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“I’ll go,” he says. “I’m a member of this crew. My strengths are best put to use obtaining a new mast. I’ll see you ashore, Captain.”
Captain.
It wasn’t enough that his tone was indifferent, accepting of his fate to be stuck on my ship. Now he has to distance himself from me further by refusing to call me by name, as he usually does.
There is so much more I want to say to him. So much I want to demand from him. An apology, for one. Whether his captain, friend, or something more—he should not have spoken to me the way he did the other night. I won’t let that slide so easily.
And then answers. What plagues his mind so much that he’d rather die than be saved by my abilities?
Those conversations will have to wait until another time. For now, we have a tree to find.
“You’re to pair with me on the island,” I say. I don’t give him a chance to respond before leaving to help drop anchor.
He can be upset with me all he likes. I won’t apologize for saving him.
But if I have to watch Lotiya or Deshel leading him through the island while he cannot hear, I won’t be able to focus on the task at hand.
Damn him.
Damneverythingabout him.
***
The waters are clear as we row toward the shore. The waves aid us, pushing us closer and closer to the island. The men have their ears blocked, even though all signs point to no siren life. We can’t take any chances. It’s not as though I can sense them. I lived my whole life not knowing my own mother was living on the same isle as I.
If only I had known, I could have spared her years of enslavement.
Would she still have run out on me then?
Would it have stopped you from saving her if you’d known she’d leave you?
No.
Strangely, I’m comforted by the realization, though it doesn’t make me any less angry with her.
The island looks… normal as we approach. Somehow,I expected an island tied to the sirens to be more mystical in appearance, though I’m not entirely sure what that would entail.
The boats run aground and we disembark, pulling the rowboats far onto the sand so the waves can’t pull them back out to sea. We take in our surroundings as we step from sandy beach to needle-covered forest floor.
A squirrel notices our approach and scurries up the nearest trunk. The wind grabs at the leaves in the trees, shaking them together. Birds pull twigs from the ground to make their nests, and something rustles through the thick grass. Probably a rodent of some sort.
“Break into your pairs,” I order.
Mandsy hooks her arm through Enwen’s. Athella sidles herself up next to Wallov. Deros gets claimed by Lotiya, and Deshel hovers near Riden. I give her a look that sends her back a step, and grab Riden’s hand.
Riden looks at our joined hands, searches my face, looks back down at our hands.
In the rush to avoid Riden touching another woman, I’d grabbed him without thought as to how he would react.
My fingers release their hold before he can pull away, which I’m sure he would have done. I won’t look at him after that, but I’ve got his back should something come rushing out of the shrubbery.
Kearan, who I paired with Sorinda, holds his arm out to her. Sorinda stares at him, unmoving. He doesn’t take his arm back; he waits for her to do something. I’ve never seen Sorinda fail to intimidate a man with a look, but the two are trapped in a battleof wills, with Kearan’s arm, which is now more muscled than fatty, extended between the two. All of those push-ups have been doing him good.
“Sorinda,” I say, to remind her of her orders while on the island.
She pushes his arm back to his side, but stays near him and keeps her eyes searching the area around them both.
“He’s not all that bad, you know,” Mandsy says, nudging her shoulder into Sorinda. “Now that he’s sobered up, he has interesting things to say.”
