CHAPTER THIRTEEN
After the incident in training, I avoid Weston like I avoid my father, and it seems he does the same. Days pass without a single word exchanged between us. Instead of using the healing salve from the island, he walked around the ship with a bandage wrapped over his forearm; his sleeve always rolled to his elbow, as if he wanted me to have a constant reminder of what I’d done. Otherwise, he pretended it never happened, and so did I. I never apologized for hurting him, and he never apologized for his behavior.
But his message was well received.
I have not let my guard down once since our fight, since he growled the warning in my face. If anything, I am on guard more now than ever before, even if it is mostly around him.
There hasn’t been another opportunity to escape. Dawnlin locks me in the room at night, and there’s never a moment alone on this damn ship. I’m trying to blend in, to seem like they are growing on me and I’m accepting my position among them, becoming a Castaway.
That will never happen.
I won’t stop trying to get back to Dane, bringing all my knowledge with me and finally righting the wrong Weston has inflicted on the island.
A dull ache settles in my chest when I think about Dane, remembering how he was wild with concern when I was missing as I searched for Fin. The memory of us standing in the clearing, worry etched on his face as he confessed it all to me, flashes in my mind.
I can’t let anything happen to you. You’re too important.
I miss him, and if he was going crazy back then, I can only imagine how he is feeling now. All the more reason I need to get home to him.
It isn’t just missing Dane that is bothering me, though. I spent every day for months with full reign over the island, able to go anywhere and do what I please, but now I’m stuck. I’m trapped on this floating prison, and even though I’m no longer in the brig, not being able to see anything but wooden walls and glaring sunlight as I work is starting to get to me.
The Castaways come and go around me, but no one has given me any indication of when or if I will ever be let off the ship. Sig mentioned I would, but she hasn’t brought it up again, at least not since training.
Is keeping me under constant supervision another punishment for besting him?
At least I’m grateful my strength is rapidly improving, and my body is becoming used to the tedious chore. I’m finishing faster each day, leaving the rest of my afternoons open to sit in the lounge, or chat on the deck with Stassia and Auralie. Sometimes Sig and Jorn join us if they aren’t on shift.
I still haven’t figured out what that means, and no one says anything about it. They just…go.
No matter where I go on this ship, or what I am doing, I am constantly listening, waiting for someone around me to give upa piece of information I can bring back to Dane. Back at camp, we often talked about the Castaways, the only other regular topic besides finding the cure, but it doesn’t seem like anyone here talks about the Voyagers.
So far, besides my conversation with Jorn about the helio, I’ve discovered nothing new, so I need to bide my time. When they trust me enough, they will at least tell me, and hopefully include me, in whatever is going on here, so I have another chance to get out. I’m trying to stay patient, but something gnaws at me. Will the rest of my life, all of eternity on this island, be spent scrubbing the deck and fighting with Weston?
Today, I decide it won’t be. I’m going to make the best of it, spending time with the one person on this ship who brings me joy.
I stow the bucket and brush away in the supply closet before heading below deck to find Fin. His feet kick up and down, as he lies on his stomach playing with a set of wooden blocks he has constructed into a castle.
“Nice castle you built there,” I say as I plop down next to him, folding my feet under me.
“Do you like it?” he says, his face brightening with a smile.
“It’s great. Is it like the one in your kingdom?”
His shoulders touch his ears in a shrug. “I dunno. I’ve never seen it before. I want to! I bet it is huge!”
I chuckle softly. “Yes, it probably is,” I agree, setting a block down on top of a tower.
“Have you ever been inside a castle, Lennox?”
I nod once. “I have.”
“Really? You have? How come? What was it like? Did you see the king and queen?”
If only Fin knew.
I am more familiar with the walls of a castle than the outside world. He looks at it with a sense of wonder, and I see it asthe same kind of prison that I’m locked in here, run by a tyrant who doesn’t care about me, only wants to control me. I’ve kept my title a secret this long, and I don’t plan on letting it slip. Fin doesn’t need to know me as anything other than Lennox. That’s who I want to be while I’m here.
“That’s a story for another time,” I say, watching his face drop slightly. “I actually had a different question for you.” I lean in closer and whisper loudly, “Do you want to play?”
