by Cait Marie
“They escaped?” Ada asked, her eyes wide.
“They first found a small village, full of kind-hearted people with little means. Then they sailed to Tugora, not knowing where else to go and eventually fell into the lives of piracy. Returning to the people on the first island to repay their kindness, promising to always bring food and supplies when they passed through the southern islands.”
She watched the waves crashing before her, the wheels in her head spinning. Lee still paced, and an idea formed in her mind. She opened the book and began flipping through the pages. “Lee, they’re still out there! Maybe there are more clues about where they went.”
Lee stopped and looked down to where her hand laid over the symbols. “You know, there is almost no one left in this world who recognizes that language. There are even fewer who can read it. You see them, don’t you? The symbols have started to come together.”
Ada stared at him, wondering how he knew she saw the shifting symbols, but he held a hand up to stop her questions. He opened and closed his mouth multiple times. Her brow scrunched in confusion, trying to figure out what he was trying to say. He rubbed a hand down his face as he let out a frustrated groan.
“It’s easier if I just show you.”
Before she could ask what he meant, Lee tugged his shirt over his head. Ada’s jaw dropped as the fabric fell to the ground. Her breath caught, and she gaped up at him. The world stilled around them. Everything faded into the background—the crashing waves, the chatter from the group drifting on the breeze through the trees.
“Ada,” he whispered.
There were no words. She scrambled to her feet, dropping everything but the one card she knew by heart. Slowly, she moved closer. She still wasn’t breathing as she stood directly in front of him.
“Please say something,” he begged.
Ada’s hand shook as she reached out to the captain, but he stood still. Her fingers traced the dark swirling symbols that covered his shoulder and trailed the top side of his chest. The bruises from his injured ribs were completely gone. She bit her lip, trying to hold back the tears. Finally, she looked up and met his gaze. His eyes subtly shifted into the sea green pair she’d dreamed of since she was a child.
A breathy laugh escaped her. As did the tears.
“It’s you,” she whispered.
“Hi.”
Overwhelmed, she covered her face with both hands. He gently pulled her hand away, not touching the one holding his card. The card with the identical symbols lining its edges. When he didn’t reach for it, she held it out to him, but he shook his head.
“Now who’s the stubborn one?” she managed to ask.
He laughed and took the card. He let it fall to the ground immediately, then placed both hands on either side of her face. “Ada…”
“Loxley.”
He pulled her closer with a deep laugh and kissed the top of her head as she wrapped her arms around him. She laid her head over his heart, and he didn’t move as her tears fell to his chest. They held onto each other as the sun set around them, darkening the world.
“I found you,” Ada said, breaking the silence.
“You found me,” he said into her hair.
“And you don’t hate me?” It was more rhetorical, but she still needed to hear his answer.
Loxley leaned back enough to see her face. The corner of his mouth lifted as he wiped her cheeks. “Well, you get under my skin more than anyone I’ve ever met.” Then, more seriously, he added. “I did at first. I didn’t know who you were, but it was almost instinctual that I needed to hate you, even though I told myself it was just a coincidence that you resembled Mariella.”
“That explains so much,” she teased.
He poked her in the side, then continued in a somber tone, “When you told me you were the princess, I thought the world was playing a cruel trick on me. But I quickly came to the same realization you just did.”
“What?”
“You are not your ancestors. You are not Mariella or Henri.” He sighed and clasped his hands behind her back. “Then you told me the rest and, word by word, you broke my heart. Because I knew you were different. I knew that I was going to end up here with you, facing my past. But as much as I want to help you, you’re still the Princess of Detmarya.”
She stiffened in his arms.
“I can’t—“
“I know,” she interrupted. She lifted a hand to his cheek. “I knew it was a long shot to begin with. After hearing the rest of the story...”
He nodded and leaned in close when someone broke through the line of plants.
Ada turned to see Brienne. The woman took in their appearances and gave a knowing smile. “You told her?”
A thought hit Ada suddenly, and she laughed. She bent over, holding her middle. They both looked at her with confused concern, which only made her laugh harder. With tears in her eyes, she let go of Loxley and ran to the book sitting in the sand. She stood upright, thrusting a card in Brienne’s direction.
Loxley walked up beside Brienne to see what she took and began laughing as well.
“You’re Briar!” Ada nearly shouted.
Brienne rolled her eyes, tossed the card at her, and stomped back toward the village. She made a vulgar gesture over her shoulder at them.
“Yeah, the story got a bit distorted,” Loxley said, still chuckling. “The king had her painted as a man because he didn’t like the idea of being bested by a woman. Eventually, everyone forgot the truth.”
He turned back to pick up his card, then walked over to Ada. He squatted down to collect the others and the book. After shaking off the sand, he placed the cards back in the middle of the book and handed it to her. She tried to stop him, but he pushed it into her arms with a slow smile. “Hold them for me?”
She agreed, and they walked back to the blazing fire and joined the crew. Ada looked at them all in wonder, seeing their true selves now. Phillip smiled as she sat beside him on a log. Loxley brought her a plate of fish and bread and sat on her other side to eat his own.
“You look happy,” Phillip commented. “You look happy with them.”
She didn’t bother hiding her smile. “I am. Oh, Phillip, you’re never going to believe…” She hesitated and looked to Loxley, who nodded for her to go on.
“They’re the Nihryst?” Phillip asked with an amused tone.
Ada whirled toward him. “You knew? How?”
“He guessed the first night,” Brienne said from nearby.
Phillip shrugged. “It just made sense. I mean, look at them.”
Ren let out a low chuckle from where he lay in the grass staring at the sky. He had stayed quiet most of the night, but every once in a while, he reminded them of his presence. The rest of the crew watched the revelation with sly grins.
“And you didn’t tell me?” Ada held a hand over her heart in mock pain. She looked to Loxley, who just smiled and winked.
“I needed you to figure it out on your own,” Loxley said.
“Wait, how did you finally figure it out?” Phillip asked.
Brienne snorted and pointed a knife in Loxley’s direction. “He cheated.”
“I did not cheat. The curse says we can’t tell anyone. I didn’t say a word,” Loxley argued.
“You took your shirt off, knowing she’d recognize the symbols!”
Ada laughed at their bickering. She sat her empty plate down on the ground and waited for his retort. Heat raced up her cheeks when he draped an arm around her and said, “Yeah, well you have no idea how hard it was keeping it on this long.”
She leaned away and glared daggers at him. “If you’re referring to Tugora, that was all you.”
“I thought we were blaming Brienne? She’s the one that put you in that damned dress.”
They both looked to her and laughed as Brienne shrugged innocently. “Honestly, I’m surprised he had enough self-control to keep his hands to himself. You should have seen his face when he first saw you. I thought he was
going to kill me.”
“So did I,” he mumbled.
Ada wanted to ask who the dress belonged to, but then it hit her: Mariella. It had to have been hers. They planned to run away together. The dress had looked old, but she hadn’t realized it belonged to her own ancestor. Her ancestor. She shivered, deciding to address that later. She didn’t want to think their connection was simply because she looked similar to a woman who’d lived and died over a century earlier.
“He didn’t keep his hands to himself,” Ada said, turning to Loxley. She gasped with realization. “Oh, stars! That’s why you freaked out? You couldn’t let me see the symbols or that your bruises had healed.”
He leaned closer as the rest of the crew drifted off into their own conversations. “Of course. Why else would I have stopped?” he whispered in her ear.
“I thought you regretted kissing me.”
He didn’t answer, just shook his head and tucked her into his side tighter. The fire continued to crackle as the group talked among themselves. Flames licked the wind, racing toward the sky. It kept them warm from the cool ocean breeze. Loxley moved to the ground, leaning back against the natural bench. He pulled Ada down to sit beside him, and she looked up at the night sky. The smoke tumbled toward the stars—the same stars she’d watched from her bedroom window all her life.
The crew slowly dispersed, moving to various huts to find cots still held together enough to sleep on. Ren fell asleep where he laid in the grass. There were only a handful of people left awake when Phillip asked, “So, what’s the plan? How are you stopping the king?”
Loxley’s hand that was tracing circles on Ada’s arm stilled. He cleared his throat. “We’re not.”
“What do you mean?” Phillip asked.
“We’re not going to Detmarya.”
“Of course you are.” When no one responded, Phillip said, “What’s the point of all this then?”
“Phillip,” Brienne said as she shifted uncomfortably. She had moved closer and sat beside him.
“No.” Phillip stood. Anger pulsed off him. “You’re not going to help? After everything?”
He looked at Loxley and motioned from him to Ada. She felt Loxley tense up beside her.
“What about her? You’re not going to help her? You’re just abandoning her to take on her madman of a—”
“Phillip!” Ada shouted. She shook her head, resigned. “That’s enough.”
“But—”
“No, just stop,” she begged. “We’ll figure something else out.”
He huffed something unintelligible and stalked away. Brienne got up to follow, saying she’d talk to him. Ada leaned against Loxley’s shoulder and looked back up at the stars. She watched them twinkle in the inky black sky. Despite how far they had travelled, the sky looked the same there.
The tide gently crashed into the beach over and over again. The island was more peaceful than she’d imagined. She was content to stay there forever. The thought made her breath catch. Her eyes burned—both from imagining the Nihryst being cursed to do just that and from knowing she couldn’t stay with them.
“I’m tired,” she whispered. “Is there somewhere I can sleep? A hut of someone who stayed on the ship maybe?”
Loxley pointed to one. She turned, kissed him on the cheek, then said goodnight and left.
Ada lit a lantern she’d brought with her and sat it on the makeshift table inside the small, dark hut. It was empty save for the hammock-like cot, table, and a small wardrobe. Sadness enveloped her at the lack of personal objects. They truly had nothing when banished there. Carvings lined the edge of the wardrobe, and Ada rubbed a hand over the familiar marks.
“This was yours?” she asked when she heard the door open and close again. “You made this?”
Loxley placed her book on the table. Throughout her life, that book had been as attached as another limb. She never left it anywhere, and only Shane and Phillip had ever been allowed to touch it after her mother died. Now that Ada was there, it didn’t feel the same. She trusted these people—Loxley. His hand slid over the symbols beside hers. He nodded and entwined their fingers.
“How long?” she whispered.
“Does it matter?” Ada turned to face him, and he sighed. “We were here for almost seventy-five years.”
“Seventy—” Her throat tightened. “I—Loxley, I’m so—”
“No, don’t do that.” He took her face in both his hands. “It was a long time, but it wasn’t your fault.” He let out a laugh and added, “I never thought I’d say those words, but it’s the truth. You have to know that we don’t put any of the blame on you. Hell, your parents probably weren’t even born by the time we escaped.”
A thought occurred to her. “Seventy-five years. You left, what, fifty years ago?”
“A little over fifty, yes.”
“And you never came back here?”
Loxley smiled, as if he could read her line of thought. He shook his head in confirmation, slid his hands down to rest on her sides, and waited for the last question.
“You never came back until… I asked.”
“You kind of demanded, actually,” he said. Her serious look stopped his laugh. “Yes, we had no intention of ever returning. I wasn’t lying in Tugora when I said I would never bring my crew back here.”
“But you did.”
“I did.” Seeing her worry, he held her tighter. “None of them complained. It was a group decision, believe it or not. I wouldn’t bring us until we were unanimous. There was a bit of a debate, but eventually everyone agreed.”
“Someone didn’t want to?” Guilt coursed through her.
“Yeah, me,” he said. She raised an eyebrow at his confession. “Everyone was arguing with me.”
“Even Ren?”
“Are you kidding? He was the first to argue on your behalf.”
Ada let out a breath, laughing at the image of Ren fighting for her. She’d need to thank him later. “Would you have brought me if I didn’t have the cards?”
“Honestly?” When she nodded, he said, “You wouldn’t have been on my ship without the cards. But yes, if something happened and you didn’t have the cards anymore—if you left them in Tugora or threw them in the ocean because I was being an ass—I still would have brought you here.”
Ada reached up to him, but he stopped her. “Well, maybe not if you threw them in the ocean. I would have been really angry.”
Her head tipped back as she laughed. The wind outside whistled through the stone buildings. She couldn’t hear beyond the walls, so she had no idea if anyone was still awake. She didn’t know if Brienne had calmed Phillip down. In that moment, she didn’t care. She stroked Loxley’s cheek, mesmerized that he really stood in front of her.
“I’m sorry I can’t help you,” he whispered, mistaking the sadness in her eyes.
She shook her head. “I know. Me too…” His pained look crushed her heart.
“You don’t need me. You’re smart and strong. You’ll figure something out,” he told her with more conviction than she felt.
“I don’t want to talk about that,” she whispered and stepped closer. Her stomach did somersaults in a way it never had with anyone else. Despite the trust and comfort she felt with him, he made her incredibly nervous.
“What do you want to talk about then?” He tucked a piece of her hair back with a smirk.
“Nothing.” She bit her bottom lip as he leaned back to look at her. “Talking wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.”
“Ada,” he groaned as she clasped her hands behind his neck. He looked as if he hated himself for what he was about to say. “I can’t… We both know how this is going to end.”
“Loxley…”
He met her eyes with a light chuckle. He bent down to press a kiss to her cheek, lingering for a second. “Goodnight, Princess.”
“Thank you,” she said. “For coming for me on Tugora and for coming back here. I just… thank you.”
“You’re welcome.�
�
He stepped out of her arms and turned to leave, but at the door she called his name again. “Loxley?”
“Yes, love?” He turned back around with a sigh.
Ada took a deep breath before stepping closer. She’d made a decision earlier, one that came to her easier than she would have imagined. Something urged her to do so, the same feeling she’d always had when looking at the book and cards, and she prayed to the stars it was the right choice. Loxley looked down at her, waiting.
“I want to help you break the curse,” she clarified.
He hesitated, a number of emotions playing out in his features. He settled on awe. “You’d do that? What about your father? Your brother?”
“It’s because of my family that you’re even cursed. I think I need to do this.”
“It’s not going to be a simple fix. We’re going to need to go to someone who practices the old ways.”
“Fine.” She shrugged. “I’ll go with you.”
“It will require more sailing.”
“Oh my stars, do you not want me to go?” Ada asked, raising her voice and her hands in mock-frustration.
“You just need to know what’s in store,” he argued. “If you don’t want to—”
“I wouldn’t have offered if I didn’t want to,” she interrupted. “We have a couple weeks before my father’s planned attack. Regardless of if we can break it, just get me home by then so I can try to stop him myself.”
He blanched at that, but before he could say anything, she added. “Besides, what if you need me to break it? Or my book? After all, it led me here. Well, almost.”
At that he laughed and held up his hands in surrender. “Fine, you can come with us.” He stepped back saying, “By the way, you had the clue right. We were in the right place; you just misinterpreted the sun breaking the horizon.”
She gaped at him as he moved to open the door. Before shutting it, he turned back and said, “It meant sunset, not sunrise.”
A shoe hit the door as he shut it, and she cursed him. She could hear him laughing on the other side. Exhausted from all the emotions of the day, and all the revelations brought upon her, Ada carefully climbed into the hammock and fell asleep with a smile on her face.