The air rushing by stole Amanda’s stomach as the dark water raced up to meet them. Beside her, Sirius’s black coat flapped in the wind like the wings of a blackbird. Or a bat. How fitting given where they were, but the ability of a vampire to turn into a bat was, she knew, a made up thing, an exaggeration from tales humans had once told over a century ago. Right now though she had more pressing things to think about.

  She needed to stop their fall at just the right moment. It would take a reasonable amount of energy and she didn’t think there was enough magic to do it twice. The good news was that they were falling fast enough that she didn’t think any of the firestarters would be able to catch them before they hit the water. That also meant she didn’t have much time to figure out when to stop. Too soon and they’d still fall from a great height. Too late and they’d hit the water at great speed.

  They were also quite far out into the channel but that was a future problem. A very very near future problem. She was glad there hadn’t been any boats at this time because she definitely didn’t have enough magic to pull them back nearer the wall.

  The water got closer and closer. Their speed made it hard to see and she had to keep blinking to make out anything at all. She’d jumped from heights into water before, never anything more than 15 metres but she knew how easy it was to think a drop was less than it was. They were far more likely to underestimate the distance to the water than they were to overestimate. But as they got nearer the urge to activate the magic again got overwhelmingly strong. Too much for Sirius.

  ‘Now?’ he thought.

  ‘’Too early,’ she thought back.

  But his fear of hitting concrete hard water proved too much and he didn’t wait long enough to hear her reply. Instead he switched magics. He turned off the mindwalking and grabbed the telekinesis. It wasn’t impossible to use more than one infusement at a time but it was extremely difficult. Far beyond what Sirius was capable of.

  Amanda felt the telekinesis fizzing in the grains between their hands. She felt the efficiency with which he pulled the magic out and she knew it was too late. In a moment he’d burned through almost too much. To start again would not work.

  She pulled the magic from him, snatched it out of his reach and took control. She just hoped they were close enough to the water that this wouldn’t hurt.

  She slowed their plummet until the magic ran out.

  They reached an almost stop several metres above the water. How many several she wasn’t sure but from the look of it, it was definitely more than 15.

  Then they dropped like a stone with no magic left to save them, or so she thought.

  It was only when they finally hit the water that Amanda remembered there had been more than one telekinetic infusement in his coat. Too late now.

  Sirius didn’t let go of her hand, not for a second, not even when the water pummeled them. It wrapped around them filling every crevice and fighting to get in every airway like millions of tiny roaring demons.

  As they sunk down into the dark, Amanda wondered how it ever was she could mistake a dream for the real thing. The cold was nothing like what she’d felt in her nightmares. It was bitter and biting and it tore at exposed skin like a slap. Or maybe that had just been the impact? Perhaps a mix of both? But when they finally surfaced it didn’t go away and so she blamed the cold for most of it. This was nothing like the waters at Scarlett and nothing close to water in the hot spring.

  She came up gasping and only then remembered they still had quite some swim. It had taken nearly half an hour to get from the channel entrance to the cave by boat. How long would it take like this? Even with Sirius’s superior swimming ability.

  But he didn’t tug her toward the cave. He tugged her more toward the sea.

  “Come on, this way.” He didn’t swim on his back with her like he had in Scarlett. Instead, he grabbed her around the waist and pushed her in the direction of what looked like sheer cliff face.

  “Over there, follow me.” He started swimming and then paused to look back at her. “Are you good?”

  It took her a moment to decide if she was or not.

  When she didn’t immediately reply Sirius swam a stroke back to her. “I’m sorry, I think I tried to stop us too early but we need to get out of here quickly.”

  He glanced back up from where they’d jumped from and she did the same.

  “There’s a cave not far. One we can climb into.”

  Above them she could just make out faces looking down. If they spotted them… or even if they didn’t, it wouldn’t take them long to get a boat down here. She’d seen a couple of smaller ones in port, ones with motors. Now that was something even Scarlett hadn’t had. Cap was a modern city for sure.

  She gave a nod to Sirius and started swimming.

  Satisfied she was following he led her toward the cave, glancing back every now and again to make sure he hadn’t lost her, and once or twice giving her a tug to help move her.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  He was right, it wasn’t far, and it blended in well to the cliff. She wouldn’t have known it was there if Sirius hadn’t led her right to it. It looked like it was intended as a sort of temporary dock for there were even stairs for them to climb up and once she was inside she was surprised to find it wasn’t the only cave. There were others further along. She could see from the way the light fell.

  “For Fishing,” Sirius explained as they both paused to get their breath back. He didn’t say what they fished for but stacked at points along the wet tunnel she could see large crayfish cages.

  She looked back out at the water they had just crawled from, at the towering cliffs on the other side and she felt a sense of excitement. An unexplained thrill. Maybe it was the cold, maybe it was the adrenaline, maybe it was the fact that when there was no immediate danger she actually liked the feel of falling through the air. It was not unlike flying in some ways

  Sirius gave her an incredulous look. “Why are you laughing?”

  “Well, it was kinda fun.”

  “I think that’s just the rush from not dying.”

  She shook her head. She wasn’t sure she could explain. “How high do you think we fell from? I mean that last bit.”

  His shoulders slumped and he looked crestfallen. “I’m sorry. I thought we were closer to the water than we were. It’s so easy to underestimate.”

  She shook her head again and waved his apologies away. There was no need for them. “That doesn’t matter.”

  He gave her a confused frown.

  “But how high do you think we were?” she pressed. “I don’t think I’ve ever jumped from that high before.” She couldn’t help the grin that spread across her face.

  Sirius chuckled. “You are mad,” he replied with a smile. Then after a glance down the long hallway, he added more seriously, “We should get going.”

  Amanda followed him along cold winding corridors. For a time they encountered no one and they talked as they walked.

  “I’m sorry about before,” Sirius said again.

  “I told you, don’t worry about that. You were close enough. We survived.”

  “No, I mean, before, before before, when we were fighting and I told you to burn them.”

  “Oh.”

  “I shouldn’t have asked that of you.”

  “You thought we were in danger?”

  “I did.”

  “Then it’s fine. I’m sorry I couldn’t-”

  “I shouldn’t have asked,” he repeated.

  She sighed and smiled softly. Maybe she should be more upset but she wasn’t and he seemed upset at himself enough for the both of them. She let the topic lie. “How’d you know that cave was there?”

  He glanced back, hesitation in his eyes. “Beatrice showed it to me once.”

  She smiled in amusement at the hesitation. Silly boy. Was he worried she’d feel threatened by Beatrice? She wasn’t. Beatrice was beautiful but Sirius was too easy for her to read. She was tempted to tease him some more but he seemed stressed enough for now. Given the remoteness of the area she decided not to ask what they’d been doing when Beatrice had showed him the caves. It wasn’t the most romantic area and knowing Sirius they’d probably been doing something completely innocent like looking at the fish, but on the off chance it had been something else she didn’t want to risk making him feel more embarrassed. Whatever the situation was at Cap right now, he’d likely need his confidence, as much as he could muster, as well as a clear head. So she opted for a question that was much more straightforward, far more relevant, and hopefully one he could answer.

  “So you know the way back then?”

  “Err.” His tone was not a confident one.

  She laughed.

  For a moment he looked hurt but then he caught her smile and seemed to realise she was laughing more at the situation than at him. Rather than apologise she just shrugged sheepishly. Yeah, he was definitely stressed. She couldn’t blame him. He’d just found out he’d been betrayed and his crew were potentially in danger, not to mention the question of if they themselves could get out of Cap with their lives. She needed to figure out a way to help him. What other magic did they have? What else did they know? What were the key problems?

  Getting back to the ship was one, if that was really where they wanted to go. Did he have a plan? If not, perhaps it would help to talk through one together. And if he did have a plan then if she knew about it that meant she could help.

  “So, where are we headed then?” she asked.

  She got a confident and easy reply back this time. “We need to warn the council.”

  “So to Beatrice’s place then or is there somewhere else they all gather? Do you think she and the other council members are in danger?”

  Sirius paused at a junction. Amanda wasn’t sure if he was trying to decide which way to go or what the answers to her questions were.

  He answered the latter first. “I don’t know but most of them will be asleep right now or going to bed.”

  Her reply left her mouth before she could think about whether it was appropriate or not. “Do you think it’s weird for them to eat dinner food for breakfast? Do they eat cereal in the morning like the rest of us?”

  His reply wasn’t what she expected either. Completely seriously he said, “The idea of breakfast and dinner foods has only really been a thing for the last 30 years, about a decade before we were born.”

  Amanda frowned. “That can’t be right.”

  Sirius chuckled and picked a direction to keep walking. Somehow she’d managed to ease some of the weight from his mind. “It filtered through from the human world in videos. And no, they don’t really eat cereal for breakfast here. They mostly eat fish and rice and soup. And fruit when they can get it, which they usually can these days. Didn’t used to quite as much though. And donuts have gotten pretty big recently.”

  All the talk of food was making her hungry and they hadn’t had breakfast. She licked her lips.

  Sirius seemed to notice, for a moment later he handed her something from one of his coat pockets.

  It was cylinder shaped and wrapped in sopping wet paper. “What’s this?” she asked as she unwrapped it, but the moment she opened it she knew. It was donut, or at least it had been. It was pretty soaked in saltwater now. Maybe it was still edible?

  “I bought it this morning, for you, on my way back from talking to Sandy,” Sirius explained. “Before someone snuck up on me and shoved a rag coated in chloroform over my face. At least I assume it was chloroform.”

  Amanda nodded. That had been her assumption too. She tried a bite of the donut. It was bad. The sea had ruined it, turning it into soggy bread. She grimaced and then sighed. Even as hungry as she was, she wasn’t that hungry.

  Sirius winced. “Sorry, I kind of forgot about it until now.”

  She smiled. “It’s not your fault. It’s the thought that counts. At least in a case like that. Less so with whatever we do next.”

  He gave a resolute nod but she was worried she’d added back whatever weight she’d managed to remove from his shoulders before. And she was touched that he’d thought to get it for her. She grabbed his hand to stop him. When he turned around to see what she wanted she pulled him toward her and stood on her tip toes to kiss him.

  He leaned down to meet her, a soft smile on his face again. No matter what situation they found themselves in she was determined to make sure he always felt as loved as his donut purchase had made her feel. He had fallen for her, she could tell. And she for him, she knew that for sure. But falling was scary, especially for him, so if she could, for him, she would try to make it feel more like flying.