“You don’t need to follow. You could have just let me drown!”
“I’m still waiting for a ‘thank you’, princess.”
My elbow slams into his stomach, and he lets out a loud grunt, before lifting me and shifting his arms so they are pinning mine down to my sides, preventing me from hitting him again. Movement catches my eye, and I remember we are not alone. Castaways stand around the deck of the ship, some moving in close to watch us grapple with each other.
I feel like a spectacle. It’s worse than in the training rings at home.
“I told you already. You aren’t going to get one,” I grind out. I try to thrash, but his arms are too strong as they cinch tighter around me.
“You told Fin you’d be good,” he says, his grumble low and in my ear so only I can hear him.
The heel of my boot connects with his shin and he sucks in air.
Good. Hopefully that hurt.
“I lied!” I shout, throwing my head back into his shoulder, missing the face I was aiming for. If he thought I was going to lie down and comply simply because I told Fin I would, he doesn’t know me at all. I won’t stop fighting him until I am free.
He groans loudly, the frustration of my resistance clearly wearing on him. “Enough!” he yells and lets go of me. I fall straight down and my ass hits the floor, hard. A couple snickerssound from somewhere around us, and heat creeps into my cheeks.
“Ow!” I yell up at him, glaring as I scramble to my knees, my tailbone throbbing from the fall. “That fucking hurt!”
He squats in front of me, so he’s on the same level. His gaze hardens as his eyes pin me down to this spot. “If you want to act like a child, I’ll treat you like one. You can either get it together, realize that your situation on this island has changed, and deal with it, or you can go back to that room.”
“I didn’t ask to come out of it!” I bark at him.
“Well, I didn’t ask for you to starve yourself. I guess we all can’t have what we want.” He’s still yelling, no longer caring that what he says stays between us, and I feel exactly like he described, like a child being scolded.
It is humiliating.
He stands then, towering over me, his shadow falling over my face so I can see the seriousness etched into his. “Now, will you behave instead of throwing yourself to your death? I won’t let you put any of their lives at risk if they have to jump in and save you.”
He gestures to the people standing around us and it is the first time I really turn to look at them.
The Castaways.
The people I have spent weeks fearing and avoiding all stare as Weston belittles me in front of them.
And they all look…normal. They look nothing like the images I’d conjured up in my mind of feral criminals out to capture us. They look just like me, like Mara and Dane, close to our ages, too. The group is significantly older than the Voyagers, and Fin is by far the youngest one here, just as he was with us.
Everyone wears garments similar to mine, with longer sleeves and thicker pants, and now I understand why. Living on the water is probably cooler than on the island. When Danebrought me to the beach, the wind coming off the water was cold, especially after I was already soaked from the waves. Now I understand why Sig wasn’t worried when I said I would be too hot.
“I take your silence as agreement,” Weston says, cutting into my thoughts. I bring my focus back and stand, crossing my arms, but refusing to look at him. Instead, I avert my eyes toward the feet of the people in front of me.
If I can’t get over the rail now, I’m going to have to come up with a new plan. Now is the time to bite my tongue and get through it.
“Everyone, this is Lennox,” Weston calls out over the deck. He turns back, addressing me directly. “You already know Sig, and Fin. That’s Stassia and Jorn. Over there are Auralie and Fern.” I look up to see who he points to, and each Castaway waves or acknowledges me when Weston says their name. He keeps naming them off until everyone has been introduced. “There are others. You’ll meet them when they return.”
The group is much larger than I thought it would be. How has he gotten this many people to sympathize with him? After they were all Voyagers, searching for the same healing waters we are?
I stay silent, my eyes scanning over all their faces, but the show is over. Everyone returns to whatever they were doing before I barged in from below. I look down at the deck, just as Weston’s boots come into my view, lining up toe to toe with mine. I crane my neck up to meet his gaze, hoping my expression is dripping with the hatred I feel for him, made so much worse by the recent humiliation.
He juts his chin toward me and crosses his arms over his chest. “And I’m the captain. You’ll obey my orders, princess. Understood?”
I feel like I am back in Blackwood, taking orders from my father, and I hate it. Dawnlin was supposed to be a fresh startwith a new family once I decided I wanted to stay. But now, standing here on this ship, listening to this man bark orders at me, it’s the same bullshit I have been dealing with for twenty-one years, just from someone new.
Someone who has no right to order me around.
Someone who, despite the stupid nickname he insists on using, truly has no idea thatIam the one that gives the orders.
