by S Lawrence
Then we heard the gentle sound of the waves lapping against a shore. Land. The tide washed us onto a new island, yet we had no strength left as we lay on the wet sand. Hours later, as the sun rose, we struggled to free ourselves, pulling ourselves a couple feet every few hours until our bodies shut down, then began the struggle again when we woke.
A noise jerks me from the past, and I look up. The massive dog is once again standing at the opening watching me. I stare back at the beast. The massive head lowers and one giant paw moves forward, the nails clicking on the stone. I stay very still, completely aware that he could kill me easily. My muscles are aching by the time he stops in front of me; his breath is hot and frankly stinks like ass as it puffs over my face. Raising my hand slowly, I reach for him, pausing just as his hair tickles my fingertips.
He closes the gap, pushing his snout against me, asking for affection. Rubbing at his ears, I comply with his request, all the while thinking it is like touching a squall, wild and unpredictable. He growls low, and it vibrates through his body.
I freeze.
Just as suddenly as it started, the growl ends, and I release the air from my lungs. He pushes at my hand again, impatient for more attention.
“So, where’s your girl?” I scratch at his chin, and his tongue falls out of the side of his mouth in response. “I need to go. I don’t know who betrayed me, but if they realize I survived the water, they will come.”
He growls again when I try to rise. “I can’t lay here forever.” I chance pushing up, hoping he likes me enough not to tear me to pieces.
I’ve slept for hours today and I’m not sure how many days I’ve been in here or in the water. They could already be here, anchored somewhere just out of sight.
Just as I straighten, reaching my arms up over my head to stretch, I hear a noise. The dog turns toward the opening, tail wagging. She’s returned. I should ignore the way my gut tightens at the sight of her as she steps into the cave. She stops as soon as she sees me on my feet.
“I won’t hurt you.” She raises an eyebrow, but I don’t blame her disbelief. “I promise. I can’t stay here; it’s too dangerous for all of you.”
Her eyes widen and she tenses. The dog stands, moving between us to protect her. She runs her fingers over his back, reassuring him before she starts to make her way around the edge of the cave, keeping her eyes on me.
“I brought more food.” I watch as she sets it on the floor before moving away, no longer willing to feed me now that I’m upright.
Her hand runs over the stone and crystals as she goes. I step forward as the sound of my stomach growling seems to echo off the walls. She fights a smile at the sound, and I think I’d do a lot to see a real smile on her face, lighting up her eyes. What? Where did that come from?
Women are very rare on the ships, so maybe it’s just been too long since I’ve had company. But some part of me says it’s more than that.
She stops her forward movement, and her head turns to the wall, brows drawn down. I watch as her hand disappears, then a large portion of her arm follows it. Before I can reach her, she’s gone.
What the fuck? The dog agrees, pacing back and forth whining. I run my hands over the wall… Nothing. Solid.
“What the hell?” I look down as he bumps into me, offering no explanation.
The minutes tick by, time when I could be leaving while the dog is distracted, but my feet remain where they are. Why do I care what’s become of her?
Like the dog, I have no answer. Wilder would say the gods are involved. He refuses to believe they have left us here alone, although we have all pointed out it is their fault we are in this position in the first place.
Lash would have left, not trusting her for a moment and not hesitating to kill the dog if the need arose. His killer tendencies often surprise those that don’t look beneath his handsome face.
Hagen would be dragging her with him along the coast, searching for us. The immediate flush I feel at that thought makes me step back. I like the idea too much. I take another step then another, forcing myself toward the fissure, toward freedom. An angry growl echoes around me this time, and I hold out my hands.
“I can’t stay.” Even in the middle of my spin toward the crevice, I make out the dark gray blur that is the dog. As my motion stops, he is there between me and the opening already. Fuck.
He growls again and pearly white fangs are revealed as his lips draw back. “Damnit, dog. I am dangerous for her.”
In more ways than one, it would appear. I rant and argue, but he won’t budge, and any forward movement is met with aggression. I’m yelling at the deranged beast, and he’s barking right back at me so I don’t hear her reappear. My first notion something has changed is the damn wolf plopping his ass on the floor.
Then I hear a giggle. The sound causes me to whirl, the monster in the mouth of the cave forgotten momentarily.
“It will do you no good to argue with him. He’s never listened or done anything I ask unless he feels like it.” She smiles, her eyes locking on the oversized menace. “Were you leaving?”
I try not to read too much into her tone, which sounds a little hurt.
“I’m sorry.” I’m sorry? Jesus. “It’s not safe for me to stay, and you disappeared a very long time ago.”
I let the unasked question hang in the air between us. “Sorry. Do you mean you didn’t see me walk into the other room?” She turns back and I cross to her quickly, my hand shooting out to stop her. Another growl vibrates the air as I close my fingers around her upper arm. “Liam, stop.”
I don’t mind that he protects her; I’m glad she will have him when I’m gone. I drop my eyes as the words tumble through my mind. I’ve never once thought of leaving my brothers, of giving up on our fight, until this moment. I don’t understand it and that frightens me, angers me.
The unknown will get you killed quicker than you can blink in this world. Her hands are holding a chest. It must be very old; it reminds me of the ancient book of art Cyder found on the island we washed up on.
We found many things hidden among the ruins of that island, strange and wonderful things. She shifts her arm, pulling me from the memories, and I let go. I do stay by her side, though, and point. “What is that?”
She pulls it tight against her chest, protecting it as she steps away.
“I don’t want it.” Lie. My pirate heart senses treasure. “I won’t take it.” Truth. Not from her anyway.
“It was in the room. I think it was left for me.” Wonder shines from her eyes, and her fingers rub over it like it is her lover’s body. My own body tightens as I watch that caress. “How could that be?”
“I don’t know. My brother says the gods haven’t left us, but I’m not sure I believe that.”
* * *
The room has been found. A smile curves my lips. “What are you grinning at, Nestor?”
Remy’s voice is brittle with age. I have kept him alive well past when he wished to die, but it was for this day. I’ve sat beside him in the rocking chair he carved so long ago in the days since I returned from spying. Waiting. Hoping.
I was right. The moment she traveled into the world and drew her first breath, she called to me, stronger than any before, and I knew in that moment. I started my vigil that moment.
I watched. I was watching when the village and six others were raided. Boys stolen from parents. Entire families slaughtered to fill the next generation, to have any goodness beaten from them.
Appearing to her mother, a tip on Remy’s family tree, she knew me from the stories that were passed down. She was the last. Now Reyna is the last, the strongest.
The mother held her out to me. “Save her, like you did him so long ago.” It was a plea.
I told her the truth. “He saved himself; I just watched.” Pulling the baby into my arms just as the door crashed open, I faded away. I could have stayed, fought them, killed them, but his pictures have told me how this must be done.
I look over at th
e man whose visions have left him, who wishes to go and see his family on the other side. I wish he could have painted the ending, but the magic deemed it not to be. So, we have waited.
“Well?” His breath is shallow, and his skin is paper thin.
Pulling out the phone, I turn it on and he scoffs. “Just wait my friend. You will see.”
I pull up the picture and turn it to him. My heart clenches as he finally sees.
“She looks like Coralee.” She does; it is what I thought when I checked on her years ago.
She had been two or three and there she was, running around on chubby legs, wild black hair streaming behind her and cerulean eyes shining in excitement. She was the image of Remy’s daughter, who we lost so long ago.
“She’s the one we’ve waited for. She has found the room, found the chest.” Tears stream down his deeply lined face.
“Finally.” I know the word holds two meanings for him.
I will miss my friend.
Chapter 6
REYNA
His eyes keep shifting to the chest, so I clutch it tighter as I begin to move closer to Liam. He would never let anything happen to me. I would love to trust Fallon, rely solely on my interaction with him, but I didn’t fail to see the scars on just his visible skin. Pirate -- the word keeps blasting through my brain.
My chest aches when I see the resigned understanding on his face. I want to apologize; I want to make him, I don’t know, something. He backs away, giving me more space, and I let my arms relax a bit.
“Is it addressed to you?”
“No.” I feel stupid for my earlier comment.
He turns back to where the hidden chamber is and runs his own hand over the wall. Nothing. My mouth is hanging open when he looks back at me.
“I don’t understand.” I cross back to his side. Liam is square in the middle of us as I reach out and watch as my hand slips through the opening. “Magic.”
The word is quiet, and I’m scared of it, having heard all the stories of how the gods’ magic almost destroyed us all. But fear isn’t my only reaction; excitement skitters down my spine because I’ve also snuck and read wonderful books filled with stories of magic. Stories where magic was good. Books I had found deep in the forest. Books, undamaged by the years. Books that I left hidden from everyone else. I never told anyone but Liam about them, for we had spent long, hot afternoons beneath low branches of the trees with me reading out loud to him.
Liam is a very good listener.
“This makes no sense.” His voice is dangerously low and filled with distrust, and he turns emerald eyes my way. I see his distrust isn’t just for the room. Liam stiffens at my side. “What are you?”
“Me?” Anger overtakes everything else I had been feeling seconds ago. “Me? I’m no one, an orphan, and certainly nothing like this has ever happened to me before I found you. I didn’t even know this cave was here. I never came to the shore because PIRATES like to kill us.” I put as much disgust in that name as I can.
He bristles, fists clenching at his side. Let him try. My chin goes up, and I look down my nose at him. It is a look I usually reserve for the awful girls I grew up with.
Raising his hands, he clears his throat. “I didn’t mean it that way. I just, well, I mean, it’s unnatural, right?”
“So, I’m unnatural.” He understands his mistake, if his face is anything to go by.
“Not what I meant.” His fingers scrub through his hair, causing the sable strands to stand on end, and I bite my lip, trying to hang on to my anger. “What?”
He still sounds mad but he looks like a porcupine. I cover my laugh with a cough, and his eyes narrow. I point up, my nostrils flaring as I fight the giggles that are bubbling in my throat. Frowning, he smooths his hair down.
“Maybe we should start again,” I suggest, wanting to return to the way I felt before the conversation started.
He sighs, nodding. “What if we forget the other room and focus on the chest?”
I’m opening my mouth to respond when a scream tears through the night. We both spin toward the opening, and Liam races forward growling.
“Liam,” I yell at him, and he skids to a stop. “Mom. Dad.” I start running, but he catches me before I can start through the narrow passage.
More screams echo through the air and I cry out. “Reyna, wait. Let me look.”
I want to say no, but he slides by me. I wait for all of ten seconds before I start to follow.
Terror fills me as I step out of the tunnel. There, just off shore, lit by the flames burning my home, is a ship.
They have come, and death came with them, just like we have been told all our lives.
I draw a deep breath and open my mouth, but before I can scream for my parents, his rough, callus-covered hand covers my mouth. I fight him, but he holds me tight against him.
His lips move against my ear. “It’s too late. I’m so sorry; I should have left days ago. This is my fault.”
My tears spill over his hand as I watch everything burn and listen as the screams die away. His hand comes away from my mouth, and he curls his arm around me. I grip him tightly with my hand, needing something to cling to.
“I need to check on them. Find them,” I whisper, trying not to choke on my tears.
I can hear their laughter as they continue to move through the homes and businesses. I stiffen as one makes his way down to a small boat on the shore, one of the children thrown over his shoulder. Fallon holds me tighter as I start to struggle, needing to save him.
“They will kill you or worse.” A terrified scream coming from over the cliffs reminds me of what the ‘worse’ is. I hate that I tremble and freeze, hate myself as the child is thrown into the boat. “We need to get away from here. Now.”
He pulls me along as he turns and creeps into the darkness, Liam by our side. We walk for hours until the sun nearly begins to rise. The sounds of death and killing have long since faded, leaving only my own crying to be heard over the lapping of the waves against the rocks.
My parents are dead. My home is gone. I am lost. Alone.
Chapter 7
FALLON
I fight my urge to stop and take her into my arms, her quiet crying pulling at me.
I must keep us moving. She has tried to turn inland, but I’ve managed to convince her to stay with me, that she’s safer with me. I hope I haven’t lied to her. I know those that have taken everything from her were most likely looking for me.
I glance back, past her and down the coast, just as I lead her and Liam around the tip of a cove -- no lights and the night is silent. A small clump of trees are around a hundred feet away, and I start toward them. She follows without question, shoulders curved in on herself, arms wrapped tight around her body, and the chest clutched against her abdomen.
I’m surprised for a moment that she has it and then I understand; it is all she has left besides her dog, who hasn’t moved away from her since we started walking. Now, he runs ahead, sniffing the air, head held high checking for danger. I stop and let him finish. He barks, looking back at us, and I trust his senses more than my own right now.
She moves past me, making her way straight for a small grassy area under one of the larger trees. She slumps to the ground, letting the chest fall as she draws her knees up burying her face against them.
I don’t know what to do as her body begins to shake, her sobs finally becoming louder, harder... The dog understands more than I do, I see, as he curls around her. Slowly, she moves her arms around him, her fingers threading through his coarse fur. I can’t make out the words, but she’s talking to him or herself. Finally, one word stands out.
Alone.
I’ve never been alone, I’ve always had my brothers, and they’ve always had me. I can’t even begin to understand her loss. I never loved anyone but them, never cared for anyone other than them.
I don’t know how to comfort. Looking at her once again, I find my body going to her, and the dog shifts to make room for
me.
“You’re not alone.” I keep my voice low as I wrap her in my arms, pulling her to me. She fights for a moment before giving in and melting against me. “You have Liam, and I’m here.”
I blink as I realize I mean it. She has me, for as long as she wants. I will keep her safe, get her to where she wants to go. Hell, I will help her get her revenge on those that have stolen so much from her. My brothers and I will seek vengeance for the wrongs done to her. My heart pounds in anger, and I refuse to question my strong feelings about this. About her.
Blinking, I see the sky has finally lightened. She is curled into me, and my arms are wrapped around her, holding her to me. Her cheeks have the outline of dried tears.
Liam is standing alert, a deep rumble coming from his throat, and I follow his gaze. There, far out on the horizon, is a boat; it is too far out for me to recognize the flag it’s flying, and I stiffen.
As gently as I can, I wake her. “Reyna.” She opens her eyes and moves quickly back. “There’s a ship.” I ignore the churning in my gut from her reaction and point.
Fear radiates from her as she looks at the boat. It’s growing closer as we watch, and then two more appear, then two more. Thank the gods. I stand and walk to the water’s edge, peering out. There, waving in the wind, is our flag.
I wonder who’s sailing my ship.
A distressed noise has me turning back to her. “It’s okay.” I wave my arm behind me. “It’s my brothers.”
The news doesn’t seem to calm her any. I don’t blame her, for we are all same in her eyes. All killers, all wanting to do horrible things to her, and all the symbol of what has been taken.
“I promise you, I will not let anything happen to you. We are different. It’s why I was attacked, why I washed up on your shore.” I start back to her side, where she stiffens for a moment before relaxing, but the beast at her side is watching me and the ships very closely.