Page 31 of Hooked on a Witch
Chapter Seven
Shannon felt as if she’d been compressed into a jewelry box and squeezed out a toothpaste tube. Just when she thought her head would explode from internal pressure, everything ended with her plastered, nose-down, against Merck’s chest. She rotated her head outward to work her jaw, desperate for her ears to pop.
He moaned in complaint. She rolled to get off him. When her back hit the ground pain lacerated the inside of her skull. Any movement was excruciating. She swallowed over and over to suppress the vomit pushing to break free.
Freezing wetness saturated her clothes. Sandals and shorts weren’t appropriate attire for wherever they’d ended up. A test squint to see her surroundings failed. She wanted to bypass the temporary blindness—a side effect of dimensional travel.
Finally, her vision changed from cloudy to details. The trees were unfamiliar, devoid of leaves and covered in snow.
Snow? Where are we?
Her breath fogged as it came inoh-shitpants. The cottage a few hundred yards away wasn’t familiar. There wasn’t a body of water in sight. On the upside, there weren’t snake men here. But… Crap.
“Need water. The ocean,” Merck wheezed.
“I don’t know where we are. I messed up. I don’t think there’s an ocean around here.”
She scooted close to him, her mind whirling with agony at the subtle movement. After a few deep breaths to block out pain, she closed her eyes to concentrate for another dimension hop.Come on, come on, take us somewhere near an ocean.
“Nothing happened when I tried to get us out of here.”
“S’okay,” he slurred. A soft noise came from him when he tried to push up onto his elbows. He crumpled and blinked upward into the skeletal, snow-laden tree canopy. Finally, he rolled his head to the side to meet her gaze. No blame or disappointment met her in his brilliant blue eyes. He stared as if hazed out. She glanced down his side to where he’d been hit. His dark shirt looked darker and wet. Redness tinged the snow beneath him.
“I’m sorry we’re wherever we are. I’m new to this kind of travel.” She reached for his hand, finding it cool. He weakly clasped back. “Will the ocean help you get better?”
“Yes.” His eyelids drifted closed.
She squeezed his hand. “Please, hang in there. I’m going to make this work.” After a quick prayer to her Pleiades goddess ancestor for help, she envisioned the Hawaiian beach where she wanted to land. Image firmly in her mind, she took several deep breaths. The compression started again. Yippee, and… Holy crap. This time the travel hurt ten times worse than before.
Shannon came to awareness, but kept her eyes closed against the bright light all around her. The sun burned through her eyelids as it blazed overhead. How long had she been passed out?
Her hands fisted into hot dirt. Not dirt, but sand. Waves crashed nearby. She hoped for an ocean, although her mind tormented her with the vision of being at a water park lying next to the wave simulator.
It was hot, but not unpleasantly so, which was a stark contrast to their last destination. The air wasn’t thick with the humidity of South Carolina.
She didn’t hear anything from Merck. Not even breathing. Did he make the jump with her? Oh no, she might’ve left him in those frozen woods. She’d never find him again to get him help before he died. She squinted against the blinding sun and rolled her head. He lay a few feet away, unmoving.
Maybe he wasn’t just passed out, but dead. Blood stained the white sand beneath him, suggesting they’d both been unconscious for longer than a few minutes.
No. No. No. He’s not dead.Can’t be dead.
A roll to crawl to him sent her mind whirling. Too weak.
“Merck?” She’d aimed for a shout, but it came out a hoarse whisper.
His chest moved once. Not dead.
Water. He needed water. She gazed at the ocean on the opposite side of him. So very far away. With a hand wave, she drew a pitiful cupful of water toward him through the air and dropped it on his face.
On the wow side, even though drained she’d gotten her ability to manipulate water to work. But overall, it’d been a pretty lame performance.
Merck gasped and rolled his head toward her. His startled gaze met hers.
“Ocean.” She pointed toward the lazy waves of the Hawaiian shoreline. At least she hoped it was the shoreline in front of one of the houses her mother owned in this odd otherworld.
He stared at the ocean, then dragged himself to the edge of the water and flopped in the wet sand.
Now what?
