MAE DAY 2 - GUARDIANS (ON HOLD TILL FURTHER NOTICE)

Chapter 22

We arrived on a beach, a normal seaside beach. I frowned at him. He laughed and nodded to the sea.

"Use the surface of the water to reflect your powers. It will allow you to cover a greater distance."

I thought he was talking nonsense until Sebastian appeared. "Ready?"

I shook my head, I didn't even know where to begin.

"Focus on one child. Try Leona as she is born of you."

He touched me and shared the memory of her birth. Her tiny face wondering what the hell was going on. I felt the spell to keep me calm lift and a wave of terror hit me.

"Use it, Mae. Don't drown in it, use it. Push it out."

I couldn't concentrate my mind spinning from one child to the next, like a panicked mother who loses sight of her child in the middle of a busy town. Lee's arms wrapping around my waist, a hand moving to my heaving chest to help calm me as tears flowed.

"Where is she?" he whispered. "Show me? Show me our baby."

I felt his presence acting like an anchor. My hands grasping onto his. He moved us forward, letting the sea move around our feet. Catching my breath with the cold. He held me steady. Tears dropping into the sea and washing out with the ebbing tide. I followed the tears, like diamonds in the water. Emotion filled, they were easy to trace.

"Focus," Lee whispered. His lips pressing a kiss behind my ear. "Where is she?"

"Bring the spell back just a touch, take the edge of it for her," Sebastian ordered but I didn't know to who he was speaking. "Which direction do you feel pulled towards most Mae?"

I moved my head to the left. Looking towards the horizon. We appeared where I wanted, hovering above the water. "Where next," Lee whispered.

I tried to shake off other distractions. Until I came across one I couldn't. "Lilly Mae," I gasped, trying to get a fix on her but it was like trying to focus a picture when someone was shaking it. My head became sore and itchy, like I needed to take my brain out and scratch it. My hands scrunching in my hair to try to stop it.

"Find a point of focus Mae. Even one word could help," Lee whispered.

"Snow," was all I could say.

"Call your father Lee. Keep focused Mae. I know it is hard, try to get a line."

I couldn't breathe, swallow or think clearly.

"Stay focused. You are not going to drown. I have you," Lee's arms tightened. "Lilly Mae, where is she. You can find her. Stay with her. Help her."

I started to cough, wanting to break free... I realised it was not me feeling that way it was her. Lilly Mae, she was ill.

"She's ill. It's bad. She wants her father."

"I'm here, where is she? Give me somewhere to go Mae." Lee father stood in lion form in front of me impatiently. "Just get me near. I can try to track her from there."

"I can't see. All I can see is red."

"Snow, red... oh god I'm losing it. I'm thinking of Father Christmas," it was so frustrating but Lee and his father disappeared.

"Don't worry. You are doing well. To you it would be interpreted as Father Christmas to us it means other things," Sebastian explained as my mind tried to follow Lee so I didn't lose a trace on him too.

"Whoa," I said putting my hand out in panic.

"Stop Lee," Sebastian called out.

"Back a bit," I pictured outer space all dark and cold. "Back... back..." It was like reversing a car with a blindfold on. Only I was backing up lions. "Down... what the hell is that? I can't see it properly."