“We had a deal, pet,” he said, the nickname sounding not at all endearing. “We don’t change the plan, remember?”
My heart sank, followed immediately by my stomach. It was just as the Bride said.
He was choosing the treasure over me.
Chapter nineteen
Sofie
“Thisisn’tworthit,”I said as the hull of the rowboat connected with a sand bar, a single tear mixing with the salt water splashed on my face. Anger loudened my next words. “No treasure could be worth this!”
“It’s too late for that,” Jax said, grunting as he lifted me out of the rowboat. He set me onto the Hidden Isle’s white sand beach. “Far too late.”
Pausing only to check the compass again, Jax tucked it into his vest and began plodding across the white sand. I managed only a pair of steps before my slipper filled with sand, and then I was hopping as I yanked them off.
“Wait!”
“And risk the curse taking you? Keep up, Sofie,” he barked at me over his shoulder. “We need to reach the cavern well before nightfall.”
I leapt forward, seizing his arm, forcing him to turn and face me. “You don’t have to go on like this, Jax. There’s another way.”
“Thereisno other way. It ends the same way every time. I won’t let you die.”
“You need to trust me, Jax.” I placed both palms on his chest, willing him to calm and take a breath. There was a wildness in his eyes still. I feared he would not listen to reason. “I know curses the way you know the sea. There’s always another way.”
For a moment, as he looked down at me, his eyes and voice softened. “How? What have I missed? If it was enough just to choose you, Sofie, I’d…” There was pain in them, too.
I met those dark eyes, searching them for the answer I wanted, for the soul that hid behind his hardened exterior.
Slowly, his hand wound around my waist, another lifting to cup my cheek. He was searching my eyes, too, seeking something. Was it hope?
“Renounce the treasure,” I said. “Renounce it for my sake, to protect me.”
Jax’s eyes widened…and shifted toward the horizon, as if he could not meet my gaze.
“Look at me, Jax,” I urged him, a note of pleading entering my voice. My skin prickled, every part of me rebelling against this vulnerability—thisweaknesshe’d brought out in me. I needed him to do the right thing. I needed him to do right byme, for the journey we’d shared to mean something.
I needed him to be mine, like I was his.
“Look at me,” I begged.
“There is no other way,” he repeated. “I won’t risk it.”
His hands retreated, leaving me cold.
I watched his boots grind into the sand as he turned back towards the mountains where the treasure was hidden, watched him tromp off, wishing there would be even the slightest hitch in his step, wishing there wasanysign of hesitation.
I’d lost him. Had I ever had him? The weeks we’d shared together were over in an instant.
They suddenlyfeltlike an instant, just a blink of the eye. Just something I had imagined.
I closed my eyes, wishing this was all a dream. Then sense took hold, and I opened them and hurried after Jax.
The Bride’s vengeful ghost was going to find me harder to kill than the others. But I wasn’t about to give her that chance. Hands curling into fists, I ran after Jax, then passed him.
It was a waste of energy, trying to outpace him. Not only were his legs longer, but he was better at walking on sand. My shins were already burning.
I resigned myself to following after him, mentally cataloguing all the spells I could use to defend myself if the Bride made a final appearance.
