I didn’t wait three hundred and twenty-seven years to swim in the ocean again just to drown in it. KICK, Saffie, KICK.
But my legs were already tired. I kicked my legs to try and keep my head above water but there was no land in sight. I looked left and right and over my shoulders…and found only horizon. The ocean surrounded me everywhere I looked. Somewhere in the back of my mind I was screaming with joy that I was actually finally free. My curse had been broken. My memories were back. A huge part of me was overwhelmingly relieved…I just needed to live.
The sun shined down bright on me. I hissed as something glistened like a spotlight from my hand — wait. I looked to my hand and gasped. Keltie’s ring. I felt for my ear and almost cried when I found Keltie’s earring hugging the cuff of my ear. Another huge wave loomed over my head. I sucked in a deep breath then dove under the water and under the roll of the wave.
When I broke back through the surface, I sucked in a gasp of salty air and then held my ring to my ear. KELTIE? KELTIE CAN YOU HEAR ME? HELP ME!
Keltie, where are you when I need — I gasped as realization hit me. I knew exactly where Keltie was. She was in Salem pretending to be a photography teacher. Everything had happened so fast I hadn’t had time to process my old memories with the ones I’d made the last couple weeks. Keltie had been there in Hidden Kingdom when The Coven broke my curse and then she was in Salem. I knew she’d gone there to help me – why didn’t she see who Riah really was?
A wave slammed into me from behind and dragged me under.
As I fought for the surface I tried to remember the last time I’d seen Keltie…it was at Landreia’s on Christmas Eve…she’d stopped by to — I gasped. She’d stopped by to give Landreia this jewelry to give me. I knew it without a doubt — to connect me to Tegan! That’s it! That’s how they were there with the polar bears.
I squeezed the jewelry together again and closed my eyes, but this time I focused my thoughts on Tegan.
Bright light flashed in my eyes. I gasped. “TEGAN!”
But then I opened my eyes and found only sunshine. No rainbow magic. No black leather. Nothing. No one. No. No. NO. I didn’t understand how they hadn’t found me here yet when they’d just found me in the other place. Except I couldn’t just float there waiting for someone to save me. I was in the middle of the ocean without some kind of floatation device. I needed to think. There was a way out of this, I just had to find it. Because this was not how it was going to end. If I could just find something to float on long enough to get my wings out of the water, I could fly—
Something ice cold wrapped around my ankle and yanked me down. I screamed and sank beneath the water. Bubbles burst from my mouth as the ocean surged by me. I tried to kick free but something else gripped my other leg and shoved my legs together. My pulse quickened. I dove down to fight off whatever sea demon had me – and froze.
It wasn’t a demon or a shark…it was a… person.
Two persons.
And they were not alive.
Their bodies were transparent and glowing a pale blue, just like all those spirits I’d seen in Salem. Just like Bridget Bishop’s spirit. For a moment the two spirits and I just stared at each other. But then the one holding my left ankle reached up and grabbed my left wrist. It pointed with its transparent fingers to the Mark on my arm and my eyes widened.
DEATH.
OH MY GODDESS. I AM DEATH!
The world spun around me. I’d had the Mark for weeks, since right before my curse was broken, but with my memory gone I’d forgotten what it meant. But now I do. I’m Death. I’m in The Coven. HOLY HELL I’M IN THE COVEN. My brain was screaming. My heart pounding. My eyes burned like they wanted to cry but I was under water.
I’m Death.
I …am Death.
And then it hit me. The Death Card communicated with the dead. With spirits. Suddenly everything that happened in Salem made so much more sense. The spirits…that séance. I shuddered and then I was flying up through the water. Fresh, warm air rushed over my face and I gasped, sucking it in. I choked on the air and my throat burned.
I wiped my face then looked down to the spirits still holding my legs.
They stared up at me with big transparent glowing eyes…and then lifted me higher out of the water until only my legs were under. Their ghostly faces were just above the surface of the water and still glowing bright pale blue.
“Hi,” I said with a cough. I cleared my throat. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” the one on the right said. I noticed she had pig-tail braids. “Sorry we scared you.”
I laughed in a short burst. What a year this has been. The weird thing was, other than not expecting being grabbed in the middle of the ocean, I was not afraid of them. I’d never feared death or the dead, spirits had always been around in Salem. My time as an amnesiac didn’t count.
And now the XIII Mark on my arm took any ounce of apprehension away.
“Can you breathe now? Are you hurt?” The other spirit said softly. Definitely a young male’s voice though his hair draped long over his ghostly shoulders.
I nodded and tried to catch my breath. “Y-yes, thank you. I’m okay.” My pulse was beating wildly.
The spirits just watched me patiently.
My heart sank. I wondered just how long their souls had been lost here, waiting for something to set them free. My gut told me it’d been quite some time.
“Hey, can you lift me up a little higher?” I licked my lips and pointed to my wings behind me. “Maybe I can fly out of here.”
They smiled and then I flew up until my knees hit the surface. I shook my wings out. Water dripped from them as I watched them flash and sparkle – my jaw dropped. These were my wings. The ones I was born with. The ones that mostly just looked like a collection of stars behind my back, like glitter in the air…not those pink ones from while I was cursed.
Tears filled my eyes but I blinked them away. I’m back. I’m ME. I wanted to find my mother. To find Uncle Leyka…to tell them I’d made it. But first I had to get the hell out of here. I tried for a few minutes to get my wings to work but they were just too wet. My wings had never liked water, it made them too heavy to fly with.
I cursed and looked back to the spirits. “It’s not working. Do you know where land is?”
They looked to each other, then shook their heads.
But then the young boy’s eyes widened. “But there’s a ship!”
The girl gasped. “YES! We’ll take you, hold on!”
Before I could argue or ask questions, they dragged me through the water. They moved with alarming speed, faster than I could keep track of but water splashed around me. With no land around, I couldn’t even tell how far or fast we were going, but my hair flew behind me like a cape and my wings fluttered. My eyelashes swayed. We moved in and out of patches of sunlight and cloud cover. The salt coming off the ocean stung my eyes, so I closed them and shielded my face.
Finally, we stopped moving.
The boy tugged on my left hand, then whispered, “we’re here, miss.”
I opened my eyes and choked on a gasp.
It was a massive ship made of dark wood with red accents and black sails. It had black flags with skulls on them. Some kind of lantern hung off the back and the sides had openings for huge cannons. A cold chill slid down my spine as we floated along the side.