I grabbed on to the armrests, thankful I’d fastened my seat belt when the pilot warned us of turbulence. Rourke leapt up, roaring. Ray was just ahead of him, both of them racing toward the cockpit.
“The power’s dead,” Rourke called over his shoulder. I craned my neck and glimpsed the panicked pilot through the opening in the small doorway. He was frantically pushing levers and punching buttons.
Marcy met my gaze solidly across the seat, her face pale. “We’re nearly over land,” I told her calmly, “and we have two vamps who can fly. There’s no need to panic. We’re not going down without a fight.”
“I know that.” She shook herself, trying to relax, even though the plane was still in a nosedive. “I’m just a terrible flier. I always have been. Tally used to make fun of me whenever we flew together, the old biddy, and would purposefully make the plane bounce around in fake turbulence. But I’m a witch, for Pete’s sake. I can fix this.” Marcy had suffered from performance anxiety in the past, but she smiled at me as her eyes slid shut and she began chanting under her breath.
Her power swept over me in a hot breeze as the plane began to right itself slowly.
Go, Marcy.
“Rourke,” I called, “have the pilots guide us down anywhere they can. We need to get off this plane.”
“Damn straight we need to get off,” Marcy muttered, her eyes still closed, a fierce look of concentration on her face. “I’m fixing the drop with a counterspell, but I can’t undo whatever knocked the power out. Everything on the plane is dead, just like my phone. At least I think it’s a spell… I can’t even be sure. It all just feels dead.” She continued to chant under her breath and the plane evened out completely.
“Ma Reine,” Naomi whispered, crouching down in the aisle next to me. “I can leave the plane and help from below if need be.”
I shook my head. “Not yet. Let’s let Marcy handle it for now. She only has to keep the plane steady for a few more minutes until the pilots can guide it down. If we let you and Ray out, that means opening the doors and I don’t want to freak out the pilots if we don’t have to.”
She nodded, alert as always. We’d been up in the air for a little more than an hour, and as I looked out the tiny window, I could see what was likely the Florida Keys passing below us.
We were closing on land quickly.
The pilot’s voice came out of the cockpit in a rush. “We just passed Eagle Key. We’re going to make it to the mainland, but just barely. We can’t make it to any airstrip. We’ll have to set it down in the marsh flats.”
Rourke stood behind the two pilots, his arms crossed, his broad back taking up all the available doorway space. “I see plenty of open space to land down there. Just keep bringing us down and everything will be fine.” His voice was calm.
“Fine?” Panic filled the plane, the pilot’s voice wavering. “We’re directly over the southern glades! All that’s down there is sawgrass marsh with big channels of water and nothing else for miles and miles.”
“Marsh means flat, right? You have to look at the positives,” Ray kindly pointed out. He stood just behind Rourke, his back against the bathroom door. He leaned forward and glanced out the little window attached to the main door. “I don’t see anything that will stand in our way. No pesky trees to worry about, no big structures. Just get us down. That’s all we need you to do.”
The copilot was a little more confident. “We can’t radio in because the electrical is dead, but they should see us go down on the radar. We can do this, Larry. It’s just like the simulator. We keep the wheels up and set her down belly-up. It’ll be bumpy as hell, but this plane is solid. She should stay together.”
Marcy still had her eyes firmly closed, and I leaned over to whisper, “Do you have a spell to wipe their memories once we land? Once we duck out, it’s going to be a problem for them.”
Marcy cracked one eye open. “I’m working here. And, yes, I can figure out what to do with them once we land. Not a problem.”
I nodded and motioned Ray over.
He started for me right as the plane took another nosedive.
My head snapped back to Marcy. “What’s going on?” I hadn’t meant to yell so loud. “I thought you said you had this?”
“Something is fighting my spell!” she cried. “And whatever it is has some serious mojo.”
“Can’t you do something else?”
“I’m trying! But, balls to the walls, it’s taking everything I’ve got.” Marcy’s knuckles were white as she gripped the armrests and fought for control. The plane bounced around like it was in the throes of wild turbulence as she tried another spell.
Rourke caught my eye from the cockpit doorway. He’d braced his body into the opening, his arms locked solidly in front of him. He nodded once and I turned to Naomi. “Okay, Naomi, it’s time for plan B,” I whispered. “Do you think you and Ray can position the plane up?”