. My teleporting isn't exactly…exact. The first time I'd done it, I dropped us in a random location. The second time, I'd gotten us to Fallenmouth, but I can't be sure that wasn't a fluke. What if I whisk us straight into a war zone where Echo creatures reign?
Suck it up, girl, that's fear talking.
The door swings open, and Sefton approaches the bed. "Good morning, Allison. Today is the most important day of your life. I've given you the night to reconsider your actions yesterday, and I trust you will not attempt to escape again. But whether you've changed your mind is irrelevant. We will be bound in every way after the ceremony this morning."
Never going to happen. I'm with Dax, not this creep.
Sefton leans over to kiss my cheek. "You will be a beautiful bride."
