Chapter Thirty-One
Flying was not what I’d envisioned.
I had no wings, of course, and I found myself hurtling through the air at an alarming speed while Bri clung to me with all her might, her eyes squeezed shut. I would have liked to do the same, but it was a luxury I couldn’t afford.
People below us screamed and pointed, but I looked past them all. I scanned the ground with my keen dragon-powered eyes, searching for the docks. I didn’t know how long I’d be able to fly, and I preferred not to find out while over the middle of the Obsidian Sea.
“There!” I shouted as soon as the docks came into view.
“I’m too scared to look,” Bri squeaked.
I wanted to reassure her, but I was busy wondering how I was supposed to land. I chose an area that wasn’t too crowded and willed myself downward, shocked and elated when it worked. Within a minute, the ground began to rush toward us at an alarming speed.
“Brace yourself!” I shrieked at Bri, seconds before we landed in a heap on a pile of sandbags that likely saved our lives.
Bri sputtered and floundered, trying to find her bearings, while I assessed the group of people clustering nearby who had just witnessed two girls fall from the sky.
“Ehm, Bri? I think we’d better get moving.” I leapt to my feet and took her hand, casting my gaze around desperately for anything that might get us out of our current predicament.
“Willow! Brianna!”
In the distance, a man waved to us from the prow of a small ship.
“Is that Torion?” Bri asked.
I let out a whoop that was equal parts relief, astonishment, and joy. “Bless him,” I breathed, taking off toward the ship with Bri’s hand still clutched in mine.
I didn’t need the strength from the dragon egg to part the crowd gathering around us.
As curious as they might be, they seemed to have no interest in making contact with a glowing girl who’d recently plummeted from the heavens.
Behind us, however, I could hear the shouts of the soldiers we’d encountered at Blackbay. They’d finally caught up.
“Willow,” Bri gasped, stumbling at my side.
“Almost there!” Finally, we reached Torion’s ship.
Without hesitating, we ran up the rickety wooden plank, flinging ourselves onto the deck.
A sailor was already pulling in the plank behind us, and people scurried to and fro, adjusting ropes and sails to get us out into open water as quickly as possible.
“This way, girls,” Torion said, ushering us down a narrow set of stairs into a cabin.
Bri finally slipped her sweaty palm from mine, pressing her hands to her thighs as she struggled for air. I wasn’t as winded, thanks to the dragon egg, and I still had adrenaline coursing through my veins.
“How did you know we’d be here?” I asked Torion as he closed the door behind us.
Carefully, I removed the dragon egg from my pocket and set it on the table.
All the strength I’d been feeling before left me in a rush, replaced by the frantic beat of my human heart, which now felt wholly inadequate.
Torion noticed me swaying and grabbed me under the armpits just before I collapsed.
“Easy does it,” he said, helping me into a chair. “Mrs. Lewis told me you’d be here. To be honest, I thought she’d lost the plot. No one escapes Blackbay.”
I looked up at him, my hand to my chest, wondering if I’d done permanent damage to my heart. I hadn’t had a lot of faith in it to begin with. “Then why are you here?”
He laughed and shook his head. “I have no bloody idea. I suppose if I thought anyone could manage to connive their way out of Blackbay, it was you.”
I managed a weak smile. “I’m touched,” I said, only half joking.
“We’re setting sail immediately for Achnarach. Stay down here no matter what you hear, all right?” He sniffed and immediately wrinkled his nose in disgust. “There’s a wash basin and soap. Clean yourselves up. Your other belongings are on the captain’s chair.”
“Thank you,” I said, in a voice so earnest I almost wondered if it was coming from me. “If it wasn’t for you, we might be hanging from the gallows right now.”
Torion patted me on the head like I was a wee pup. “You’re welcome. But don’t sell yourself short, Miss Stokes. You got yourself out of Blackbay. I only provided the getaway.” He smiled and walked to the door, closing it behind him.
“Wonders never cease,” I said to Bri, who had collapsed on the sofa next to me.
“I’ll say. If I ever see my parents again, they’ll never believe any of this is true.”
I nudged her with my elbow and grinned. “But we’ll know it was. Come on, let’s get cleaned up. You smell like—”
Bri held up her hand. “I know exactly what I smell like, because you smell like it, too. I don’t need a description.”
We quickly stripped out of our clothing, scrubbing ourselves as well as we could with washcloths and soap.
“What do we do with our dresses?” Bri asked, toeing the once-beautiful gown she’d been wearing since the ball.
“No amount of washing is going to save them, unfortunately.” I glanced at the porthole, then back at Bri. Together, we shoved them through, where they were quickly lost to the waves. Perhaps a wayward mermaid would find them one day, once they’d been thoroughly cleaned.
We dressed in our spare clothing—which I was grateful Torion had had the forethought to retrieve from the hotel—and sat down on the sofa.
After the long, mind-numbing days in Blackbay, the past hour had sped by in a blur.
I’d hardly had a chance to grasp the fact that we were free, let alone that I was a—
“Wait a minute,” Bri said, gripping my arm. “Are you going to be seasick again?”
It took me a moment to realize what the rocking of the ship, the waves we’d tossed our dresses into, and the fact that the dragon egg was rolling precariously on the captain’s desk truly meant.
I burst out laughing.
Bri nearly jumped out of her skin. “What’s the matter with you?” she yelled, shoving me so hard I almost fell off the sofa.
I was too delighted to care. “What’s the matter with you?” I asked between giggles. “We did it, Bri! We got the egg, we escaped the inescapable prison, and we’re alive!”
She studied me, her disapproval slowly fading. “We’re … alive.”
A second later, she started giggling, and then we were both cackling so hard we cried, our elation mingled with terror and astonishment and no small amount of trauma.
We’d pulled off what would one day become the most notorious heist in Sapphire Isles history, though of course we wouldn’t know that for many months to come.
We were still wiping our eyes when someone knocked on the cabin door. Torion entered, nodded approvingly at our cleanliness, and went to his desk, where he placed the dragon egg in a nest of rolled-up maps to keep it from falling off the edge.
“Oh,” I said, realization finally dawning. “This is your ship.”
His blue eyes twinkled with amusement. “It is.”
I exhaled, taking in the cabin and appreciating it fully for the first time. Everything was neat and tidy, and rather fancy, compared to Torion’s rustic appearance. “I don’t understand. If you’re the captain of your own ship, why do you work for Mr. Wexley?”
“I don’t work for Mr. Wexley,” he clarified, taking a seat in the captain’s chair. “I work for myself. Yes, he pays me occasionally, but he doesn’t own me, or my actions.”
“That still doesn’t explain why you’re helping us…” I followed his gaze to where the dragon egg rested, still glowing faintly. “Oh.” I’d been too elated to notice my stomach roiling, but I felt it now.
Torion nodded. “Oh, indeed.”
Of course. Wexley had hired Torion to be our guide on Azure Cay.
He had a vested interest in making sure we got back safely, with the dragon egg in tow.
“Do you know what it does?” I asked him.
I was certain Wexley would pay him handsomely for his role in retrieving the egg, but the egg itself was worth far more.
“I do,” he said.
“I suppose you also know its value?”
“I do,” he repeated.
I swallowed, glancing at Bri from the corner of my eye.
“Listen, it’s imperative we get this egg to Mr. Wexley.
Bri’s life and mine depend on it. I know that might not mean that much to you compared to immortality, but I promise, if you let us deliver this egg, we’ll …
I don’t know. We’ll split all our future profits with you. ”
It was a ridiculous offer, and Bri was hissing in my ear to shut up so she could think. But we couldn’t have come this far only to fail now.
Torion sighed deeply, his eyes landing on the egg. “I know what’s at stake for you girls. To be honest, it puts me in a real predicament.”
I chewed my lip, waiting for this man I’d only met a few days ago to decide our fates.
“Do you think Mr. Wexley should have the egg?” he asked, catching me off guard.
A ragged exhale escaped me. That was something I’d never once asked myself.
What did I care if Wexley had immortality, so long as he left Bri alone?
But the egg didn’t only grant long life.
Look what I’d been able to do with the egg in mere minutes.
Power like that didn’t belong in the hands of a man like Wexley.
It didn’t belong in the hands of anyone.
I looked at Bri to find she was already staring at me, her wide brown eyes wet with tears. I felt my own starting to well. This wasn’t fair. There was no way I could answer Torion’s question honestly. Not if it meant letting Bri down.
“It’s all right,” I said to her, taking her hands. “Once we get The Oxblood Book, we’ll find a way to get the egg back from Mr. Wexley. All that matters is that you’re safe.”
She smiled as tears streamed down her beautiful face, and I knew what she was going to say. I’d known it all along. “I don’t think anyone should have it.”
I was silent, letting the finality of her words sink in. She would rather live with this curse forever than let that kind of power fall into the wrong hands. That was the kind of person she was.
“You never answered my question, Willow,” Torion said. “You’ve held the egg. You’ve seen what it can do. I’ll ask again, do you think Mr. Wexley should have it?”
Once upon a time, I was the kind of person who would have said aye.
Give him the egg, give me access to all his glorious inventory, and let the rest of the chips fall where they may.
Once upon a time, I was a girl with no friends, a failing shoppe, and a dead father. A girl without magic. Without hope.
But I was not the same person I’d been two years ago, or even two months ago.
I couldn’t see it then, what my father had meant when he said magic was everywhere.
What if Bri was right, and magic was hope?
What if magic was that small thing inside us we didn’t know was there until we needed it most?
What if all it meant to believe in magic was to believe in ourselves?
Staring into the eyes of my best friend, I found that the answer, in the end, was simple. “I agree with Bri. I think the egg is too dangerous for anyone to possess.” I dragged my eyes from Bri’s and met Torion’s bright blue gaze. “Including you.”
For the millionth time that day, I was shocked when Torion smiled. “I think you’re right.”
“What are you saying?” I asked.
“I’m saying I think it needs to be destroyed, or at least lost.” He rose and lifted the egg from where it sat, stroking it reverently before holding it out to Bri. “I think you should be the one to lose it, Brianna. Because you stand to gain the most by keeping it.”
Gingerly, Bri took the egg from Torion, cradling it in her hands as if it were a living creature or a bomb. She looked at me a little helplessly. “I don’t know if I can do it,” she said.
“Sure you can.” I went to stand next to her and guided her toward the porthole. Wrapping my arm around her waist, I squeezed her to my side, noticing for the first time how well we fit together. “I believe in you.”
She tilted her head against mine. “I believe in you, too.”
With that, Bri reached through the open window, nodded, and dropped the last known dragon egg in the world into the Obsidian Sea.
Many years later, there was talk of a sea serpent seen playing in the waves off the coast of Achnarach, though dragons had gone extinct. There were those who said that such talk was utter nonsense, of course. At least when they were in public.
Personally?
I’m inclined to believe it.