The remaining agent pointed at me. “I’ll go last. You’re next. You look like you’re gonna hurl if you don’t get off soon.”
I gave Jaxson an apprehensive look, then shimmed myself so I was balanced precariously on the side of the rocking Zodiac. Devi gave me a broad grin and two thumbs-ups. “See you on the bottom!”
After making sure the talisman was safely secured in my zip pocket, I put my hand on my mask and took a deep breath. “Bombs away!”
I launched myself backward and hit the water with an icy splash. When I surfaced, Jaxson was leaning over the side. “You all right?”
I gave the okay sign. “Yeah, but I’m beginning see why you hate the water. Here I go.”
With my hand on the silver line, I did a half dive and descended into the cool, dark lake.
Kicking with my boots should have been almost impossible, but they jetted me downward like a pair of fins. Apparently, the appellation Swiftley applied underwater as well.
Within seconds, I’d caught up to the agent ahead of me and slowed my kicking. The hazy light faded as we descended, though the headlamp and my werewolf vision compensated for the darkness and allowed me to make out faint shapes.
Slowly, the bottom resolved into view as we reached the rocky side of Bentham Island.
Ethan’s light flashed below. He’d tied the line off to an old bit of rebar, but he was twenty feet over, waving his hands. The agent ahead of me cleared off the line and, careful to not stir up the sediment, swam over to Ethan to help illuminate his work.
Jaxson and I followed to make room.
Ethan was weaving his hands in the water, tracing runes over the rocks, much as Damian had done in Mexico. I assumed he was reciting a spell, but he’d turned his coms off.
Slowly, the stone began to glow, and then the runes dissolved in a sparkle of gold light, revealing a round white hatch with a crank wheel in the middle of it. Ethan touched his mask to switch on his coms. “I have to unl—k the spells prote—ing the door. This will take a couple m—tes. Hold tight, and—n’t swim off.”
He nodded to Devi and the last agent as they swam over, then returned to tracing golden lines on the hatch. I shivered from the cold. Hopefully, this would go quickly.
With nothing to do but wait, I looked out into the dim waters surrounding the base of the island. Trash was nestled everywhere among the rocks. An old tire. Bits of wood covered with zebra mussels. A plastic six-pack holder. Corroded cans.
My mouth went sour with disgust. People were horrible.
Something flickered in the distance, and my pulse skipped a beat. I peered through the gloom. My werewolf eyes allowed me to pick out the details of a jumble of old wood resting on the rocks.
Then it happened again—a faint flash of pale green.
My heartbeat accelerated, and I grabbed Jaxson’s hand.
His voice crackled over the intercom. “What is it?”
I shook my head. “Just thought I saw something.”
Devi and the others tensed and looked around.
It happened again, but this time, instead of a flash, it was a rolling image that appeared for a second and faded away. A translucent wooden boat positioned where the timber lay.
My breath caught. It was an old shipwreck. I’d seen a ghost ship.
I shivered again, this time not from the cold.
Suddenly, the wound on my shoulder began to itch and throb. I turned around as an apparition moved toward me across the rocks—the ghost of a sailor. His face was drawn, and his ethereal skin was rotting.
My stomach turned.
For one second, he looked at me, and I heard him speak in my mind. Beware, young lass: it took our ship, and now it’s coming for you!
Just as quickly as he’d come, the ghost disappeared.
Fear iced my skin, and I squeezed Jaxson’s hand. “Something’s coming, and I don’t think it’s good.”
Ethan paused and toggled his mic. “I’m al—st done. Don’t get jumpy.”
I twisted back to glare at him. “I’m not jumpy. A ghost just told me the thing that killed him is coming our way.”
“A ghost?” Devi asked.
“Everybo—get ready,” Jaxson said. “This is real.”
His body hardened next to mine, and he moved slightly in front of me, even though we had no idea which way the thing was coming from.
I felt it first, like a current rising and pushing against us. Something big enough to disturb the water column. I looked back at the flickering image of the shipwreck. Shit.
I began summoning my magic. “Whatever is coming, it’s big enough to sink a ship.”
“Get that h—tch open, Ethan,” Jaxson growled over the crackling coms.