“Don’t even think about it,” I snap at him, and he looks back at me, guilt settling over his features that tells me I was exactly right at where his mind was headed.
“We don’t even know if that would work. You will not sacrifice yourself on that uncertainty. If I won’t leave you, then you won’t leave me, understood?” I say, the royal authority seeping into my voice, sounding so much like my father, and I watch him recognize it immediately.
“Understood, my queen,” he rumbles.
“Then he called me Lyla, and you basically know the rest,” I finish.
He stays silent, staring at the floor, still lost in thought.
“Are you going to say something?” I ask, but he doesn’t move. “You know I was going to come back, right?”
A beat passes before he answers. “I hoped.”
My chest clenches as I think about how he must have felt when he woke up to an empty room, and the chaos Sig had to endure trying to explain.
“What you found out is important for all of us. We wouldn’t have known it if you didn’t go back, so thank you for that.”
As worried as I was to have this conversation, pride is now all I feel, proud that I could help my family here, even if it wasn’t the result we’d hoped for.
“Let’s go tell the crew,” he says, and pulls me along behind him toward the group of Castaways that have formed on the quarterdeck. Releasing his hand, I cross the rest of the deck and sit on the floor in front of Stassia’s crate, and watch as Weston looks over everyone.
“You all know the announcement I made the other day about the dust running out.” There’s a collective mumble from the group before he starts again.
“Someone,” he says, refusing to look at me, “decided to sneak back to the Voyagers and try to steal the dust from Dane so we could have a chance at getting home.”
“That’swhere you were?” Jorn calls out, hopping down from his perch on a beam above. He slides across the ground until he’s sidled up next to me, and throws an arm over my shoulders, squeezing me in a side hug. “Little Lennox! You did that for us?”
Weston glares at him, his eyes falling on where Jorn holds me close. I bite my tongue, trying to hide a smile as I drop my head to Jorn’s shoulder, and watch as Weston’s arms cross slowly across his chest, the muscles in his forearms rippling with tension. Jorn laughs, his face beaming with a smile, and I catch Sig smirking to herself as she watches.
Sig knows then, too.
“Things didn’t go as planned,” Weston says, his voice a little more gruff than before. His eyes stay pinned on Jorn’s arm for a second longer, before he turns away to keep addressing the group. “Unfortunately, we didn’t get the dust. The situation became too dangerous, and it wasn’t possible. But we got some new leads. I don’t know where they will take us yet, but we’llkeep trying. That’s where all of you come in. We’re going to have to pick up all the shifts between us. Dane knows what we’re after now, and it just made leaving the ship more dangerous for everyone.”
“Should we let things simmer for a bit? Let him cool down?” Eirlik asks.
“I think that would be best. I don’t know if he will, not this time, but it’s safer for everyone if we do.”
“What new lead did we get?” Sig asks. Hope fills her face, and I remember I haven’t even had time to talk to her since I’ve been back.
Weston explains what I told him about the safe houses, and the silence of the group is somber.
“We knew the situation was getting serious. We talked about it the other night. But I won’t give up,” Weston says, followed by a melancholy chorus of aye’s.
“That’s all,” he says. “Stay on the ship, and I’ll let you know when we are going to start back up again.”
The group disperses, and Jorn stays put, his arm still slung around me.
“You’re a Castaway through and through, you know that?” He nudges me with his side and my chest squeezes. I didn’t need Jorn to say it, but it doesn’t hurt hearing it. I know I belong here. These are my people, and if I have to spend eternity with anyone, I’m grateful it’s them.
Sig crosses the quarterdeck and pulls me to stand before throwing her arms around me, hugging me fiercely.
“You fucking scared me,” she hisses in my ear.
“I’m sorry, I tried.”
She releases me and steps back. “I knew something was wrong. I knew you wouldn’t go back to him.”
“I was so worried you would think I lied to you,” I say, tears welling in my eyes. Then I chuckle and nod my head toward Weston. “Hopefully he wasn’t too hard on you.”
