Falling Darkness: The second book in the Falling Awake Series (20 page)

“She would have loved you.” Matwau put his hand on my shoulder and lead me back inside. “How many people know what you can do?” he asked me, closing the French doors behind us. A light rain had started and the sky was turning a shade of distressed grey.

“That’s the thing,” I said. “The only reason I found out was because someone tried to kidnap me. They knew what I could do, well they thought they did. People know and I have no idea how.” I figured I’d divulged just enough information without having to drop any mention of fallen angels into the mix.

“I firmly believe that someone killed Savannah.”

I blinked. “What?” he thought it, too.

“Someone wanted her dead. I don’t believe she jumped. She had no reason to do something so selfish and that was one thing Savannah was not- selfish. Her life was in jeopardy and I know that she was pushed. Pushed to her death.”

I blinked again.

“Your abilities are powerful. You must keep them safe. You must get to know them and enhance them, but you must always keep them away from people.”

“My mom didn’t…” She had her powers out there for everyone to see. Hers we’re anything but a secret.

“And she is dead.” Matwau rushed off into the living room and took something from a draw under the small end table. He opened up my hand and dropped something cold into my palm. “I want you to have this.”

It was a golden pendant and it glowed against my skin. “What’s this and why is it lighting up like that?”

“It was your mother’s talisman. The night she-” Matwau’s voice became gruff and I knew he was talking about the night she died. He cleared his throat and started again. “She never had it with her. For the life of me, I will never understand why.”

“I never saw her wearing this in any pictures.” I looked again at the pendant. The glow had ceased and it looked only ordinary now.

“It’s not a necklace. She always kept it hidden. It was her protection. She drew her strength from it and it kept her safe. Always.”

“You want me to have this?”

“You will need it. Not everyone believes in magic or its power and not everyone believes in good and evil, but I do. We all have a connection to the spirits, no matter how weak or strong and you must draw the power from this pendant and use it to keep you alive. It was once your mothers and now it is your’s. Her soul is alive in this and she will help you. She will keep you safe.”

I was choked up. “Thank you.”

“Protect it and it will protect you.”

“I’ll keep it safe,” I assured him.

“And you must show no one. This is the only real protection I can offer you, promise me you will keep it with you?”

“I promise.” I wouldn’t let this thing out my sight.

“The fact that it has already glowed for you is a good sign.”

“Who do you think killed my mom?” I asked. I clamped my hand tight around the pendant. The golden metal was cool against my skin and I already felt better having it.

“I really wish I knew the answer to that.”

The sound of a hard knock at the front door jarred any thoughts I was just about to voice. Matwau strode over and let whoever was there, in.

“You ready?” Matoskah stood there looking a little unsure of himself.

“Yeah.” I went and grabbed my bag from the living room and so not ready to let this be another goodbye just yet, I said. “I came here by boat and I’m not leaving until tomorrow-” I didn’t even get a chance to finish.

“Then you’ll stay with me,” Matwau said, taking my bag from me. “

“Are you sure?”

“You are always welcome.”

“I just need to go do something and then I’ll be back.”

“Nice to see you again, Matoskah,” Matwau said as I trailed Matoskah to his truck.

“You too, sir. You too.”

I gave Matoskah a questioning look. “What was all that about?” I asked, as we drove the stretch to the marina.

“Matwau keeps to himself mostly. He shows his face but he hardly ever speaks to anyone anymore. As each year went on, he faded more from the community. The only thing anyone knew about him, was the stories of his incredible wife. He’s got his old friends, but they barely get a ‘hello’ out of him anymore. It’s no secret that he never got over what happened to Savannah, and word is-” Matoskah gave me a brief look of what looked like sympathy. “He think’s someone killed her. Hunted her down, even.”

“And I think he’s right,” I said in a no non-sense tone.

Matoskah took a wide turn, and swung the truck into a space between two quaint and unostentatious buildings; the diner that looked like a fish tackle store and the general store.

“I just need to let Ressler and Drake know I’m not coming with them tonight.”

“I know,” Matoskah said, stopping the engine and settling back in his seat. “What’s with you and those guys? They follow you everywhere.”

“I’m in trouble, Matoskah. And those three are the only ones who can help me. Although,” I said with a self-assertive grin, “I’m hoping I’ll be the one to save myself.”

“How much trouble are you in?”

“Does life or death sound too dramatic?”

“Not dramatic enough if you ask me.”

I shoved him playfully in the arm. “Easy for you to say. There aren’t people out there who want you dead.”

My phone vibrated in my pocket and a text message from Ressler lit up the screen. “Shoot,” I said, reading it. “They aren’t here. They said they’re at Hobuck?” I looked to Matoskah. “You know where that is?”

Matoskah revved the truck to life. “We’ll come back to the people who want you dead, but for now…” A fiendish smile warped his features. “I think it’s about time we had some fun.”

Turns out that Hobuck is a very vast and isolated beach with some quite impressive waves. The spread of sea was a never-ending promise of unforgiving grey, and the low hanging mist that seemed to permanently cling to the air, met the wave crests with nearly just as much bleakness.

“Tell me why I agreed to this again?” I asked Drake, pulling up the zipper on my wetsuit.

“Because standing and watching is no fun.”

I reached up and fastened my hair into a bun, scraping as much hair into it as possible. “I must be crazy,” I muttered, seriously wondering how I was going to pull off something as complicated as surfing. I had never surfed in my life. I had never even held a surfboard.

“Here.” he handed me a white board that felt too big to carry and picked his own blue and green one up off the floor. We walked over the sand to meet the waves rolling onto the shore. They lapped up over my feet and I grimaced at the kiss of cold that if it wasn’t for my impenetrable wetsuit, would have sent a rolling shiver through my insides. Ressler strode through the water, board in hand with his wet suit unzipped and hanging around his waist. There wasn’t a goosebump on his glistening skin and the water dripped off him in rivulets. I looked down at myself, then back at him. We were like a completely different species. Between him and Drake, I felt like I was intruding on a photo shoot.

Footsteps padded over the sand behind me and Matoskah came up next to me. He held his surfboard under his arm and gave me an un-diluted smile. It was hard not to smile back at him, but it slipped onto my face with a groan in the back of my throat. “This is your fault,” I accused.

Matoskah grabbed my hand and pulled me into the water. “Come on, you’ll love it.” He kept pace with me through the water, and once I was in it I realized it was more blue than grey, and when we were waist deep, Matoskah lay stomach down onto his board, and I did the same.

“We’re just gonna paddle,” he instructed me. “Copy me.”

That was what I intended to do. My board, just like Matoskah’s began to glide through the water and I mimicked the crawl stroke he done with his arms through the water.

“You’re doin’ good,” he said to me. “If the water gets a little rough, just ease your weight on the board a little and that should keep you steady.”

“Right,” I said, keeping my concentration on my arms. When we were a little further out Matoskah said, “Okay, we’re gonna turn around now so we’re facing the shore.”

I could see a small swell surfacing in the distance, and I didn’t want to be anywhere near it, and I definitely didn’t want to put my back to it. Who knew when that thing was going to creep up on me or how big it was going to get?

“We’re gonna catch a broken wave, got it?”

“Sure if I knew what that was.” My arms cut through the water and we were now facing the sandy beach. Ressler was sat watching us with visible dislike on his face.

“It’s just the white water left over from the wave. Make sure you’re not too far back on your board.” He checked me out and I tried to tilt my head to see behind me but it was no good and I didn’t dare shift my weight in case I fell off. “Looks good,” he said. “You ready?”

“No,” I answered, and before I knew it I was picked up and pulled forward with a surge of rushing froth. I screamed, or was it laughter? It was hard to tell, but the flutter of excitement in my tummy told me I enjoyed it. When our boards came to a stop by the shore line and the wave was nothing more than a spill of shimmering water pulling itself back in to meet the sea, I grabbed my board and said to Matoskah. “We need to do that again.”

Enough wave breaks and three or four failed attempts at trying to stand and ride a real wave, I sat on the beach in my dry clothes. My hair was steadily beginning to dry in the breeze and I watched Ressler, Drake and Matoskah ride the waves like pros. A large swell rolled in and the three of them ripped across the face off it, sailing across the wave like it was glass. I wished it was that easy for me.

A side glimpse at the sound of footsteps, revealed a set of bare legs standing next to me and I looked up into a smiling face, looking down at me.

“Your Matoskah’s girl, right?” he said, dropping down onto the sand.

“Uh no, and do I know you?”

“Skah,” he said.

Two more bodies appeared and sat down at spaced intervals, so I was practically circled. “Quidel,” another boy said, with short, cropped black or brown hair. It was too dark to tell.

“That’s my sister, Rona,” Quidel said, nodding at the only girl here apart from me. She smiled but the crease in the corner of her eye showed more of a sneer. I smiled back, anyway.

“Nice to meet you?” I said, looking at them all.

“You’re the one from the bonfire?” Skah said, with a smile on his face that captured a note of something that looked lot like satisfaction.

“Bonfire?”

“At Shi Beach.”

“Oh right. Yeah that was me.”

Skah’s smile widened. “We were wondering when we would meet you, right, Q?”

“Right.” I looked over at Quidel, and couldn’t help but notice the sullen look on Rona’s face instead. If I had known her longer than five minutes, I would have asked her if she was okay. But as it was, it didn’t seem appropriate and no one else seemed to care or notice.

Skah stood up and extended his long, panther like body. Bronze and masculine, just like Matoskah. There must be something in the air up here in the mountains. It was impossible for anyone not to look incredibly healthy. “Here’s our boy,” he said, meeting Matoskah. They bumped fists and Matoskah set his board down, surveying me and his friends, looking like one big happy and awkward family.

“Hi Matoskah,” Rona said, her face looking a little less pinched.

Matoskah gave her the flash of a smile and then said to Skah. “I never knew you guys were here.”

“Just got here man,” said Skah. “The surfs gonna be good tonight. You in?”

“I wish I could but I promised someone I’d help them out.” Matoskah’s attention slid over to me and I stood up, brushing the sand off my jeans. “Stay,” I pressed. “They will take me back.”

Matoskah turned a fraction to scope out Drake and Ressler, who were just now getting out of the water. “I can take you. It’s no big deal. I can surf anytime.”

“No stay,” I insisted. “I don’t mind. I want you to stay.” I knew the way now and even if I didn’t, Ressler and Drake would. I still had to tell them about my plans anyway and I would really rather have them alone for that. Before Drake and Ressler could even take a step further and before Matoskah could protest anymore, I kissed Matoskah on the cheek and thanked him for bringing me. Waving bye to his friends, I took off, meeting Drake and Ressler and going with them to give back their boards and wetsuits to the rental store.

“Just no,” said Ressler, coming out of the store.

“Okay. Let me put it this way,” I offered. I’m not asking you I’m telling you.”

Ressler stopped and prodded himself in the chest with a disbelieving look on his face. “You’re telling me?”

Caleb had once used that irritating statement on me and I hoped I had delivered it with just as much force, to get my message through loud and clear.

“Well your ears work,” I said, spinning back around to face him.

“I don’t like the sound of this either,” Drake rather unhelpfully contributed.

“Really, I’ll be fine. Matwau’s a good guy.”

“I’m sure he comes across that way,” Ressler said with a cynical shake of his head.