“Aye. Whaddya know?”
Someone smacked her on the back, nearly sending her over the side. Tink screeched, her arms slapping against the sea.No, oh no, please no.The boat tilted. Saltwater splashed her face. She closed her eyes, bracing for the worst.
A strong arm wrapped around her, pulling her back.
“S’all right, love.” James held tight, her back pressed against his chest.
She sucked in one breath after another, slowly prying open her eyes. Beat by beat, her racing heart returned to normal as she leaned into the safety of her lover. Somehow the boat’s movement wasn’t so horrid when he held her.
“You’d think you’d never been in the water,” Smee said.
Tink glared at him. Her fingers dug into James’s arm, refusing to let him release her. “I can’t swim.”
The captain stiffened around her. “You can’t…”
“No,” she snapped. “I can’t.” She couldn’t swim, and she got seasick. She couldn’t be a worse addition to the crew if she tried. And that didn’t even include the curse she’d gotten them mixed up in when she stole from them.Whoops.
Want pirates quiet? Tell them you can’t swim. Everyone stared. No one spoke. Sputtering, flailing, and gulping down seawater would have been preferable. Possibly even sinking down into the cold, wet depths.
James finally broke the silence. “Gonna let the waves do all the work? Row!”
The crew snapped back into action, turning their attention back to the shore and the task at hand. Several muttered to themselves.
“Ignore them,” James whispered. His warm breath tickled her ear, raising the fine hairs on her arms.
He rose, pulling away. Reluctantly, she let him go. She wasn’t moving. Not one inch until they pulled onto the beach. If she vomited, they’d just have to wash it out.
Finally, after minutes that felt like days, crew members leaped out the side of the boat and hauled it to shore. Even then, Tink sat hugging her legs…until James held out his hand to her. Her wings fluttered as she looked up into his grinning face. “Coming?”
With a deep sigh, she took his hand. Even with help, she stumbled as she stepped out onto the rocky, wet sand. It sucked at her boots, trying to pull her back as she trudged inland. What a miserable place. Dark water crashed onto a beach of grey sand that was more like little pebbles than the fine, sugary stuff gracing most of the shores of the Cerulean Seas. Some of the trees looked familiar. Palms, lofty figs, palmettos, and others she knew, but they were wrong, like life had been sucked from them, yet they still lived. And the moss hanging from their branches with little vines creeping through it? Everything in her rebelled against that. It wasn’t right. Wasn’t…natural. She shivered.
“So, if that was the bearded man,” Sage said, pointing to the rocks. “Then who does the smoke belong to?”
It was easier to see now, rising in a column to mingle with the fog hanging over nearly everything. Dense trees and undergrowth—not to mention that horrible, stringy moss—separated them from the source, blocking the view of whatever or whoever was there.
“We’re about to find out,” James said. “On your guard.”
He nodded to Tink, his gaze sliding to her thigh and the dagger strapped there. She patted it and forced a grin in return, letting her hand settle on the hilt. She wouldn’t be a liability.Nope, nope, nope.
Machetes hacked a path through the overgrowth, cutting away branches and shrubs that had likely never seen a blade. Unfortunately, the island wasn’t as lifeless as it looked. A thick, brown snake hissed at them from a tree. Bugs buzzed and hummed a chorus almost as loud as the crashing waves. A welt already rose along Tink’s arm from a stinging bite.
It wasn’t long, nor far, until James brought them to a halt. He gestured to his crew as he passed back down the line. “Camp ahead. Small,” he whispered, just loud enough for her to hear.
What idiot would camp out here?
“Tink?”
The feminine voice made her heart skip a beat. Her eyes widened. Her back stiffened.
“Lily?” She spun around, peering into the jungle. It had to be a figment of her imagination. A trick of the mind.
But James’s crew looked too, scanning the area, blades at the ready.
Then she saw it—movement from behind a thick tree, the flutter of wings, a swath of blonde hair tied back in a bun, the same color as her own but cut shorter. Tink swayed on her feet. Lily’s eyes widened as she stared back at her.
“Itisyou,” they said at the same time.
Lily reached for her.
