The Turning Tides (Marina's Tales) by Derrolyn Anderson Read Free Book Online

She looked at me hopefully and in a small voice said, “Sometimes… often…things seem to happen without any rhyme or reason. But just when you least expect it, the very best is waiting just behind the tragedy… and in the end, you see that it was all meant to be.”
    I looked down. The normally unflappable Evie suddenly appeared utterly fallible, and the world seemed like an even more dangerous place than ever before. I closed my eyes and thought of Ethan, wrapping my hand around the keychain he’d given me. It was a symbol of our future life together, and I said a little prayer that my father would be alright, picturing him and Ethan meeting each other.
    Evie got up and brought me a blanket, tucking it around my shoulders, “You look tired. Try and get some sleep.”
    I smiled up at her, wanting to make her feel better too, “Don’t worry, he’s going to be fine, and he’ll be coming home soon. He promised.” I reclined my seat and closed my eyes, suddenly too tired to hold my head up, “Evie? Why isn’t Boris coming along? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you travel without him.”
    “Paul is more than up to the task of keeping watch over us. I need Boris to stay in San Francisco to attend to some things for me.”
    I nodded, glad that she hadn’t chosen Yuri to accompany us. I was tired, and my head was starting to hurt again. I yawned and stretched out my stiff shoulders , reclin ing in my seat . L ike little Stumpy, I let myself be lulled to sleep by the hum of the engines . I drifted away on a cloud tinged with worry.
    ~
    Fatima’s face loomed in front of mine, intoning, “There are two men, one dark and one light … There are two women, one dark and one light.” She kept repeating the same words over and over like a chant, until they blend ed together into one sound with no meaning. Her face started to spin, and the noise grew to a roar as I felt myself falling...
    ~
    I started awake, looking across the aisle and into Paul’s concerned eyes.
    “Are you alright?” he asked.
    I nodded, watching as he got up and came back to hand me a glass of water.
    He patted my shoulder, “We land in an hour.” I watched him disappear into the cockpit.
    Evie called me over to a table in the back of the plane, and I got up to see the surface was spread with Tarot cards.
    “I thought we agreed to leave that to the professionals,” I chided her gently. Try as she might, she’d never been able to get the cards to give up any secrets about the future.
    “I’m just passing time,” she said with a toss of her head, but I knew she was shaken– rattled by the prospect of an uncertain future, and feeling responsible for being un able to prevent my father’s accident. Despite all her talk of fate, Evie thrived on being in control.
    “He’s tough,” I said, slipping into the chair opposite her s. “He’ll be okay.”
    She gathered up the cards and forced a smile, “Let’s have some tea and eat something, shall we?”
    I nodded, watching as she carefully put the beautifully illustrated deck away in its carved rosewood box.
    She sighed, looking out the window, “I suppose that how a person masters their fate is more important than what their fate actually is.”
    I had to agree.

~
     
    C hapter F our
    HOMECOMING
     
    ~
     
    It had been three grueling days, and he still wouldn’t wake up. I sat by his bedside, numb with fear. I couldn’t stop wondering if I’d done something wrong to allow this to happen. W hat good was this muse magic if I couldn’t use it to protect my own father ?
    The doctors shuffled in and out. Every conceivable expert had run his own series of tests without any conclusive answers. Finally, they agreed that it was safe to reduce his medication, satisfied that there was no permanent brain damage. No one seemed to be able to explain why he wouldn’t regain consciousness.
    “It might help if you talk to him,” a neurologist had suggested.
    “Can he hear me?” I asked anxiously. It