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He looked to the box in her hands. It hadn’t been easy, getting here. The cold, unforgiving winds. The icy waters. Day after day of waking up and forging forth with nothing but faith to guide them. Elle had endeared herself to every one of his mates on theFirefox, keeping spirits high as they’d trudged from one spot to another in the bitter winds of the coast. Her enthusiasm had pushed them to find this spot more than any of the coins he’d promised his mates on the ship.
Still, he owed all of them a debt of gratitude.
“Rune?”
He blinked, his gaze lifting from the box to her dark blue eyes. “Sorry, I was thinking.”
“Of?”
“Of what this box brought me.”
“What?”
“You. It brought me you and you are worth more than the largest hoard of riches.” His shoulders lifted. “Where we were when we met. What became of us. I do not deserve it—you.”
“Except you do. You love me?”
“Always.”
She smiled. “Then you deserve it. All of it. You chose love over all of it—the past, the riches this box could bring you.” She lifted the box in her hands. “This box is a test of men and you passed. You’ve earned it, Rune. Your father would be proud of you.”
His hand moved past the box to brush his fingers along her cheek, wiping away the last of the muddy splotch. A breath into his lungs and he nodded. “I’m more than ready.”
“Do we look at it one last time?”
He nodded, the side of his mouth twitching. “I think we do.”
He set the lantern in his right hand down and slid open the top of the box. Elle tilted the open box to the light, the deep flash of the ruby twinkling, alive, almost as though its heart was throbbing, knowing it was so close to home. To rest.
He looked to Elle. Her lips pulled inward and then she nodded, her voice a whisper. “It knows.”
A tingle ran up his spine, making the hairs on the back of his neck prickle. For as much as he believed in the box and the power of it, the whole of this was beyond him—beyond them.
They just needed to fulfill their part of the story.
He swung the lid closed and they walked over to the tree.
His forefinger slid into the hole in the middle of the tree and he cleared out flecks of dirt and then looked to Elle.
She aligned the edges of the box to the hole and slid it slightly forward. His hand went over the back of hers and together they pushed.
Inward until the box sat fully in place, near to seamless from where it had been broken away.
His fingers collapsed around Elle’s hand and they took a step back, both looking at the tree.
Minutes passed. Silent. Still.
No explosion. No magic.
Just peace. Peace he could feel seeping through his bones.
“One last thing to do,” Elle said, her fingers squeezing his.
He took one last look at the tree, at the edge of the box he could barely make out, and he turned, walking out of the cave with Elle at his side.
Outside under the grey skies they trekked up the narrow line of a path they had forged that led up the side of the cliffs from the shoreline, and then moved south a reasonable distance from the cave.
Stopping, Elle pointed to the end of the train of gunpowder that snaked along the ground to the rocks above the entrance of the cave. “This is it. Murray said this would work.”
