by Sarina Dorie
“Did someone on this ship do that to you?” I pointed to her face.
Her eyes watched my hands. She flinched each time I moved them toward her. I wondered if she’d been abused by someone in her past—or recently.
She stepped to the right, trying to pass me, but I blocked her easy escape to the door.
“Don’t want no trouble with you, Miss. Just following my orders.”
She was taller than me and could have easily pushed me over, but she didn’t. Fear made her tremble.
“I’m not going to hurt you. You don’t have to be afraid of me,” I said.
“Nyet. She does!” Baba Nata said. “You are daughter of wickedest witch of all time.”
Was I the reason this girl was afraid? I could have used that to my advantage, but I hated the way she cowered. She could have been a freshman at my school.
As I turned to look at the old woman, the girl scurried past. She knocked at the door, it swung inward, and she dashed out before I could get there.
I called after her. “Will you tell the captain I want to speak with him?”
“What is breakfast?” Baba Nata asked. “Hearts of enemies?”
I removed the lid from the silver tray. “Porridge. Do you think it’s poisoned? Drugged?”
“We find out.” Baba Nata groaned as she raised herself from her chair and waddled closer.
I used the spell Thatch had taught me to detect poisons, Fae food, and other dangers. The food was safe. It tasted better than Womby’s breakfast food, even with our increased budget. I felt guilty at the realization, like I was somehow betraying my friends and school by comparing their food to my enemy’s.
Baba Nata and I waited a long time in that cabin. There was a bathroom with a shower and a toilet. I scrubbed the blood off my fingers. From the numerous scratches and cuts on my arms, I couldn’t tell which smears of blood were mine and which might have been someone else’s. Josie’s cleaning spell worked on the grass stains and dirt, but not on the blood. Perhaps when magic was involved, it was too powerful for a paltry Amni Plandai cleaning charm.
Eventually the Dread Pirate Bluebeard came in, dressed in his all-black attire. He wore thick leather gloves, and his eyes were still covered with his mask. Without the chaos of battle and ravens attacking, I could see with more certainty this was Derrick.
I jumped to my feet. “Derrick, what is going on? Are you a pirate now? Is this your ship?”
“I’m not Derrick.” He struck a pose with his hands on his hips, his head turned to the side as if trying to look debonair. “I am the Dread Pirate Bluebeard.”
Baba Nata cackled and shook her head. Derrick scowled.
His beard was as blue as his hair.
“Why are you wearing that mask?” I asked.
“To keep my identity secret.”
“I already know who you are.”
He lowered his voice. “But the crew doesn’t, and we have to keep it this way.”
I stepped in closer, but he raised his gloved hands and stepped back. “You need to stay where you are. You can’t touch me, or else it might bring my curse down on me.”
I inched back. I didn’t want him to try to kill me like last time. My affinity had been all it took to change him.
“I need you to turn this ship around and take me back to school.” I pointed to the windows, in the general direction we traveled away from. I needed to make sure Thatch was all right, that he hadn’t died in the attack like his artwork had predicted. I wanted to know my mom and friends were all right and the Raven Queen had been driven off.
Derrick lifted his chin. “I can’t. I’m saving you.”
“No. You aren’t saving me. You ruined my wedding, and now you’ve kidnapped me.”
He huffed. “No. I saved you from the Raven Queen and from Thatch’s devious plans to make you bear his heirs and spawn demon children.”
“Will you take off that mask? It is ridiculous talking to you when I can’t see you.” That, and I wanted to see his eyes and make sure they hadn’t turned all black like the Raven Queen’s.
He flung off the mask and black bandana, his blue hair tumbling out from underneath. He’d let it grow out like what I’d seen in his dream. His eyes were as blue as ever.
Staring up into his handsome face was harder now because I couldn’t deny it was Derrick. All the heartache I thought I had released resurfaced.
My throat tightened with regret. “I realize you think you were helping me, but I willingly and knowingly married Felix Thatch. There are no enchantments on me.”
“Yes, there are. But you’re under his spell so you can’t see it. That’s why I thought up a way to show you.” He flourished a hand at Baba Nata. “Baba Nata sees visions. She can foretell the future and reveal the past. She is going to tell you the truth about what Felix Thatch has done to you.”
She clucked her tongue and shook her head at him. “Nyet.”
“Is that a no to Felix Thatch brainwashing me? Or a no to telling the truth about what you know?” I asked.
Baba Nata pursed her weathered lips. “I only work for gold. Or hearts of enemies.”
She was a lot like Vega.
“You don’t get to name a price. You’re our prisoner,” Derrick said.
She jabbed a knitting needle in his direction. “You take me home, or I curse you. I make your testicles shrivel up and fall off.”
Derrick leapt back. “Hey, now! There’s no need for threats. We are going to take you home, as soon as you tell Clarissa about all the things Felix Thatch did to bewitch her and force her to marry him.”
“You not pay me?”
Derrick tugged at his beard, thinking it over. “I can pay you. I have some gold.”
She rolled her eyes and set her knitting aside. She beckoned me to approach the rocker. I did so.
She took my hand and squinted at it. “Nyet. You meet tall, dark, and handsome man. He bewitch you and force you to marry him. Bluebeard save you and love you forever until rest of your life. The end.”
I crossed my arms. Her divination was even less believable than the first time she’d told me my fortune. Derrick’s brow furrowed in doubt.
“It’s because you haven’t shown her any gold. Your fortune is only as good as what you pay for, and you haven’t paid her.” I looked to her to determine if that was correct.
She nodded, smiling. “I require tithe.”
“How much do I have to pay you?” he asked.
“Firstborn child is best payment. Gold second best. Fingers and toes third best.”
“You take hair too,” I said. At least that’s what I thought I remembered.
“Hair is tenth best.” She eyed his sky-blue locks. “For you it is fifth best. You give me hair . . . and she give me blood, I tell fortune.”
“No,” I said quickly.
“How much blood?” Derrick asked.
I glared at him. The Derrick I knew would never have offered my blood to a witch.
Baba Nata held up her fingers to show a fraction between them. “Little bit.”
“Okay,” Derrick said.
I backed away. “No. I do not consent. This is blood magic. I don’t want my blood used for this.”
“You don’t get a say,” Derrick’s voice was firm. “You’ve demonstrated you lost your better judgment when you agreed to marry Thatch. I get the executive decision here.”
“No.” I tried to gather the electrical magic inside myself. I knew I could do it. I just needed a minute.
“Don’t make me go over there and touch you.” Derrick strode closer.
That was an empty threat. He had no intention of touching me. He didn’t want to risk turning evil and releasing the Raven Queen’s curse.
I kept on walking away, trying to concentrate. He whipped out his sword. The blade sliced through the air, barring my retreat. His eyes were hard, a glint of anger making the blue more like ice than a happy sky.
/> This couldn’t be my Derrick. It had to be the Derrick still cursed by the Raven Queen, capable of doing evil.
“Did you kill Bart?” I asked. “The unicorn you struck with lightning?”
“What does that have to do with anything?” He walked around me, aiming his sword straight at my heart.
“Just answer me.”
“No. He was sleeping.” Disgust painted his face.
Now he was a liar in addition to being evil. “I felt for a heartbeat. I know you killed him.”
His lips turned up into a smile, but his eyes were still hard, mocking. “Think about what you’re saying. You can’t even find your own pulse.”
Derrick was just as beautiful as he’d always been, handsome even with the beard. But his eyes were cruel, like a Fae who couldn’t remember what it was like to feel compassion.
“You’ve turned into Lord Vader,” I said.
“Well, you’ve turned into Alouette Loraline. That should make us a good match.”
The accusation tore through me. No, I wasn’t like her. I didn’t hurt people I loved. I had even healed Thatch when I’d seen him at his most vulnerable. I was a good person.
“Nyet.” Baba muttered, half her word lost. “All this bickering hurt my ears… . You go outside and fight. Yes?”
Derrick motioned to her with his sword. “Give Baba your hand, Clarissa.”
I would not give my blood without a fight. I stared at my hands, trying to will my affinity up through my limbs. I didn’t intend to kill anyone, but I could shock him.
“I know what you’re doing. Go ahead.” He snorted. “It isn’t going to hurt me. I can use electricity as well as you can and absorb it. The only person you’re going to hurt is Baba Nata. And that wouldn’t be something a nice witch would do, would it? Are you a nice witch?”
“Nyet,” Baba Nata agreed. “You not hurt kind old woman.” For the first time I recognized the hint of apprehension in her.
“Or are you like your mother?” Derrick asked. “If it’s to your advantage to hurt a little old lady, go ahead. I don’t care.”
He knew my weaknesses enough to exploit them. I wasn’t going to hurt Baba Nata, even if I didn’t like her for leading my sister Missy astray. If it took her powers of divination to tell Derrick the truth about Thatch, then I would do it.
I held out my hand to her, praying she wasn’t about to slice off one of my fingers. This was the way she had foretold Missy’s death. Baba set her knitting aside. With one needle, she stabbed my palm.
I shrieked from the pain of it. She held me by the wrist, blood dripping onto the floorboards next to her chair. She watched the drops with the interest of a diviner scrying the signs.
With Missy, she had shown her future in such detail that Missy had felt she had been there. I wondered if it had been something like Khaba’s magic when we’d delved into Derrick’s past, entering his memories.
With this, all I felt was the sting in my hand.
Baba jabbed the bloody knitting needle in Derrick’s direction. “Your turn. I take hair.”
Derrick stomped into the bathroom, coming back a moment later with a fistful of hair. His hair was a shorn mess and uneven. It was noticeably shorter. He dropped the hair into her lap. She lifted a piece, tasted it, and set it back, nodding with approval.
Baba waved a hand at the splatters on the floor. “No curses, enchantments, or bewitchings. She is protected by Fae-constructed wards. That is all. Her mind is her own . . . more or less.”
“Ah-ha!” Derrick said.
“What do you mean by ‘more or less’?” I asked.
“You are in love. No one is in right mind when in love. They all be lunatic.”
“Right. Crazy in love,” I said.
Derrick pointed at Baba. “But he intends to hurt her, right? He’ll torture her and use her?”
“Mmm.” Baba eyed the crimson drops. “I need more blood.”
“How about you give blood this time,” I said to Derrick.
“Nyet. Your future. Must be yours.” Baba beckoned me to her again.
She dug into my palm with her needle, scraping at the wound that had started to clot. I cried out. I should have shielded myself from pain, but it was too late.
“I see pain in your past. I see pain your future. All from tall, dark, and handsome man,” Baba said. “And you will enjoy.”
Derrick’s gaze turned pitying. I sighed in exasperation. I knew what she was talking about. It was his pain magic.
“What about the Raven Queen?” Derrick asked. “He’ll hand her over to become enslaved by her.”
“Nyet.” Baba shook her head. “Her true love will sacrifice himself for her. That isn’t you? Nyet? You’re safe.”
My true love? Thatch was my true love. It warmed my heart for someone else to confirm what I knew. That comfort ebbed away quickly when the rest of that prophecy sank in.
He would sacrifice himself for me.
“What?” Derrick said indignantly. “I am Clarissa’s true love. We’re meant to be together.”
“Nyet. Not true love, but very special. You are star-crossed lover.” She studied the blood, smearing it over her fingers and touching it to her tongue. “I make mistake.”
“Yes?” Derrick asked.
“True love will sacrifice himself for her. Or try. He won’t succeed.” She scratched at a hairy wart on her chin. “The Raven Queen steal much. She will kill Clarissa Lawrence before her twenty-fifth birthday.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Good Intentions Pave the Road to the Raven Court
I stared at Baba Nata in shock. I was twenty-four, turning twenty-five in June. That meant I had less than two months to live. I wouldn’t see another school year. Tears filled my eyes. All those students I had connected with and hoped to help. I would be leaving them. Who would make sure Maddy found someone who would help her figure out what to do about her bargain with the King of the Pacific? She needed me to help her with the Fae Fertility Paradox so he wouldn’t force someone on her.
Then there was Balthasar. I had promised his older sister I would make sure he graduated. Hailey trusted few authority figures aside from me. She’d improved so much. Would I get to see her graduate? And Imani? Who would teach her and protect her? Vega was a Red affinity, but I doubted she would help her in all the ways she needed.
And then there was Felix Thatch. I loved him. I’d always known he loved me, but knowing he would sacrifice himself for me made the future so much more abysmal.
“No,” Derrick said. “I refuse to believe it. Clarissa is not going to die.”
Baba Nata shrugged.
Derrick unsheathed his sword and slammed it into a table. “It’s a trick. Like what you did to Melissa Lawrence.”
What she had done to Missy had been a trick, but it hadn’t been a lie. Baba Nata had claimed she wanted to keep my sister safe from me, which might have been true. Or she might have simply wanted to use Missy for her magic.
Derrick kicked at one of the barrels, sending it tumbling into another. Both noisily toppled over. One broke open, rice spilling onto the floor. I leapt back.
Derrick’s face had grown red, and he shouted, “You told Missy that prophecy, and because of it, she became someone else. She became evil and hurt Clarissa and would have killed her. You changed her fate by telling her the future. She died because of what you told her. I won’t allow the same thing to happen to Clarissa.”
“You want to know future.” Baba squinted at him. “Magic comes with price.”
Derrick pointed his sword at Baba Nata. “Fix this! Give her a better future.”
“Nyet. Dat isn’t how future works.”
I clutched my aching hand to my chest. “Can we please be done with the blood magic and divination? I don’t want to know anything else.”
Baba grinned, her smile stretching over gums without teeth. “She lives happily ever after. The end.”
D
errick sank to his knees in the rice, tears in his eyes. I would have liked to hug him if it wouldn’t have resulted in a consequence for either of us.
Footsteps thundered down stairs. Wood creaked.
“What’s all this hollering going on down here?” Someone shouted from the other side of the door.
Derrick covered his face.
The door burst open. “First I heard screams, then banging around. Bloody hell! What have you done to my cabin?” The old man who had served as officiant the day before stood in the doorway, though minus the eyepatch and peg leg. “You’re going to clean this mess up, Mr. Winslow. Am I clear?” The hoarse, quiet voice he’d spoken with the day before was gone, replaced by a bellow that could have roused the dead from their sleep.
“Who is this?” I asked.
“Captain Ermington of the Da Vinci, His Majesty’s royal navy, at your service, miss.” The captain removed his hat and bowed.
From the name of the ship, I suspected this royal navy belonged to the Silver Court. This would make sense, as Elric was the one who had found Derrick employment.
I took in Derrick’s slouching shoulders. “I thought you said this was your ship.”
“A lad will do anything to impress a girl, eh?” the captain said.
“I go home now?” Baba Nata asked. “Captain?”
It was during dinner that I learned the full extent of the story. I sat to the captain’s right, Derrick to his left at a table full of officers dressed in their fine silver coats. I was self-consciously aware of how grubby my dress was, with rust-colored stains and slashes, compared to the pristine finery of the officers in their uniforms. Even after brushing out my hair and pinning it back into a tidy bun and doing the best I could to mend holes in my dress, I resembled a ragamuffin.
Before dinner, the captain had returned Baba Nata to her cottage, and the ship was on its way back to its post now that the captain had successfully “freed himself from the brig and vanquished pirates from his ship.” That was the story that was going into his report to his superiors anyway.
The captain smiled jovially. “This being a vessel of the royal fleet, we can’t just abandon post and seek out adventure any time we want. We’ve got orders from the Fae generals and have a duty to this realm. Desertion is a hefty sentence, even if true love is involved.” He slapped Derrick on the back and chuckled. “But having your ship commandeered by pirates is another matter completely. Isn’t it, lad?”