Page 163 of A Winding Wave of Magic
“So…where do you think he’s gone?” I asked Robbie.
Again, his thin shoulders rose and fell under the green plaid shirt he wore approximately three times a week. “Who knows? Could be Rome—though if he were at his lab I think we’d have heard from him by now. Jonny likes to wander, you know?”
I didn’t. That was the point.
“He told me he was looking for his father.” I wasn’tquiteable to hide my bitterness.
Caitlin pursed her lips across the table and closed her eyes, her spoon poised mid-air like a conductor’s baton. After a moment, she opened them and shook her head as she resumed eating. “He didn’t find him. That’s all I can get, as he’s shielding something fierce. Seems he’s out in a wood somewhere, but I don’t know which one or whether he’s still chasing his dad. Could be he’s just out for a frolic.”
“Frolic?” I bit my lip. She made it sound like he was chasing rainbows with a magic dragon.
“Not quite,” Caitlin replied. “He runs about in the woods. Maybe goes for a hunt. Jon gets a bit restless when he’s stuck in one place for too long. One way he’s like his dad, I suppose.”
“Speaking of staying in one place too long,” Robbie said. “We’re all headed to Doolin tomorrow in the morning. Perhaps you’d like to join us.”
“I don’t know that the girls deserve such a treat after neglecting their chores tonight.” Caitlin finished her stew and stood to clear their daughters’ bowls along with hers. They had long escaped to their rooms, taking advantage of our conversation to sneak away without clearing their dishes.
Robbie ignored his wife’s grumbling, and I followed suit.
“What’s in Doolin for you?” I wondered.
“The north field needs amending,” he told me. “It’s too late in the growing season for more kelp, and I’m trying a new hybrid of corn out there.”
“She doesn’t care about your experiments, Rob Connolly,” Caitlin said as she rejoined us with a mug of her favorite after-dinner tea. “Bronagh has to be measured for her school uniform too, and the twins would never forgive us if we didn’t take them. There’s a good chance we’ll stay the night. You’d be better off here.”
“Do you want to come anyway?” Robbie asked anyway, ignoring his wife’s sharp glare. “Christ, Cait, she can have a bit of fun, can’t she?”
“She’s intraining, Rob. Ever heard of it?”
“No, not me, a professor at Brigantian College. Never heard of such a thing.”
I smiled at their friendly bickering. Much as a trip off the island sounded nice (there were only so many afternoons at the Arts Center I could take), nicer still would be a break from Caitlin’s relentless demands—and she was already annoyed that I’d gone to the mainland to buy a new surfboard. I didn’t have to read her mind to know she would prefer I stayed here and continued working without her.
“I’ll stay here,” I said. “Have dinner at the pub. And practice, of course.”
“You’ve been a bit lax with your divination,” Caitlin said. “Before I get back, I want you to summon at least fourwakingprophecies and journal. We’ll parse them together.”
I glowered at a carrot in my spoon. Divination was my least favorite clairvoyance skill after shielding. I wasn’t a complete failure—Jonathan was right about that. I was learning to separate future visions from the past, as they had a particular feeling I was beginning to recognize. But everything seemed like gibberish whenever I looked for the future. Visions overlapped,and nothing ever felt coherent unless I was sleeping. Even then, it was hard to know how much was actually the future, and how much was mixed with my own state of mind.
“I will,” I told her as I scraped the bottom of my bowl.
I’d get up early tomorrow and do the work. After that, I’d enjoy an entire day without Caitlin. An entire day doing whatever I wanted.
“Hmph.” Caitlin’s expression told me she knew exactly what I was thinking, but she just took a sip of her tea and started discussing the ferry schedule with Robbie.
As far as I was concerned, tomorrow couldn’t come fast enough.
Much to Caitlin’s chagrin,Caomhán’s shining black hair had become a regular sighting for me, though he was often camouflaged among the seals who increasingly joined me on the break in front of Gran’s cottage. Dodging him on my surfboard had become a game I expected to play each morning before training, and to my surprise, our daily banter seemed to harden me against the continuing failure that was my magical education.
So, it wasn’t much of a surprise he was waiting for me in the surf as I paddled out early the next morning.
“Oi, Cassie!” A pale hand rose from the water, lit by the first rays of the sun.
The Connollys had left on the first boat, which meant they crunched over the graveled road just before dawn. I was enjoying a cup of tea and watching the waves out my front window as their car passed at nearly five in the morning. The water was clean and glassy.
“What are you doing out here so early?” I asked as I paddled closer to where he bobbed on the break.
Caomhán, characteristically naked, grinned widely, the reddened tip of his nose the only thing betraying the temperature of the water. He and most other shifters ran a bit hot, he had informed me, but he couldn’t stay in human form long in these waters without starting to freeze. “I’m always out here. You know that.”
