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The Company will be delivering your share of what I owe at Rockshore Point anytime between the tenth and thirteenth of August. If you’re not there, they will not come looking for you, believe me. This is a bit of an inconvenience for their route, so be grateful I’m persuasive. There are those watching me now that we’re making a name for ourselves on these seas. The Company has made it clear they need me. My fleet can transport as many as they need. And their desperation is too profitable. So don’t cause any uproars if you want this balance settled.
-Tiburón
Tiburón was a nickname my father called me. He’d picked it up from Spanish sailors on one of his many voyages to the West Indies. And it stuck.
Kellem was another merchant—a crooked one and my father’s rival. And this man thought I worked for him. The signature was my childhood nickname. My father had written this note. And that meant I was back in Nassau before I became part of Valdez’s crew. My guess was around 1720. I would’ve barely been fifteen years old.
I tucked my compass away along with the bloody rosary and took a step in the worn leather boots I’d now claimed as my own. There was no sign that Katrina or the others survived the wreck, at least not here. With my heart torn in a million ways, I pulled the hood over my head, drawing it close to hide my face in shadow as I followed the trail to town, where I prayed I’d find them.
13
Capsized
Katrina
We sailed on, the Caribbean sun showing no mercy as Bellamy’s ship sliced through the water with surprising speed for a ship of its size. I sat on the deck floor with McKenzie and Noah, our backs to the hull as we did our best to stay out of the crew’s way.
“If we’re really stuck in the past, how are we supposed to get back to the present? How did this even happen?” McKenzie blurted out, her eyes red and puffy and her fair skin already beginning to turn pink from the harsh sun.
“It…It must’ve been the trident. Cordelia said it controls all time in the sea.” I blew a lock of hair from my face in defeat. “I think we got too close or something.”
Noah glanced at me, holding onto a long pause before responding. “So, all this time…all the mysterious disappearances of planes and ships…they were just going through some wormhole of time travel.”
“I guess so.” I shrugged. “But now I’m afraid of what that means in our time. If we’re here—not there—that means Cordelia has nothing stopping her from getting the trident.”
A spark of light lit up Noah’s eyes. “Unless we get it first.”
“So, you admit that I’m not crazy?”
“I mean I’m not sure denial would do me much good now. As much as it sounds like bullshit, it’s clearly not.”
McKenzie leaned in. “Then what do you mean?”
“I mean if we find it 300 years sooner, maybe we can hide it somewhere else.”
“That actually makes a lot of sense,” I uttered, “But how is another question. I don’t even know how close or far we are.” I looked down as a sudden sadness struck me in the chest. “Milo would know.”
I could feel both their eyes on me, and I couldn’t find the strength to lift my head.
“If he was here…he would know,” I said. “He would know what to do.”
A vision of the note left on my door flashed before my mind’s eye. I’d gotten upset with him for trying to keep me safe. And now I would give anything to have him here to do just that. I’d asked him to trust me. Now I needed to be able to trust myself.
As McKenzie and Noah talked amongst themselves, I stood to my feet, overlooking the long stern pointing to the horizon. My eyes followed the line of the ship deck until they rested on Bellamy, talking to one of his men near the helm.
I studied him. His piercing blue eyes seemed softened here by the rugged dark stubble lining his jaw. His hair was unkempt, unlike when I knew him, but it suited him in this role. He seemed spritelier, more youthful, and definitely cockier—which I didn’t think was possible. But there was also a sternness about him that wasn’t there before. He was captain of this ship and he made sure everyone knew it. I could see a version of Valdez in him here, but not in the worst way.
As he finished the discussion with his crewman, he casually turned his face to glance in my direction as I was observing him. I looked away, but I knew I wasn’t quick enough. He’d seen me. Our eyes had met for only a millisecond, but it was one millisecond too long. I tried to focus on the horizon ahead of me as heat rose to my cheeks, burning hotter than the white sun above.
If only he knew we’d met before. If only he could remember his future with me. It’d be a lot easier to convince him to help us. But to him, I was just some stupid girl washed up in a shipwreck.
When night fell, we tried sleeping on the deck. It was much too stuffy for us belowdecks, and the smell wasn’t very appealing either. I couldn’t sleep, though. There were too many thoughts crowding my head, leaving no room for rest, despite the exhaustion in my body. I worried about Milo, and the trident, and getting back to the present—if there was even a present to go back to at this point. For all I knew Cordelia had already gotten her way and the modern world I knew was underwater.
I wanted to watch the stars, but the thin layer of clouds above hid them from me. The full moon, however, was bright enough to shine through, illuminating the deck enough. I could plainly see McKenzie and Noah lying limp as they slept, backs to each other on the wooden boards. Noah had sworn he wasn’t going to sleep since he didn’t trust anybody here, no matter how tired he felt. But the steady snore sneaking from his mouth said otherwise.
I stood up, examining the deck. It was mostly empty, with the exception of a few half-drunken sailors lying against barrels in a partial slumber. But surely they wouldn’t notice—or care—that a castaway was making her way to take a look over the edge of the boat.
Taking a deep breath, I didn’t spend too much time looking down at the water. I knew better by now. But as I strode along the hull, I inwardly groaned at what I was considering. But if it could help me find Milo…I could swim back to the wreck site and look for him. Sure, it was dangerous, but it certainly wasn’t the riskiest thing I’d ever done for him. The only problem was that I didn’t exactly know to bring out that special side of me. But it was the side I would need to survive a solo search and rescue in the sea.
