Page 9 of Summer L.A.W.

Crystal nodded. “Felt it in my bones too. Still do.”

Joell’s voice was calm, but her eyes had sharpened. “And you didn’t think to mention you’d met this witch before?”

Crystal met her gaze without flinching. “I buried the memory—or rather, Bas did, for a reason. The Sutherland encounter wasn’t exactly tea party material, and everyone on board had to be spellbound to forget it. But maybe she lifted it from me, later. Anyway, now the sea-witch is back. And this time, she’s not coming for me on a ship.”

The room went quiet except for the pop of the fire.

Magda set her book down. “Then we need to decide whether we’re going to her or waiting for her to come here.”

Crystal glanced at the window, where the night pressed in thick and cold. “Trust me,” she said, “she already knows exactly where I am.”

Joell closed her book and said with a quietness that spoke of secrets, “I wasn’t supposed to tell you, but you might as well know…”

Crystal’s brows lifted, and she waited silently for whatever bombshell was about to drop from Joell’s mouth.

“The league has been watching you for years. There’s something about you… You and the sea. That’s probably what drew you to the Royal Navy in the first place. I was new to the league when you experienced the sea-witch encounter, but Bas filled us in… And then swore us to secrecy.”

Crystal’s lips thinned to a tight line, and she glared at her fellow witches.

“Don’t look at me in that tone of voice!” Brianna cried. “I’m new here, and nobody tells me anything.”

Crystal sighed. “Brilliant. What else have you kept from me?”

Joell crossed her arms. “Look, it was for your own good. They needed to watch for any latent water or navigational magic. They withheld the full file to avoid shaping your trajectory.”

Crystal focused on Sahara. “You knew about this?”

“Yes.”

“Magda?”

“Of course. Did you think our meeting was a coincidence?”

Crystal rolled her eyes. “Now I feel like a right idiot.”

“Don’t,” Sahara said. “You know the saying, When the student is ready, the teacher appears?”

Crystal didn’t respond verbally, but her slow nod let them know she was mulling that over while acknowledging the question.

“Well, you’re ready,” Sahara said. “You’re descended from sea witches.”

“Fabulous,” Crystal muttered.

A briny wind whipped through the library, ruffling the pages of open books and making the candles flicker.

“And just in time too, it would seem,” Magda added.

A sharp THUMP rattled the tall sea-facing windows before anyone could address Magda’s comment. The witches, except for Joell, startled. The fire gave an ominous crackle.

“That’s not the wind,” Crystal said.

Another hit, harder this time, made the glass shiver in its frame. Somewhere deep in the walls, the wards hummed low and menacing, like a big dog deciding whether or not to bite.

Brianna muttered, “If that’s another fake familiar, I quit,” and headed for the back door. She cracked it open and froze.

Standing on the patio was the hot plumber, dripping seawater and looking like he’d just wrestled Poseidon for a parking space.

“You again?” Brianna said, eyebrows arching.