James gave her a little shake.
Scale. Right. Get it together.
Small stones littered the pool floor, but only one emitted the eerie blue glow that surrounded them.The scale?
Tink grasped it, but the slimy sensation she expected didn’t greet her fingers. It was smooth and flat, like a triangle-shaped rock. Before she could wonder at it more, James kicked off the bottom and hauled them to the surface.
“Perfect, love. Don’t drop it.”
She barely heard him over her gasps for air. They’d only been down there a moment, but it could have been a lifetime.
When they reached waist-deep water, James set her on her feet. She shook the water off her wings. Tink unfurled her hand to reveal the small object she’d clutched for dear life. “It doesn’t look much like a scale.” Not that she had a ton of experience with fish, but she was pretty sure scales weren’t stones.
“Aye, but it fits the witch’s words.”
Tink frowned. “Unless she led us to a rock.”
“Something like this…” James picked up the stone whose glow had faded. Out of the water, Tink could see finely engraved marks across its surface. “It has to be what Titania wants.”
Please, please, let it be.“Then we can lift your curse,” she said, in an effort to be optimistic.
A sad smile touched his face. “And you can go home.”
Her chest ached.Home. Right.She could no longer meet his gaze. James placed the scale back into her palm and turned away.
“Wai—” Tink reached for him, but he dived back into the pool.
A minute later, he returned bearing a handful of the other rocks. “Just in case,” he said, shaking the water from his hair like a dog.
Tink raised her arm against the splatter. “In case what?”
He shrugged. “Well, we didn’t know what it looked like. I’d wager no one else does either. Can’t be too careful with treasure.”
His grin sent a whole mess of feelings sloshing inside her that she couldn’t deal with, especially as his gaze dropped to her chest, barely hidden by her sodden hair, then lower. Tink coughed and turned away. They needed clothes.Now.
Sliding the cold, wet garments over her skin was more of a travesty than diving in the pool.Well, almost.
James slid the fake scales into his pack but brought the real one back to her. “I want you to hold onto this.”
“Me?” Tink squeaked, rocking onto the balls of her feet.
He took her hand and pressed it into her palm. “I like to have the things I value most in one place.” The look in his eyes nearly stripped her bare—again.
Words failed to reach her tongue. All she could manage was a soft “oh” as her skin heated in a rush.
The stone was oddly warm in her hand as she slid it into one of the little inner pockets sewn into the waistband of her breeches. No one would get it there…except maybe James. Damn, if she didn’t look forward to his attempts to seek that plunder. Spending so much time without their clothes had not dulled her desire to see him without them again—not at all.
Tink blinked against the bright sunlight and shielded her eyes as they emerged from the cave.Blessed warm, beautiful sun!The storm had passed all right, leaving blue skies above. A haze of fog lingered just below them on the mountainside that the day had yet to burn away—if it even could on this cursed island. Birds chirped and squawked. A monkey chittered off to her left. But the crew was nowhere to be found.
“Maybe they camped a ways down the path,” James said as if reading her thoughts.
“Maybe,” she echoed, but something felt wrong. The scene was too happy. Too…normal. And wouldn’t they have come right back? “You think they went for supplies to repair the bridge?”
“Maybe. Come on.” His words were clipped, but it wasn’t frustration. He was worried. The stiff set of shoulders gave him away, even as he held his hand out to her.
She took it, following him over the uneven rocks until they reached the narrow section of gorge she’d nearly plunged into the day before.
“If we find a thick vine, we might—”
