The summer had been like a dream, some parts of it a nightmare, but overall a good dream. Magic. The things I had done, the things I had seen were all unbelievable. The past month had been incredible. But it wasn't a dream, and there was no happy ending for us. I'd been playing witch. I should have practiced my fire spell more. Would it have helped? Would I be able to make bigger sparks? Flames? I could have at least practiced my warming spell! If I could have gotten Charlie warmer faster, we might all be safe. No, I messed around. My best and strongest spell was useless. Night vision. Now that the sun was up, I didn't even need it. It was almost too bright, already.

For a moment the entire world seemed to grind to a halt. An insane idea struck me. I thought of how even the smallest crack of light was abnormally bright with night vision. The memory of everyone crying out when I turned on the light flashed through my mind. I could see Thomas’ eyes watering, as he turned away from the sun. I looked at Nathaniel. Not at his evil smile or his blood-stained lips. I looked at his eyes, not at the hunger or the pleasure in them, but the tears. The sun was behind me and was bright enough that Nathaniel's eyes were already slightly watery. What would casting a night vision spell on him do? If I didn't try, I was dead. If it failed, I was dead, anyway. We all were. I slowly raised my wand. He laughed.

"Trying again? Go ahead! See if you can singe me this time!"

"Mar!" I screamed the word, putting everything I had into it. I thought of how the world suddenly appeared out of the dark. I thought of suddenly explosions of bright light. I cast my night vision spell, knowing it was my strongest.

I don't know what I expected. More cruel laughter maybe. Or a bit of surprise. Instead, Nathaniel screamed in pain and buried his eyes in his hands. "Bitch! I'll kill you!" Despite his words, he staggered back a step, eyes still covered.

It probably went against everything witches were usually taught, but I dropped my wand. Clutching my stake in both hands I drove it into his chest as hard as I could. Nathaniel's screams intensified, and he fell back onto the deck, blood pouring from around the stake. From the way he screamed, I knew I had only hit two hearts. I dropped down, shaking, and shoved the stake farther in.

He was dead.

I fell back, overcome by a wave of relief, shock, and fatigue. It was over. The rain had stopped, and the remaining clouds were parting. It was a beautiful morning, despite the carnage on the deck, because I hadn't thought that I'd live to see it. Tears rolled down my cheeks, and I didn't know if they were from joy or if I had just been holding them in for too long.

No.

The thought made my blood run cold. It wasn't over. TS was still bleeding to death, Thomas was still trapped, and Charlie was still shivering. I couldn't sit here doing nothing. The stake caught my eye, and I realized that it was made of wood. I forced myself to move and yanked it out of Nathaniel's chest. I scanned the deck and found two more, then ran to Charlie.

"Here, here!" I cried, thrusting them out to him. I wasn't strong enough to help Thomas, but I could warm up Charlie and then try to bandage TS somehow.

Charlie looked stunned, but grabbed them. At first, they burned slowly. Then, the flames flared up, and the stakes disintegrated into ashes. As Charlie ate, I cast another warming spell on him, useless though it was. Then, I ran to TS. He was still bleeding. Badly. I pressed my hands against his neck, trying to slow the flow of blood.

"Jen," Charlie yelled. "Come on!" He had staggered to his feet. He took a shaky step in my direction and nearly fell. It was obvious that he wanted me to go to him, but I couldn't understand why. When I hesitated, he added, "I can help!"

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He could cauterize it! I jumped to my feet and ran to him. I tucked myself under his shoulder, and we started walking. Each step was agonizingly slow. At last, Charlie practically collapsed by TS. He immediately started prodding at the wound. In a few seconds, I smelled burning flesh. Charlie heaved a sigh of relief and sank back. He'd stopped the bleeding. He reached a hand out to me.

"Help me over to Tom."

I pulled him up. He seemed even weaker after using some of his energy. He leaned heavily against me and slung an arm over the rails after we reached Thomas, just to keep himself up. Charlie inspected the rails for a moment while I studied Thomas. He'd done more than broken his arm in his attempt to free himself. It looked like a horrible mix of blood, flesh, and bone. Thomas’ chest heaved, and his face was streaked with tears. Charlie grabbed part of the rail and frowned in concentration. I watched in awe as the rail began to glow red-hot. When it was bright red, he pulled. The rail started to bend, and a moment later, Thomas finally wrenched his arm free. He sagged heavily to the ground with a groan of pain and relief. Charlie slid down, too, with a sigh. But Thomas didn't give himself time to rest; he got to his feet and hurried over to TS. I followed. Thomas spat the healing saliva directly onto TS’s neck, and I watched in relief as the wound started to heal. It was slow, and when Thomas was done, there were still four jagged, indented scars in TS’s neck. I could only hope that we'd stopped the bleeding in time.

Without warning, Thomas pulled me into a tight hug with his good arm. "That was amazing. Incredible. You were absolutely incredible," he gasped. He hugged me even tighter. "You might have just saved everyone on the entire ship."

I hugged him back. It sounded insane. But I had.

"How long has he been in the water?" Charlie said.

The reminder that we still didn't know if Dani was alive hit me, and I leaned weakly against Thomas.

"Not long enough," Thomas said.

"Are you sure? He should've been back by now." There was an edge of panic in Charlie's voice.

"I'm sure he's fine."

"But what if... What if..." Charlie trailed off.

"God," Thomas spat softly. He hurried over to Charlie, crouched down, and put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, hey. Listen. Danio's all right. You know he's tough. He'll be fine."

Charlie's eyes flared, and I realized what Thomas was thinking. If Charlie started to panic, he could erupt again. I swallowed nervously. Surely he was too weak to do much damage. He stared past Thomas, almost like he hadn't heard him.

"Char!" Thomas gave him a little shake. "He's okay."

"He was soaking wet from the rain," I added. "He already looked better by the time we pushed him into the water."

"Really?"

I nodded, hoping Charlie couldn't tell I was lying.

"Come on. The ground is wet here," Thomas said. He helped Charlie to his feet and back under the roof.

When he had Charlie settled in with a fresh pile of paper plates, Thomas went back and sat down next to TS. I joined him. We sat in silence for a little while. Thomas absently scratched the top of TS’s head, looking across the deck. I followed his gaze and noticed the jackal's body for the first time. I couldn't see any blood; it was like the jackal had just dropped dead. It probably had when the vampire it was bonded to died. I suppressed a shiver, wondering if Thomas would have died if TS did.

"He'll be okay, right?" I asked.

Thomas nodded and smiled weakly at me. "Thanks to you."

We were quiet again. Charlie had finished off the plates and was clearly growing agitated again.

"I didn't see what happened to Danio," Thomas said softly. "How bad was it?"

"One of the vampires punched him... in the stomach." I didn't have to wonder if he knew about Dani's stomach. His expression said it all.

"Did he really seem better by the time you got him overboard?"

I shook my head and forced myself to say, "Worse."

Thomas covered his face with his hand and sighed. I glanced over at Charlie again. He was still sitting, but it looked like the air around him was shimmering from heat.

"What do we do if Charlie erupts?"

"I don't know," Thomas said.

The silence stretched on once more. Thomas spat onto TS’s neck a couple of times, but never added any to his own, mangled, arm.

"You need blood."

"I can wait," he said. I started to argue, but he cut me off with another firm, "I can wait." His eyes were trained on the water, and I knew he was worried about Dani. The minutes ticked by. Then, Thomas heaved a sad sigh. "We can't wait out here much longer. We need to clean off the deck and go inside."

But he made no move to get up.