PROLOGUE
Iconjured him out of the ocean.
It was the night the storm hit Temptation Bay. Waves thrashed against the rocks. The sea was crying and moaning like she was in pain. Leaden clouds pressed so low in the sky I thought they would smother us all.
Rain pelted the trailer so hard I couldn’t hear the incantations I chanted as I gripped Gram’s tea-stained cards, their edges turned up from use.
I laid the cards that night, as I had every night since Gram left me. I called to her spirit, seeking comfort from another realm that I wasn’t getting from this one.
With the storm raging around me, I lit Gram’s candles, sprinkled herbs at the windows. I threw the dice, and I set the cards. I used everything Gram had taught me.
Remembering the ancient words, I chanted to the goddess of the oceans.
Gram would ask for guidance, but I asked for deliverance.
The ancient words whispered from my throat grew louder as the storm raged until I was shouting, worked into a frenzy with the howling wind.
A window shattered. The storm or a spirit, I couldn’t be sure. The candles flickered and died. The cards blew off the table, and I fell exhausted onto the bed.
Of course, I didn’t really believe Gram’s cards, or chants, or the power of herbs to call the gods. It was comforting to believe in a spirit world, but I didn’t think they could help me. It was just a diversion. A last-ditch hope before I accepted my fate.
I didn’t think it would work…