I tilted my head, meeting his stare. “I’ll need at least two vials.”
He nodded, eyes searching mine.
“I’ll do it, but I’ll also remind you that I am a healer, Captain. Flynn never asked me to take a life, and I would request the same courtesy from you,” he said.
The night pulled around him, demanding the gods above and below witness this moment. I could lie to him. Half-truths painted in pretty lies. It would be easy, but I owed Emille a life debt, and that required honesty.
“I’ll take many lives with it if I have to, but it would be a less painful death than the alternative. Either way, their lives are marked for death if my warnings are not heeded.” I said.
I could feel Val, Inu, and Dilly’s eyes on me while Emille scanned the island, searching.
When Emille turned back to me, there was resignation in his dark eyes that were usually creased with laughter lines. I never understood how he found joy despite the loss of his wife and daughter. Once he’d told me the words inscribed over his pirate’s mark meant bury the dead, but don’t carry them. A lesson from one Sebastian Flynn.
“Neither of them would want this for you,” he said, reaching out and taking my gloved hand.
“But they aren’t here. Mine aren’t ready to be buried yet,” I said.
His hand tightened over mine, squeezing once, then twice. He knew what was at stake.
“I’ll do this for you, but not again,” he said.
I nodded.
I knew Inu, and I were thinking the same thing. This was the last one, but it had to count.
“Ready to risk certain death on a giant turtle?” Val asked with a wide grin.
I could have sworn there was a groan from deep in the ocean that said this was a terrible idea.
Docking the boat, we all held our breath, waiting for the creature to take offense and submerge. Five seconds, ten seconds, a minute went by.
We all took a collective breath, and I stood, knowing I should be the first. The boat rocked with the shifting weight, and before I realized what was happening, I fell backwards and slammed into Emille, who caught me with a boisterous laugh.
Heat colored my cheeks as I fought to push myself off him and salvage what dignity I had left.
“Well, if it slept through that, a nice little walk on its back shouldn’t bother it,” Val said as she stood and hopped onto the island with an annoying amount of grace.
“Coming, Princess?” she said.
I could practically hear the delight radiating from the words. I grunted and shooed away Emille’s offered hand.
Notorious pirate and still falling on my arse. Billy would have loved that.
The moment my feet touched what by all accounts felt like solid earth, I knew why this mattered.
The sooner I got my brother and my pirate back, the sooner I could lay down this mask and just be a clumsy rich girl again.
I just wished I could make myself believe it.
The ground was warm.
Not hot like sand under sun, but pulsing. Breathing. A slow rhythm beneath the soles of my boots that matched no tide I’d ever known.
“Life pours from it,” Inu murmured, crouching low and pressing her palm flat against the mossy surface.
“Delightful,” Val said. “Remind me again why I didn’t stay on the ship and drink myself to death?”
“Because you wanted to see if the sea gods favored fools,” Dilly said under her breath. Her voice trembled despite her wit.
