Free The 13th Guest by Rebecca Royce Page B

densest fog she’d ever see as she sailed over the Atlantic Ocean.
    Maybe this hadn’t been the smartest course of action .
    “You’re going to be okay. That fog won’t harm you. I promise you.”
    Her throat went dry. “Why?”
    “Because I travel through it every week. With me at the helm of this ship, nothing will happen to its passengers.”
    She watched him instead of the upcoming danger. His words were sweet, but she knew better than to believe a single person, even a paranormal one, could stop the elements of the earth from doing what they were going to do.
    A vision of her parents, trapped in their car, screaming as they drove over the cliff where they died filled her mind. Numbness washed over her, and she shook her head. Not now. For this moment, she would keep her focus. Tomorrow would be soon enough to remember.
    The fog surrounded the boat and Damek nodded, a smile on his face.
    “Come with me.” He took her hand and brought her to the deck on top of the boat.
    Two of his crewmembers looked up. They stared at her like she had two heads before looking back down at their charts.
    “It went smoothly.” Damek took his seat in the highest chair. “This is Amelia. She stowed away.”
    Without a word, both crewmembers stood and walked away.
    Her itchy forehead confirmed what she suspected. The crewmembers were not human.
    She shrugged. “Chatty, aren’t they?”
    He turned his gaze to her. “I think you should hope that the fog doesn’t let you through.”
    Amelia’s chest tightened. “Is that possible?”
    “Yep.”
    Damn. If all of this effort didn’t get her to the Wiccan Haus, she didn’t know what would. Her gut told her she needed to get to the Wiccan Haus.

    Damek usually loved the trip through the fog. The magic energy flowed through him every time he traveled through it. He loved that his magic helped guide the boat. These few moments were the only magic he allowed himself to use. People got hurt—or worse—when he lost control, and handling his abilities had never been his forte.
    But now he dreaded the fog. The second they’d gone through, one of the Rowans would have been alerted that his very hot stowaway had broken onto his boat. Rekkus was going to haul him up by his toenails and dangle him upside down until his head exploded.
    Not that Damek could blame him. The first order of business had to be protecting Cyrus Rowan from the people who were after him. His job, as the man who ferried the passengers to the island, made him the first line of defense against potential enemies. Today he had failed. Although he did not suspect the quirky little doctor of going after Cyrus, if Myron, the resident psychic on the island, hadn’t given her a reservation, she shouldn’t be there at all.
    Now, either the fog would not allow her entrance to the island and she’d remain on the boat, transported back to the mainland without reaching her destination, or security would handle her. He didn’t much care for either option.
    Why did he want to keep this woman with him? He should be itching to get rid of her.
    Women needed to be taken care of, loved, cherished, and he wasn’t in a position to do that anymore. Not for anyone.
    She touched his arm. “You’re sad. Do you want to talk about it?”
    “I’m sad?” He stared down at her. Her touch made him want…and that wasn’t a good thing since he’d never be in a position to have . “Where did that come from?”
    “It’s just something I’ve always known, when someone is carrying pain. I’m not all that good at stopping their suffering, not as proficient as I thought. But I can listen.”
    Oh hell. The girl had some kind of empathic abilities. He didn’t need that. His sadness—or whatever it was after all of the years he’d been carrying it around—was his own. No one else got to hear about it.
    The island appeared on the other end of the fog. He looked down at her. The fog was going to let Amelia into the Wiccan Haus after