Page 56 of In Dangerous Water

“Move!” I shouted to one couple.

“Well, excuseyou!” The woman stood there in an elaborate ball gown blocking my path. I led with my shoulder and barreled through, knocking her down.

An outraged shout sounded from behind me, but I ignored it and kept going.

I ran down the hall, past the empty gym and headed straight for the pool room. I stopped and saw an abandoned key card on the hall floor. I grabbed it, swiped it, and rushed through. “Danielle?” I shouted.

In answer I heard a muffled shout, but the room was mostly dark, and it took my eyes a few seconds to adjust.

Starlight was shining through the atrium windows on one side of the pool room, and the water itself was gently illuminated. It was enough for me to finally make out that someone was holding Danielle by the side of the pool.

“Let her go!” I said walking forward.

The person lifted one arm, holding a large knife aloft. Seeing that, I froze in mid step.

“Finally,” a woman’s voice said. “You’refinallygoing to pay for what you did to me,” she said.

Danielle kicked out, fighting to get free, and in response the woman brutally tightened her grip. The young girl’s eyes went wide at the pressure.

“Fine,” I said. “I’ll pay for whatever you think that I did.” I needed to stall. I knew that Tim and the rest of the security team would be here any second. All I had to do was keep this nut-job talking and do my best to keep Danielle safe. “Just let the girl go.”

“Bitch.” The woman laughed. “You think I’ll make it easy for you?”

“What do you want?” My voice was shaking from the strain of holding myself back. I desperately wanted to unleash my magick on her, but Danielle was in the way. I needed to keep my cool. And to be smart.

“I want what you stole from me!” the woman screamed.

“What?” I asked, even though I had understood her perfectly. “Could you say that again? I’m having a hard time hearing you with the mask on.”

With the same hand that held the knife, the woman ripped the mask off; and I found myself looking at the face of a stranger.

“You ruined my life!” she snarled. “Took everything away from me; you stole the spotlight and the fame. Everything that should have been mine!”

I took a step closer. “Who are you?”

That was clearly the wrong thing to say, because it only made her angrier. She began to curse at me. Her hand slid down from covering Danielle’s mouth, and she was now gripping the girl by the throat and lifting her off her feet.

“You god damn bitch!” the woman screamed. “You should know me! I’m Maryanne Jackson! You stole my place in the Olympic trials. You took my spot on the swim relay team, edging me out by a second!Ishould have been there competing at the Olympics.Ishould have gotten a silver team medal in the relay—not you!”

The longer I studied the woman ranting at me the less I was sure I knew her. “I’m sorry, Maryanne,” I said, edging closer to her, and doing my best to sound contrite. “I should remember you. You have suffered and that’smyfault...because I’m shallow and stupid.”

My penitent tone worked. She loosened her grip on Danielle, and Danielle pulled in a shuddering breath.

Taking a chance, I moved closer again. “Please, Maryanne,” I said. “Let Danielle go. Take out your anger on me. I deserve it. But she’s only a child.”

Maryanne’s eyes were wide and glazed with hate. “Youneverappreciated all of the opportunities medaling in the games could afford, Cordelia!Iwould have taken advantage of those opportunities and worked a deal...I should have been the woman in all those ads, and the one interviewed on television. Instead, it was you!”

I was within arm’s reach of Danielle now. “Your anger is justified,” I said softly. “Please, let Danielle go.”

Suddenly, behind us, there was a loud thud, followed by male shouting. I watched Maryanne’s eyes slash over to the right and realized that people were about to break the door down.

“You want the brat?” she asked, and her lips peeled back from her face. “Take her!” She shoved Danielle hard, and out into the deep end of the pool.

I tried to grab for the girl, but instead Maryanne snatched at my hair and wrenched me back by it. The clip-in braids wereyanked out as we struggled, but it gave me room to turn, and the knife blade went across my shoulder—instead of my chest.

Now, both of my hands were clamped onto her knife arm as I tried to stop her from slashing down again. Before us, Danielle was floundering in the deep water and her head went under. There was no more time to waste and witnesses be damned. With a primal scream of rage, I called to the element of water.

In answer, a giant wave rose up from the pool and it slapped down hard right on top of me and the lunatic who was doing her best to kill me. The roar was deafening as the majority of the water in the pool came rushing down over us.

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