“I promise to get it back,” Dullahan said.

“We’ll get it back,” Puca insisted with a bite. My eyes were drawn to the dark hallway to the left.

“Is Lorcan okay?” I asked.

“Forget Lorcan,” Puca said.

“I could never forget him,” I said, then sat there stunned at my own words.

“What do you mean?” Dullahan asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t know why I said that.” My eyes drifted back to the dark hall. His door was closed. Dullahan came around the front of the couch and went to his knees in front of me.

“Before your luck was taken you insisted on seeing Lorcan. Why?” I shook my head in response. “You were asking about him and then you began to panic. Lacey,” he held my face in his hands.

“I don’t know why,” I said.

“Is he in trouble?” Dullahan asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Leave her alone. Her instincts were just telling her to get away. Something you refused to listen to and look where we are,” Puca said coldly. Dullahan dropped my face and looked away. I saw guilt flash in his eyes as he ground his jaw.

“Can you two stop? We don’t have a time machine so placing blame is useless.” Dullahan sighed and got up, going back around the coach and heading towards the door with Puca.

“Don’t worry about Lorcan. Just keep your distance,” Dullahan said and then they were gone.

“Lacey.” The memory of my name whispered from plump lips drifted up in my mind like smoke from a candle. My eyes went back to the dark hall and the closed door. “Lacey.”

27

Puca and Dullahan had been gone all day. At the moment, I was laying in bed, trying to distract myself. The odd thing was, I wasn’t trying to distract myself from the bad luck. I was trying to distract myself from Lorcan.

I couldn’t get him out of my head. Images kept swirling in my head like memories—words murmured in my ear, a heavy body pinning me down, and a promise. For what, I couldn’t remember.

The tv on the wall crashed to the floor and cracked in two. I sighed and flung the remote at it in anger. It ricocheted off the wall and flew back at me. I yelled and dove into the blankets, managing to pull the blanket up in time so the remote didn’t hit me in the face.

I felt far too satisfied by that very small win. I got up from the bed and went to the wall of windows. The storm raged on. The typhoon was approaching, off-season and abnormally strong. Neo Atlantis wanted to sink into the ocean and take everyone with it.

According to the news, we were all stuck here. Planes were grounded and ships couldn’t make it to shore. They even tried with a hovercraft, which was now resting on the bottom of the ocean a couple miles out. That left the ships docked off the coast, trying to ride out the storm.