She was standing on the same beach she and Harrison had fled from the day before. Today, at low tide and with only the lightest breeze coming off the sea, it was idyllic. The sun shone on the small waves, glittering as they broke on the tiny beach and the rocks to either side of it. The sand was warmed by the sun. Even the cave looked welcoming.
Lainie could hardly believe that this was the same place where she’d stood, shivering, trying to decide whether to risk racing over the cliff path and being swept off, or hiding
in the cave and succumbing to hypothermia.
She and Harrison had walked along that path just half an hour ago. It was lovely. At no point had she been terrified that a wave would pick her up and slam her to bits on the rocks.
They’d searched the cave first, of course. They hadn’t found anything, not even the remains of whatever box or crate Lainie had knocked off its secret shelf. The waves had washed everything away.
Lainie had been ready to give up hope, but then Harrison had paused, a distant look on his face. And he’d smiled.
He’d told her that Jools, the girl who’d been her waitress the first night she spent in Hideaway, had found something. She’d been flying—oh, had he mentioned she was a gull shifter?—and seen something glittering in the water. A necklace.
Now, less than an hour later, the water was full of animals. No, not animals—shifters. She tried to count them through the waves, but couldn’t. She knew there was a sea-lion shifter somewhere out there, and Jools and her brothers and sisters were alternatively flying above the water and diving into it. She was pretty sure there was a ray on the team, as well. A ray! She’d never even seen one of those before, not outside of Finding Nemo.
And there was Harrison. She had thought he would join the gulls in the sky, and he had—and then, like them, he’d dived beneath the waves.
Why are you surprised? She’d asked herself. A griffin is, what—part eagle, part big cat? Both of those species go in the water sometimes. Well, some species of eagle, at least. And some cats.
Besides. Until yesterday, you didn’t know that griffins existed. Now that you know they do, why is anything about them surprising?
A black-striped gull swooped down from the sky and landed beside Lainie, transforming into a young woman.
“Jools!” Lainie cried. “I—oh, you’re naked.” She blushed and covered her eyes.
“Jeez, don’t worry about that,” Jools said breezily. “Harrison sent me over to pass on a message. He says they’ve found something!”
Hope filled Lainie’s chest. “Did he say what it was?”
“He says…” Jools’ eyes went unfocused, as though she was listening to something far away. “He says it’s the box, or, most of it. Maybe. He’s bringing it up now.”
Lainie turned wide-eyed to look at the water. A dark shape formed under the waves, growing larger as she watched. At last it broke through the waves.
Harrison was in his griffin form. Saltwater sheeted off the feathers of his head and fore-legs, and then off his wings as he spread them above the waves. His eyes were more gold than hazel, burning with pride.
He was holding a small, brass-bound wooden chest in one massive claw.
“Harrison!” Lainie cried out, racing down the beach towards him. Her feet sank into the sand, slowing her down. By the time she reached Harrison, he had transformed, and had arms for her to fall into.
“Lainie,” he breathed into her hair, dripping saltwater all over her. “I haven’t looked inside it yet. And it’s broken. I don’t want you to get your hopes up…”
“It’s too late for that.” Lainie took the chest as he offered it to her. It was heavier than she expected. Please let that mean it’s full, and not just water-logged, she begged silently.
She staggered back up to dry sand and dropped to her knees with the chest. Harrison jogged up the beach to where a pile of clothes marked where he and the rest of the search-party had shifted earlier, and pulled on a pair of pants. Then he joined her, his hand on her back. She looked up at him. “Ready?”
He smiled back. “Ready.”
The chest had a heavy lock on it. The lock was still intact, but the wood was mostly rotten. At one corner, it was completely rotted through.
“That must be where the ring fell out,” Lainie said.
“And the necklace Jools found,” Harrison added.
“Well, I don’t think there’s much point calling for a locksmith,” Lainie joked. She traced the design on the face of the lock. “Wait a minute…”
She rummaged in her pocket and pulled out her keys. There it was: the small silver key that had been folded into her grandmother’s will, according to the lawyer who’d given it to Lainie. She’d wondered what it was for. The will hadn’t mentioned it at all.
Lainie inserted the key into the lock and held her breath as the twisted it. Click.