Magic Rises

won’t give you that much access.”
    “Not only that, but if you become Friend of the Pack and then sink your ship with us on board, the shapeshifters can’t come after you,” I said.
    “Do you really think I would drown you, Kate?”
    “In a heartbeat,” I told him. “You still owe me, Saiman.”
    “And I’m trying to work with you, but you must meet me halfway.”
    “No,” I said. “You won’t be getting Friend of the Pack status until we return.”
    Saiman smiled. “Then we’re at an impasse.”
    We looked at each other.
    “What if I come with you?”
    “What?” I must’ve misheard.
    “I’ll join you on your wonderful adventure, Kate. That way, if our vessel does sink, I cannot be blamed, because I was on board.”
    “Why would you be doing this?” Curran asked.
    “I’m overdue for a trip to the Mediterranean. I have business interests there.”
    “No,” I said.
    The two men looked at me.
    “It’s not a bad idea,” Curran said.
    “Have you two gone crazy? This is a horrible idea. First, the two of you hate each other.”
    “I don’t hate him.” Saiman shrugged. “It’s too strong a word.”
    “If I hated him, he’d be dead,” Curran said.
    They were nuts. “How long does it take to cross the Atlantic?”
    Saiman frowned. “Depends on the magic waves, but generally between twelve and eighteen days.”
    I turned to Curran. “We’ll be stuck together on a small boat for at least two weeks. What happens when on day two he gets bored?”
    “It will be fine,” Curran said. “We can handle it. If he gets out of hand, we’ll tie him to the mast.”
    Saiman gave him a derisive look. “We will be taking the Rush . It runs on enchanted water, steam, and diesel. It doesn’t have a mast strong enough to hold me.”
    Curran exhaled. “Then we’ll lock you in a cellar.”
    “Brig,” Saiman corrected.
    “Whatever.” Curran dismissed it with a wave of his hand.
    “Draw up a formal contract,” I said. Saiman was egotistical and sometimes cowardly, but he had a ridiculously strong work ethic. If we could lock him in with a contract, he wouldn’t break it.
    “Oh, we will,” Curran assured me. “Let’s talk numbers.”
    Fifteen minutes later a satisfied Saiman left, escorted by Shawn. He was carrying his suitcase and ours. He was happy, the Beast Lord was happy, so why was I so uneasy?
    “You’ll regret this,” I told Curran.
    “I know. We don’t have a choice. We have to get the panacea.” He leaned over and kissed me. “I love you. Thank you for the ship. Thank you for doing this with me.”
    A little thrill ran through me. “I love you, too.”
    Getting the panacea meant that each baby born to the Pack would have a forty percent better chance of survival. It meant Maddie could become herself again. To make this happen, Curran would swallow his pride. He’d make a deal with Saiman, he’d bargain with Carpathians who had humiliated him, he’d cross the Atlantic and half a continent. And I would back him up every step of the way. Curran was responsible for the welfare of the Pack, and so was I.
    “We have to get the panacea,” I agreed. That was all there was to it.

CHAPTER 5

    The caravan of Pack vehicles roared and thundered down the road. The magic was up full force and enchanted water engines belched so much noise, all of the windows were closed. Curran drove. In the backseat Barabas and Derek sat next to each other.
    We left Julie in the Keep. She wanted to come and then she didn’t want to. We said our good-byes. She hugged me and cried, so desperate and sad that I almost cried with her. I sat with her for twenty minutes, until finally we couldn’t delay any longer. She was still crying when I walked out. I hoped this wouldn’t be my last memory of her.
    Somehow I always managed to screw things up when it came to Julie.
    The highway snaked its way through a flat salt marsh. Reeds and grasses swayed gently, giving us a glimpse of wet mud exposed as low tide sucked the water out of the marsh. A sign flashed by, a yellow diamond with a turtle on it, followed immediately by another sign, a triangle bordered in red. A turtle in the center of the triangle had a dark cone touching its mouth.
    “What does that mean?” Barabas asked from the backseat.
    “Magic turtle crossing.”
    “I got that one, but what about the second one?”
    “Beware the magic turtles.”
    “Why?”
    “They spit fire.”
    Curran chuckled to himself.
    The road turned. We shot