Kai hesitated, then nodded. Jade didn’t know what to think of that.A thousand years?They had been alive for many millennia, but her heart still stuttered at the time they had lost. At how utterly the world must have changed.
Kai shook off the sudden heaviness of the conversation and smiled mischievously. “Now, let’s go find you some clothes. Wait till these sailors get a look at you.”
“You couldn’t bother bringing a boat out here?” Jade raised an eyebrow, gesturing to Kai’s feet and the water holding her up.
“We both know you can handle yourself without a boat, Jade,” her friend said as she started walking atop the waves back to the ship.
Jade shook her head fondly and called on the sand to form solid ground at her feet, a familiar tug pulling at her core with her use of power, then walked further into the open sea. She looked back once over her shoulder, saying a silent goodbye to the only home she’d ever known.
They climbed aboard theSea Urchin,and Jade quickly received clothing from the men, trying to avoid their slack-jawed stares at her naked body. The pants that swallowed Kai fit snugly around Jade’s wide hips, and the thin tunic barely held her breasts in place. But it was better than nothing.
When she was dressed, Kai took her to a room below the deck. Inside sat a desk directly across from the door, strewn with maps, books, and ink bottles. There were a couple of wooden seats scattered around, and a glass decanter with amber liquid sitting on a nearby shelf that was nailed to the floor like the rest of the furniture to keep it from moving on the waves. Kai settled herself on the chair behind the desk, resting her bare feet on top.
Jade rolled her eyes. “Of course you’ve been here for less than a day and have already convinced the captain to give you his quarters. How did you find this ship, anyway?” she asked, sitting in one of the chairs across from Kai.
Kai shrugged. “What was I going to do, stay in the bunks with the rest of the crew?” She wrinkled her nose. “And the second part was fairly easy. After I made it to the surface this morning, I swam for a few miles until I sensed the closest ship. When I flagged them down, the crew was quite curious about why I was alone in the middle of the sea and more than eager to help me get where I needed to go,” she said.
Jade snorted. She bet they were.
“You were the only one I was sure I could locate. I knew you had stayed on Iona after the war,” Kai continued, “and I had an inkling of what direction that would be. My lovely crew here did the rest.”
“You mean to tell me that wherever in the Wyndsor Sea you rose from, which could behundredsof miles in either direction, just so happened to be near a fully manned ship that was heading this far east?” Jade asked in disbelief. Iona was not supposed to be traceable by map, and magic wards had been erected to keep outsiders from straying onto its shores. There was no reason for this crew to have been sailing in its direction.
“Well…I may have persuaded them to change course,” Kai smiled mischievously, tapping her nose.
Sighing, Jade shook her head. Aside from wielding their elements of nature, all of the elementals had a unique power that allowed them access to others’ psyches. Kai’s gift was the ability to lure and manipulate people into temporarily doing her bidding. It was not mind control, exactly—as Kai constantly corrected her. Kai insisted it was not that powerful; it was more of a suggestive influence. The ancient myth of sirens had actually stemmed from Kai’s more…irresponsible incidents. Although Kai had never used it for violent purposes, her power had still spiraled into legends of alluring, horrible sea creatures who captured men with their voices and brought them to their watery graves.
Jade had never approved of any of the elementals using these abilities, as it took away the free will of whatever human was subject to their reach.
Even though they had come in handy often.
“That explains a lot. So tell me, how did you wake up?” Jade asked, curious if Kai had any more of an indication of what was going on than she did.
Unsurprisingly, Kai’s story was much like her own. “After we separated last, I wanted to make sure I wouldn’t be accidentally found by passing sailors,” she began. “I swam through the Wyndsor Sea until I came to a cave deep underwater. It was so beautiful, Jade. I wish you could’ve seen it.” Her blue eyes took on a nostalgic gleam. “The sun couldn’t reach that far down, and there were these iridescent flowers that glowed throughout the entire cave. It was so peaceful and quiet. I was tempted to stay awake and live out the rest of my days down there,” she said, pausing and looking out the small porthole to the water beyond.
“But,” she smiled wistfully, turning back to Jade. “That wasn’t the deal. So, I went to sleep. And then today, I woke up to this voice calling out through the water. I shot out of the cave and made my way to the surface. You know the rest.”
“What did the voice say?” Jade asked.
“It just kept repeating the same word, over and over.Aataran.”
“That’s what I heard, too.”
Jade told her how she was roused awake and had spent most of her day wandering the island until the ship found her. She wanted to say more, to voice her trepidation over the reason they had been woken or what kind of world they were about to find themselves in. But she kept her fears to herself, for now, her mind still grappling with the enormous amount of time that had passed and the uncertainties surrounding them.
“Well then,” Kai clapped her hands, rising to her feet. “I guess it’s time we find the others.”
Chapter Five
Isla
Acoupleofdayshad passed since Isla’s family’s departure and the almost-kiss with Hamil. Bri had spent hours trying to convince her that everything would be fine and that he probably didn’t even remember the incident. But the fact that he hadn’t come by Isla’s home like he usually did every day when Arden and Papa were away spoke volumes.
“Look, he’s just busy from his last hunting trip. He knows you're safe. He’ll stop by when he has time.” Bri bumped Isla’s shoulder as they sat side-by-side at the worktable in Isla’s house.
The work room they were in was a spare bedroom her family had turned into headquarters for their trade. Two tables and several benches took up most of the floorspace, and the wooden shelves built into the walls held all sorts of tools, equipment, and trinkets—old leather-bound books, toy wood carvings, a stuffed bear paw from a hunt long ago. It smelled like new leather, sawdust, and home, and was Isla’s favorite room in the house. She and her papa had spent many late nights eating popped corn and candied bacon while he taught her tips and tricks of their trade, like how to carve designs into knife handles or the perfect angle to cut feathers for an arrow. They’d talk until her mama would come in with rumpled hair and tired eyes to tell them to go to bed.
It was late, and she and Bri were winding down from their day. Bri wrote in her journal while Isla worked on an intricate rabbit snare. Isla’s mother’s family, the Belthares, had been known for their handcrafted weapons and hunting tools. Her father, Luca, had joined the trade when he married her mother. There was always a need for what they had to offer, and they’d made a comfortable living for themselves. At the moment, she had several orders from well-paying customers in the village that needed to get out within the week.
