“That’s dinner.” He tosses it onto the deck and goes back for more.
At the sight of his sword, I remember him calling his daggers back into his hands when we fought Scylla.
Part of me wants to call him out on it right now in front of everyone.
The other part knows how stressful it is to have magic you’re keeping secret. And after everything I went through with hiding my electricity from the entire academy, putting Kieran’s ability on blast before I have a chance to privately talk with him about it feels wrong.
Besides, I saw his face when those daggers flew back to him. He looked as shocked as I felt.
That said, I’ll still be ready to fry him if he tries anything against us.
Decision made, I grab my own dagger and wade in after him, keeping my fire hovering above my shoulder while I grip the blade with my free hand. The water’s cold, and I have no idea what I’m doing, but at least I can see now.
Just stab the fish, Jade. How hard can it be?
Very hard, it turns out. The fish are fast, and after five minutes of splashing around like an idiot, I’ve caught exactly nothing.
“Three feet to your left,” Evie calls out from the deck. “Aim lower than you think you need to.”
I adjust, stab, and meet resistance.
Holy shit. I got one.
The fish wiggles on my blade, triumph and guilt warring in my chest as I toss it onto the growing pile on the deck.
“You’re a natural.” Logan appears beside me, holding a few fish of his own, his fire casting dancing shadows across his face.
“I’m really not,” I say, but I’m grinning anyway, because apparently murder-stabbing sea creatures is the adrenaline rush I needed after almost losing my mind to magic fruit.
We fish for what feels like forever. Evie calls out locations, we stab, rinse, and repeat. The pile on the deck grows. Our combined firelight turns the shallows into a glowing pool of orange and gold, and the Lotus Eaters silently observe, as if we’re an episode of a television show that they’re enjoying.
“We could try to save them.” The words come out before I can think them through. “We could... I don’t know, force them into the water? Drag them onto the boat? If the sea breaks the lotus effect...”
Kieran pauses mid-stab. “You want to rescue forty-two drugged witches.”
“They were like us once.” I gesture at the figures on the beach, still smiling and watching. “And now they’re just... trapped here forever.”
“The logistics are impossible,” he says. “We barely have enough food and water for five people. If we add forty-two more, we’ll starve before reaching the Pillars.”
“So we leave them?” My lungs tighten. “We sail away and pretend we didn’t see them?”
“We survive and complete our mission.” He aims his sword at where he was going for earlier, and when he brings it back up, the fish is stabbed straight through. “Trying to save them will kill us all.”
I want to insist there’s another way, but then I look at the pile of fish on our deck, barely enough for a few days. I look at Callie, pale and shaky from hunger and dehydration. I look at Evie, running on grief and determination. And then I look at Logan, who needs all the food and water he can get to operate at peak time traveler capacity.
“Fine.” The word scrapes my throat. “But I hate it.”
We finish fishing in silence. When we’re done, the deck is covered in silvery bodies, some still twitching. Evie’s also directed us to shellfish clinging to the rocks near the shore. It’s not exactly the five-star seafood I’m used to from back home, but it’ll keep us alive.
“That’s enough,” Callie eventually says. “We need to go while the wind’s favorable.”
Logan nods and lets his fire die, plunging us back into moonlight and shadow.
I take one last look at the beach.
The woman who spoke to us first raises her hand in a slow wave, her pleasant smile never wavering.
“Goodbye,” she calls across the water. “Come back anytime. You’re always welcome.”
