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Landon’s father begins CPR, pressing on Landon’s chest and then breathing air into his lungs. Wolfe climbs over the edge of the boat and kneels on the floor next to Landon, holding his hands over the injury.
“I can help him,” Wolfe says, his voice urgent.
My mother reaches out her hand, fear on her face. “He’s speaking of magic.”
“Do it,” Marshall says without hesitation, and it’s clear he doesn’t understand what kind of magic he has agreed to.
Wolfe closes his eyes and whispers a spell so fast and low I can’t make it out. His hands are covered in red. I stand off to the side and, without thinking, reach for my mother’s hand.
She doesn’t pull away from me. She doesn’t take a step back. Instead, she takes my hand and squeezes it tight. “He’s going to be okay,” she says in that calm tone of hers that makes me feel as if everything in the world will be well.
Another crack of thunder tears through the night sky, and I jump.
Wolfe opens Landon’s shirt, and I watch in wonder as the blood stops seeping and his skin begins to heal itself. My mother turns away, but Elizabeth has her eyes fixed on Wolfe. High magicwraps around Landon and moves through his body, healing him in a way that shouldn’t be possible. The captain’s mouth hangs open, and Marshall’s hands form fists at his sides as he watches Wolfe use a magic he thought had been eradicated.
Everyone is too quiet, too still, too rigid.
Then, finally, Landon breathes.
forty-one
We drop Landon and his family off on the mainland, where an ambulance is waiting to take him to the hospital. Whatever Landon told his parents about me seems to have worked, because I’ve gotten several judgmental glances, but I’m glad for it. If they believe I’m personally the problem, they will still pursue the alliance. It can still be achieved.
“Wait,” my mother says before anyone gets off the boat. She turns to Wolfe. “Erase their memories of the current and your magic. They need to believe the storm is what sank their ship.”
“I beg your pardon?” Elizabeth says, reaching for Marshall’s hand.
“You are forbidden from doing that,” Marshall says, giving my mother a look that sends a chill down my spine. “We’re leaving.”
“Do it now,” my mother says, her voice rising.
“If I do this, you will work with my coven to stop the currents. Otherwise I refuse.”
My mother gapes at Wolfe, stunned that he would negotiate at a time like this, but she regains her composure quickly. “Agreed. Do it.”
Then, all at once, Marshall, Elizabeth, Landon, and the boat captain are looking at Wolfe as he rewrites their memories. They will think the storm capsized their ship. They won’t remember Wolfe or his magic. The secret of the old coven will be safe.
It doesn’t take long, and soon the Yateses are climbing out of the boat, thanking my parents for rescuing them. I get one more cold glance from Landon’s father, and then they’re gone. My mother goes with them to the hospital, offering support and making sure their questions are answered appropriately. She hugs me before she leaves, a promise that we aren’t through, that I don’t have to live with her or be part of her coven to remain her daughter.
Wolfe and I stay on the boat with my dad, and we sail back to the Witchery in silence. The storm has passed, and the Passage is quiet again. Dad docks the boat, but he doesn’t move to step out, so neither do I. Wolfe and I are sitting on the bench seat in the back, wrapped in blankets and towels. My silk gray dress is torn and ruined, and I lost my shoes along the way, but the necklace my father gave me sits firmly in place. My hand drifts up to it, and I roll the vial between my fingers.
My father paces back and forth for several seconds, then finally stops and extends his hand to Wolfe.
“I don’t believe we’ve been properly introduced. I’m Samuel, Tana’s father.”
Wolfe stands and takes my father’s hand. “I’m Wolfe Hawthorne.”
“Hawthorne?” my dad asks, and I wonder if he knows about my mother’s relationship with Galen. An odd expression passes over his face, something between amusement and understanding, and I realize he does.
“That’s right.”
“Well, Wolfe, thank you for what you did tonight. If you don’t mind, I’d like a few minutes alone with my daughter.”
“Of course.” Wolfe takes off his blanket and wraps it around my shoulders, then jumps onto the dock and waits for me on the shore.
My dad stands in front of me, looking into my eyes. “Tana, what you did tonight was unimaginable. I truly didn’t think I’d ever see that happen again.”
I’m having a hard time reading him. His words don’t sound like condemnation, not really. He sounds surprised more than anything else.
