Book Six
By
Candace Osmond
Copyright © 2021 Candace Osmond
All rights reserved.
ISBN-13: 978-1-988159-73-7
First Edition
Digital Version
Cover Design by Majeau Designs
The characters, places, and events portrayed in this book are completely fiction and are in no way meant to represent real people or places. Although the province of Newfoundland is an existing location, the use of it in the book is for fictional purposes and not meant to depict true historical accuracy.
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
About the Author
Prologue
Blood. Blood everywhere. The flesh of sirens bobbed on the water around me as I stood waist deep in the carnage. It glistened in the setting sun like the bellies of fish; silvery rainbows reflecting everywhere. A stark contrast with the deep, almost black crimson that splattered about. On my jacket, which was heavy and weighed me down as I waded through the battlefield toward the shore. I could feel the beasts’ blood pulling at my skin, already drying in the cracks of my face. One hand trembled while the other gripped my sword, the weapon that just laid waste to every siren in the sea. I turned and glanced over my shoulder only to find the wreckage of siren bodies stretching all the way to the horizon.
A dream. I could feel the tethers, the confines and tendrils pulling taut at the edges of my consciousness. A nightmare, really. But one that liberated me every night. But this was the first I’d headed for the shore. When the toe of my boot touched the sand, the grain instantly turned red, and a trail manifested on the beach, leading my line-of-sight straight to the wasteland of bodies from those I loved most in this world. Hands and arms and flesh torn apart, entrails and hair. But…their faces. I dropped to my knees in the sand as a fierce roar erupted from me and I loosened it to the skies above. Their face…everywhere, all turned to gawk at me with permanent looks of terror. Dianna. Gus. Finnigan. Lottie. Little Charlie.
My children.
It was too much to bear. Did I do this? Was this by my hand? I couldn’t recall. Couldn’t place the beginnings of the nightmare. I’d always entered it after the carnage. To have the horrors thrown in my face, the guilt of what I’d done searing in my veins.
“It could have been avoided,” a strange voice scratched in my ear. “You could have saved them.”
“How?” I cried. Tears burned through the blood caked to my face.
“One simple price,” the voice, now layered with others, replied. “Your soul.”
I sprang upright in bed, clutching my chest, desperately gasping for air. Just as I did every night. I wondered if I took a breath at all when I sunk into the repeating nightmare time after time. My lungs burned with every heave and I sat there in the moonlight that covered the half empty bed until they settled. It wasn’t until then that I realized the bed wasn’t as empty as I’d thought. They huddled together, two little lumps under the sheet, and I pulled it back with hesitation. But when I saw their sleeping faces, so perfect, so innocent, I nearly cried at the relief.
It was just a dream.
I ran a hand through my damp hair as a shiver blew over my clammy skin. A quick glance at the clock told me it was three in the morning. Another day was upon us, which marked three since we came through the portal without Dianna. I winced at the thought of her name. Just the mere sound of it was enough to undo me. Constance had said to be patient, to wait for the Keepers to do their work. They’d find a way to send her back. It was their job.
But, with each passing hour, I grew more and more weary of the witch’s ability to police time. She should be back by now. She should be home.
But part of me worried she was lost forever.
Chapter One
It’d been three days since I lost Henry and the kids to the other side of the portal. Three days that I’ve wandered the grounds of Finn’s childhood home in a never-ending daze. The Artair Keep. It was beautiful there. Grassy knolls and endless skies surrounding a massive stone structure that seemed to stretch on forever. Decades of Artairs and their contributions to the home all summed up in a series of small castle-like buildings that circled the main house where we stayed. All of it contained within a high wall of stone and iron that protected what was precious to them.
Freya’s coop of females littered the keep, tending to daily duties like cooking and cleaning, and chopping wood. Neither of them bothered to pay attention to me, or perhaps I didn’t give them the chance. The stranger, the zombie who walked the grounds with no purpose. I wondered what they thought of me. Then again, the women of the Artair Keep lived in a world all their own with duties and such. They relied on no man to keep the place running, and I admired them for it. This was a haven, and I was lucky to see it during its prime.
Still…my heart ached for my family.
At least I knew they were safe and sound at home. Mom was there. And the kids had Henry. I just worried for him, for the man I loved. He had no one. I was his world as he was mine, and now he was stuck three hundred years in the future without me. In a future that was still so new to him. With no way of knowing whether I was safe. I tried not to think of the lengths he’d go to in order to get back to me and could only hope that he wouldn’t try. The kids needed him.
I knew what it was like to lose a mother to the sea and the tragedy had tainted me from an early age, morphed my mind, my will, every fibre of who I came to be. The difference was that my father descended into the darkness of mourning. I was alone even when I wasn’t. Arthur and Audrey had Henry. A strong man, both inside and out. I prayed every minute that he was present for them and their little hearts.
But I knew better. Knew my pirate king would tackle both. He’d tend to the kids’ every whim while also tearing the earth apart in search of a way back to me. Because that’s exactly what I had done. So many years ago. When the magic of time sent me back to the future, injured and heartbroken with life growing inside of me. I did everything to get back to him and nearly killed us all in the process. I couldn’t let Henry do that. So, I had to get back to him before he did something stupid.
I just hoped the witches had good news for me.
I leaned against a short fence made of strong and shaven logs as I watched Lottie hang laundry out on a line in the distance. It killed me to witness her grieving so silently. Losing her unborn baby had changed her, but losing the man she loved had turned her so inward that she almost seemed robotic at times. As stubborn as she was beautiful, she had no idea how to properly process her emotions and, try as I might, she wouldn’t let me in. Instead, she threw herself into work. Keeping her hands busy so her mind didn’t have to be.
Or perhaps she was refusing to let in the dread that loomed over us all about tonight. Gus’ funeral. It’d been a rather rough three days. I’d spent some time with the witches at first, trying to find a way back, to find a loophole. While Lottie locked herself in her room and grieved. She wasn’t ready to put him to rest, so we prepared his body and secured it away in one of the outbuildings until she was ready. But three days was long enough to leave a corpse. It was time to face it, whether she wanted to.
So, tonight we’d bury a friend, and tomorrow I’d meet with the witches again,
to find a loophole that would allow my soulless self to travel to the future. I just prayed they found something. Otherwise, my only other option was to take Benjamin up on his offer to bring me down South to meet with someone named David Jones, a soul dealer. My rational mind fought it, but part of me knew who he really was. The mythical being, the legend of the sea. Davy Jones. Who else could it possibly be?
“Are ye always this much of a deep thinker?” Freya asked as she appeared by my side and leaned over the fence. Her fiery locks blew softly about her freckled face. “Ye seem lost, Dianna.”
I guffawed and turned over, resting my back against the fence so I could gaze out over the moors beyond the keep. “Aren’t I?”
Freya sighed. “I suppose ye are, in a way.”
“In many ways,” I corrected. She was silent as I gnawed at the inside of my cheek. “Serves me right for messing with time, I guess. The sirens had warned me, more than once.”
“The Keepers will help ye,” she assured me.
I shook my head and closed my eyes. “God, I hope so.”
“If nae,” she said with certainty, “I can have a ship readied in two days. To take ye wherever ye need to go.”
I tipped my head to look her square in the face. “I know. And I appreciate it, but I’m not sure Henry could stand to wait while I sail to the Caribbean on a fool’s errand.”
“Fool’s errand?”
I cringed inwardly. While Ben had offered me a solution, I just didn’t believe in it. He’d known this David Jones over a hundred years ago. Myth or not, how could I be sure we’d find him now? What if we sailed all the way down South only to meet a dead end? I couldn’t afford to waste that much time. And I didn’t want to put myself in a desperate position of begging the sirens for help. I swore I’d never deal with them again.
So, I just shrugged it off. “No matter. All I can do right now is focus on one moment at a time.” I tipped my chin toward Lottie in the distance.
Freya hummed in agreement. “Aye, the funeral. Poor Charlotte, me heart breaks for her. So much loss for one person to endure.”
I thought of my own loss then. A much different beast than my friends’, but a painful weight, nonetheless. Losing my mother, my father, Aunt Mary, Gus, even old man Pleeman who’d given his life to save mine aboard The Black Soul. Lives and souls and hearts all breaking in my hands, at my touch. It was all too much to bear at times. I didn’t want that for my friend. I wished I could take that burden for her.
I pushed off the fence and sucked in a deep, exhausted breath. “She’s stronger than you think. She just needs…time.” Was I talking about Lottie or myself? I decided it didn’t matter and headed back toward the main house to wait for the sun to go down.
***
The fire was hypnotic. Hot and blaring with the rage it held within the billowing flames. The heap of burning wood held up a bed of perfect square of stacked logs that cradled Gus’ body as it became engulfed in dances of orange and yellow. After Finn had said a few words, the five of us stood evenly spaced around the pyre, encased in our own silences under the midnight sky. It was a clear night, the stars shone down on us like twinkling eyes. Watching our pain, witnessing Lottie’s agony she kept welled up inside. She stood alone in her corner, uninviting, unwanting of our condolences. She just stared unblinking at the flames, and they lit up her face with a fiery rage.
“That’s a sight I hope to never see again,” Benjamin whispered as he sidled up next to me.
I crossed my arms tightly across my chest. “What? The sight of our friend’s body reducing to ash or the sight of our other friend keeping herself together by threads?”
He heaved a long sigh. “Neither, I guess.”
“God, just look at her,” I whispered and motioned toward Lottie. She was a shell. Disjointed, cut-off, blankly staring at her beloved going up in flames, her arms wrapped tightly across her chest as if she refused to let the pain reach her heart. I knew exactly how she felt. It was the only way I was keeping myself together after losing Henry and the kids through the portal. “I’m worried she’s going to spiral after I leave, and I won’t be here to help her.”
“So, you think the witches will have a solution for you tomorrow?” I tried to ignore the hint of reluctance in his tone. He didn’t want me to go, I knew that. But neither of us would dare admit it.
I just tilted my head to the side and gave him a warm look layered with a useless apology. “I-I have to get back to my kids, Ben.”
He let his gaze fall to the ground as he nodded slowly. “I know.” The words were barely a whisper in the night breeze.
I loosened my arms from the tight cross they held over my chest and gripped his arm, causing his muscles to tense under his shirt at my touch. Benjamin stared down at me from his towering height, his long brown hair blanketing the sides of his solemn face. “If I could stay, I would. But my entire life is on the other side of that portal.”
He just nodded and his jaw gave a slight tremble as he turned his attention on Lottie. He nudged his head toward where she stood alone. “You best go over. She won’t ask, you know that, but she needs you.”
I gave his arm a reassuring squeeze, and he placed a firm, calloused hand over mine. The reflection of the flames burned in those deep brown eyes as they peered down at me with a sort of longing that was hard to ignore. But I had to. Benjamin was my friend, and someone had to maintain the line that he made no secret of his yearning to cross.
I walked across the cool, damp grass and stood next to Lottie. She didn’t give so much as a blink to acknowledge my presence, but she didn’t send me away, either. So, I remained and rubbed warmth into my arms where the fire didn’t touch. I fixated on her eyes, gazing unblinkingly at the body on the pyre. Her husband. She seemed like a porcelain doll, so still and perfectly beautiful. Every inch of her face flawless under a mess of blonde waves that hung like a curtain around it. But underneath it all was a woman writhing in agony. I could feel her pain like a wave that pulsed outward from her body.
“What was it all for?” she croaked quietly, her lips the only thing that moved.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
She gave a tight shrug. “What the hell was the point of any of it?” Wetness pooled in her blue eyes. “Of him loving me, or me loving him?” She wiped at the single tear that broke free and streamed down her cheek. “It’s always life or death. Or loss.” Lottie sniffled then and finally set her pained gaze on me. “You lose Henry and the kids–”
“They’re not lost,” I quickly amended. Surprised at the little dose of panic that punched me in the gut. “I-I didn’t lose them, they’re safe at home.”
I’m the one who’s lost, I thought to myself.
Lottie turned her attention back to the fire. “Gus is gone. And…I loved him more than anything in this world.”
I didn’t have the right words for my friend. Nothing I could say would ease her pain or help with the grief. She had to move through the motions on her own, find herself again. However long that took. So, I continued to just stand with her, to let her know I was there. She wasn’t alone.
But Lottie gave a long sigh as she tightened her jacket around her torso and turned her back to the fire. She placed a hand on my shoulder and struggled to look me in the eye. “It’s only a matter of time before you leave me, too.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out as I watched my friend disappear toward the main house. The pyre behind me raged on, heating my back and soaking into the skin beneath my clothes. The burning logs shifted and what remained of Gus’ body sunk deeper into the flames. And in that moment, I realized…I couldn’t leave. Not yet. Not when my family was perfectly safe at home and my friend–my other family–was here, suffering so greatly. Lottie needed me. I could afford to wait a few more days.
I just prayed Henry didn’t do something stupid in the meantime.
Chapter Two – Henry
“Daddy?” a tiny, musical voice called from somewhere. �
��Daddy!” it rang again, this time cutting through the fog that surrounded my mind. That always surrounded my mind these last few days.
I blinked away the scape of deep, dark worry that constantly plagued me and glanced around the kitchen where I stood. Alarmingly, I couldn’t recall the motions that had brought me to this room. Audrey tugged at my leg and peered up at me with those giant sparkling deep brown eyes. Dark, just like mine. I thanked the heavens these last few days that she never inherited her mother’s mesmerizing doe-eyed stare. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to handle looking at it every day.
I plastered on a smile. For her. For the kids. Because I had to be strong for them. Because…Dianna would want me to. “Yes, my princess?”
She brightened. “Can I have my apple slices now?”
I followed her line of sight to my hands atop of the kitchen island where I held a half-sliced apple. A knife in the other. I couldn’t even remember fetching the items. Couldn’t recall the steps I’d taken to washing and slicing the apple into the little pink plastic dish that awaited. I shook off the remnants of a daydream and set the knife in the sink before handing the tiny bowl to my daughter.
“Here you go,” I said and stole a slice.
“Daddy!” she exclaimed with a giggle.
I chuckled and lobbed off a bite. The juices alerting my taste buds that it’d been the first thing to touch my tongue that day. “Does your brother want some?”
“I dunno.” She shrugged and skipped off, so blissfully unaware that her mother wasn’t just away, she was lost in time. Neither of them seemed to remember their little trip to the past or their time with the siren. The portal, thankfully, didn’t seem to register with their flimsy grip on reality, either.
The Cursed Sea Page 1