Turning Tides Read Online Free PDF

expression before I gave anything away. Her eyes narrowed, letting me know I hadn’t been that successful.
    Before she could say anything, the doorbell rang. I barely had time to stand before it rang again several times in short succession.
    I opened the door to see several familiar faces crammed in the doorway. My three aunts rushed in, followed by my much calmer mother. Before I could even speak, I found myself in the middle of a group hug, my aunts wrapped around me while they alternately cried about how unfair it all was and scolded me for staying away so long.
    “I missed you, too,” I said. They were nuts, every last one of them, but they were family. “Sera has a bottle open.”
    Their faces instantly brightened. Marie, the middle aunt, shook her head. “Just one? That will never do.” She bustled into the kitchen and pulled out a bottle of white from the wine cellar. Georgina, the oldest, followed and grabbed a light red.
    It was strangely comforting to see that there was no occasion, even a gruesome murder and their niece’s best friend standing accused of the crime, that didn’t call for copious amounts of wine. These days, I felt like my life was constantly changing, the ground shifting beneath my very feet, and I was glad to see a few things remained constant.
    Tina was the youngest of my aunts, only a century old. She joined the others and began filling glasses.
    I offered my mother a tentative smile. Her brows drew together, revealing a crease on her forehead that hadn’t been there when I left for college. I raised my index finger to her face, smoothing out the line. “We’ve been through worse,” I reminded her. “We’ll figure this out.”
    She blinked, just once, but with that simple move her face transformed. She was the oldest of her sisters, the first born of my unusually fecund grandmother, and she carried the air of responsibility seen on older siblings the world over. But she was still a water, and she rarely stayed in a bad mood for long—particularly when there was wine nearby.
    I turned from her to the last people who’d stepped through my door. “Lana?” My voice rose sharply on the single word. If Santa Claus had ridden through the door on a reindeer with a technicolor nose, I wouldn’t have been much more surprised.
    Lana Pond was a half-water who lived less than an hour from our cabin in Truckee. I’d only met her once, when I’d still believed I was, like her, half-human. She’d pointed me toward her brother, Trent Pond, the institution-bound dual magic who helped show me what I was. As far as I knew, she had no idea dual magics even existed.
    Lana was loopy and odd but mostly harmless. Unfortunately, she was also one of the few who’d seen me lose control of my water magic. If she started telling stories to those who understood what that loss of control could mean, she’d quickly go from mostly harmless to a woman capable of ruining my life, if not ending it entirely.
    “Aidan!” Lana exclaimed. “I haven’t seen you since you visited me and…”
    Marie returned with a glass in either hand. I grabbed one and thrust it toward Lana, hoping to distract her. Fortunately, a pretty piece of dust could distract Lana, and soon she was exclaiming over the oaky notes in her chardonnay.
    I swallowed, fighting panic, and grabbed a second glass just for me. Lana couldn’t be here. Not with the council, not with her knowledge. Either she needed to get off this island immediately, or I did.
    I caught Sera’s eye. She’d never met Lana, but she’d heard about our encounter. “Lana Pond,” I mouthed, tilting my head in the other woman’s direction.
    A mask dropped over Sera’s features, as it often did when her thoughts were in turmoil. She whispered to my mother, whose eyebrows leapt in alarm.
    I’d never met the man at Lana’s side, but I was certain he was the stone I’d spotted in the crowd earlier. A strong one, too, based on his traditional coloring. He was average