“Ye still haven’t told us what yer meant to destroy.”Liam fingered the green stone hanging around his neck.“Only that it must not fall into the wrong hands.”
“’Tis better you don’t know,” Caleb replied.“Safer for all of us.”
Brandt raised an eyebrow.“You are still working with Woodes Rogers?”
Patches stirred from her spot on Caleb’s bed and leapt onto his desk, nudging against his arm.He eased fingers over the cat’s soft fur.“Aye.Helping rid Nassau of pirates and gathering up any renegades as we come upon them.In addition, my letters of marque make fair game any Spanish ship that dares cross my path.”
There was a murmur of satisfaction between the men—orders, structure, purpose in a world adrift.When at last they filed out, leaving the cabin still and creaking, Caleb stood alone before his desk.
Picking up Patches, he set her in the sun on the stern window ledge and knelt before the wooden base beneath.Then taking his knife, he pried open one of the planks, pulled out a bundle of cloth, and spread the fabric aside.The Ring of Solomon lay nestled inside, ancient, golden, humming with some unknowable life.He stared at it, letting the past whisper through the worn ridges of its design.
His sister Emeline’s voice drifted from memory.“It can call the wind, Caleb… the storm.It listens to the bloodline.And it obeys.”
He wondered.Could it undo the past?Could it make right what he’d broken, revive those whom he had sent to their graves two years past?If only…
Yet his mission was to destroy it, sink it to the depths where no man would find it, where no one could ever use its power again.
But thus far obstacles, delays, and accidents had kept him from honoring his father’s orders.Sabotage?
Someone doesn’t want me to finish this.
Rising, he glanced out the stern windows, where amber from a setting sun bled across the waves.Did the strange appearance of the sea nymph have something to do with the Ring?
Those eyes.They haunted him.Not just a memory.A presence.
Why had he said it?
You found me.
It had slipped from his mouth like instinct, like prophecy.Like the breaking of a seal on something far older than the war or…even this Ring.
He clenched the relic in his hand and whispered, “Who are you?”
♥
Miami, present day
Inhaling deeply, Desi closed her eyes, gathering her strength and pasting on a cheerful face before she knocked on the door to her sister’s apartment.Within minutes, Daria opened it, her ever-present smile beaming and her blue eyes filled with their usual sparkle of hope.
“Ready?”Desi asked, stepping inside as Daria moved to get her backpack.
Was it possible, or did her sister look even thinner than the last time she’d seen her just three days ago?Skin as white as sand covered her face and arms while blue shadows tugged upon her eyes.“You been eating like you promised?”
Slipping on her backpack, Daria spun to face her.“As much as my stomach can handle.Now, stop nagging and let’s get this over with.”
The “over with” was Daria’s dialysis which had to be administered three times a week.Normally, Desi only had time to drop her off at the hospital and pick her up, but today she would stay the entire four hours of treatment.No diving excursions were scheduled until early afternoon, and since it was only seven in the morning, Desi had plenty of time.Besides, she wanted to hang out with her sister, find out how she was doing and offer as much support and love as she could.Not that any of that mattered when the doctor said that without a kidney transplant, Daria would not survive another year.
“You really don’t have to sit with me, Desi,” Daria said as she settled into a chair at the dialysis center at Jackson Memorial.“I’m a big girl now.”The nurse had just inserted the needle and was hooking her up to the dialyzer.
“Oh, a big girl, is it?”Desi teased, taking a seat beside her sister.“At twenty?”
Daria slanted her lips.“You’re only twenty-three.”
The nurse smiled and patted Daria on the arm.“Now, just relax, dear, and I’ll be back to check on you.”
After she left, Desi faced her sister.“I want to stay.We don’t get to talk much.”She avoided looking at the needle in her sister’s arm.She hated needles.Almost more than she hated hospitals.
Daria grabbed her hand and squeezed it.“I know it’s hard for you to come here, Des…after Mom.”
