by M. R. Polish
The morning sun’s rays beat down on her, awakening her from her half slouched sleeping position.
She jumped when she saw the stranger’s eyes open and staring at her.
“Sorry,” he said with a cracked whisper.
“No…I just…your eyes…it's okay.” She shook her head as everything came out in a stutter of words.
“Water.” She barely heard him but understood and rushed into the house where she kept a flask of fresh rainwater.
Hurrying back down to him, she took his head in her hands and lifted it slightly. She placed the canteen next to his mouth and let the water run into it.
He lifted his hand to stop her efforts. She placed the water down beside them.
“Where am I?” He looked up at her, and she could see his brown eyes under the moonlight.
She smiled. “I believe you call it Terpesona Island.”
He jolted up into a sitting position but winced. “Ouch. Damn, what happened? How’d I get here?”
“There was a storm, and you crashed. I found you under the tip of the wing. You were barely alive.” She played with the hem of her dress as she spoke.
“You found me? Who else is here?” He wrapped his arm around his waist and grimaced again.
“Here, let me look at it, I can help.”
He stared at her through narrowed eyes. “You haven’t answered my question. Who else is here?”
She shook her head. “No one.”
“I don’t believe you. There is no way someone as small as you could drag someone as big as me across an island, or move a wing on a plane, alone.”
“No, it was just me. I guess it was adrenaline.” She let out a nervous laugh.
He bit his lip as his face contorted with pain. She scooted closer to him. “Let me look.”
He hesitated, then lifted what was left of his shirt. She gently touched every rib, sending out a wave of her power feeling for injuries. A slight warming in her hand told her she found a place that needed healing. Her hand hovered over one rib she knew was broken and thought about whether she should help him or not. Her natural compassion won. She let her energy form around his rib, then gently drew her hand away from his body enough to pull the bone back together and seal it.
“Ouch! What was that?” he yelled at her as he jerked his shirt back down.
“I didn’t mean to hurt you. I was helping.”
He stood up. “Don’t do it again.”
Nothing about him being awake was how she hoped it would be. Tears filled her eyes, so she looked away. “I’m sorry.” She got up and went into the house.
Throwing herself on the bed, she let the tears fall. Years of being alone and this was the first conversation she got? So many things she wanted to know, things she wanted to talk about.
A knock on the wood made her turn her head. He stood at the doorway leaning with his arm raised up against the frame. “I’m sorry. I’m a little confused about everything. I should thank you for saving me.”
She sat up onto the edge of the bed. “You’re welcome. My name is Karis.” She wiped her face with her fingers.
He gave a slight nod. “Karis? Cool name. I’m Brady.”
She sniffed. “Thanks. Nice to meet you.”
“So, how do I get out of here?”
She let out a scoff. “I wish,” she said under her breath. “You can’t.”
“I can’t, or you won’t tell me?”
Karis stood up. “You can’t. If there were a way, I’d have been gone a long time ago.”
He stood there, contemplating her answer. “I don’t buy it.”
She rolled her eyes. “What do you know about this island?”
“Not much. The natives think it’s cursed. That’s why it’s abandoned.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “What do you think?”
“I think you’re wasting my time. You have a radio or something?”
“For communication?”
He raised one brow. “Well yeah. Music won’t get us off the island.”
“No. I don’t have one.” She walked to the door and slipped under his arm that he still braced himself with.
“Hey, wait, where’re you going?”
“To show you what I mean.”
She hiked up the hillside, looking behind to make sure he followed. Once she was on top of the knoll, she pointed out to the water. A fishing boat was close to approaching the barrier. Just as she suspected, after any storm anglers tried to get close to the island for the rare fish.
“Hey, great. It’s a boat.” He waved his arms in the air. “Over here!”
“They can’t hear you. Besides, they’ll never make it to shore.”
He stopped waving his arms. “What do you mean, they won’t make it?”
“At least not alive.” She watched his expression go from confused to upset. “I told you, there is no way off the island.”
She nodded toward the boat. “Just watch.” She sat down, pulled her knees to her chest, and wrapped her arms around them. She saw this happen too many times, and it was always a horrible thing to witness.
Brady sat down next to her and watched helplessly. Without a warning, the boat capsized and a colossal tidal wave swallowed the crew.
“What the…” he trailed off.
“I told you. The same would happen if you try to leave.”
He moved to face her, but his eyes never left the water. “How long have you been here?”
She shrugged. “A while.”
“And you’ve been alone the whole time?”
She nodded.
He ran his hands over his head and down his face. “This is too much.” He continued to gaze over the boatless ocean. “Where’s the plane?”
“I can take you to it, but there isn’t much left.”
He stared off across the sea. “I just need to see it.”
She threw her arms in the air. “Fine.”
Karis started down the hill and back toward the house.
“Hey wait up. I thought we were going to the plane?”
She stopped and turned his way. “I, for one, am hungry. You can go on and look for it. I’ll point you the way, but I am eating before I go traipsing around the island with you.”
He held his arms up in surrender. “Whoa, where’d that come from?”
She rolled her eyes and tipped her head back. She didn’t remember this much frustration when having contact with another person. Without saying anything more, she finished her descent down the knoll and to the trail that led to the house.
She marched up the stairs and let the door slam shut. “Hey, watch it,” Brady scowled at her.
She wasn’t sure why she was so upset, but something about him and his attitude put her nerves on fire. She rummaged around through her makeshift cookware until she found her fishing basket and string, and then pushed past him to go outside.
The inlet was a perfect place to catch that morning’s breakfast. She dropped down to her favorite rock and placed the basket in the water, letting it sink to the bottom.
Even the waves in the distance irritated her. Everything about the last two days unsettled her. The past ninety years’ worth of aggression had built up and she cried out. “Why now? After this long, why now and why him?” she yelled up into the sky. The pendant around her neck began to hum and warmed against her skin, more than it ever did before.
She grasped it with her fingers and ripped it from her neck. Staring down at it, she watched as it turned red and the heat became almost unbearable. She dropped it onto the rock beside her. “What is wrong with it?”
“So, fish for breakfast?”
Brady’s voice caused her to jump. She placed a hand over her pendant and looked behind her. He stood on the top of the rock wall with his hands in his pockets.
“It’ll be whatever I catch. Fish, shrimp, maybe a crab,” she said, turning back around to face the water.
“Okay, well, can I help?”
“You’re so
frustrating. First you're all snooty, and then you act as if you have compassion, just to act all arrogant again. I don’t get it.”
“I’ve had a lousy couple days, in case you’ve forgotten. I think I’m entitled to be upset and have moods.”
She smirked and spoke under her breath, “I can trump yours any day.”
“What was that?”
“Nothing.”
He gestured at her hand. “So what’s that?”
She raised her hand away from her pendant. It no longer was red or hot. “It’s my necklace that my father gave me a long time ago.”
He gave a half smile and nodded. “Shouldn’t it be around your neck?”
She straightened her back and inhaled. “You ask a lot of questions.”
He shrugged. “What else do you do when you meet someone on a deserted island? I mean, almost deserted.”
“Well, you can fish.”
They both laughed. He ventured closer to her and sat on the rock next to her. “Would it surprise you if I said I’ve never gone fishing?”
“At this point in my life, nothing would surprise me.” She glanced away from him and watched the water.
“So, tell me. What brings a beautiful woman to be stranded on an island in the South Pacific?”
She chortled. “More questions?”
He raised his hands from his knees. “You got me.”
“I find your dialect a little confusing. What do you mean; I have you?”
It was his turn to laugh. “Never mind.”
She scrunched her brows. “Alright. Well, if I told you, you might not believe me.”
“I think after watching an entire boat be swallowed by a calm ocean I deserve an answer. I think you have more to do with it than you’re telling me. I can’t promise to believe you,” he looked around them then back at her, “but I don’t see anyone else around to tell me.”
She picked up her pendant and ran her fingers over the swirls, letting each familiar groove give her comfort. She let out a deep breath. “My people thought I planned to commit treason, so they banished me here.”
“Seriously?” His eyes widened. “You’re right, I don’t believe it. Treason? Who says that anymore?”
“It was a different time, a different place.” She was unsure if she should tell him she was from a different world.
“Boy, I guess. What is it, some European thing? Did you talk about beheading the Queen or something?”
She couldn’t help but smile at the similar treason the council suspected her of. “No. Actually, it was the King of where I’m from, and it wasn’t beheading. And before you ask, no, I didn’t do it. I never planned it or thought it. I was set up.”
He blew out a loud breath. “Wow, that’s intense. So they what, sent you to live here? For how long? Can’t you fight it?”
She swallowed the lump that formed in the back of her throat. “Forever.”
“Shit. I thought I had it rough just crashing here.”
She leaned over to pull the basket out of the water.
“Here, let me.” Brady took the rope from her hands. Her pendant hummed and began to heat up against her palm as he touched her. She jumped back and it stopped. He looked at her with questioning eyes. “You okay?”
“Yeah, I thought I’d give you some room.” She clasped her hand around her necklace and watched as he pulled out a basket full of fish for their breakfast.
“Hey, look at that. First time fishing and I caught at least ten.”
“Well, I was the one fishing,” she teased.
“Yeah, but I pulled them out. It takes a strong man to pull out ten fish.” He flexed his biceps and smiled at her.
She laughed and stood up. “Okay, muscle man, let’s go cook them so we can eat and see what’s left of your plane.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
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Table of Contents
TABLE of CONTENTS
Prelude
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Epilogue
Special Note From the Author
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Ageless Sea Preview
Ageless Sea Preview