I dreaded that conversation, and wasn’t sure how I would get out of it or explain my actions. Once again I had acted without thinking about the consequences, and this time it might be the end of me.
I turned around to face the room in front of us and froze. All my worries went away in a second as I took in the treasures in front of me.
The room was huge, with rows upon rows of shelves lining it. Each shelf held an immeasurable amount of wealth on it—gems, gold, and pearls galore. Across the floor was scattered more treasure, close against the walls but extending several feet into the room. Each piece glistened in the bright light coming from the sky above. My eyes trailed up the shelves to see the sunlight peering in from far above us, through a small round hole, not even large enough for a person to fit through. I wondered what stopped invaders from coming in the top. There was one thing for sure, above all else.
It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.
“Come on, lass,” Aiden said and took another step into the room.
I didn’t move, just continued to look around the room in awe. There were no words for it, and I yearned to go through it. All of it. I needed to stuff my pockets full and take it with me. Each piece called to me. I had never seen so much treasure in my life. My fingertips itched to reach out and touch it. I was overwhelmed with need.
“I feel it too, the need to gather it up for yourself,” Aiden said as if he read my mind. I looked over at him, puzzled. “And I recognize the look on your face.” He was right; his own bright green eyes reflected the same desire as mine did. After all, he was a pirate, discovering treasures and claiming them for himself was a way of life for him. He knew I wanted the treasure, and I suspected he would help me run away with it if the situation was different.
“We could take it with us,” I said, breathy as I reached up to wrap my hand around the back of his neck. “You wanted this before I did. Come on, Aiden, let’s take it with us.”
It was all too much—the captain here with me alone in a room full of gold and treasure. It was exciting and intoxicating, and I didn’t want to leave. We had both searched out this treasure and found this wealth together, more than we bargained for. Maybe I could convince him to stay here just a little while longer.
“No, we have to get what we came for and get out.”
“But the treasure…”
“Focus, Rae, we need to hurry,” Aiden insisted and pulled me behind him, hard enough I had no choice but to follow. “We don’t have time to worry about anything but that stone.” He was right; we needed to go. The gold distracted me, even as I followed behind him.
My eyes wandered over to the glittering gold all around me, and I longed to take it with me. Absentmindedly I started to walk toward it, but he yanked me back. I was thankful he was with me, or I might never leave.
“Look, lass, just there.” Aiden pointed ahead, and I followed his gaze.
The stone of prosperity stood on a pedestal made of metal on the far side of the room. It sat alone, just waiting to be stolen.
I took a step forward, but he jerked me back. I glared at him. “What now? I can’t get it?”
“I just don’t trust this isn’t a trap.” He looked around, his hand still wrapped tightly around my wrist so I couldn’t get away. He continued assess the situation. He took a few slow steps forward until he was just inches from the treasure. Once he was satisfied nothing was going to pop out of nowhere and destroy us, he nodded. “Aye, I believe we are good.”
As much as I wanted to reach out and grab ahold of the object myself, I let him. This was, after all, technically his journey. He wrapped his hand around it and cocked an eyebrow.
“This is odd.”
“What’s wrong?” I asked, worried this was a trap like he predicted.
“I can’t get the stone off the pedestal. It’s not even that heavy…what the bloody hell?”
My stomach dropped. It was just as Julianna said; only a princess could remove the stone. Aiden was definitely not one of those. I took a few steps forward and looked at him. “Let me try.”
“I don’t feel comfortable with—”
“Listen, you wanted to get out of here quickly to keep me safe. Let me try. Julianna said only a princess could remove it.”
His eyes grew wide as he looked at me, but he shook his head. “No, absolutely not. Why would she want you to touch it so bad? Maybe it’s spelled.”
Not caring what he thought, I reached out and grabbed ahold of the stone. He didn’t let go, but I easily lifted it from its spot. He looked at me in shock and removed his hand.
“See, easy peasy. No need to worry, it’s just a stone.”
He smiled at me crookedly, but as he opened his mouth to speak, a low rumble reverberated through the room. His eyes looked around frantically.
“I knew this was too good to be true. Come on, we must find a way out.”
“What’s happening?” I asked as I grabbed ahold of his arm.
The floor below us began to shake and groan as if it would jump up from the earth. My legs shook as I lost my balance. I would have fallen over on my clumsy legs if it weren’t for my hold on Aiden. I had heard of earthquakes happening on land, but what bad timing it was.
“Sand pit,” he said simply and began to back away toward the wall.
“What’s a sand…” I started. A popping sound, much like a cork, filled the entire room. The sound continued, one after another, as the holes scattered on the walls opened up and crisp white sand poured out. “Oh—oh no.”
It filled up the room at a fast pace, and I wasn’t sure how we were going to get out.
“Come on, let’s get out of here,” Aiden said, snapping me out of my trance. He grabbed the stone from me and tucked it safely into his pocket.
Panic hit me as we ran to the edge of the room. There was nowhere to go. “But how do we get out?”
He pointed to the sky. “Just there, but you must be careful,” he said as he climbed onto the first shelf and knocked the gold and treasure into the floor.
The sound of the pieces hitting the ground caught my attention and almost calmed my fears. Excitement and terror mingled into something wonderful as I took it all in. It was beautiful and all of it was going to be hidden under the sand, never to be seen again. Such a pity. I wanted to save it.
“Rae! You must concentrate,” Aiden cried out. I looked up at him, and he was holding his hand out to me. “Come on.”
I took ahold of his hand and let him pull me up onto the shelf. I focused my eyes on him, and tried as hard as I could not to look at the treasure. I couldn’t let it distract me. “We can’t climb this all the way up there.”
“That’s the only choice we have unless you would rather drown by sand.”
I shook my head. No, I didn’t want that to happen. I climbed up behind him, adrenaline rushing through me as I heard the continuing flowing of sand beneath us. Every so often the gold caught my eye and distracted me. Only Aiden was able to bring me back into reality.
The closer to the top we got, the more I realized we wouldn’t even fit through that hole. A hand might fit, but that was it. Once we reached the top, Aiden pulled out his sword and began to scrape away at the ground above. Dirt and grass fell down on top of us and into the sand below.
“Hurry, Aiden.” I looked down to see the sand almost to us.
“I’m doing the best I can, lass, this isn’t exactly easy.” He shoved his sword back in the hilt and started to claw at the ground with his hands. It seemed to work better.
My body started to shake with panic as my eyes opened wide. The sand was getting close. It was going to take us under.
“Please, Aiden!”
With one last scrape of his hands, more pieces of dirt fell down upon us, opening up the hole just enough so that we might fit through. Aiden took ahold of the side of the hole, pulling himself up with his strength and disappearing over the edge.
He had the stone, and he was free. I was suddenly worri
ed he wouldn’t come back for me. He’d talked of saving me, but what if it was all a rouse? What if he just wanted the treasure?
I let my fear fuel me as I reached up to grasp the side of the hole. The sand hit my feet, causing me to sink down into it as I desperately held onto the ground above. I couldn’t pull myself up; I wasn’t strong enough.
“Aiden!” I screamed as I lifted my feet closer to my body. I was dangerously close to being taken into the soft grasp of sand and being lost in the cave forever.
Out of nowhere, rough hands grabbed mine and lifted me out into the open. I stumbled over onto Aiden, and he rolled us away from the opening. We were in a grassy area surrounded by trees. No one walking through would have ever noticed the once small hole in the ground. The large trees and greenery provided an effective hiding spot. The sky was beginning to darken to bring on the night.
“Are you alright, love?” Aiden whispered and looked down at me. He brushed the hair out of my face.
I nodded. “Thanks to you. I didn’t think you would come back for me.”
“Haven’t I proved my loyalty to you yet? I thought I’d lost you for a moment,” he admitted, his voice full of relief. “I thought…I thought I wouldn’t pull you out in time.” His jaw hardened, working back and forth as if he was trying to hold something back. He pursed his lips and looked away from me.
“It’s alright,” I said, finding myself wanting to comfort him and help him to feel better. “There’s no reason to feel guilty. You saved me.”
When he looked back down at me, there were tears in his eyes. I was surprised to see them. He had always been so tough. He rarely showed any real emotion, always preferring to be strong. I remembered that he gave up the treasure he had sought after to get the stone; he did it to save me.
“If I lost you, lass, I don’t know what I would do. Before you, there was…pain and loneliness. I tried to move on from my past, make something of myself, and I did. I became feared and respected among the worst kinds of men. I never dreamed I would find someone like you. That you would get tangled in my net, fight me so hard, but then warm my cold soul.”
I didn’t know what to say. How do you respond when the person who held you captive makes your heart flutter at his words? What do you do when the feelings you’ve been fighting back for weeks suddenly come crashing down around you? I had looked everywhere for love, but it showed up in the most unexpected place inside of someone I would have never considered before.
This is what my mother told me stories about. Here with a pirate captain, one who was more than I ever could have imagined. Our connection was one neither of us had control over, but it was wonderful. The mermaid’s call echoed through our veins and brought us together. I couldn’t believe I found it, and I was breathless.
In that moment, I wanted to stay with him. I no longer wanted to leave when the full moon came. I wanted to fulfill my fantasies of being a pirate aboard his ship, by his side. There was something in his eyes that called to me. My dreams once seemed so far away, but now felt so close to coming true. There was only one thing standing in our way—he didn’t know who I really was. What I was. If he couldn’t accept that, then we would never work out.
As I opened my mouth to respond to him, laughter rang out around us, followed by the sound of slow clapping. “Bravo. Bravo.”
Aiden rolled away from me and jumped to his feet. He reached out to help me up, and I took his hand. After pulling me to my feet, he pushed me behind me protectively.
He will never learn.
I moved to stand beside him. He looked down at me and shook his head before addressing the couple in front of us.
“We have what you’ve asked for. Now, take the device off the girl.”
“Not until you give us the stone of prosperity,” Julianna said with a nonchalant wave of her hand.
Aiden took an angry step toward them. “No, you free the girl at once or I will destroy your precious stone.”
“Now, now, let’s not be hasty,” William said, as he put his hands in the air in front of him defensively. He reached into his pocket and retrieved a key. “How about an even trade?”
“No.”
William laughed. “Ah, you think you are in control of this situation…but you should know you are not. You would really risk her life to keep the stone from us?”
“I would risk the stone to save the girl from you.” Aiden pulled his half of the stone from his pocket and held it high in the air, as if to smash it on the ground. “It means nothing to me, lad.”
My mouth ran dry. Would he really smash the stone? Then they would have no reason to spare me, and I wasn’t sure if I could survive whatever this poison was inside of the band.
This is what the past month boiled down to: my life in Aiden’s hands. Did I trust him? Should I even? He’d saved me numerous times, and we proved to make quite the team. He told me of his feelings for me, but was it enough for him to put aside his selfish pirate ways?
After several long, agonizing minutes, Aiden shrugged. “Alright then, have it your way.” He rose up on his tiptoes and began to slam the stone downwards.
“Wait!” Julianna shouted. It was the first show of strong emotion I saw from her.
Aiden froze and cocked an eyebrow. He’d been in control of the rock the entire time. There was never a plan to drop it because he knew they wouldn’t let it go. “Yes?”
“We shall free the girl,” she said and turned to her counterpart. “You would risk them destroying our precious stone!” She pushed him and jerked the key from his hand.
Aiden held his hand out for it. She placed the key into his hand, and he handed her the stone. It was a simultaneous swapping. They both jumped back from each other once it was done.
He turned to me and held his hand out. I gave it to him readily, wanting the band off me. Turning my wrist over, he observed the cuff and slowly lowered the key to its resting place. His eyes looked to me for the go ahead, his tongue snaking out to lick his lips in anticipation.
“It’s okay,” I whispered and raised a hand to cup his cheek. “I trust you.”
As much as I fought him not to have a place in my heart, he was there. As much as I told myself I couldn’t trust a filthy pirate, I did. I couldn’t deny it any longer.
A smile lit up his face, a proud expression covering it as he lowered the key and turned it. The cuff hit the ground with a clank, and he pulled me into his arms. He ran his hands down my hair and held me close. I wrapped my arms around him and let him hold me, let him have his moment. It felt so good.
“Now, I need the girl,” Julianna stated, breaking us from the moment.
I was shocked. I had nothing to offer them, and now neither did Aiden.
“I don’t think so,” the captain growled and began to pull away from me. As he did, we both realized William was closer than we thought.
He stood right behind me, and I felt the tip of his sword touch the back of my neck. Aiden struggled to keep a straight face.
“Step away from her slowly,” William demanded.
“What do you want with her?” Aiden asked.
“That’s no longer your business. She isn’t yours to claim.”
What William didn’t know was Aiden already claimed me, and I was slowly but surely consenting to be his. He was close to me, but there was stillness in him I hadn’t seen before. I recognized the look in his eyes. He was contemplating something, but I didn’t know what. His silence worried me.
“Aiden,” I whispered as a warning, hoping he wouldn’t do something too incredibly risky. These people were more dangerous than we originally thought. They had high tech gadgets in on their side, and my father’s ring. It was possible they knew more about me than they should.
His fingers grasped me suddenly, pressing into my skin, and his decision was made. In a second’s time, he picked me up and whirled around, getting me out of harm’s way. He pushed me to the ground, just as William raised his weapon high above his head. If they couldn�
��t have me, they weren’t going to let him have me either. Aiden reached for the sheath of his sword and pulled it back to swing at his opponent as he stepped in front of me, but he was too slow.
I screamed out his name in terror. Everything told me to get up, run away, save myself, as the world came crashing down on me. William’s sword sliced through Aiden’s wrist, causing his hand to fall away and his sword to hit the ground. Aiden cried out in pain, echoing my desperate screams behind him that I couldn’t contain, but William wasn’t finished.
He pulled his sword back and jabbed it into Aiden’s stomach. Aiden screamed again, but William twisted it in delight. When he slowly pulled the sword back, it was covered in bright red blood. Aiden’s hand gripped the hole in his stomach as he fell to the ground. His face paled as the blood poured from his body and soaked his clothing.
My hands flew up over my mouth as I took in the scene. My entire body ran cold and my mind struggled to comprehend what just happened. My heart felt as if it was ripped away from me, my stomach falling to the ground and twisting in a knot of nerves.
“Have you lost your mind?” Julianna cried as she ran forward and grabbed William by the arm.
“But we need her!”
“She’s not going to help us right now, you moron. You just stabbed her lover.”
“Well, then we will just make her.” William took a step toward me, but froze when a ferocious roar echoed in the woods.
Juliana’s eyes grew wide as she backed away from whatever it was. “What is that?”
I felt the ground shake behind me, and I closed my eyes. What now? I needed to get to Aiden so I could heal him before he lost too much blood. I couldn’t be distracted by another creature, and the better fighter between us two was down.
“Leave the girl alone,” a familiar voice boomed.
I whirled my head around to see Dand, the minotaur, standing there. His axe was held high, and his sights were set on the two in front of me. A sly smile came over my face. He came for me.
The Mermaid's Pearl (Tears of the Deep Book 1) Page 19