Nibo let his gaze follow after Vala, and he knew that he had to let her go. It was the only way to see her happy and to let her escape this hell intact. She deserved to be happy.
I destroy what I love.
That was his curse. There would never be any way to break it. The gods would never have mercy on him and he knew it.
Worse, he couldn’t fight it.
Valynda sat quietly, returning in her mind to the days when she’d believed in something.
Believed insomeone.
Closing her eyes, she was no longer on board theSea Witch II. Rather, she was a girl back on her island home, filled with wonder over the simplest things because that was all she’d been allowed to know. The only demons in her world those days had been the ones the preacher used to frighten them with on Sundays. Nebulous things that had only existed in fables and nightmares.
Nothing tangible or real. Just figments of an overactive imagination that caught glimpses of shadows it twisted out of proportion.
“Valynda? We’re going to swim. Would you care to join us?”
“Not today.” She’d waved her friends off and headed away from them. Her goal was to pick shells from the shoreline. A hobby that went back to her childhood when her grandmother had told her tales of how she could hear the war of sea creatures inside conch shells if she could find the right ones. Or free a trapped jinn who would grant wishes. All she had to do was rub his magic shell to free him, and then he would be hers to command.
Valynda had tried to tell her grandmother that it was a lamp she needed to find to free the jinn, but her grandmother had insisted lamps were a stupid home for such miraculous creatures. Shells made much more sense, as they traveled the world on the brilliant sun-kissed waves, and no one could set fire to those and burn down their homes.
She supposed that made sense.
So here she was, seeking her jinn to free her of her insipidly boring life of endless chores.
Tucking her skirt up so as to protect its fragile, worn hem from the salt water, she began to wade out into the shallow waves to seek her treasure. While she’d never found a jinn, she had found a number of pretty pieces that she used to create jewelry that she could sometimes sell for profit to travelers who were making their way from Europe to the colonies.
Without thinking, she hummed to herself as she searched the glimmering, turquoise waves until she found a magnificent pinkish-blue shell. Pulling it up from where it was partially buried in the thick, wet sand, she rinsed it in the water, then tried to blow through the end of it to clean it. With a scowl, she dipped it back in the water, rinsed it again, then cradled it to her bosom and rubbed it in her hands.
“I’ve never envied a shell before.”
Valynda shrieked in startled alarm at the deep voice behind her. She was so shocked that her skirts tangled in her legs, and between that and the waves, she was caught off balance and sent crashing to the ground, where she landed in a most undignified heap. If that wasn’t embarrassing enough, another wave rushed over her just then, almost drowning her. She sputtered and coughed, then pushed herself up on unsteady feet. Brushing her soggy curls out of her eyes, she looked up to find her irritating loa staring at her with a quirky, charming grin.
“It would be you.”
That made him laugh. “Why does everything you say feel as if it insults me?”
Still sputtering, she twisted her sopping hair up into a knot on her head. “Probably because it does.”
“And why is that?”
She shrugged. “Maybe because every time we meet you’re doing something that annoys me.”
His smile widened. “You’re a cheeky little thing, aren’t you?”
Ignoring his question, Valynda searched the waves for the shell she’d been holding. Sadly, she’d dropped it in the commotion of his unexpected appearance.
“You haven’t contacted me.”
Annoyed, she straightened to give him a peeved glare. “Was I supposed to?”
Nibo followed after her while she searched. “I told you to.”
“And everyone does what you tell them?”
He shrugged nonchalantly. “Most do, aye.”
“Lucky you.” No one ever cared a single fig what she thought or wanted. Case in point, here he was being a burr in her nether regions for no reason whatsoever when all she wanted was to be left alone.
