A thick band of deep water still stretched in a channel between the island and shore, but the water was still draining out—churning whitewater visible over the rocks even from this distance.
“We walk,” Jess repeated, grabbing Hector’s hand. “And we need to hurry. Nomad will be here in four or five hours.”
“Four or five HOURS?”
“How is this a surprise? It’s almost exactly as my dad predicted.”
They reached the edge of the tree cover, and she put a hand out, telling Hector to stay. She looked cautiously from left to right before stepping out of the shadows and onto the dock.
“When the water comes back, it’s not going to be gentle. Not like the way it left.”
“What are you doing?” Giovanni hung back in the shadow of the trees by the side of the dock.
Jess hurried to a small wooden shack near the end, the tire of the dirt bike still sticking out from behind it. The keys were in the ignition. Finally, some luck. She wheeled the bike out and down the dock, scanning the villa up on the rocks for any sign someone saw them. Still nothing.
“Come on, let’s keep moving,” Jess urged as she passed Giovanni and Hector, pushing the bike off the dock, down across seaweed covered rocks and onto the sandy mud.
In her mind, Jess visualized the Earth, their location spinning toward Nomad as it raced at them from behind the sun. What time was it? Past three a.m.? The tidal forces still emptied the bay, but soon it would reverse as they rotated toward Nomad. “We don’t have much time.”
She glanced up at the light show, pulsing and glowing, building in intensity, then at the village across the bay, lights twinkling in some houses. Nobody was outside looking up. The town looked deserted. Even here they must have heard what was coming. The men in the villa, though, they were disconnected. Unaware.
Too bad for them.
“Thank you for rescuing me,” Giovanni said as they plodded forward.
Jess didn’t reply. She kept her head down and pushed the bike, keeping an eye on Hector. She didn’t want to start the bike, not yet. The whine of its engine would alert the men. Still too close. The sandy bottom near the shore gave way to thickening mud less than a hundred feet from shore. On each step, Jess had to pull her feet from the muck, and she felt her prosthetic almost coming away more than once.
“Thank you, Jessica,” Giovanni repeated.
They trudged past a mound of seaweed covered rocks, crabs scuttling away from them. The moon had already set. It would have been pitch black save for the ghostly light show above their heads. Coming over the ridge of a sand bar, a large fish flopped back and forth, its mouth opening and closing.
Giovanni grunted and took three quick steps toward Jess. “What’s wrong? Are you mad at me?”
Gritting her teeth, Jess shoved the bike forward, but Giovanni put a hand on her shoulder.
“Jessica?”
She turned to him. “When were you thinking of telling me?”
Giovanni stared at her, pressing his swollen lips together, grimacing but saying nothing.
“That our families are mortal enemies?” Jess snorted and turned away, pushing the bike up across a sand bank and sliding down the other side into a mess of mud and seaweed. “Didn’t you think that might have been an important detail?”
It all made sense now. Why Giovanni acted strange when her mother first said her maiden name, and why he locked her and Jess up when Hector was kidnapped. Why didn’t he just say something?
“I’m sorry.” Giovanni hurried behind Jess.
“Sorry? You’re sorry?” She waved a hand at the luminescent sky. “It’s a little late for sorry, no?”
“This thing, it consumed my father. I think it was how my mother was killed, when I was a child.” Giovanni did his best to run forward, to get in front of Jess. “But I wanted no part of it. It’s why I was always away, why I wasn’t here when my father died.”
“Is this some kind of game to you?” Jess pushed past him, climbed onto the top of another sandbank. “Were you and I some kind of twisted part of it?”
“No, no. I had no idea this feud was still going on, didn’t suspect until Hector was kidnapped. But even then, I wasn’t sure. I didn’t want to spoil—”
A brilliant green ribbon of light flared through the sky, interrupting him, bathing them in radiance. As they watched, the ribbon wobbled and split into orange and blue, fluorescing the heavens with neon tendrils. Beside them, in a dark pool, fish tried to splash away. The twinkling lights in the houses of the village winked out. Jess glanced behind them, at the villa. The lights went out there as well.
And someone yelled.
Men stood on the terrace of the villa, three hundred yards away. One of them pointed at Jess and Giovanni, the others staring into the sky. Another man came out, holding what looked like a broom handle. He pointed it their way.
A chunk of rock exploded next to them, followed by a sharp crack.
Not a broom handle.