Chapter 8
I ’m running down the hallway of the ship, Michael’s arms wrapped around my neck as he counts, “One, two, three.”
My brother is significantly heavier than I remember, but he has grown a year’s worth since the last time I picked him up. I can’t bring myself to care, though. Not when adrenaline is rushing through me at my new discovery.
Minutes ago, I rushed out the door of my and Nolan’s room.
Maddox has started stationing multiple guards in the hall, just in case I need to call for help in the middle of the night.
That way, one can assist and the other can run to alert Maddox.
I’d asked one of the guards to keep a watch on Nolan while I was gone, to which he’d promptly agreed.
I’m about to burst through Charlie’s door, when I hear voices on the other side.
I immediately recognize them as belonging to Charlie and Maddox. They’re speaking in hushed, urgent tones. Both sound less than happy with the other.
“It was a mistake,” says Maddox.
“Oh, just what a girl loves to hear.”
“Charlie, just listen to me.”
“No, you listen to me. If kissing me was a mistake, why did you feel the need to come knock on my door tonight? You know I don’t just sit around waiting for you to summon me, right?”
“Of course you don’t. I came to apologize.”
“Yes, well, you already did that once. And you know how much I loved hearing your apology for kissing me the first time.”
Maddox groans. Normally, I would shuffle away quietly and hope that Maddox’s fae ears didn’t catch on to my presence, but there are more pressing matters at hand than Charlie and Maddox’s tumultuous relationship.
I knock. The voices go silent.
“One moment,” calls Charlie.
There’s shuffling inside, and more hushed whispers. Quieter than before, but just as irritated.
After a moment, Charlie comes to the door, opening it only slightly. At first, she looks annoyed, but when she sees it’s me, her countenance brightens. “Oh, hello, Wendy. Hello, Michael,” she says, slightly more loudly than necessary considering I’m standing right in front of her.
She lets us both in, making sure the door creaks loudly as she does. There’s no sign of Maddox in the room, but as I lived in this room for six months, I happen to know that the door I just walked through is the only way out.
“What’s going on?” asks Charlie, her face suddenly paling. “Is something wrong with the captain?”
I set Michael on the floor, and he runs over to where the rest of his toys are piled in a chest next to the bed where I used to sleep.
Charlie has been letting Michael stay in her room for the past few nights to give Nolan and me some privacy.
Tonight, Michael had decided he wasn’t going to stand for our separation any longer.
“No, he’s fine,” I say, a little annoyed that I can’t just be talking to Maddox as well, especially when I know he’s listening. “It’s just that I think I figured out a way we can help him.”
Charlie sits down on the edge of her bed and crosses her legs. “I’m listening.”
“Well, we considered going to the Eldest Sister for help. Obviously, she has no interest in helping us. And clearly there’s a thousand reasons we can’t go to the Middle Sister to cure Nolan.”
“Not that she could anyway, since she’s cursed not to be able to do that sort of magic on him,” says Charlie.
“Right, but that doesn’t leave out all our options.”
Charlie looks at me, confused.
“Charlie. There’s another Sister.”
Charlie’s jaw drops open, and she claps her hand against her mouth. “Oh, we are such idiots. How did we not think of that before? What does she do again?” Her eyes go wide and she jumps from the bed. “OH. She cleans up the messes that her two older Sisters make.”
“Yes, and I definitely think our situation qualifies as a mess made by the older two Sisters, don’t you think?”
Charlie grabs my hands, yanking me off the bed and spinning me around in the room before wrapping me in a hug. “Oh, Winds, this is genius.”
“Yes, well, we have Michael to thank. He’s the one who insisted I tell him the story tonight.”
Charlie whirls around. “Thank you, Mich—” She frowns. “Where did he go?”
I turn around, searching the room for my brother, but it doesn’t take long to locate him. His muffled voice comes from inside Charlie’s bathroom. “Let’s play hide and seek,” he’s saying, and it sounds as if someone is trying to shush him.
Charlie’s face falls in the way of someone who has been caught red-handed.
“If it makes you feel better, I already knew he was in there,” I say.
Charlie looks at me sheepishly, then calls out. “Just come out, Maddox. Winds already knows.”
A moment later, Michael leads Maddox out of the bathroom by the hand, Maddox’s other hand rubbing the back of his neck as he grins at me half-heartedly.
“Well, if it’s worth anything, I feel pretty good about this plan, too,” he says.
“It’s not,” says Charlie. “Worth anything, I mean,” she adds, as if he didn’t get it the first time.
The next morning, I wake to an empty bed.
I flip around, panicking.
My first thought is that Nolan died in the middle of the night, and the guards took him away so I wouldn’t have to wake up next to a corpse.
“Darling, what are you thrashing about for?”
I jolt up, staring across the room to find Nolan, fully dressed and pouring tea into a set of two teacups. My shoulders sag in relief as he brings the tray over to the bed and sets it on top of the blankets.
“I thought you were dead,” I say.
“That’s rather dramatic, don’t you think?”
I glare at him, but he just nods toward the teacup nearest me. I notice that he took the chipped one for himself.
When I bring the teacup to my mouth, I can’t help but sigh as the steam from the aromatic liquid enters my sinuses, loosening even the muscles of my forehead. It tastes perfect, a tartness offset by just a bit of honey.
“I didn’t know you were good at making tea,” I say.
“Well, I figured that if I was going to give up mixed drinks, I might as well not allow that skill set to go to waste.”
“You don’t have to give those up for me,” I say.
“Yes, Darling,” he says, “I do. But it’s no sacrifice. And considering my incident the other night, it’s probably for the best that I stick to tea and water, anyway.”
“You look so much better this morning,” I say, heart lifting to see him up and walking around. The color has returned to his face, too.
“That’s because I’m clothed and you can’t see my decaying body.”
When I shoot him a glare, he adds, “But yes. I do feel much better. It seems my episode was just that—an episode.”
“Charlie says that’s the worst your episodes have been. That it’s never stopped your heart before.”
Nolan taps his finger against his teacup. “Yes, well.”
“It’s not usually a good sign when you’re at a loss for a clever retort,” I say.
“It’s not, is it?”
“You want some good news?”
“You’ve been over here sipping tea while all along withholding good news from me?”
“Well, you did allow me to wake up in an empty bed thinking my husband was dead and his body had been carried off in the middle of the night.”
Nolan tips his teacup toward me. “Fair enough.”
“I think I’ve found a way to cure you,” I say. “Or, at least, I think I know who might know how.”
Nolan stills. Watches me carefully. Then sets his teacup on the tray. “Go on.”
“No, I think I like holding you in anticipation. It’s nice to have your undivided attention,” I say.
“Darling.”
“The Youngest Sister, Nolan.”
His forehead creases. Disappointment flashes over his face. He hides it quickly enough, but not in time for it to escape my notice.
Something sharp lands in my gut.
“You think it’s a stupid idea.”
“Not stupid. But since when has meddling with the Fates ever done anything but cause us mortals trouble? Even in our own lives?—”
“We didn’t meddle with the Fates,” I say. “They meddled with us. The Eldest Sister, by cursing the men in your family to be the objects of obsession of the Middle Sister. Then again by giving us our Mating Marks. They treat our lives like we’re games to them, but they care nothing about us.”
“Then what makes you think the Youngest Sister will?”
“The stories about the oldest two—they’ve represented them fairly, wouldn’t you say? Why would the stories about the Youngest not be true? It’s said that she fixes what her Sisters break. That’s us, wouldn’t you say?”
He shakes his head. “The stories never claim that she does as much out of compassion. She could be just as controlling and as meddling as her Sisters. The stories never reveal what price she requires of those whose lives she fixes.”
“I’m not saying it’s guaranteed to work. I’m saying it’s our only option, and right now, it sounds like a pretty good one.”
Nolan sighs, then wipes his hair with his hand. “I happen to have a bad feeling about it, that’s all.”
It’s irrational for me to be annoyed with him that he’s echoing my words about going to Peter for help when he didn’t even overhear them, but I can’t help the irritation that wells up within me.
“It’s the best idea we’ve got.”
“Not if it puts you in danger.”
“I don’t care if it puts me in danger. Don’t you understand that?”
“On the contrary, Darling,” Nolan says, his voice going hard. “Understanding that fact is precisely why I have cause for concern.”
I let out a huff, unable to come up with the words to fight back now that something feels like it’s piercing my throat.
“I won’t have you throw away your life for me,” says Nolan, reaching his hand out across the bed to take hold of mine.
At the feel of his cold touch, his still-clammy flesh, I wrench it from his grasp. “At least if I threw my life away, it would be for you. Meanwhile, you’d rather throw your life away for nothing at all.”
Nolan’s jaw works. He looks as if I’ve slapped him, but I can’t bring myself to care.
So I leave.