My soul needs his.

"Air, fill his lungs.

Water, wash to shore.

Earth, bind to land.

Spirit, pump his heart."

Destiny tried to move, but Buffy held her still. Her body ached almost everywhere, but she couldn't be seriously hurt, because Buffy had broken her fall.

"Destiny? Can you hear me?" Morgan called. "If you can, call out. Make a noise. Anything, so I know you're okay. Please be okay. Wait! Chant a spell to get yourself out. Can witches do that?"

Safe and asking for a spell. His own faith returning and maybe a little faith in her beliefs, as well. Two miracles, thank the Goddess. "Morgan," she called, but she'd swallowed so much dust she could do little more than whisper a gasp.

Make a noise? How could she make a noise, caged, or cocooned, as she was by buckled stair rails covered in bricks?

She looked around and found a small opening, like a window in her brick-and-iron cage, that allowed her to see a section of the stairs down below.

With difficulty, she raised her sore arm and tentatively pushed on a loose brick near the opening, afraid that dislodging it would cause another avalanche.

Angel bright,

Wings so light,

Guide my hand.

Make it right.

Protect my love

Within my sight.

Guide his eyes

To me here, right.

She didn't know what she'd do if Morgan got hurt as a result of her response to him.

Her brick let go, eased from its wedge, and fell down the stairs, actually widening her window and allowing her to see the separation-a big break-in the stairs.

He would never be able to reach her.

"Do you think Destiny did that?" she heard Morgan ask. "I mean, it was only one brick. It could have fallen by itself."

One minute he was talking, then there he stood, on the last step before the split. Destiny looked up, beyond her angel cradle and gasped, as much as she could. Vexing vetiver, it looked like she was hanging on a section of stairs severed at both ends yet still connected to the wall by a steel thread.

Sweet sassafras tea. A flying trapeze cage.

Wait. Morgan was talking to Meggie and Horace. He could see them, which meant he remembered, believed, embraced his psychic ability, or he wouldn't be able to see his sister, never mind Horace. Somehow, in the midst of this, he'd been set free, totally free, of his past.

Destiny heard a ringing in her head. That couldn't be good.

She closed her eyes against her headache and thought of how Meggie must have felt in the same situation, a worse situation, where fire surrounded her. Poor Meggie . . . who must sense her presence.

Wait. Had the clever, clairvoyant Meggie stayed here all these years, because she knew this was going to happen? With a second collapsed tower, Morgan must feel like he was reliving a nightmare.

"Destiny?" he called again.

She squeezed her eyes shut against the pain of moving and nudged another brick. Several fell . . . and Morgan shouted her name.

She heard other shouts, different men's voices, banging, pounding, sledgehammers, jackhammers.

Destiny croaked Morgan's name again and pushed her hand through the mini window so he could see it.

Caramello jumped the break in the stairs, came closer, and yowled at her. Great, her cat could see her waving, but Morgan couldn't. Then her dear, sweet Caramello yowled at Morgan, and Samantha the schnoodle barked and ran back and forth toward him and the stairs, so Morgan would look up at Caramello.

Morgan whooped. "Destiny! I see your hand. I'm coming, Kismet. I'll save you."

But he couldn't reach her, because he didn't know yet that this part of the stairs wasn't attached at the top. If he put any weight on this section she was trapped in, it would break away from the wall, and she would fall . . . about sixty feet to the floor, and maybe take him down with her.

She'd rather not think of it as a death trap, but a cocoon, a chrysalis of her very own. She couldn't reach her butterfly necklace, but she'd pretend to be a growing butterfly, and she'd bide her time until she could emerge and fly free.

Shouts erupted from several directions. Destiny got a peek of a seaman with a pickax breaking through from the keeper's room.

"Coast Guard," one of them said. "What happened?"

Morgan explained from the break in the stairs while Destiny rested her tired hand. One of the seamen suggested that Morgan go back down to the bottom, because she might be safer if he got off the stairs. Sounded smart to her, except that she liked being able to see Morgan. Made her feel connected to him. She needed that connection right now.

He said something she couldn't hear, then he cupped his hands around his mouth. "Kismet, they're going to brace the section of stairs you're on, then set up some scaffolding to get you down. You might be up there a while."

She touched her thumb to her forefinger, giving him an okay signal, telling him she understood, then she let Buffy rock her to sleep.

DESTINY opened her eyes in time to see the stranger who lifted her from her open cage. How had they opened it without her hearing them? The first stranger handed her to another, then another, down lower, and so forth, until someone finally handed her to Morgan.

His amber eyes were full. A tear slipped down his cheek. "I love you," he said. "I realized it on the water before all Hades broke loose."

"I love you, too," she croaked, pleased that he was still trying to use positive words after all this, but he had to lean close, and she had to repeat herself before he heard her.

Their tears mingled when they kissed.

"I'm carrying you up to our bed where a medic is waiting to check you out. Do you understand?"

"Not deaf," she croaked, her voice a bit less raspy. "You?"

"Not deaf either."

She made a fist at him but couldn't raise it.

He raised it himself, to his lips. "I have scrapes on my hands and cold feet from my icy swim. That's all."

He was bruising as she watched. "Kayak?" she asked.

Morgan shook his head. "Sleeping with the fish."

She rolled her eyes.

A half hour later, the medic shook his head. "No broken bones," he said. "Miss Cartwright is extensively bruised and has a few scrapes." He packed away his stethoscope. "But it's a bloody miracle nothing is broken."

Morgan made a flying motion behind him, as in wings, a la Buffy, and she nodded. He must know, probably from Meggie, that Buffy had been with her.

"How did you know to come to our rescue?" Morgan asked the medic.

"We got a call from Miss Regina Paxton who was on the dock and saw it happen. Ball of fiery lightning skimmed the water, she said, and headed straight to the lighthouse for a dead hit."

Morgan tilted his head her way.

"Storm," Destiny mouthed and she practically saw the lightbulb go on over Morgan's head. Her sister, Storm, could literally see the psychic present, though her specialty was finding lost children, but they were siblings after all-an identical three-pack-and each of them sensed when one of them was in trouble.

The medic picked up his bag. "I'd like to take you both to the hospital and get you checked by a doctor."

Destiny shook her head almost as adamantly as Morgan.

The medic growled. "See your doctors for a checkup as soon as possible, then. Will you? Tomorrow? I can't find anything wrong, but I'm not a doctor."

"We'll be fine." Morgan started to walk the medic out the door as she thought about getting up. He turned to her. "Stay," he said, "under penalty of severe punishment."

She guessed she dozed, because when she opened her eyes, Morgan was placing a bowl of soup on the nightstand. Meggie, Horace, and Buffy were with him.

"Thank you, Buffy," she said. "Morgan, the Fresnel lens would have crushed me if Buffy hadn't pushed it over the edge. Then she caught me in her arms and covered me with her wings, and we rode out the tower collapse together."

"I'm glad you're okay," Meggie said.

Destiny wished she could hug her. "I'm glad you stayed with Morgan. I love you, Meggie."

"I love you too, Sis."

"What?" Morgan said. "Another sister? Meggie, you wouldn't believe all the sisters Des has, but you're the best by far."

Meggie winked at her. "We're gonna go now, so you can sleep." That fast, they disappeared.

"They're not totally gone, are they?" Morgan asked. "I mean forever?"