Chapter 8 #2
Nathan grabbed my hand. “Willa, when we made our plan, we had no idea. About anything. We were a bunch of angry young men, two or three of whom could steer a small cutter. A few others could shoot well because they were experienced hunters and another was a tech freak. The rest wanted to avenge the dead and those who would follow. We were never professionals, we’re not full-time hostage takers, and we completely underestimated your father’s power.
We believed that with you, we had him completely under control and the rest would be child’s play, but that wasn’t true.
We don’t work as a group either…you can see that yourself.
I’ve known many of the men since I was a child, even if I hadn’t seen them in years…
” He paused. “We dug graves together, built crosses, and mourned the dead. Buried our friends. Our families. One helped the other when they didn’t know what to do.
I thought it would be enough that we had experienced something like that repeatedly together.
I truly believed that counted for something.
” He sounded resigned and full of doubt.
“But now look at them: they betrayed each other for money and revenge.”
“You mean Sparta and Troy…Stanton and Noah?” I subconsciously corrected myself, but now that I reflected on it, I knew why.
It was finally over. The princess and the Agamemnon.
The men, the false names, and their secret plan.
This place. Everything was about to change.
I felt the pull of the whirlpool inside me like a hurricane that would sweep me away and maybe send me home in the end.
Back to Dad. Back to Delilah and Penelope.
Homesickness fluttered through my core as strong as in the beginning, surprising me.
With a strange feeling, I looked at Nathan, who shook his head. “No, I mean all of them, Will. Not just Stanton and Noah. It changed all of us. Me too.” His eyes looked sad. “I sent Kjertan away. The only one I’ve always trusted. The only one who was truly honest.”
Gott hjarta . I squeezed his fingers. “But you sent him away to protect me.”
“Yes,” he replied softly. When he looked at me, his eyes shimmered as vulnerable as a little boy’s. “Because I love you.”
His words made me smile. It had definitely changed him, but also in a positive way.
We were silent for a moment, listening to the night, but everything was quiet except for the call of an owl.
“I should have listened to my gut with Pan. It told me it wasn’t him, never could have been,” Nathan muttered.
“Maybe we’ll find him again. Maybe he hasn’t gotten that far yet.”
Nathan tried to smile but failed. “Yeah, maybe.”
We kept walking, and that night I made a promise to myself.
When I returned to New York, I would find out everything I could about Coldville.
I would go through my dad’s files, secretly if necessary, to find the culprit, whoever it was.
Maybe I could bring justice to the people of Canada and then go back to Nathan.
For the first time in my life, I would do something, try to do something I could be truly proud of, something that mattered and made things happen rather than stopping time and putting my feelings on canvas.
Nathan was right in the end, he found Lea’s burial place.
When the moon had moved across the sky, we finally reached the wild boar hut.
It would have taken us only an hour or two by boat but it had taken half the night.
We slipped out of our wet clothes and made love on the wooden floor of the hut.
We made love with all our inner conflict, our passion, and the knowledge that this time in Louisiana was over.
And even in this love, Nathan was honest, completely himself, sometimes sad, and sometimes angry.
I gave him everything I had, all of me and my promise to complete his plan.
Later, we lay next to each other, hearts pounding and staring at the ceiling, intoxicated as if the wild, mysterious patterns of the Palace of Shards were dancing there.
I recalled Nathan’s words from back then: Can you actually get out of your cage?
Nathan was the first to tell me I was not free. At this moment though, it felt like I had broken through the bars, like my life was no longer chained to the sacrifice Dad had made for me. I could decide for myself what I wanted to do and who I belonged to.
Sometimes things change quickly and sometimes they take time.
When Nathan woke me up the next morning, he was ready to go, but the morning light was a dim glow behind a blanket of clouds.
“Hurry up, Will,” he simply stated, looking around warily.
He was standing on the porch in worn jeans and a tattered pale blue shirt that showed his sinewy muscles.
I blinked, confused because he looked so different.
Then it struck me: for the first time since I’d known him, he wasn’t wearing black.
He looked so young, so beautiful, so alive, as if he had changed overnight.
I went up to him and wrapped my arms around his neck, kissing him on the mouth, a kiss that he returned passionately but backed away from far too quickly.
“We have to get out of the area. The sooner the better. With any luck, we’ll pass some Cajuns today. We’ll definitely get something to eat from them and maybe we can borrow a boat. Or steal one.” He nodded at a pile of clothes on the floor. “Put those on! Hurry up!”
I did as he said while reminding myself not to reprimand him about the possible theft.
I would break him of that habit one day.
As I dressed, I looked around, but everything seemed peaceful.
Perhaps too peaceful. I quickly slipped on the jeans that would have won first prize in a damaged contest and then pulled on a light, much-too-large t-shirt that was half moth-eaten.
“Nice, princess.” Nathan winked at me.
“No more stylish than you, sir,” I said and bowed mockingly.
This time, we were able to walk along the water for a while before having to wade through the swamp again.
The entire time, I kept a close lookout for alligators on the shore, but we only spotted two small ones gliding lazily through the water.
Again, we spoke only when necessary and, instead, listened for the sound of engines or voices.
It was cooler than usual, maybe 60 degrees.
A short time later, when we came to a floating forest, I noticed that the bald cypress trees had golden-brown and orange-red leaves.
Some of the colorful foliage floated on the dark green water and hung in the tangles of Spanish moss.
Another thing that had changed. Quietly and secretly, autumn had arrived and the birds had multiplied into the hundreds of thousands as if overnight so that a deafening twittering buzzed above our heads.
Migratory birds. I had completely forgotten that.
They always came to Louisiana. I was about to tell Nathan that when we heard shouts behind us. “Nathan? Willa? Where are you?”
We paused for a moment, startled by the unforeseeable, until we realized who was calling us. “Oh my God, it’s Kjertan…” Nathan made a noise between a sigh of relief and laughter.
“And he has the boat!” I added happily. I was immensely relieved. I was about to shout when Nathan stopped me.
“No, don’t! We don’t know where Noah is. Even if we didn’t hear the motorboat, he could be nearby…and Isaac too.”
We listened until Kjertan called again. Nathan turned around. “It came from near the wild boar hut.”
With me on his back, he waded back to the land where we had spent the night.
We must have just missed Kjertan because we had been out for no more than fifteen minutes.
He called us again, a loud “Willa? Nathan? Where are you?” and Nathan moved faster.
He didn’t say it, but I knew how much he was dying to take back his false accusations.
The boat would also allow us to leave the danger zone sooner and we would have a safe place to sleep.
We would be in a bigger city tomorrow or the day after at the latest, maybe even in Baton Rouge.
I thought about my grandma, about Rosewood Manor, about the Palace of Shards, and my dad.
Everything would be cleared up. Everything would be fine.
I wanted to believe that very much at that moment.
When we reached land, we ran hand in hand. It didn’t take long before the shack came into view. Kjertan was standing on the porch, but something made me suspicious. Maybe because he just stood there, not running around like one usually does when searching for someone. But it wasn’t only that.
Nathan gripped my hand tighter, obviously sensing it too. My heart fluttered in my chest, and suddenly, everything seemed unreal.
“Kjertan?” Nathan addressed him as soon as we reached him and that was when I understood.
This time, it wasn’t Kjertan but Rayk. And he had only called us on behalf of a man who must have put the words in his mouth, perhaps under duress.
Kjertan or Rayk would never have called out “ Where are you? ” but rather “ Where you at ?”
But, in our excitement, we had not noticed.