by G. Bailey
“I don’t mind the audience, but not for our first time together,” he whispers as he pushes the hard part of his body into mine, making me gasp once more.
“Who says you will get another chance?” I say, flirting with him a little more.
“I say, because I love you, and you love me,” he says, making me go silent and just stare into his blue eyes. I reach up and smooth my hand over his slight beard and into his soft brown hair.
“Do I?” I ask him.
“Yes,” he replies with such confidence that I can’t do anything other than smile at him. I lean up, brushing my lips against his ear.
“You’re right, pretty boy,” I whisper and move away to rest my head against the stone as he looks down at me. We don’t say anything to each other, both of us comfortable to just stare at each other for a long time.
“Morning,” I hear Everly say. Dante quickly moves off me, sitting on the floor and covering his lap up as he flashes me a cheeky grin.
“Morning, Ev. Did you sleep alright?” I ask her, looking over to her cage where she is rubbing her eyes as she sits up.
“Better with a full stomach,” she replies. “You must thank your pirates for the food.”
“Good, and when I see them next, I will,” I reply, and she looks between us both with a small smile.
“I forgot, we smuggled more food in,” Dante says, reaching into his pockets and getting out a selection of wrapped up flat bundles. Dante hands me four of them and I pass two to Everly before taking one over to Zack. I gently reach through the bars, shaking his shoulder, and he jerks awake, grabbing my hand. My eyes widen as he looks over at me and loosens his grip on my hand before linking our fingers and relaxing a little.
“Bad dream?” I ask, looking over to see Dante and Everly talking quietly.
“No, I just don’t like being woken up. My parents used to wake me up by cutting my hands,” he tells me. I look up, feeling angry at his parents for ever hurting him. I’ve seen all the scars, and I know it must have gone on for a long time.
“How long did your parents punish you?”
“Long. I would have died, but I had, have, some friends on Sixa,” he tells me.
“Would you tell me about them?” I ask and slide the food into his hand. He accepts the package and holds it in his lap as he looks at me.
“Shan, he was a friend I grew up with and kept me alive through the worst of it. And his wife, Eowynn,” he tells me.
“What was it like on Sixa? I know it’s mainly made of snow,” I say, thinking back to the lessons Miss Drone told me.
“It’s cold. Deadly cold at night if you go out without heavy furs on. The houses are made of ice, and there are deep holes of freezing water all around the village,” he says.
“It sounds amazing, I would like to see your old home one day,”
“We should go in winter, when blue and yellow lines of light shine across the sky. I read a story once that said the blue light is the power of the sea and the yellow light the power of the land. Only one month in a year they are allowed to touch with their powers, and light up the entire sky,” he tells me.
“Do you believe in the gods? The Sea God we are told about, who apparently gave me this?” I point at my head.
“I believe this world is full of old magic, magic of gods, and can be a truly wonderful world with the right person to rule it. To guide it,” he says.
“Old magic?”
“The magic of soulmates. The magic of the chosen and changed ones as we have come to know them,” Zack tells me.
“What is a soulmate?” I ask, not familiar with the term.
“Two souls destined to fall for each other. Two souls that can never be torn apart, even by death,” he whispers, and I lean my head back against the wall, turning on my side so I can still look over at him. I find Zack staring at me, his expression unreadable.
“What are you thinking?” I ask.
“Little fighter, I was wondering how you still look so beautiful after weeks of being held hostage?” Zack says, lifting his head.
“I wouldn’t say I look good. In fact, I know I smell bad,” I say, making him chuckle.
“No, you don’t. No worse than I do,” he says, and I laugh. I slide down to the floor and open my own package, seeing the cheese slices and meat slices put together like a sandwich. Dante comes over and sits next to me, as he opens his own food and starts eating.
“What did the Sea God say in the deal?” Dante asks me.
“The Sea God?” Everly asks, and I stare at Zack’s worried expression as I answer her.
“He whispers to me, comes into my dreams,” I tell her and Zack.
“Cassandra…,” Everly whispers, making me look at her. The horror in her voice is impossible to miss.
“He spoke of an heir to both land and sea. He spoke of a map and a crown…,” I say, knowing there was more, but those are important.
“I’m guessing you said no, as you’re smart enough not to make a deal without thinking it through,” Dante asks me.
“I said no, but he told me making the deal is the only way to save the sea. If the sea falls, so does the land and everything we know,” I answer him. The sea is needed to make the land grow, the rain fall, and everything to survive and live. They say the sea is lost, but I don’t believe that anymore. The sea is maybe owned by pirates, but the people on the land need the sea more than they realise.
“You want to make the deal?” Everly asks, and I look towards her. She brushes her curly blonde hair out of her face and pulls her knees up to her chest, keeping her eyes on me.
“I have no choice, not in the end, and I know that. It doesn’t mean I won’t find out everything I can to make sure I don’t pay a bad price for the deal, though,” I say, knowing it’s the only smart thing to do. I catch a glance of my father in his cage behind Everly, his eyes watching me, but he disappears into the shadows before I can even say a word of hello to him. He hasn’t come forward to speak to my pirates, and it hurts that he won’t introduce himself, that I can’t show my father the men I love and care for. The men who saved his daughter from dying alone in the sea.
“You can’t put an heir you don’t know on the throne! The king isn’t even dead and the heir might not want a kingdom of nightmares!” She shouts the end part at me before walking away into the shadows of her cage. I frown at her, wondering what caused such a strong reaction. She wasn’t usually like that, not my friend that I remember, and I don’t understand why she cares so much about whoever will be on the throne anyway. For all I know, the new queen I need to find could be a well-trained, protected woman who knows how to rule. They could be a good person and have a natural lead. That’s all I think you need to rule, but then, I have no idea. The only people who might know are Hunter and Ryland. I imagine they were trained for the throne.
“She isn’t usually like this. She just lost her mother and has been here since I escaped to your ship,” I tell Dante and Zack, who nod in understanding, but they look behind me to her cage. I don’t think they believe me, or they also just don’t know why she reacted so badly.
“It must be difficult to be trapped for so long in the place you lost your mother,” Dante comments. Everly needs to escape here to clear her head a little, or a lot. This is all too much for her and that must be the reason for her reaction. We are all so stressed, under so much pressure to escape this place with our lives, that nothing else matters. The king is doing a good job of tearing us all down, and making me as weak as he thinks I am.
“We know Hunter and Ryland are the heirs to land, but not water…what could that mean?” I ask them, and they spend a while thinking like I do.
“Water must mean the mermaid throne. The water heir is a mermaid, a prince from rumours, but he would never be the heir to land. And he is not going to be king for a while; there is a mermaid queen who rules the sea. The king has a deal with her of some kind,” Dante says.
“How do you know that?” I ask. He rubs the
back of his neck and looks nervous.
“Let’s just say that Dante met a female mermaid, and she told him a lot,” Zack tells me. I don’t know why, but I have to run away as the thoughts of Dante with another woman swim through my mind. I know I’m jealous, but I’m not going to admit that.
“Don’t be jealous. My past is forgotten with every moment I spend with you,” Dante whispers as he stands behind me and wraps his arms around my stomach. He presses a kiss to the top of my head as I silently calm down, knowing I’m not being rational. We all have a past. My pirates just have more complicated ones.
“Then it makes no sense about the land and sea heir,” I mutter, changing the subject back to what we need to be talking about.
“We should ask Laura, or get her to find out. She might know something, since she has been alive longest in this castle and was taught a lot of things as a child,” Zack suggests, as Dante steps away.
“Problem is we are locked in the dungeons and the only people outside are the two princes, who are watched all the time; and Jacob, who has to pretend to be a guard,” Dante says, stroking his face with his hands.
“Chaz still isn’t here. Maybe he has escaped and is working to help us in some way,” I suggest, needing to see him and believe that he is safe.
“I don’t like that he isn’t here. He should be,” Dante says gently.
“I hope he is alive. I can’t deal with him not being alive. I won’t lose anyone else to this castle,” I say, looking away from them both. Dante sighs, coming to my side and holding me close. “It would break me, and what little hold I have on my emotions and keeping myself together would be gone”
“We know. But Cassandra, we need something right now from you,” he pleads, and I look up at him. “We need our strong, hitting people with a book, jumping off ships at sea, woman we met. We need you to be strong and we need you to work with us,” he tells me. “Trust us.” I think about what he said, and it doesn’t take me long to realise he is right. I know I need to trust them. I do trust them.
“Don’t forget chair-hitting also,” Zack adds.
Dante looks surprised. “You never told me about a chair. What happened?”
“I may have tried to hit him with a chair when he came to see me. Only after you all decided to lock me up,” I say, crossing my arms because it was their fault, but they both laugh.
“I was lucky to have caught it. Otherwise, that would have been two pirates you managed to knock out in just a few hours,” Zack chuckles.
“I didn’t trust you back then. What can I say?” I laugh.
“Do you trust us now?” Dante says, his tone more serious now.
“Yes,” I reply with a single word and smile.
“Then be strong. We need that from you. You make us strong,” he says. I give him one sharp nod before straightening my head and looking at the fire burning in the middle of the cages.
“There’s only one thing fire fears…water,” I say and look down at my hands.
“That is true,” Zack replies.
“Water-touched pirate,” I whisper under my breath, but Dante hears me.
“That name suits you,” he says, and I look back at the fire.
Yes, it does.
11
Cassandra
“It’s time,” Everly says, making my head snap up from Dante’s shoulder to see the doors to the dungeons being opened. I stand up at the same time Dante does and we wait for the guards to open the doors, taking us out one by one after handcuffing us. I walk behind the guard holding Everly, noticing how he slips a note inside her hand and gently squeezes it before letting go. I wonder what is on the note, and I wonder how he got close enough to her that she lets him hold her hand and slide his hand up her arm in a comforting way. I see her look up at him, and it’s a different look than she gives everyone else. It’s almost respectful at the same time as loving.
We are walked out of the dungeons and straight across the corridor to a large door. This door is different; a maze is engraved into it and swirls around and around until it gets to the star in the middle. It must have taken hours to make this door, and I focus on it as I wait for the guards to open the doors. We walk into the room in a line, and I look behind me to see Dante’s eyes blazing as he looks at the guard’s hands on my arm. He is holding me tightly and if Dante wasn’t tied up, I have the feeling he would be punching the guard.
I try to blank my expression when I look back into the room we are walking into. I can feel Hunter and Ryland in there before I even look, because the bond tells me they are close. I can feel Jacob, too, but its more distant. On the other side of a big glass floor is the king, with Ryland and Hunter on each side of him. They both have their small crowns on and the king has his larger one, reminding everyone who they are. Hunter’s long hair is combed straight, with tiny plaits on each side, and his face is clean shaven, making his face even more handsome than usual. But it’s not him. It doesn’t suit the dark and uncontrollable nature Hunter has. Ryland looks good, just wearing a simple green shirt and black trousers. His hair is tied at the back of his head and his blue eyes don’t leave mine this time. Hunter doesn’t look my way, but as I look around the room, I see the three young women from the last games. They are on their knees this time, looking at the floor and kneeling close to the wall. They don’t lift their heads once, and I look them over, at the tiny excuse of clothing they are wearing and at the bruises covering their arms and legs. I have to force my gaze away, knowing that my feeling sorry for them will not help them. They will die anyway when the king is bored with them. The room is large, with two doors on one side. When we get closer to the king and stand on the small square of glass, I see the floor behind him. It’s completely open glass and looks down at the maze below the castle. It’s massive, so you can see every part of the maze from up here. He is going to watch us die.
“I was shocked, so shocked that you managed not only to survive my last game Cassandra, but you also managed to kill all of my creatures,” the kings says as a greeting. I watch as his eyes drift to his sons and back to me. He likely knows his sons helped him. He isn’t a stupid king and there is no point thinking he is.
“What can I say?” I shrug. “I’m not just a little girl,” I tell him in a sarcastic tone, and he laughs, a deep, evil-sounding laugh.
“I had a little chat with your father when he got here, and he told me so much about you,” he says, and I look over at my father to see him looking at the ground.
“Like what?” I ask.
“Like the mere fact you cannot swim. How ironic that the child kissed by the Sea God…cannot swim,” he says and starts laughing once more. Ryland looks over at me, begging me with his eyes not to respond to the king’s teasing. I take a deep breath as I keep my eyes on him.
“Ryland, tell me, did she at least keep your bed warm on that ship? She is very beautiful. I wonder if she would be fun to keep in my bed,” he says, and a cold wave of horror washes over my body as I meet Hunter’s dark, swirling eyes. He is gripping his seat so tightly, I’m surprised it doesn’t smash to pieces.
“Cassandra kept my bed warm on many nights on the ship, but I’m afraid I never found her…satisfying,” Ryland replies and I have to keep a smile in, because he’s not lying. I did sleep in his bed on his ship. Never in the way the king is suggesting, but what Ryland says does not make that clear.
“Shame…,” the king says with a long sigh as he runs his eyes over my body and then looks towards Everly. “The blonde, useless girl is pretty -.”
“I’d rather die than let you touch me, you evil -,” Everly shouts, and the guard puts a hand over her mouth as she struggles against him.
“Another mouthy woman from Onaya. Is there something in the water there?” the king asks me.
“Yes…hope and the need to dethrone a king,” I say, watching as he glares at me from his throne.
“Let the games begin. I am bored with talking about a girl that is full of useless hope,” Ryland says
, and I glare at him, knowing he just wants me away from the king before I say something that gets me killed. Doesn’t mean I like it, though.
“You heard my heir. Get the games started,” the king says and nods his head towards the guards holding us. They pull us towards the doors, and I watch Ryland and Hunter until I can’t see them anymore. I look forward as another guard opens the doors before they shove us into the room one by one. The room is lit by the small fires on the walls and they lead down a long stone stairway.
“Come on, we can’t waste any time,” Zack says and takes my hand, leading me down the steps. Everly steps behind us and I hear my father talking quietly to Dante, but I can’t hear what they are saying. I look back to see Dante shake his head at me, nodding forward, and I know he wants me to concentrate on where we are going.
“Right or left?” I ask Zack when we get to the clearing that starts the stone maze. The walls are really high down here. They would be impossible to climb over on your own and only have a tiny gap above. Smooth stone has been shined into glossy walls throughout the entire maze. There are two levels of glass, one just above the walls and the one that’s in the room with the king much higher up. I guess that just above the wall might be able to let a person climb through, but I know the men wouldn’t be able to slide through as it’s too small. I’m not even sure I could.
“Left,” Dante answers, and Zack keeps my hand in his as we run after Dante. Everly is right behind me when I turn to look at her and she nods her encouragement.
“I’m proud of you for sticking up for yourself in front of the king, Ev,” I shout at her and I hear her laugh.
“You forgot to tell the king one more thing about the women of Onaya,” she pauses as we run around another corner, “that no man will ever use us.”
“Hey, not all men use women,” Dante shouts before I can reply.
“No, they don’t, Ev. Dante is right,” I say, but she doesn’t agree with me. I have a feeling anyone who tries to win Everly’s heart has their work cut out for them. There’s a loud banging noise that makes us all stop, but Zack pulls my hand.