her, almost like he was expecting her.
"Hi," he said, which was invitation enough for Cassie to join him.
"How are you?" Cassie asked.
"Okay. How are you?"
"Good."
It was awkward, definitely, but as they persevered through it, they began to slowly settle into their old habits.
Nick teased her, pretending to be cruel, and Cassie rolled with his punches, laughing too loud. She'd wanted this for so long, she didn't want to mess it up, but there was one thing she couldn't let go.
"Can I ask you something?" she said, when there was a lull in their conversation.
Nick nodded, his jaw strong. "You can ask me anything, but it doesn't mean I'll answer you."
Cassie grinned. "Did you come out here hoping to see me?"
"Wow, you're conceited." Nick cracked up laughing.
"Is that a yes?"
Nick stopped laughing then and just smiled. He was so stingy with his full-toothed smile, Cassie had forgotten how beautiful and bright it was when it happened. Its scarcity only made it that much more valuable.
"Maybe the thought of you coming out here vaguely crossed my mind," Nick said. "I have missed this between us."
At last. This was the Nick she knew.
"Me too," Cassie said.
"Now I get to ask you something." Nick flashed his bad-boy grin. "Is Adam driving you crazy yet?"
"Nick!"
"Nick!"
"He is. I know he is. Don't even try to deny it."
"No comment," Cassie said, laughing. But then she added, "I guess I'm still getting used to his - "
"Smothering?"
"His goodness," Cassie scolded. "Now be nice." Nick suddenly appeared lighter, happier. Maybe all he needed to feel better was to take a good shot at Adam.
Cassie let her eyes go soft on the ocean. "I promise things will go back to normal," she said. "For you and me.
For all of us."
But the moment those words left her lips, dark clouds formed overhead, too fast to be natural. They were ominous clouds of the sort you'd see in movies about the apocalypse. Nick grabbed Cassie's hand, and they took a few cautious steps back, away from the ocean.
"What's happening?" Cassie asked. "Is it a tornado? Do you even get those around here?"
"I don't know what this is." Nick scanned the surrounding area for a safe shelter. "We have to get out of here. All these trees. We have to try to run to your house." They started running, but they only made it a few steps when streaks of furious lightning began flashing all around them, seemingly right at them.
"Keep running," Nick screamed. "And cover your head." Ice-cold rain poured down, pelting them like needle-pointed arrows. The sky was completely black except for the lightning, which, when it flashed, ill uminated the angry wind in the trees. The blustering sand and litter stirred up from the ground. Cassie strived to keep her eyes closed to the debris but also open enough to follow Nick's course of escape.
"We'll never make it," Cassie screamed breathlessly.
"We should try a spell, to stop it."
"No!" Nick yelled. "No magic. Keep running." One flash after the next, the lightning and thunder reminded Cassie of fireworks.
"It's them, isn't it?" Cassie cried out. "The hunters." Nick stopped running for a second, and Cassie also stopped, breathing heavily. Nick's thick neck was pulsing; his chest was heaving. "I think so," he said. "It could be a trick to get us to use our magic."
Then a lightning bolt struck a willing target - one of the many elm trees nearby. It cracked and sparked from the blow.
Cassie shielded her eyes with her hand like a visor, watching the elm shiver and smoke. "Seems like they might already know we're witches, don't you think?" Then another tree right beside that one was hit, and then another, each one closer to Cassie and Nick than the one before. Finally, a fiery bolt crashed at the ground right next to Cassie's feet. She screamed, and Nick pushed her out of the way, shielding her body with his own.
Cassie and Nick were both on the ground now, she beneath him. His broad muscular body was heavy on hers.
"Are you okay?" he asked. Rainwater dripped from his face onto hers.
"Yes," Cassie said. From beneath him she watched the trees that had been hit succumb to wild orange flames. It was the most furious fire Cassie had ever seen, with Bill owing black smoke rising up from it like a ghost.
That could have been me, Cassie thought to herself. If Nick hadn't thrown her out of the way, she would have been dead.
It was a sight to see,