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Mananan got out of his chair again, too restless to sit still. He began to pace. Fragarach was pulsing on his back, begging to be sunk into something.
“None of your warriors saw the creature when it was attacking the lighthouse?” he asked Bayn.
Bayn shook his head. “It was storming. They said they heard an eerie cry, and then it began to tear the place apart with tentacles. They got out of there and scrambled away from the shore. It happened in seconds. The creature’s head didn’t even break the surface.”
“It could still be there waiting for her return,” Mananan said.
“Taranis has done some fly overs, hoping to spot it from the air, but so far, no luck. Not a whisper. It can shield itself from detection, or the mage is doing it.”
Mananan stopped pacing. “I’m going to look for it myself. It might be able to hide from Taran, but once I’m in the water, I’ll find it.”
“What about Ella?” Freya asked, her ashen brows drawing together.
“She can stay here and recover. I’ll be back tonight.” Mananan considered going to check on her but dismissed it. She wanted to be alone. “Bayn, you’re with me.”
“Don’t go out on the water,” Freya said, taking Bayn’s hand. “Mananan has a god killer sword. You don’t.”
Bayn kissed her forehead. “Don’t worry. I’m going to do a patrol along the beaches and see if I can find anywhere that mage could be hiding. If he’s controlling the beast, he had to have been close by last night.”
Imogen fidgeted. “What about me?”
“You can stay here and look after Ella with Freya. Don’t freak her out and don’t tell her that she is my mate,” Mananan said, his eyes narrowing.
“Cross my heart,” Imogen replied, doing the motion over her chest. “But I’m not staying behind. I’ll go grab Chrissy and meet you on the beach. No offense, Bayn, but I’m a lot harder to kill than you.” Her eyes flashed with black, and not for the first time, Mananan wondered what abilities Arawan had given his consort.
“We will keep an eye on her, Manan. Don’t worry. Chrissy will be able to talk to her about being a seer as well. It will be good for Ella,” Freya reassured him.
Mananan looked at both women and sighed. Ella could handle herself, and if there was one thing Freya, Chrissy, and Imogen were good at, it was bringing people out of their bad moods. They had done it to Mananan more than once.
“We’ll be back tonight. I promise,” Mananan said. He and Bayn walked through the castle and outside into the cold air. “I need to kill something, Bayn, before I lose my mind. It came for her. If I hadn’t taken her with me…”
Bayn put a hand on his arm. “Don’t think like that. You kept her safe. There is no way it will touch her. We will find it, and we’ll kill it.”
“I feel like I’m losing my mind,” Mananan admitted helplessly.
“Welcome to mated life.” Bayn’s smile was as sharp as his daggers. “Now, get your war face on, and let’s go kill some shit.”
23
Ella cried herself to sleep within an hour. Rationally, she knew it wasn’t her fault that the lighthouse was gone, but she still felt all the guilt from her ancestors. It had been there for centuries, and now it was gone on her watch. She didn’t know what to do, and she fell asleep, wishing that she had her grandmother to talk to.
The dream came on her slowly with the crashing of waves in her ears. Ella followed the sound, and she found herself standing on her beach. The sun was setting, and Deidra was standing with her feet in the water. She was dressed in one of the summer dresses she had loved and wore a purple pointed hat that made her look particularly witchy.
“Come and feel the water with me, Marella,” Deidra called.
Ella pulled off her shoes and went to stand with her. The water was unnaturally warm as it trickled through her toes and sank her into the sand.
“The lighthouse is gone. I fucked up,” Ella said, her voice cracking.
Deidra pulled a joint from behind her ear and sparked it up. It was a habit that Ella had never picked up, but she didn’t begrudge her grandmother wanting to use something to dull her magic.
“My love, I’m going to tell you something, and you’re going to pout about it,” Deidra said, blowing out a plume of smoke. “Fuck the damn lighthouse. It was just a building. Sure, the family lived in it for centuries and all of that. It was a sanctuary for me, but it's an anchor to you. Always has been. I expected you to leave as soon as you could, and yet, you haven’t moved a damn inch.”
“But it's the Scarth Lighthouse! There needs to be a Scarth living in it,” Ella argued.
“Bullshit. You weren’t put on this earth to turn off the lights, Marella. Fuck it. You need to start somethingnew. You were never like the rest of us. You have wild magic that you keep locked up. And this fucking town will never appreciate it.” Deidra took her by the shoulders and gave her a shake. “Why rebuild and come back here just to be sad? You deserve more than this. Look at that fine man in your life now? You have the opportunity to live the kind of life none of us could dream of. Why let the lighthouse be your anchor? You don’t need it, Marella. You shine bright enough on your own.”
Ella pulled her arms around herself. “I can’t believe you never said any of this to me when you were alive.”
