Several days later, Gabe stood at the counter of the local hardware store. He needed a few items for the house and his boat.

Gabe listened half-heartedly to the gossip Fred Albert was sharing. Fred had owned Fred’s Hardware, Marine, and the Five and Dime for the last twenty-five years. His wife Mildred had once told Gabe that when Fred died, she was going to have him stuffed and put in the window. Personally, Gabe wasn’t sure the woman had been joking.

“I heard the Coast Guard found Ross’s boat today anchored offshore,” Fred said as he rang up the items. “They think he must have gotten tangled up in one of his nets and fallen overboard.”

“Why do they think that?” Gabe asked, glancing at the front of the store where Magna was looking at some garden statues.

The man shrugged as he bagged the items he had just rung up. “One of the nets was missing,” he said. “Shame. Ross’s mom died just a few weeks or so ago and he had her place up for sale. I heard he was going to sell everything and move to Hawaii.”

“Yeah, a shame,” Gabe nodded distractedly.

“I need to get the other bolts you ordered,” Fred added. “They’re in the back.”

“No problem, I’m in no hurry,” Gabe commented, glancing over his shoulder when the door opened and a woman in her mid-thirties came in. “I forgot I needed some rope for a bow line as well. Mine is getting a little frayed.”

Magna glanced up when the door opened. She had been admiring a small statue of a mermaid that would look cute on the back deck when a woman carrying a bundle of papers came in. The woman took down a picture in the front window and replaced it with another one. Curious, Magna walked over to see the picture on the front of the papers.

A soft gasp escaped her when she recognized the intense eyes of the male who had shot her. The woman, hearing her swift intake of breath, turned to look at her. Magna stumbled backwards when the woman took several steps closer.

“Do you know him?” the woman demanded. “Do you know where he is? Have you seen him?”

Magna forced her eyes away from the paper in the woman’s hand and up to her face. The woman’s dark blue eyes refused to allow her to look away. Unable to stop the automatic response, she nodded.

“Where? Where did you see him?” the woman pleaded. “When? Please. I need to find him. He is the only family I have left. Please.”

Magna searched for Gabe’s huge form. The desperation in the woman’s eyes was too much for her to ignore. That same look haunted her dreams at night. Eyes of the men, women, and children she had turned to stone. The eyes of a parent pleading for their child. Her mother and father’s eyes as she turned them to stone.

Licking her lips, she nodded toward the door. The woman sucked in a breath and nodded in reply, then hurried to the door and opened it. Magna followed her out, making sure the door closed behind them. She looked up and down the sidewalk to make sure that they were alone. Still afraid, she walked a short distance away until she reached a narrow alley between the buildings, far enough away from the door to the store that they would not be disturbed.

“Who is he to you?” she asked the woman.

The woman gripped the papers tightly against her chest. “Mike is my baby brother,” the woman replied in an earnest voice. “We… He’s all I’ve got. If you know anything, I would appreciate your help.”

Magna could see the grief in the other woman’s eyes. “What is your name?” she quietly asked.

“Ruth Hallbrook,” Ruth immediately replied. Magna watched Ruth turn over one of the papers and look at the picture of her brother. “No one knows what happened to him. He left me a message, but it didn’t make any sense. He said he had met someone and that I would probably never see him again. That isn’t like Mike. We promised each other after our folks died…. I can’t… I can’t think of him being lost or gone forever. I need to bring him home.”

“What if he doesn’t want to come home?” Magna asked in a quiet voice.

Ruth drew in a deep breath, staring at Magna. “Why wouldn’t he…? You know where he is, don’t you?” she asked harshly, her eyes widening in disbelief and anger.

Magna lowered her gaze. “Yes,” she responded, looking up when Gabe came out of the hardware store. She could see the slightly wild expression in his eyes. The emotion was almost identical to the look in Ruth Hallbrook’s eyes. “Gabe.”

His head immediately turned toward where she and Ruth were standing, and as he walked over to the alley, he looked into her troubled eyes before his gaze moved to the papers in Ruth’s hand. She grimaced when he released a muttered curse before he nodded in understanding.

“How about we get a cup of coffee?” he finally said with a sigh.

Ruth looked back and forth between them before she nodded. “Where?” she asked, lifting her chin in determination.

“My place,” he replied in frustration. “You can follow us. Kane should be home by the time we get there.”

“How do I know…?” Ruth started to say, her eyes narrowing with suspicion.

Magna turned and touched Ruth’s arm. She gave her a reassuring smile. Helping Ruth would also help herself. Releasing as many demons as she had would take time, but deep down she hoped that someday she could set them all free.

“It will be alright,” Magna promised. “I… owe your brother a great debt.”

She could feel Ruth’s skeptical eyes on her and Gabe before she gave them both a brief, sharp nod. They walked toward Gabe’s truck. Ruth had parked next to them.

Magna climbed in the truck when Gabe opened the door for her. She watched him hurry around to the driver’s side. He opened the door and climbed in, then stashed the shopping bags behind their seats.

“I hope you know what you are doing,” he said, inserting the key and turning the ignition.

Magna looked at him with a haunted expression. “How did you feel when you thought I was gone?” she countered, waiting for him to answer. She continued when he didn’t say anything. “Mike Hallbrook is the only family she has left.”

Gabe looked at her, then at the car waiting for them to pull out. He reached over and squeezed her hands. She smiled when he shook his head in resignation.

“It terrified the hell out of me,” he admitted, shifting the truck into reverse and pulling out of the parking space.

“Exactly,” she replied, clasping her hands in her lap.

She drew in a deep breath as he drove through town. She stared out of the window, checking the mirror for the dark blue sedan that was following them. This was another wrong that she could right. Each one helped her feel a small measure of redemption.

“How much are you going to tell her?” he finally asked as he turned onto the road leading to his house.

“Everything. She deserves to know the truth,” she said quietly.

Gabe reached over and grasped her hand again. “Then what?” he muttered.

“Then... I will give her a shell,” Magna whispered.

Ruth Hallbrook bit her lip as she followed the truck in front of her. She couldn’t decide if she was crazy or suicidal. Still, if there was the remotest chance of finding her brother, she’d take the risk. Glancing down, she fumbled for the card the FBI Agent had given her this morning.

She would have thought between the FBI and the CIA, someone would have found Mike by now! The state police sure weren’t going to. They said that since Mike had called and left her a message saying he had voluntarily left, there was nothing they could do. She had told them exactly what they could do. Of course, she’d come close to going to jail for that little conversation.

Pressing the dial button on her phone, she tapped out the number while trying to keep her eyes on the road. Hell, if something happened to her, well, she wanted at least one person to give a damn! She lifted the phone to her ear when it began to ring.

“Maitland.”

“Hello, Agent Maitland, this is Ruth Hallbrook,” Ruth said, turning on the turn signal. She glanced both ways before turning left. “You said I should call you if I found out anything else about my brother, Mike Hallbrook.”

“Yes, thank you for calling. Can you tell me what you’ve discovered?” Tonya asked.

“I’m not exactly sure yet. I was hanging up new reward posters down at the hardware store and I met a woman there who said she knew him and where he is. I’m on my way to her house to talk with her,” Ruth said.

“Ms. Hallbrook, I don’t think that is a good idea. Can you tell me the name of the woman and where she—?” Tonya was saying as Ruth accelerated up the winding road.

“Hello? Agent Maitland? Hell…o? Can you hear me?” Ruth asked. She glanced at her phone. No Service. “Damn it! You’d think by now the phone company would be able to have cell reception in even the most remote places. I knew I should have switched services when it was time to renew.”

She had two choices: keep following the only lead she had to finding her brother, or tuck tail and run. Since she didn’t even know the meaning of the latter, she tossed her cellphone onto the seat next to her. She could always call when she got back to Mike’s house – if she made it back there.

She began to feel a little better about her decision by the time she pulled up outside the house. There was another SUV parked out front and a man in a jacket standing outside of it, waiting for the couple. Ruth raised her eyebrows when the man walked over to the passenger side of the truck, helped the woman out of it, and placed a passionate kiss on her lips. She could have sworn the woman was with the man named Gabe.

She swallowed as she slowed to a stop and turned off the ignition. The woman was surrounded by both men now and they each looked like they were very possessive of her.

To each their own, Ruth thought with a soft whistle.

Personally, she had bombed at handling one man, and her ex-husband had been the epitome of a wuss! Pushing open the driver’s door, she cursed when she realized that she had forgotten to unbuckle her seatbelt. Clicking the release, she slid out and stood up just as the man named Gabe walked over. For a moment, she wondered if she had made a mistake. There was definitely something intimidating about him. Both of the men, actually.

“I’ll tell you this now, I won’t let you hurt Magna,” he warned in a soft voice. “She has been through hell and back.”

Ruth blinked in surprise. This was not at all what she had been expecting. Raising an eyebrow, she looked back at him with a steady gaze.

“All I want to do is find my brother. If she helps me do that, I’ll have my lips superglued before I hurt her,” Ruth swore.

Gabe released an unexpected chuckle. “That damn stuff works really well,” he warned, surprising her again.

She nodded and smiled in return, relaxing a little at his teasing. “I’d much rather use glue than get stitches any day,” she remarked.

“Oh God! You mean there are two of you in the world?” the other man groaned with a shake of his head.

Ruth looked at Gabe with a raised eyebrow. If she wasn’t careful, her face was gonna get stuck this way, but what the hell, the surprises kept on coming.

“He’s a doctor,” Gabe mumbled.

“That figures,” Ruth chuckled.

“Please come in,” Magna said, turning and heading inside. “Oh, I have to warn you that we have two—”

“Damn it, Wilson! Will you get out of the way? Buck, you’d better not be learning any bad habits,” Gabe warned.

“Ah, the sweet sound of pet ownership. I gave Mike a golden retriever for his birthday several months ago,” Ruth commented with a knowing grin before her smile faded.

“Wilson is still young,” Magna laughed.

“My name is Kane Field. Would you care for something to drink, Miss…? “

“Ruth Hallbrook.”

He smiled. “We have coffee, tea, juice, and beer.”

“Coffee would be great,” Ruth replied, stepping into the kitchen. “You have a beautiful home.”

“Thank you,” Magna said, smiling giddily because it really was home – the three of them had a home together. “Please, come into the living room. I love being able to see the ocean from it,” Magna encouraged.

Ruth took off her coat and handed it to Gabe when he held his hand out. She followed Magna into the other room. The entire house screamed peace and unity.

Gabe followed them in and started the gas fireplace. Ruth stood by large glass doors and looked out over the treetops to the ocean. She turned when Kane returned with a tray, a pot of coffee, and small dishes that she suspected contained cream and sugar. In addition to the coffee, there was a large glass of water.

She watched Kane set the tray down, wondering what she would learn here today. Gabe immediately picked up the glass of water and handed it to Magna. She walked over to the chair across from the couch and sat down as Kane poured her a cup of coffee.

“Cream and sugar?” he asked.

Ruth released a pretend shudder. “Black, please. I hate ruining a perfectly good cup of coffee by putting anything in it,” she joked, taking the cup from him.

Amusement danced in her eyes when Kane sat down on one side of Magna while Gabe sat on the other. Both men had an air of being on edge while Magna appeared calm and relaxed. Ruth drank several sips of her coffee before she looked at Magna.

“Where is my brother?” she asked.

Magna returned her steady gaze with one of her own. “He is in my world,” she replied.

“Your…. Where is that?” Ruth asked, leaning forward and placing her cup on the tray before she sat back.

“Perhaps I should start at the beginning,” Magna said, opening her hand and holding out a necklace with a beautiful green shell in the center of her palm. “Take the necklace and turn it over. I will be there with you.”

“You’ll be where with me?” Ruth asked, leaning forward and taking the necklace.

She turned the shell over, admiring it. Her eyes widened when she saw the glowing center. Looking up to ask Magna about it, her voice froze on a soft croak. The living room was gone.

Looking down, she saw that her booted feet were in sand. She turned in a slow circle, trying to understand what in the hell had happened and where in the hell she was. Her eyes scanned the area. Thick palms, along with other glowing plants she had never seen before, created a thick forest on one side of her. To her right, the beach wound down along a rocky coast. To her left, tall cliffs rose out of the ocean. In front of her, the lone figure of a woman stood by the water, staring out at it.

Unsure of what to do, she walked across the sand to the edge of the water, and stood slightly behind Magna. Neither one of them spoke. Ruth’s gaze was on the creatures playing in the cove.

“That is my cousin, Orion, with the sea dragons,” Magna said, turning to look at her. “My name is Magna. I am the Sea Witch. My mother is from the Isle of Magic, one of seven kingdoms in the realm of the Seven Kingdoms. My father is from the Isle of the Sea Serpent. He is what you would call a merman. My home was both above and below the water.”

“We… Are you saying we aren’t on Earth anymore?” Ruth asked in a hesitant voice.

Magna lifted her hand and waved it through the air. “Our bodies are still in the living room of Gabe’s house, but our minds are in one of my memories of the Isle of the Sea Serpent. I stored this memory before my body was inhabited by an alien creature that threatened to destroy my world,” she explained.

Orion and the sea dragons suddenly faded away, and Ruth turned when she heard the sound of laughter. She watched a much younger version of Magna running down the beach toward them. Orion followed, laughing and teasing her.

Ruth turned when she saw a flash of light streak across the sky. Her eyes widened when it hit the water with a tremendous splash. Turning her gaze back to Magna, she saw the sadness in the other woman’s eyes.

“A creature was within that meteor. It took over my body, most of my mind, and my magic. It forced me to do horrible things to my people.” The anguish vibrating Magna’s voice was starkly moving. “I fought him as best I could, but I knew I would need help if I were to destroy him,” Magna murmured, staring at the frozen scene before them.

“What did you do?” Ruth asked.

Magna lifted a hand to her cheek. Ruth blinked when the hand passed through her face. Magna didn’t appear to realize it. She continued with her story.

“I was finally able to create a spell to destroy it, but in order for it to work, I needed a weapon not of our world that could weaken me. I tried for over a century to end my life, but each time, the creature prevented it. He had learned from my memories how to defend himself against all the weapons of our world,” she said in a weary voice.

“That is why you needed Mike,” Ruth deduced.

Magna nodded. “I was growing too weak to bind the creature to me for much longer. He was hungry for power and would have moved to a different host, perhaps one more powerful than I. Over time, I set in motion a series of events. I needed Drago, the Dragon King, to wake. Only his fire, fueled by the heat of vengeance and grief, could burn through the tentacles of the alien. I also needed the power of my cousin’s trident to create an electrical field that would stop the alien from communicating with the nightmarish creatures it had created. And finally, ... I needed the weapon your brother carried, the one that fired the metal ball, to strike me so that the alien would think I was dying,” she said, reaching up to touch her left shoulder.

Ruth blinked in surprise. “Are you telling me that my brother shot you?” she asked incredulously.

Magna nodded. “Yes. It was the only way. The creature would have forced me to kill King Oray. With Drago and Orion attacking it in the throne room, and the other rulers and their armies attacking it from the outside, the alien no longer saw me as the most serious threat. I told your brother to save King Oray and escape with the others while I released a spell strong enough to destroy the evil creature. Anyone remaining in the room would have been killed,” she said.

“But… if the others escaped and you didn’t, wouldn’t you have been killed along with the creature?” Ruth asked in confusion, looking out at the huge splash.

“I was supposed to die…. I wanted to die. My death….” Magna stopped and shook her head before she lifted her hand and waved it. “Instead, I woke here,” she softly replied.

Ruth gasped when she saw the living room of Gabe’s house reappear around them. She blinked several times and gripped the arms of the chair. She looked at where Magna leaned against Kane.

“But, what about my brother? I know he came back. He left me a partial message. The damn voicemail cut off too soon,” Ruth said.

Magna lifted her head. “He is in my world. He was with a young witch from the Isle of Magic. She had a family. I suspect he returned to the Seven Kingdoms because she could not come here,” she murmured.

Ruth was silent as she absorbed everything she had just learned. Rising to her feet, she stepped back over to the doors. It was another beautiful day. Drawing in a deep breath, she finally turned and looked at Magna with a fierce expression.

“How do I get to this ‘Seven Kingdoms’ place?” Ruth asked.

Magna looked back at her. She rose to her feet and stepped around the coffee table. Ruth swallowed when Magna stopped in front of her and looked into her eyes with a serious expression.

“Open your hand,” Magna requested.

Ruth held out her hand and opened it. Magna waved her hand over Ruth’s palm, and a red shell the size of a large coin, appeared in the middle of it.

“When you are ready to leave, go to the beach where your brother disappeared and make a wish. The shell will guide you. Keep the shell close to you. If you ever wish to return here, you will need it,” Magna warned.

Ruth nodded. “I… I can’t tell you how strange this all sounds, but if it means finding my brother….” She shook her head and looked down at the red shell in her hand. “Thank you,” she murmured, her fingers closing around the shell.

“I hope you find what you are looking for,” Magna said.

Ruth could feel the smile growing on her face. She laughed. Looking at Magna, then at the two men who were now standing and silently watching the exchange, she couldn’t help but be thankful that she hadn’t given up.

“Thank you so much,” she repeated, knowing that she would find her brother and kick his ass for not taking her with him.