little warm water for the dolphins to play in.” The ocean waters were chilly this time of year, and the babies liked the warm currents.
He frowned. “How are you heating the water?”
That was the hard way. “I’m not. I just pull it from Hawaii.”
He paled. “That’s your idea of a little spell? Sierra, we have local currents here that you could totally mess up. Crunch a couple of swirls together the wrong way and you get big waves.”
Okay, she could see that. But why all the panic? “So I’ll just fix the waves.” She reached for power, seeking the fluctuations that would help her locate the problem.
Govin grabbed her hands. “They’re too far away to reach from here. And you can’t just flatten them. The ocean is like an air mattress—if you flatten a wave one place, another one will pop up somewhere else. There are way too many people on the beaches in Southern California, even in the winter. We need to be incredibly careful about how we do this.”
Sierra shook her head, frustrated. She and Momma had played a game where they’d squished waves just to make a bigger one pop up somewhere else. She knew how to be careful. “It’s not a problem—I’ll just head the big waves out to sea.” They could go play with the whales in the middle of the ocean. Whales liked big swells.
Govin got very, very still. “That’s how you make a killer tsunami, Sierra.”
His voice was barely a whisper, but it cracked against her heart. She could feel her own panic rising, not even sure why. “What are you saying?”
“If we don’t handle this exactly right, people will die. And you might be the only one with strong enough magic to fix it.” He held up a hand as several voices clamored in protest. “She needs to know. With the power she has, she needs to know.”
Devin touched his arm. “Your ride’s here.” They could see a helicopter approaching in the distance.
Govin shook his head. “We can’t get there fast enough. Besides, the chopper can only carry four. The more witches the better, right now.”
Jamie started herding them toward the landing chopper. “We’ll all go. You have three air witches at your disposal. And Aervyn and Sierra don’t weigh much. We’ll get there fast enough. It will be easier for Sierra if she can see the waves.”
Sierra tried to find air to breathe as the weight of all their expectations crashed onto her shoulders.
Devin took Sierra’s hand. “And me. Two water witches are better than one.” He squeezed her fingers and spoke quietly. “Any girl who can spin a funnel with one finger can handle this. Let’s go.” The band around her lungs eased a little.
Two minutes later, she was strapped in the back of the helicopter and headed out to sea. She looked out the window, watching the dolphin babies still playing even though the warm waters had gone away.
And then Aervyn and Jamie turned on the magical afterburners.
“Holy hell!” TJ whooped, hanging onto the rudder for dear life. “How long can you keep this up?”
Jamie held up a bag of cookies and grinned. “At least a couple of hours.”
Govin’s face was grim. “We won’t need that long. This will all be over in an hour, whatever happens.”
Sierra just held on and tried not to puke.
~ ~ ~
Devin loved speed. He was exactly the guy you wanted in an emergency—grace under pressure and all that. Under normal circumstances, a super-powered helicopter ride to the rescue was the stuff his dreams were made of. He just couldn’t find any joy in this one, however. Sierra’s white face had been a foot away from his for the last twenty minutes.
He elbowed Govin. “How much farther?”
Govin switched to a private channel on his headphones. “Dunno. You’re the water witch—you’ll probably feel it before the rest of us can see it.” He eyed Sierra. “Can she do this?”
Devin had no idea. “We’re about to find out.”
He could see the disapproval hanging in Govin’s eyes. For some reason, it made him feel inordinately big-brother protective. “She’s a kid, Gov. And you scared her crapless back there.”
“There could be people on those beaches.”
He was well aware of that. As was every adult in the chopper. But it wasn’t going to make Sierra’s magic work any better to keep leaning on how bad this could be. “Magic is play for her. If you’re just going to paralyze her with fear, you might as well have left her