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For Zeke’s part, she didn’t want to embarrass him.

She had seen enough of men of all species to know they carried a lot of pride.

Particularly the warriors. They didn’t like being seen in moments of what might be perceived as weakness, and she wouldn’t draw unnecessary attention to Zeke when he was still recovering from whatever shocking thing he’d witnessed when touching that lamp.

No matter how curious she was about what he’d seen.

She had the distinct impression that she wouldn’t want to hear the details, though in her heart, she knew she must. She needed to know everything about how her parents had died.

No matter if it upset her or not. She owed them that much—to investigate until she had every possible scrap of information so that she could hunt down their killer and avenge their deaths.

Zeke recovered his composure as the others got on board and took their places. There was a flurry of radio chatter, and then, her grandfather sat down near her, though he was speaking to the Army guys.

“Reports of strange boating activity a little too close for comfort,” Gramps told the other men.

“We’d better get this show on the road,” Liam said as he got on board. He gave the signal to cast off, and then, they were back on the water, heading for the island.

“They were watching us,” Zeke said, clearing his throat to speak to Liam.

“Come again?” Liam asked, his gaze shooting to Zeke.

“That lamp had some kind of magical mojo on it. I think it was telling the mage, or whoever, that we were there. I think the boat activity is the response. Either we outrun them or we might have a confrontation on the water in our very near future.”

“Well, fuck,” Liam muttered.

He went forward in the boat to issue orders to the man driving and the other shifters at his command.

Weapons were discreetly pulled out and checked while everyone seemed to take up defensive positions around the sides of the boat.

Celine felt herself settle as her grandfather readied his own weapon and scanned the water with intent.

She wasn’t in the military, but her seal spirit was used to hunting and fighting when necessary.

She wasn’t exactly a shrinking violet, but she didn’t have a weapon.

She huddled against the side of the boat and kept her eyes peeled.

If she spotted anything, she could at least send up a warning to those who could fight back.

Zeke was still trying to recover from the magical whammy that stupid lamp had hit him with, but he knew a strike team had to be on their way.

For just a moment, he’d connected with the mage…

maybe. He wouldn’t be sure until he had a chance to talk to Lynn about the magical side of things, but it really had felt like the mage who had set the spell—or whatever it was—had been looking back at him for the briefest of moments there.

That shit had rocked him to his foundations, and the zap of power that came down the line at him had nearly knocked him unconscious.

Only letting go of that fucking lamp had saved him from getting truly fried.

He believed that with no doubt in his mind.

No matter how strange that sounded to his rational, human, non-magical brain.

Magic was real, and he had to come to grips with that.

Further, he had a wacky new skill that allowed him to do stuff that he had never even dreamed of before.

He hadn’t used his skill much until now.

At least, not for anything truly important.

But tracking the murderer and making them pay was important to Celine, and important to him too.

Following the leads he’d seen so far meant that the murderer was also connected to someone who had been on the unit’s radar for a very long time.

This investigation had farther-reaching implications than he’d thought.

All of which made it important and a worthy stretching of his new magical muscles.

He had to get better at this psychometry shit.

That’s all there was to it. He couldn’t afford to mess this up, and if his newfound ability could help, he had to make it count as best he could.

It might be a wimpy sort of gift, but it was his, and he’d do all he could to make it work.

Which meant not getting caught in magical traps, apparently.

He’d have to add that to his list of precautions because there had been something really strange about that lamp.

He should have been more aware of it earlier.

He should have trusted his instincts and examined it sooner.

If so, there might not have been time for the mage to call in the goon squad.

And, right on time, Zeke spotted them. Three boats zooming toward them at ridiculous speeds for this kind of weather.

There was a storm out at sea, and though the weather close to shore was only partly cloudy, the water was stirred up a bit with small whitecaps all around them as they sped back toward base.

Zeke’s gaze sought Celine, making sure she was safe, but he didn’t like the way she was clutching the side of the boat and peering out over the water.

He wondered if her natural instincts would guide her to seek the water if she sensed danger.

If so, he couldn’t predict the outcome. She could swim to safety, but she had to surface for air every few minutes and if they were watching for her to do just that, she could be trapped. Or killed.

That mage had been sent to kill her and her parents. It was likely that she would have given her strike team a kill order since she’d missed Celine on the first try.

Zeke’s weapon was at the ready, as were those of every soldier around him, except maybe for the one driving the boat. He had his eyes on the course they’d set and was already making evasive maneuvers to try to outrun or escape the oncoming boats.

Even as their boat swayed and swung in crazy arcs, using the waves to camouflage them as best they could, gunfire erupted from the oncoming marauders.

Liam gave the command, and the shifters were both economical and deadly with their return fire.

Zeke watched as more than one man went down on the other boats, but they were more wasteful of their ammo and were firing indiscriminately.

One of the shifters in the bow was grazed with a bullet, ducking out of the way just in time to prevent a more serious injury as Zeke sucked in a breath.

This was insane. Those guys didn’t seem to care who they killed or what they damaged.

They were out for blood and would take any on offer, it seemed.

Zeke’s eyes went to Celine as they were all knocked around by the wild maneuvers of their own boat, trying to hide in the troughs of the waves for short periods of time.

Then, they crested a wave, and Celine was bumped to her feet.

Red bloomed on her shirt, and Zeke’s heart stood still. She’d been shot!