The two halves folded open and white light burst into the cave, illuminating Scarlet’s and Sage’s figures. In the middle of the glowing light was an image. Scarlet studied it. It was a castle in the middle of the sea, but not Boldt Castle. This one was taller and thinner, more like an elaborate tower than an actual castle.
Scarlet shook Sage by the shoulder.
“Look,” she instructed him.
Sage managed to half open a weary eye.
Scarlet heard him take a sharp intake of breath.
“You know where it is?” she asked.
Sage nodded. “I do.”
Then he slumped his head back into her lap, exhausted.
Something inside Scarlet told her that wherever this place was, it was important. And if Sage knew of it, then it was significant to the Immortalists. Why would her necklace show her such a place? And why would it only open when her tears fell on it? Surely it was a clue.
Scarlet snapped the necklace shut and the white glow disappeared, taking with it the image of a crooked castle in the middle of a raging ocean. Somehow she knew deep inside of her that if she got Sage to this castle, he would live. But she was running out of time.
She heaved the unconscious Sage onto her back. He was heavy, but this time Scarlet was more determined than ever, and more certain that there was hope. She took to the sky.
She would save him. No matter what it took.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Caitlin struggled to catch her breath as she fell though the night sky. One moment Caleb had hit the eject button, and the next, the plane was suddenly no longer around her. She was in the black air, falling toward the raging ocean.
She glanced right, looking for Caleb. He wasn’t there. Feeling anguished, she looked about her – and finally, she spotted Caleb above her, his parachute deployed. He was pointing to his parachute cord. She couldn’t hear him over the sound of the roaring air.
Then she realized: he was trying to tell her to pull her cord. She did and all at once the plummeting stopped as her body snapped. All was suddenly peaceful. She was hovering, floating, the white parachute spread open above her like angel’s wings.
Caitlin took some deep breaths to calm her racing heart. She looked back up at Caleb and saw him giving her two thumbs up. Caleb, who had far more experience with this sort of thing, managed to maneuver himself so that they were almost level.
“It’s going to be cold!” he shouted to her.
Caitlin looked down. The water was looming, and before she had a chance to think about the frozen waves hitting her, an enormous explosion made the whole world shudder.
Panicking, Caitlin looked to her right to see that the plane had crashed into something. She realized with a sinking sensation that it was the building she’d seen on the horizon, the one her senses had told her was where Scarlet was to be found.
“No!” she screamed.
Flames and bits of burning fuselage tumbled into the sea as a huge plume of black smoke billowed into the air.
Then Caitlin hit the ocean.
Caitlin gasped as she hit the freezing water. It was so cold, it felt as though her bones had turned to ice.
But the sharp sting caused by the frigid ocean paled in comparison to the anguish in her heart. Just ahead, the building Caitlin was certain her daughter was in was ablaze. She watched, as though in a daze, as the ceiling caved in. A moment later, the whole sea-facing wall crumbled into the ocean, leaving a deep wound in the exterior.
“Caitlin!” Caleb’s voice came from a little distance away.
Caitlin shook her head and found her way back to her senses. Caleb was swimming toward her, his parachute already detached and floating away, snatched by the strong current.
“Get your pack off!” Caleb instructed the second he was beside her.
Caitlin shrugged the heavy thing off, feeling instantly more buoyant. But her body was still weary, and her water-logged clothes were weighing her down.
“We have to get to land,” Caleb said.
He scooped his arm around his wife. She could feel that he was trembling violently. He was trying to be strong for her but really his situation was just as perilous.
“Do you think you can swim that far?” he added, nodding to the crumbling Boldt Castle.
Caitlin gritted her chattering teeth.
“What if the plane hit her?” she managed to say.
Caleb shook his head. “Don’t think like that.”
“I can’t help it. She’s our daughter. What if – ”
But Caleb didn’t let her finish. He pressed his hand over Caitlin’s heart.
“If she was dead, you’d know,” he said. “Wouldn’t you? If you can sense our daughter, track her to this place, then you’d know in your heart. I’m right, aren’t I?”
Caitlin bit her lip.
“Yes,” she said, finally. “You’re right. I would know if she was dead. I would feel it.”
But even as she said the words, and even though she believed them, she couldn’t help but feel that same sense of dread. Even if Scarlet was alive, she was most certainly still in danger.
Caitlin felt her arms begin to fatigue from treading water for so long.
“What are we going to do?” she cried to Caleb. “The only land is that way.”
She pointed at Boldt Castle, at the gaping hole in its side. Caleb followed her outstretched finger.
“I know,” he said with trepidation.
Caitlin nodded. Wet tendrils of hair stuck to her face. She swiped them away and began to swim toward the castle.
Just then, a noise caught Caitlin’s attention. It sounded like a distant whining noise, mechanical in nature. Familiar. Getting louder.
Caitlin glanced over her shoulder at Caleb.
“A helicopter,” she said.
Caleb paused mid-stroke and stared up at the sky as the noise grew louder and louder.
“The police?” he said. “They can’t still be on our tails, can they? Unless they were tracking the plane.”
Caleb suddenly thumped his open palms against the water, making a huge splash. But the noise was almost completely drowned out by the whirring blades of a helicopter approaching fast.
His features dropped into resignation.
“Get ready,” he said. “This is about to get a lot more dangerous.”
*
It took several minutes to swim to Boldt Castle. The side closest to Caitlin and Caleb was completely destroyed where the plane had struck. Stone and rubble had tumbled into the ocean, creating a sort of slope that they could now climb up. It was precarious going but they made it, finally, into Boldt Castle.
The smell of airplane fuel was strong in the air, mixed with the smells of dust, smoke, and sea salt. Caitlin heard a clamoring of noise in the distance, of people shouting, arguing, and crying out in pain. She knew at once that the building had been full before the plane hit, and that thanks to her, many people had been hurt. She shivered, her frozen body racked with guilt.
Caitlin was in a state, her hair a mess, the jump from the airplane and force of the waves having turned it into soggy dreadlocks. Her clothes were torn in places. Caleb looked just as bedraggled.
“Well?” he said. “Can you sense her?”
Caitlin put a finger to her lips to quiet him. She tried to get a feel for her daughter, to let her instincts tell her where she was, but she was struggling to catch hold of anything tangible. The sound of the roaring helicopter circling above them, the heat coming from the fire, the cries coming from the injured, all were crowding her mind and messing with her abilities.
“I can’t feel her,” Caitlin whispered, feeling defeated.
Caleb rubbed his chin. Caitlin could tell he was at his wits’ end. She wished she could do more to help but her mind was too frantic to hone in on Scarlet.
“Is she in the castle somewhere?” Caleb asked.
Despite his best attempts to hide it, Caitlin could hear the exasperation in his voice. She’d led him to this place, forced him to jump from a plane, and now she couldn’t even tell him whether she’d been right or not.