Ignoring the pang of nerves in my center, I placed the flame under the box. The metal heated quickly, singeing my fingertips. I ignored the pain and tried to focus all my attention on the potion. I wasn’t sure how long I had before the flare petered out, but I knew I had only minutes before I was totally out of options.
While I worked, I was vaguely aware that Morales had stepped back to watch me. I didn’t have the luxury of feeling self-conscious about it, but it felt as intimate as him knowing my darkest secrets.
Lifting the box high, I willed the moon to speed the process. I closed my eyes and imagined a stream of neon magic zapping from the moon to the little box. A tingle of energy sizzled up from my chest, through my arms, and into my burning fingertips. Electricity shocked my fingers and pain burst behind my eyes.
A shock attacked my hands and the box leaped from my grasp. My eyes flew open in time to see it splash into the water. The potion sizzled, and a bright blue pool of light flashed before going dark.
“Shit.” Rubbing my stinging hands together, I glanced at Morales with a heart sinking as fast as our last chance.
His face fell and he glanced at the moon like it was his biggest enemy. I suppose at the moment it ranked pretty high on the list.
I dropped to my knees on the platform. In the distance a few lights were still illuminated in Babylon’s office towers despite the late hour. All across the city, hundreds of thousands of people slept peacefully in their beds. Children dreamed of jack-o’-lanterns and bags full of candy. Night-shift workers yawned and hurried to complete their work so they could clock out and head home. Junkies huddled in doorways, their eyes rolling back in their heads from the high of a potion-fix mixed with the Blue Moon’s rising power.
Kneeling on that platform with Morales and a passed-out madman, I’d never felt so alone.
“I told you it wouldn’t work,” I said in a low, savage tone. I couldn’t look at him.
“Kate, I—”
The entire platform swayed, as if lifted by a large wave. The unexpected movement threw off my equilibrium. I fell toward the bomb, grabbing the bracket out of instinct.
“What the fuck?” Morales yelled. His arms were outspread, and he crouched to keep from tumbling over.
“Morales—it’s her!” Hope bloomed in my chest. Rogue waves didn’t just appear in the middle of a lake—unless something under the water caused them.
At that moment a large, black hump crested out of the water, followed by a loud splash not fifty feet from our suddenly very small platform.
Cold fear and hot hope swept under my skin. Lake Erie wasn’t home to whales or dolphins. I’d heard some large catfish lived in the deep waters, but the spiked tail I’d seen didn’t belong to a fish. It belonged to a monster.
Another wave—smaller this time—rocked the platform. The monster was circling, trying to decide on the best approach.
A loud gasp sounded behind me. I turned to see Dionysus’s head jerk up and his unfocused eyes go wide. “Wh—what’s happening?”
Now that I’d managed to summon the monster I’d invited to the party, I realized with a start that I had no idea how to control the beast.
“Cut the raft off the buoy!” I yelled at my partner. He jumped to do what I asked without question.
The monster roared and leaped into the air a good way from the raft. The hulking shape made my mouth fall open.
“Four minutes,” Morales yelled, coming to stand beside me.
Underneath the instinctive fear, the kernels of a plan began to form. The kind of plan born of desperation, gut-wrenching terror, and lack of options.
The beast emerged from the depths again. This time a large head broke the surface. I had a quick impression of large yellow eyes and a gaping mouth filled with a few rows of sharp teeth. From the triple nostrils large plumes of water shot up into the night air. And above this terrifying image, the Blue Moon watched in judgment from the sky. It seemed to say: “Be careful what you wish for.”
Another crest of water exploded beside the buoy. The wake threw my body through the air. “Kate!” Morales screamed.
I landed in the cold drink with a splash. My head went under; water shot up my nose, choking me. I couldn’t tell which way was up or down. But if I didn’t act fast I’d drown. Kicking my legs with every bit of strength I had left, I burst above the surface for a brief, victorious moment. I gasped in a lungful of air.
“Moral—”
My scream was swallowed by the water. Something tugged on my leg, pulling me farther underwater. I looked up, yearning for the surface.
Despite my body’s instinctive struggle for air, in my brain a small voice urged me to just surrender. Maybe Dionysus had it right all along. Life shouldn’t be a constant struggle, but lately it seemed to be nothing but one conflict after another. Ever since I’d joined the MEA—my dream job, I’d thought—I’d been forced to choose between my principles and the Arcane demands of the job.
I could just let go. Sink down. Let the abyss swallow me.
I closed my eyes.
Pain in my lungs, desperate for air. For life.
An air bubble escaped my mouth. Another tug. Stronger this time.
My eyes snapped open. The bright orb of the Blue Moon shimmered through the water, lighting my path toward the surface. Morales’s words came back to me: If you don’t try what will happen?
The thing I’d managed to successfully ignore this entire time suddenly loomed larger than the monster. Danny and Pen were in that city. Baba, Rufus, and everyone else I cared about. If I gave up now, they’d all suffer. My surrender would doom them all.
I kicked hard with both feet. Yearned for the surface with my grasping hands. My foot made contact with something solid, again. Again. And then, miraculously, I was loose, swimming like a wild mermaid toward the surface.
I burst out of the water, and panic fueled my arms to scramble for the edge of the platform. My eyes were blurry with dirty water. I struggled to reach the edge of the platform. Exhaustion threatened to pull me under again.
A warm hand grabbed mine and hauled me from the water like the catch of the day. The wood dug into my solar plexus, knocking what little air I had from my lungs. But I didn’t care as long as I wasn’t in the water with the monster anymore.
Morales grabbed me in a fast, hard hug.
“Jesus that was close,” he gasped. His face was pale from blood loss, and his eyes searched the water for the beast.
I grabbed his wrist. According to his watch, we only had a minute and fifteen seconds left.