Page 44 of Summer L.A.W.

But Mason had heard the whisper, felt the pull. And whatever waited out there in those Tennessee hills had just sent him an invitation.

12

The highway was a gray ribbon through the dark, the kind of nowhere stretch that made Mason wonder if the world was looping on itself. He’d been driving since before dawn, caffeine doing battle with exhaustion, both losing.

The compass rode shotgun on the passenger seat, glowing with that faint blue pulse that felt too much like a heartbeat. Every few miles it brightened, and the car radio answered with a burst of static that made the hairs on his arms stand up. At least it kept him awake.

He should’ve turned around hours ago. Instead, he gripped the wheel tighter.

“Talking to pools,” he muttered. “Now following a magic, blue neon light. You’re an idiot, Tidewell.”

The dashboard clock blinked 4:07 A.M. The last service station had been fifty miles back, and the next one seemed even more mythical. He drove past an empty diner whose sign still flashed EAT in red neon, like a command. No cars. No people. Just the hiss of his tires on asphalt and that faint, steady glow in his peripheral vision.

When he finally dared to glance at the compass, the needle wasn’t pointing north. It was locked on a direction, vibrating. He tapped the glass. It didn’t move.

“South-by-south-crazy,” he said.

A mist gathered on the road ahead. At first, it was ordinary fog, the kind that clung to low ground before sunrise. Then it thickened—rolling, liquid silver. For one impossible second, waves broke across the blacktop, white foam curling where the centerline should be. The windshield wipers swept through empty air. By the time he blinked, the ocean was gone.

Mason exhaled through his mouth. “Okay. Sure. Hallucinate responsibly, sailor. Get a bite to eat at the next opportunity.”

He drove on.

Crystal floated in a world made of water and half-remembered dreams. When she opened her eyes, the surface above her shimmered like glass. Her body drifted, but she couldn’t feel the pull of gravity, couldn’t tell up from down. The water glowed blue around her, matching the light that emanated faintly beneath her skin. Her veins. Her magic.

She lifted her hand, or thought she did, and the motion sent spirals of light across the dark. When she tried to speak, air turned to bubbles, and the bubbles formed words that weren’t entirely hers.

“He’s coming,” they whispered, their voices soft as surf.

A shape materialized in the murk. A woman formed from current and shadow. Long hair undulated like seaweed, eyes gleaming white then blue-black. The Sea Witch smiled, teeth sharp as shells.

“Oh, I know,” the woman said. “You called him.”

Crystal tried to back away, but there was no direction to retreat to. The water folded in on itself, pressure building behind her ribs. Images flared. She saw Mason behind a steering wheel, the compass blazing, headlights cutting through fog. Each image rippled outward, and she felt a tether tightening between them.

“I didn’t mean to,” she gasped. The bubbles carried her words away, and the Witch caught them delicately between her fingers.

“Intent is such a surface thing,” the creature murmured. “What matters is depth.”

The current seized Crystal, spinning her through the dark until she didn’t know what was dream and what was memory. Somewhere inside the roar, she heard another heartbeat. Mason’s. Close, insistent. And beneath it, something else. Heavy. Ancient. Following the same thread she’d thrown into the world without meaning to.

She tried to scream, but the ocean swallowed the sound.

“Wake up, Crystal!”

Magda shook her gently, but she continued to writhe.

“That’s not how you wake a sleeping witch…” Sahara said.

“What do you want me to do? Kiss her?”

Joell huffed and strode to Crystal’s side. She picked her up, slung her over one shoulder, and carried her down the Mansion’s magnificent staircase.

Crystal’s silver-tipped seagull familiar followed, screaming at Joell.

“Shut up, Bird.”

“I wonder why Crystal never gave her familiar a real name?” Magda asked from behind.