Page 38 of Deep Sea Kiss
“Mrs. Enstad? Can you tell me what happened? Do you know where the babies are?”
Lottie kept her voice calm and low, even though she was howling with fear on the inside. Panic gripped her in its claws, squeezing her windpipe, and for a terrifying second, she thought she would pass out.
Keep it together.
She focused on her breathing and waited for Mrs. Enstad’s confusion to clear.
“Oh!” the older woman exclaimed. “A man came just as we were leaving—Elise pooped, and I had to change her. He was a foreigner, he spoke English, so I didn’t understand everything he was saying. I didn’t want to let him in, but then he said some words in a strange language, and suddenly he was in the living room.”
Her hands trembled, and tears rolled down her wrinkled cheeks, so Lottie pressed her fingers and stroked her back.
“It’s okay. You didn’t do anything wrong. Just tell me what happened.”
The older woman shook her head as though trying to dislodge a memory. “I don’t know. He pointed at Aksel and Elise and said, ‘Dragon?’ so I told him no, of course.” Her blue eyes went round. “I’d never tell anyone about the dragon thing, never!”
“Shh, I know,” Lottie replied. “What did he do then?”
Mrs. Enstad swallowed a sob. “He raised his hands at me and said something else, some foreign words, and that’s the last thing I remember.”
This was what must have happened to her, too. The Englishman put them both to sleep. Lottie stamped down hard on her panic. This wasnotthe moment to lose it. “So you don’t know where he might have taken the babies?”
Her landlady shook her head, her eyes silver with tears. “I’m so sorry, dear, I don’t know.”
“It’s going to be all right,” Lottie reassured her, though she was in no way certain that was the truth. There were forces at play that she didn’t understand, and Eiric wasn’t here to help her. She’d have to help herself—and her children.
But first, she needed to make sure Mrs. Enstad was taken care of. Every cell of her being screamed at her to rush after her kids, but her professional training won over. She couldn’t leave a possibly injured patient to fend for herself. Lottie pulled her phone from her purse and dialed Dr. Teigland’s number. After she explained that her landlady had had a little accident, she took the older woman’s hands again.
“If this was any other time, I’d stay with you until the doctor came,” she said, her voice breaking. “But I have to go find them.”
Mrs. Enstad put a hand on her cheek. “If you didn’t go, I’d kick you out of here myself,” she said, sniffling. “I’m still breathing. You go find your babies and give that nasty man a slap for me.”
Lottie gave a strangled laugh, and then she was on her feet, running out the door. But as she reached the road, she stopped. She had no idea where the man had taken Aksel and Elise, and she had no way of tracking them down. If Eiric was there, he could sniff them out, maybe, but her human nose felt very inadequate at that moment.
She called out for her babies in the vain hope that she’d hear a cry from them. Her ears didn’t pick up anything but the rush of the sea and the far-away birdsong. A car drove down the main road without stopping, the rumble of its engine fading in the distance.
What if the witch had bundled them into a vehicle and sped away? How could she follow? What if heflewthem halfway across the country by now?
She turned in place, her heart thundering in a staccato beat. Panic threatened to close her throat, and she wished she’d listened to Eiric and his mother when they’d told her that staying on their remote island was the right thing to do. Now she’d pay for her pride and stubbornness with her children’s freedom.
Her phone rang in her hand, and she jumped. “Hello?” she answered the unknown number.
“It’s Magnus,” a gruff voice said.
“Magnus,” she gasped. “Did Eiric call you? My babies are missing! Someone took—”
“I know,” he interrupted her. “I’ve tracked them.”
Lottie spun around as though she could see them. “Oh my god, thank you! Where are they?”
She was too worried to care about the fact that this man had, essentially, rejected her on the grounds of being human. If he was willing to help now, she would forgive every rash word he’d said.
“Don’t thank me yet,” he muttered. “They’re down by the water, in the second cove from Mikkel’s house. The witch still has them, and I can’t attack him until he lets go of them. I can’t risk hurting them.”
Lottie started down the road, toward the sea. She thought she knew which cove Magnus meant. “Tell me what to do.”
The sea dragon king breathed out a sigh. “I need you to distract him.”
“I can do that,” she said. “I’ll be right there.”
