Page 4 of Rescued By the Great Grim

“A what now?”

“You can message me on that via satellite.”

I look at the device with mixed feelings. It’s a connection with the outside world that’s not one-sided. I listen to the radio all the time, but this would allow me to actually contact someone. Well, contact Rae. She’s the only person I know. But will this new ability just mean that I’ll covet what I can’t do even more? “How does it work?” I ask to cover up the contradictory emotions this thoughtful gift created.

“It has a long battery life, two hundred and forty hours, but eventually, you have to charge it through your solar panel.” My electricity system exists because of Rae, although I traded her aquamarine stones for it. I have a solar panel that powers the lights in my cabin, as well as a rechargeable hurricane lantern and my radio. We also put together an array of car batteries that lasts me through the darker winter months when the panel can’t give me enough juice. She bought the equipment for me, drove it to Sunshine, and then we both dragged it up the mountain. “You could actually get a proper satellite phone,” she continues. “But the battery life on those is much shorter, and you’re not very chatty. You’re not likely to want to talk in person.”

I smile again. “True.” I enjoy hanging out with my friend Rae, but we spend a lot of our time together in silence. My routine never varies, so there’s not much for me to tell her. And she’s not very chatty about her life in Sandpoint, in the northern part ofIdaho. I know she works with regular mortals at a fish hatchery and does something that has to do with counting or monitoring fish. That’s as much as she’s told me voluntarily, and there’s no reason for me to ask questions if she doesn’t want me to know more.

She shows me how to send her a message on the small communication device. It also has something called an SOS feature. “You can use that to get in touch with rescue, fire, or police in case something happens to you or someone else,” she explains.

“There’s only been a few times I’ve had to help hikers down the mountain. And I did that without having to message anyone.”

“I only said ‘someone else’ so you wouldn’t give me a hard time for worrying about you. The fire seasons are getting longer and longer. What if you get trapped up here?”

I pat her arm. She’s sweet for worrying about me. “I’ll just jump in the lake and take shelter behind the waterfall,” I say.

“Yes, but—” She looks around, frowning. “Did you feel that?”

I listen to the woods around us and reach out with my senses to check on my lakes and the waterfalls. They all seem alright. “Feel what?”

She closes her eyes and remains silent for a few beats. “Never mind. It’s gone now.” She shrugs and smiles.

But for the rest of the evening, her eyes remain troubled. And when she leaves, her head swivels back and forth as she scans the woods while walking down the trail back to Sunshine.

CHAPTER 4 (HAILEY)

When I come to, I’m lying on a sofa, dripping water onto what’s probably super expensive material. Johnny and Miriam stand across the room, arguing.

“What were you thinking?” Miriam hisses. “We agreed on a logical sequence of events.”

“We have little time,” Johnny replies in the same whisper shout. “I had to find out if she can take the pressure.”

Despite them probably thinking their hissing is like whispering, the sound travels clearly across the room to where I am. They’re obviously not agreeing on their lesson plan for my mentoring, and I want to find out more, so I close my eyes halfway and pretend to be passed out.

“And what did you conclude from your brief experiment?” Miriam snarls.

Johnny scratches his chin and turns toward me. I quickly close my eyes all the way. “That she’s a lot stronger and powerful than we think. Probably more than she thinks, too.”

“What do you mean?” Miriam asks in her regular voice, laced with curiosity.

“I could pull a lot more power from her,” he pauses, “actually, it was as if I pulled it through her. Besides my regular aquatic sources, she acted as a conduit, and it felt as if I pulled energy straight from the water.”

“Huh,” Miriam says, but the expression seems extra unsophisticated because it’s coming from her. “Then why did she pass out? Conduits are not hurt as they funnel magic from the source to a host.”

“Because she resisted my pull. She protected the source, the water.”

“Ridiculous,” the older woman huffs. “Conduits can’t resist. They’re not like valves that can open and close. They’re spigots, controlled by the host that uses them.”

“Or so we’ve always thought,” Johnny says. “But this one is a conduit that works as a valve. She can control the flow. Well, at least she tried to.”

I have no idea what any of the terms they’re discussing are. Conduits seem straightforward. It’s obviously someone who siphons power from their source and can share it with others. I’ve known about this ability, but didn’t know the people that had it were called “conduits.” Nor did I know I had the talent to do this.

The spigot vs. valve discussion is completely unfamiliar territory, and I strain my ears to pick up more about it. But they’ve both lowered their voices to a level where I can’t pick out the words.

I execute a very fake awakening, complete with arm stretches and an enormous yawn. They both hurry toward me, and I blink up at them as they lean over the couch. “What happened?”

Johnny shoots me a blinding smile, another one that doesn’t reach his eyes. “You fainted. I think the excitement of having us as mentors was too much for you.”

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