Oh, thank God he’s here. Growing up, he may have given me hell, but he’s always been honest with me. I trust him in a way that no one can touch. Charlie always seems to know how to comfort me even before I’m aware that I need comforting. “Yeah, but if we can’t find it, I’m screwed.”
“We’ve been here before.” Dax frowns and shakes his head. “We got through it then, and we’ll figure it out now.”
Something like the roar of an engine fills the air. All three of us turn our heads in the direction of the sound, and soon three cargo planes that resemble the military ones back on Earth fill the sky. They fly directly over us and head to the west.
“Bingo.” Charlie lets out a breath. “Let’s follow them. They have to be heading somewhere they can land.”
That’s true. Once we get out of this water, maybe we can find help.
“Let’s go. I don’t want to be stuck out here at night.” Dax splashes off in the direction of the planes.
Charlie intertwines his fingers with mine and tugs me after him. “Come on. We all need to stay together.”
Progress is slow, especially since we’re keeping an eye out for anything that could attack us. I fully expect an alligator to pop up at any second, but who knows if they even exist on this planet.
After a while, I realize that the guys have flanked me, one on each side, as we wade. I want to say something, but I bite my tongue. Maybe they didn’t do it on purpose. I mean, they both know me and not each other. It could have just happened like that, right?
Just as I’m about to give up and head home, the murky water clears and gets deeper, and I can see some immense areas that are designed to hold water up ahead.
In front of us, tall grass breaks through the water, but other than that, the water stands still. It’s marked off in sections to the left and right with a wide flowing section of water in the middle as if for traveling.
“Hey, look.” Charlie points to a large tree where the swamp ends and meets the clear water.
There is a boat tied off there. It’s not huge, but hell, it’s dry. “Well, it has to be someone’s.” I glance around, but there’s no one in sight. That’s freaking weird.
“It’s ours now.” Dax splashes over to it and sighs. “I hate to do it, but we are running out of time, and we need to get to wherever those planes went. There is no telling how far it is, and this water is getting deeper.”
He’s right again. I hate stealing but as the angel told me in the Angel Realm, sometimes we must make sacrifices for the greater good. “Fine. Let’s just do it. I don’t know how much longer I can go like this anyway.”
“We’re making the right call.” Charlie squeezes my hand. “We’ll try to bring it back when it’s all said and done.”
Yeah, that’s wishful thinking. We’ll be heading right back to Earth when it’s all said and done. “Let’s just go.”
We swim to the small wooden boat with three sections for seats, and Dax climbs in first, causing the boat to rock back and forth. He slips and lands on his back in the middle section. "Shit, that hurts."
A giggle escapes me. "Oh suck it up. You've been stabbed before."
He cuts his eyes at me and grins. "Yeah, but let me just have this moment." He sits and then holds his hand out to me. "Charlie, can you help me boost her up?"
What the hell? I can get myself into that boat. I open my mouth to complain, but Charlie beats me by grabbing my waist and hoisting me up in the air.
Dax wraps his arm around me and pulls me into the front of the boat. "Stay here and try not to cause trouble." He grabs Charlie's arm, helping him in as well.
I don’t know what all the fuss was about at the apartment, but they’re playing nice now. Seeing them work together eases some of my worry.
All right, let's get moving. "Are we ready to go?" I turn to face them, feeling my clothes cling to me. Ugh, I hate wet clothes. Tapping into my power, I channel the wind to blow through the boat and dry our clothes. It's an intense breeze, but I'm prepared.
"Whoa." Charlie and Dax grab onto the side of the boat as the wind hits us.
However, it doesn't last long because we're dried in seconds. "Oh, thank God. I couldn't take being wet another second."
"You didn't think to warn us?" Chris grins at me and shakes his head.
"Yeah, really." Dax's shoulders tense, and his eyes narrow. "That could have tipped us over."
Wow, I'm getting some serious anger vibes from Dax right now. "Yeah, I guess I should've, but I didn't think about it."
"You never think, do you?" He tilts his head, and the air around him turns that slight gray hue once more.
Oh, hell no. "Actually, I think a lot. Weren't you the one who got stabbed in Hell and almost died?" He's never acted like this before, so I'm not sure what his problem is.
"She didn’t do anything wrong. Don’t get your panties in a wad." Charlie picks up an oar and hands it to Dax. "Let's get moving. We have an artifact to find."
Taking the oar, Dax relaxes his shoulders and breathes in. "Yeah, you're right. I don't know what just came over me." He glances at me and puts his oar in the water. "I'm sorry. That was uncalled for."
Yeah, I'm not going to tell him it's okay because it's not. I hadn't meant to be a jerk to them and he overreacted. I turn forward and remove the rope from the tree branch. We need to get going and fast. There's no telling if someone is close by.
Silence descends over the
