Henry’s mouth widened. “If you say so.” He tried to shift, to find a comfier position in the bed and winced again. He was clearly in more pain than he let on. “I wish I could lay with you.”
Carefully, I pulled myself from my cot and darted for Henry, slipping in next to him. Mindful of his wounds. My lips found his and I placed a gentle kiss there before we both dozed off into a comfortable sleep, the glaring sun of the afternoon pouring in and casting a warm blanket over us.
***
The fog-like haze which surrounded my vision told me it was a dream. But, still, my body coursed with fear and panic at the sight of her. Of my sister, her hair as black as mine blowing in the wind. She turned to face me; her leather boots dangerously close to the edge of the cliff on which we stood. Her dark, soulless eyes held mine and her crooked mouth twisted into a sick grin as one boot stepped back, toward the edge.
“No!” I called after my sibling. I wouldn’t let Maria take her own life. That was a right I had claimed for myself. To take her life in my hands and hand it over to the authorities where she would then suffer out the rest of her years rotting in a cell somewhere for all the horrible things she’s done.
But it was too late. Before my arms could reach, she took one more step and flung herself from the giant windblown cliff. I ran to the edge in a fit of desperation and dropped to the ground to peer over to the abyss below. There was no sign of her body. I stood, speechless and slow from the tendrils of the dream, only to be met with Maria. Face to face. Her breath hot and heavy on my skin.
“Come and find me, sister. I’m right here,” she said and then gave one mighty shove at my chest, sending me flying over the cliff I’d witnessed her fall from only moments before.
I awoke with a start, as if falling back into my own body, and sat up in a cold sweat. Clawing at my chest, gasping for air. A sleeping Henry lay by my side, unaware of the soul-shattering nightmare I’d just been thrown out of. I knew it was a dream, but I could still feel the warmth of my sister’s breath on my skin. I shivered and quietly removed myself from the bed. The sun had gone down and our room had filled with the light of the December moon.
I crept down the hallway toward the room where I had bathed, where I left my trunk. I wanted to fetch my satchel and get some Advil for Henry’s pain. Something I couldn’t have done with the prying eyes of the doctor and Wallace watching over me.
I wandered the empty halls. Past tables taken over by massive flower arrangements, giant floor vases and stone statues. Paintings that loomed overhead with eyes that seemed to follow me every which way. The sticky echoes of my bare feet on the cold marble floors the only sound to be heard. After opening a few doors, slightly confused by the maze that was The Siren’s Call, I found it, and looped the satchel full of futuristic goodies over my shoulder before heading back out to the house.
But I turned a corner and smacked right into someone. I tried to stifle the yelp that squeezed from my throat which became easier when I saw that it was Finn. The moonlight catching the fiery glimmer in his red beard and haphazard hair.
“Christ,” he whispered loudly. “This place is like a damn maze.”
“What are you doing up?” I asked him.
He quirked a brow. “I could ask ye the same.”
I lifted the bag to show. “Needed my things. For Henry. He’s in a lot of pain, he’s just too stubborn to admit it.”
He nodded in understanding. “I seen ya pass me room, the door was open. So, I followed ye.”
“Couldn’t sleep?” I pried as we walked the halls together.
“Nae, ‘tis too quiet here,” he said. “Like sleepin’ in a bloody graveyard. I miss the sound of the sea beneath me arse.”
I heaved a sigh and a cough followed, telling me the smoke hadn’t yet cleared from my lungs. “I’m sorry, Finn. I know you’re all itching to get back home. I am, too. I promise, I’m saving my last wish to get us there. Once we find Maria.”
“Aye, ‘bout that,” he said hesitantly. “When do ye think that might be?”
We turned another corner and I spotted the familiar hallway in which Henry lay sleeping somewhere. I knew because it was the only hallway without a massive painting hanging on the wall. This one boasted a mirror around a giant bookshelf. I turned to my friend.
“Soon. Why? Do you doubt that we’ll find her?”
He wouldn’t look me in the eye, and I could see how he struggled to find the right words. For fear of making me mad or upset. “I just… we, the crew thinks that perhaps the wishes dinnae work.”
“What?” I stopped in my tracks. “How could you think that?”
Finn shrugged. “How could we not?”
“No,” I shook my head stubbornly, “The wishes worked. They had to. Because, if they didn’t… that would mean Benjamin is still trapped aboard The Black Soul somewhere in the middle of the ocean, hidden away from the world.” I took a deep breath, trying not to get too emotional. “Just waiting for me to break the curse. How long would a man hold on to that hope before losing his mind? I-I can’t bear the thought.”
Finn had no response because he knew I was right.
“No,” I said again. “The wishes had to have worked.”
He nodded, probably just to placate me, and patted my arm before taking a step back toward his room. “I believe ye, Captain. I just dinnae ken how much longer.”
I watched my friend retreat to his room, his tall and broad figure disappearing into the shadows, and I fought back the urge to cry. I was an utter mess lately and I loathed being that way. I had to pull myself together, shake off the hormones, and get my head back in the game. I would find my damn sister. Soon. I just wish I had some sort of sign to assure me everything would be okay.
Chapter Twelve
The next morning, after I cleaned myself up and dressed, I gave Henry some pain meds and a fresh dressing on his chest burns. The small tube of Polysporin I had wouldn’t heal the extent of his wounds, but it would definitely help. I used it sparingly, knowing there’d no doubt be a need for it in the future.
I waited until the meds kicked in and he fell into a comfortable sleep before I slipped out in search of food. But also, in search of my crew. I was tired of waiting around, waiting for the universe to plop Maria into my hands and she sure wasn’t going to turn up there at The Siren’s Call. I had to get out there, walk the streets, ask questions. Maybe pay another visit to that merchant who traded with her for Henry’s things. Anything, any little inkling that would steer me down the path to finding her.
I rounded one of many corners and stopped in front of a wide set of patio doors that led out to a grand garden of sleeping plants, covered in a thick blanket of snow. Everything was so white, so crisp. It was blinding. But I stared in awe at the still-beauty of winter before me. My eyes rolling over the curves and lumps of snow-covered benches.
My stomach growled in protest at the delay of breakfast and I turned to leave the gorgeous view when something caught my eye. Something far out in the garden. Just like in my nightmare, her long curly black hair fell down around her shoulders, the cool breeze catching its waves as she slowly turned to face me. Those bottomless eyes sinking into me.
Maria.
A gasped as my hand took on a mind of its own and reached for the brass handle of the door. She was there. Right there. I could end this all right now and, as if bewitched, my body moved without prompting and turned the handle. But before I could haul the patio door open, a hand wrapped around my wrist and pulled me from the spell I was under.
“Dianna,” Wallace spoke. “What are you doing? It’s freezing out there and you don’t even have so much as a sweater on.”
I turned to her, blinking hard, my mind snapping back into focus, and shot my gaze back toward the garden in search of my sister. She was gone and there were no footsteps in the fresh snow. I shook my head. Was the stress of the failing mission making me crazy? Did I so desperately want to find Maria that my mind was manifesting images of her,
both in and out of sleep?
“No, I-I–” Words evaded me. What could I possibly say to this woman? “I just wanted some fresh air. I’m feeling… a little queasy.”
“You’re just in need of some good food, is all,” she told me with a smile. “Come, I had the cook prepare a morning feast for everyone.”
“Oh, I can just grab something quick,” I replied, still reeling from the hallucination.
She regarded me with a curious brow. “In a hurry to go somewhere?”
My eyes flitted to hers and I scrambled to mask the emotions I knew were washing over my face. “No. I mean, yes. I, uh, I have some things to tend to in town.”
“Dianna,” the woman said my name much the same way a disappointed mother would as her arms crossed over the tight-fitting red blouse. “The doctor said you should be resting. And eating. I see you doing neither of those things. What’s your errand? I can have someone tend to it for you.”
I tried to brush past Wallace, but she held an arm out in front of me. I mustered up the nerve to look her square in the face.
“I can manage,” I told her stonily.
Her arm dropped and so did her polite demeanor. “Look,” she began. “I know you and I won’t ever be friends, but I’d at least like to try and be friendly.”
I thought of her hands on Henry, her lips on his skin as I stared up from the floor below in utter horror. Like she was stealing away my very reason for living right in front of me. I thought of the way I just couldn’t settle around her, no matter how nice she pretended to be. There was just something about the dark beauty that scratched at my nerves.
Wallace backed away, giving me space. “I think we can both agree that Henry is an amazing man.”
I shrugged. “Of course. That’s just a given.”
She tipped her head to the side, the long chocolatey hair falling down around the front of her body. “And he would want you to take it easy, to listen to the doctor, Dianna.”
“And I will,” I said, trying not to grit my teeth at her pushiness. I dodged around her and began walking toward the smell of food.
“Then let me help you,” she insisted.
I didn’t bother to turn around. “You can’t help.”
“Try me,” she called. “You’d be surprised what I can do.”
The woman didn’t let up and it bothered me to no end. Not just because I didn’t want her help, but because I knew she couldn’t. Not with this. But I spun around and walked back to where she stood in front of the glass doors.
“Thank you for the offer but there’s nothing you can do unless you track down people who are hard to find.”
Her expression turned curious. “I found you lot, didn’t I?”
I guffawed. “Tracking down a crew of pirates at a local tavern isn’t exactly stealthy.”
Wallace seemed confused by my use of modern terms and I quickly amended before she had the chance to respond. “Anyone can find someone who isn’t even hiding.”
Wallace’s hard bottom boots clicked against the marble floor underfoot as she crossed her arms. “And who, may I ask, are you trying so hard to find?”
I don’t know why I said it, I don’t know why I let the words spill across my lips, but they did. “Maria Cobham.”
Wallace appeared taken aback and her dark skin turned a pallor green. “Why are you looking for her?”
I clucked my tongue. “See? I knew you couldn’t help. Now, back off and let me do what I came here to do.”
“Wait!” she called after me. I didn’t turn back. “Wait! Dianna!” I heard her pace speed up from behind. “What if I told you I knew where to find her?”
I stopped in my tracks and spun around, unable to believe my ears. “W-what do you mean?”
“Like I said before, no one comes into my port without me knowing. They don’t spend time in my town without me knowing their every move. Maria Cobham was here for nearly a week before she fled on horseback to the next town over.”
My blood ran cold and icy goosebumps scoured over the surface of my skin. “Wait… you mean, she’s not even here?”
“Here?” She appeared slightly panicked but then eased into understanding. “You mean, in Southampton?”
“Yes,” I confirmed. “We have good reason to believe she’s still hanging around here.”
“No, Dear,” she shook her head, “Maria Cobham would never stay put in a single place on land for too long. Especially not a place like Southampton where the list of warrants for her arrest far exceed any of the pirates before her.”
I tried not to think of what that meant. That my dreams and hallucinations were just that. Nothing more than my tired mind playing tricks on me. I’d hoped that perhaps it was the wish, the universe telling me it was working, and I was heading down the right path. Regardless, I now had a lead.
“Thank you,” I told Wallace and then took off in search of my crew.
“Where are you going?” she called after me.
“To find Maria Cobham!” I called back, unstopping as my feet moved with haste across the marble floor.
I finally found the dining hall. My friends were sitting around the end of the long, narrow table. A massive spread of delicious breakfast foods before them. They all glanced up and spotted me, huffing to catch my breath but grinning from ear to ear.
“I found her,” I told them. “I know where Maria is.”
Finn jumped up from his chair, the loud scuff of wood against the stone floor screeching through the air. “Are ye sure? Where?”
“In the next town over. But she may not be there for long. We should go now,” I instructed.
“That’s a day’s ride by saddle,” Finn informed thoughtfully. “We could do it, just need some supplies first.”
“Sure, sure,” I said, barely hearing his words through the excitement that filled my brain. “Whatever we need, just get it together and we’ll hit the road.”
Lottie stood then and came over to where we stood in the wide doorway. “Dianna,” she motioned to my stomach, “Are you sure you should be going? I mean, after what happened? The doctor said you need rest.”
“No, I can rest once my sister has been caught,” I told them. “I’m going.”
“No, you are most certainly not,” spoke a raspy, labored voice from behind.
I turned to find Henry, out of bed, bare-chested except for the bandages that wrapped around it. Out of breath from hurrying through the house. I spotted a guilty looking Roselyn Wallace at his side. She must had pulled him from bed when she realized what I was doing. I narrowed my eyes at her, and she looked away, refusing to meet my gaze.
“Henry–”
“No!” he bellowed. “It’s too much of a risk for you and the baby. I won’t allow it.”
I recoiled. “You won’t allow it? You’re not my master, you know.”
He closed in, his tired but burning gaze piercing my skin. “No, but I am your husband, and the father of that baby. I will not put you in harm’s way, Dianna. Not again. Not ever!”
“Then what will you have me do? Wait around here while you ride off and…” I didn’t want to say it. I didn’t want to accuse him of something he hadn’t even done. But I knew how desperately Henry wished to end my sister’s life with his own hands. Could I trust him not to? “I mean, look at you, Henry. You’re in no position to be travelling anywhere but back to bed.”
Henry stiffened, trying to mask the pain I knew very well he was in. “I’m fine. Shall we discuss this in private?”
I didn’t respond, but when he moved aside and invited me to join him outside the dining hall, I followed. I could feel his anger emanating through his skin and wavering in the air around him as he walked a foot ahead. But his labored breaths and the way he favored his good, unburnt arm worried me to no end. I may not be fit to be traveling in the midst on Winter, but neither was Henry.
Once we were inside the adjacent room, a small area that appeared to be used for storing fancy dishes, Henry closed the d
oor behind him and let out a huff of air.
“Henry, you’re in no shape to be jumping on a horse in this weather,” I said and crossed my arms tightly.
He looked at me, the anger on his face melting away to be replaced with worry. He came toward me and slipped a hand over my ever-growing stomach then took my face in the other. Our eyes, both glistening with concern for the other, searched back and forth.
“I’m a better fit than you,” he replied. “There’s a doctor here, Dianna. And with the few fainting spells you’ve had…”
I knew he was right. But I just couldn’t bear the thought of Henry facing off with my sister and then losing. And on the opposite end of my mind, I couldn’t help but think he’d do it. He’d kill her. And everything I’ve done would have been for nothing. I could have easily wished her dead and saved the blood on his hands. But that’s not what I wanted. She didn’t deserve to get off that easy.
“I just…” words escaped me as he brought our faces closer and the warmth of his breath tickled my skin. His mouth, slightly gaped and inviting, lured me in. Weak, I kissed his lips once. Quick and simple, before pulling away. “What will you do when you find her?”
His brow creased in confusion. “What do you mean? I’ll bring her back–” Henry pulled back with realization and nodded slowly. “Ah, I see. You fear I’ll take her life.”
My shoulders shrugged helplessly. “I mean, it’s what you’ve always wanted, isn’t it? I know that. And I’m taking that revenge, that closure, away from you.”
He held me again, the tip of his thumb brushing under my eye. “Dianna, I had no idea what I truly wanted until you came into my life. Darkness, vengeance, bitterness…. these were what became of me for so many years. I didn’t know there was… more. I didn’t know there was you.”
He kissed me, his soft bottom lip brushing upward to engulf my mouth and steal the breath right from my lungs. When he pulled away, a smile spread wide. “I vowed to respect your wishes. I will not take your sister’s life. I will seize Maria and bring her back to you. Alive. I swear it.”
The Siren's Call Page 14
