Page 16 of Wateredge

She nodded at Ceridwen, whose dark eyes closed at the statement. Hell, Seren knew the feeling as well. It was like a call, like someone’s voice was out there in the empty darkness , and your name was all they could say. It was like the vastness of the universe reaching for you. It would come suddenly. Sometimes when Ceridwen was in a particular kind of mood, she’d cast her circle herself. A smaller one, for the equinox, usually. And no matter where on the island Seren was, she’d know it. She’d feel it. She’d sense that pull on her heart, her whole being filling with power to the brim, to the edge, needing to release, needing to expel some of it.

Seren did not enjoy the sensation, but then the circle was both a blessing and a curse. It was not meant to be enjoyed. It was meant to be lived. And life had pieces of both pain and joy. At least that’s how she chose to see it.

Other times, when Ceridwen needed her, they would join hands and Seren would open herself to power. On those nights, she’d jump into the ocean and swim for what felt like hours, exhausting her body to match the emptiness that bloodletting magic caused her.

She never once had the courage to ask Ceridwen what the circle did for her. It was odd to just now wonder about it, almost fifteen years after she was allowed to help cast her first one.

“Yes, I know the feeling very well.” Ceridwen’s murmur drew Seren out of her musings.

Rhiannon visibly shivered and went on.

“And then she was there, at the edge, alone, bloody, spent.” Rhiannon’s voice broke, and tears she had been holding back rolled down her cheeks, her mascara leaving long black streaks, somehow making it both worse and better. For all her winds, Seren had rarely seen Rhiannon disheveled on a very elemental level. Her heart was never on her sleeve, her emotions, as violent as they could be, locked behind doors Seren could not begin to understand. Yet here she was, at her most disarrayed, even in comparison to the time she put out the Atelier fire.

“She simply looked at me. She looked at me and said your name. And then she let go.” Rhiannon looked at Ceridwen, and Seren saw the remaining color in her oldest sister’s cheeks drain.

“Have you told me this before?” Ceridwen’s words were barely audible.

“I don’t know. Did we ever talk before?” Rhiannon’s small smile was tainted with bitterness. Seren might’ve been thirteen at the time, but she knew her sisters were at each other’s throats twenty-two years ago. Rhiannon’s wildness, her impulsiveness, and Ceridwen’s unbending nature had always been at odds. The Wind and the Earth.

Deryn chose to set it all on fire and leave. Seren just went with the flow. It occurred to her that their elements had always been perversely appropriate for who they were as people. Ceridwen—steady and supportive, carrying the heavy loads and burdens. Rhiannon—wild and free, disastrous and dangerous, yet vital and refreshing. Deryn—peaceable yet terrifying, life-changing and volatile. Then there was Seren, at thirty-five she still had no idea what her role was. Water was so many things at once. She looked outside to the snow falling in large flakes, settling over an island that would be buried in it by tomorrow morning. Beautiful, sure, and yet if left unchecked… deadly.

She squared her shoulders. Rhiannon and Ceridwen were still watching each other, silence palpable in the air between them. A comforting petrichor tinged with the faint scent of fresh grass lay on all the surfaces around them.

“I don’t know how anyone remembers anything from that night. I was half-mad when I saw her.” Victoria rested her hands on the table, fingers splayed, tense and trembling. “And when I pulled you up from the brink, you were calling Ceridwen’s name too, Rhy. Whether it was because Elizabeth did, or you needed her there, I don’t know.”

Victoria reached for Ceridwen’s across the table.

“And I hope you don’t blame yourself.”

Ceridwen’s laughter was brittle, shards of glass falling on the floor.

“In my heart, I know that I shouldn’t. She was adamant about me not being there, about staying at college, about having my own life, my own fate. And yet, had I been here… Would she have died?”

“I guess that depends entirely on why and how she died,” Victoria said and stood up. And now Seren could feel the silence all the way in her bones, rattling her marrow.

“We always assumed the circle killed her. Casting while exhausted and sick. Casting alone…” Rhiannon crumpled a napkin in her fingers.

“And yet she’d been telling all of us for days that she would not be alone. And this morning, when I saw Lark, I saw your mother. And she was not alone.” Victoria’s words were level, emotionless. The finality in them settled like dirt over a grave.

Ceridwen’s sob was loud. Seren felt hot tears on her own face, running unchecked, scalding her. Deryn’s eyes were closed. Rhiannon’s knuckles were white.

“I don’t know whom I saw, just that Elizabeth was not alone on the cliff before she went over. Before Rhy tried to reach her. Before… Before. And I think I need time, time to think and time with Lark to figure things out. To understand why I was shown what I was shown. And what comes next.

“So you see why I need to take care of the girl? Though, honestly, even if she had nothing to do with us, or any of this, do you really think I’d throw her out in the cold?” Victoria leaned heavily on the counter even as she turned away from her nieces. Seren could see the exhaustion in the heavy set of her thin, almost precariously so, shoulders.

“We don’t even know her last name.” Deryn sighed and reached for the last hunk of bread.

“It’s Thibodeaux.”

Seren turned so fast, she almost gave herself whiplash. Lark stood in the doorway, illuminated by the candlelight from the guest bedroom behind her and the hearth in front of her. Her face was drawn and pale, yet her eyes shone with the distinct light of determination.

6

LARK, FLAKY COD & BRAVERY IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE

EARLY TOURIST SEASON ANOMALY OR NEW NORMAL?

As predicted, this February on Dragons is proving to be one for the record books, with the Resort drawing in a considerable number of tourists and local bed and breakfasts all opening much earlier to full bookings.