Page 15 of Hammerhead (Kinkaid Shifters #4)

“Y ou serve the Light?” Miguel asked the magical fey woman suspiciously.

She nodded gravely. “As do you.”

“I’ve never sworn myself one way or another,” he objected, but the old fey laughed. The tinkling sound was enchanting.

“My dear boy, you may not have said the words, but it is clear to me that your fate is entwined with this girl’s.” She nodded toward Deidre, who Miguel still held loosely in his arms. “She is a being of Light, and if you are hers, then you follow that path too. Already, your aura is meshing with hers, and the Light begins to claim you. My advice is to accept. Don’t fight it. You may have been born with ambiguity in your soul, but I believe you chose long ago which side of the eternal struggle you wish to be on.” She gave him a knowing look. “Else a being such as she would not have chosen you.”

Miguel’s heart thrilled to the idea that Deidre might have chosen him, but he had to hear it from her first. He wasn’t sure about this intensely magical woman. The fact that she thought the relationship was more solid than he did gave him hope, but it still wasn’t a sure thing.

“I do love her,” Miguel admitted quietly, looking down at Deidre. She was staring up at him, her eyes unblinking and completely dazed. She was out of it.

“I see that,” the old woman said, not unkindly. “Be sure she knows of your love, and all will be well.”

“Are you a seer, ma’am?” Miguel needed to know.

“Of sorts,” the lady admitted. “It was a vision that set me on this course, but though I’ve tried on multiple occasions, you are the first to come visit me.” She looked around and sighed. “I fear this may have been a foolish quest, but I was sure I’d find the right man to lead the water forces of the fey realm against Elspeth this way.”

“Hold on a minute,” Miguel said, shocked by her words. “You’re seeking a military leader? Way out here in the Gulf?”

“Is that where we are?” The woman tilted her head again. “Are you affiliated with the Kinkaids? I believe they are the dominant shifter group with water-based members in the adjoining land area, aren’t they?”

“You are well informed, ma’am,” Miguel answered. It couldn’t hurt to admit to something that every shifter on Earth knew.

“I have spent time in the mortal realm, and I still have contacts there. I am allied with High Priestess Betina.”

“I’ve heard of her,” Miguel admitted. “I hope you will not object if I check out your story with her before sending my brother into possible danger.”

“I have no objection. I am the Lady Mirabella of the White Tower of Aidel. I will give you my token so as to prove my identity to my old friend, Betina.”

Miguel was impressed that she was so confident, but he would still check before telling Jose. Surely, Sam Kinkaid could get word to the High Priestess for something that sounded this important. The lady stepped closer and held out her hand. She had taken off one of her rings and now held it out to him.

He took the ring and marveled at its delicacy. It was a pretty design of flowers and leaves surrounding a central stone that sparkled with the light of a thousand diamonds.

“How will I get this back to you?” he asked, holding onto the ring and feeling a bit odd about the whole thing. This ring was clearly something precious.

The lady looked from Miguel to Deidre and back again. “Consider it my gift to you. Give it to your lady. It holds protective magic. May it serve you both well.”

“I am honored, milady,” he replied formally.

“I am just glad someone finally came to the island so I could get my message out. Check out my story, then send your brother to me. He is needed to fight the forces of evil.”

“Ma’am,” Miguel began hesitantly. He felt it only fair to warn her that she might have the wrong man in mind. “Perhaps you don’t realize it, but my brother and I are shark shifters. Hammerheads, to be precise. We are not selkies, who are the beings of Light you might expect. Sharks are a bit more…ambiguous. I have already told my people that I will swear myself to the Light for all time to be with the woman I love, but I can’t speak for them. Not even my little brother. Perhaps you were looking for a selkie, instead. There’s a boatload of them not far, and many have similar military training to myself and my brother.”

“Hammerhead, you say?” The lady did not seem put off by the idea that he was a shark shifter. “That is interesting. Prehistoric, you might say.” She looked thoughtful. “Perhaps that is fitting. I didn’t know what kind of shifter to expect, to be honest. Selkies were likely, but by no means guaranteed. If you have decided to serve the Light, then it is likely that your brother may also do so, especially after he learns what I have to tell him.” She looked at the horizon over Miguel’s shoulder and then focused back on him. “But time is short. You two need to return to your ocean and let me go back to mine. I’ll be back in due course. I hope your brother will come here then, so I can speak with him.”

“If all goes as you expect, I suspect he will be eager to hear what you have to say, milady,” Miguel answered respectfully. “He has also seen the island in the past few days and was curious about it.

“Go now, lest you be brought back to faerie with me,” she cautioned. “The effect of the fruit will wear off in a few hours.”

Miguel looked over his shoulder and was shocked to see another land—not of this Earth—where the ocean should be. Then it faded, and he could see the water he expected. He picked Deidre up in his arms and made a run for the water, pausing only to throw a word of thanks over his shoulder to the lady.

“Thank you for the ring. I’ll give it to Deidre when she wakes,” he shouted as he strode into the water.

The lady’s tinkling laughter followed him like the sound of bells on the wind. “Ask her to marry you when you do, young man.”

Miguel saw the disturbing flicker of that other world a few more times as he got Deidre into the water and headed back toward where he thought the boat should be. Luckily, once she got into the water, she began swimming on her own, though she wasn’t going very fast, and she stayed in her human form.

Miguel swam beside her, keeping to her pace. If she was going to get trapped in the fey ocean, by golly, he was going with her. Though, hopefully, they would both get far enough away from the little island to be back in the mortal realm when the island went fully back to the fey.

A few minutes after they set out, Deidre stopped to tread water. “What happened?” She still sounded a bit dreamy, but her eyes were starting to clear a little bit.

Miguel leaned down to kiss her, so glad that she was coming back to herself that he couldn’t contain it. Then he pulled back and looked around. The island was flickering in and out of sight.

“You went to the island. I followed you and found you there,” he told her. “We’ve got to get farther away before it disappears again. Can you swim faster?”

“Faster?” A playful light came into her dazed eyes, and a moment later, she shifted into her seal form and bounded away. Thankfully, she was swimming in the right direction, toward the boat he could now see in the distance.

He moved the lady’s ring from his pinky finger to his mouth and shifted to his shark form and followed after her. She was so joyful in every movement, so graceful in the water and out of it. How could he not be in love with this woman?

The island disappeared behind them, but they were both much closer to the boat now and in no danger of being swept away to the fey realm. Miguel breathed a sigh of relief. The lady from the island had given him a lot to think about, and a lot to do, but the first thing on his mind was making sure Deidre would have him forevermore. He’d do that as soon as possible.

When they arrived at the boat, a cry went up from the deck, halting Miguel’s plans.

“Where have you two been? We’ve had men out searching for you day and night for the past two days,” Tom exclaimed as they reached the deck and wrapped themselves in towels.

“Two days?” Miguel asked, confused for a moment. Then he realized what must have happened. He sat down on the lid of a storage bin, and Deidre plopped down beside him. She was still a bit dazed, but able to focus a bit more than before.

“Two days,” Tom repeated, frowning. “Where’ve you been?”

“Deidre swam to that island that keeps appearing and disappearing,” Miguel explained. “I followed her. By the time I got to her, she’d already eaten something that looked like an apple, but wasn’t, and is still dazed from it, as you can see. The lady who we met there said it was part of the defense of the shore and that she’d opened a rift from the fey realm.”

“Wait a minute,” Tom said, shaking his head. “What?”

Miguel nodded, his expression turning grim. “I’m going to have to talk to Sam, if you can arrange it. The lady claimed to be friends with the High Priestess, and I need to verify her story. She wanted to talk to my brother, Jose. Something about fighting against evil. But I’m not sending Jose out there until we know for sure she’s on the level.”

“And just how are we going to do that?” Tom was clearly upset by the news.

Miguel held up his hand where he’d put the ring on his pinky finger again after shifting shape. “She gave me this token to show the High Priestess,” he revealed. He could tell Tom wanted him to turn over the ring, but he didn’t move to do so. “And afterward, she told me to give this ring to Deidre,” Miguel added in a low tone only Tom could hear. “She claimed it had protective magic and wanted Deidre to have it.”

Tom shook his head, sighing loudly. “I’ll get on the horn to Sam. He’s up on the rig, so it won’t take long to get him back down here.” Tom looked behind him and sent orders up to the wheelhouse to move the boat closer to the rig again. Then he turned back, looking more closely at Deidre, then back to Miguel. “Is she going to be all right?”

“The lady promised the effect of the fruit would wear off in a few hours.”

“Interesting defensive strategy,” Tom mused, still concerned about Deidre’s condition.

“She only had one bite of the apple-like fruit. Any more, and I suspect she’d have been stoned into unconsciousness. As it is, she’s been out of it for a while. Were we really gone for two days? It felt like a half-hour, at most.” Miguel shook his head. “Thing is, the island was definitely from the fey realm. The lady confirmed it, and she was, beyond doubt, a fey.”

“They do say time works differently in faerie,” Tom replied, only a bit skeptically.

Forty-five minutes later, Deidre had been tucked into her bed to sleep off the remaining effects of the fey fruit. Miguel had wanted to join her in her cabin to watch over her, but he had work to do. Sam Kinkaid came back onto the boat, and he and Tom met with Miguel in the galley.

Miguel told Sam more about what he’d seen and what the old fey woman had said to him, but he held back a bit about his brother’s possible role in future battles. The less that knew about that, the better, he judged. At least for the time being. If push came to shove, and he decided they needed to know, he’d judge at that point, how much to reveal.

Once Sam heard Miguel’s story, the Alpha pulled out his smart phone and set up a video call with the High Priestess, through the Lords. They took Sam’s call immediately, Miguel saw, then patched him through to Betina with little delay.

“I’m sorry the reception isn’t up to my usual standard,” Sam said, once the High Priestess was on the line. “We’re on a boat out in the Gulf, and I wasn’t expecting any of this. Apparently, a mysterious island has been appearing and disappearing for the past few days, and two days ago by our reckoning, my cousin Deidre went out to investigate it without telling anybody. One of our crewmen, Miguel, followed her and found her on the island. He also found a woman there, who claims to know you. This call is for confirmation, if you can provide it, before we go any further,” Sam outlined the problem.

“Thank you, Alpha. If you please, let me talk to Miguel.” The High Priestess had a similarly musical voice to that of the lady Miguel had met on the island. Sam handed Miguel the phone, and he could see she was just as ethereally lovely as the older woman he’d met on the island. “Hello. I’m Betina.”

“Your reputation precedes you, ma’am,” Miguel said politely. “I am Miguel Aroyo. Hammerhead shark shifter.”

Betina’s eyebrow rose in what might have been surprise. “I see,” was all she said in response. The High Priestess was a very cool customer. Miguel liked her immediately. “Please tell me more about your experience on the island.”