20
Day thirty at sea
I stood at my favorite spot, like so many other times in these thirty days at sea.
You could feel the silence at the bowsprit, but at the same way, you could hear your surroundings all the time. It was never quiet. And I loved that paradox like no other.
The wind was always there, dancing through my hair as the ship cut through the waves.
A whole month had passed since I first stepped aboard as more than a stranger, more than just a passenger lost between my old life and this one. It was hard to believe that just weeks ago, my heart was drowning in grief and betrayal, but now… now I could breathe again.
The sea healed me, not only physically that time I left the church stabbed, but mentally as well. I no longer felt my soul divided, I had made peace with destiny, whatever it might be. If there was one thing I now knew, it was that all I could do was let the current carry me wherever it chose. The future wasn’t mine to shape, it would unfold as it wishes, with or without my permission. So whatever happened, happened, and I would face it whenever that may be. And if that destiny put me with a bow and arrow in front of King Thadrius, I would shoot. And if instead of The King it’s Diego, I would ask for forgiveness before shooting.
This place had become my sanctuary, a world away from the one I knew. Up here, perched at the very tip of the ship, I felt free, untethered.
The sea stretched endlessly before me, as vast as the love I had always believed in and now had found a new home. It wasn’t just one bond; it was all of them. This family had become my family too. And I knew Dara would be laughing at the outcome of this story.
It was like each of them had contributed putting a little incandescent piece into my being, and now I was just a mosaic that shone with their truths.
Ela, fierce and unwavering, had taught me that friendship could be sharp as any blade, yet soft in its loyalty. Efren and Jonah, with their stolen glances and quiet conversations, reminded me that love could exist even in silence, in the spaces between words. Raaq, with his generosity and inspiring charisma, and his way of making everyone feel seen and valued. Duke, trusting me with his endless stories, his own and Dara’s. Alastair, with the mere gesture of giving me the only thing he had with him just because he once heard me saying that I liked to read. Ceol, with the enthusiasm and affection that he gave us every night in the form of food and laughter, and even Coco, with every little word she spoke. All of them had woven themselves into my heart. I was no longer adrift; I belonged here.
“A pirate is she. The Pink Arrow of the sea,” I could hear the wind whisper.
Him.
And then there was him. The captain. The one who always made sure to make of every day a safe home, no matter the place, for this family.
Captain Calico Pierce.
He had become more than a man who gave orders or steered the ship. In these thirty days, he had steered me too—closer and closer to him, although neither of us seemed capable of speak about it.
There was an understanding between us, a bond that went deeper than words and looks. A bond that I could not explain, like that of the seas and the winds.
Every time he stood beside me, our arms almost brushing, I felt it. The pull, the quiet gravity of something waiting to happen. The beautiful wait until a wave just breaks on the shore.
Yet it never quite broke. It was a wave in constant formation. And strangely, that was all right. There was a beauty in the unspoken, in the moments shared without needing more. It was in the way he let me be myself, even when I wasn’t sure who that was anymore, even when I was in the process of finding her and he didn't ask me for justifications for simply trying to be. I could feel his care in the way he watched me from afar, not as if I was fragile, but as if I was something he understood without explanation. And I could also feel it every time the wind touched my skin.
Love. I had always felt like it was only happening around me, and that was the reason I looked for it everywhere: in every corner and little thing, in every day and second, in every book and word, in every rain and drop. I wanted to get lost in it, feeling the need to show everyone where it was because it was true, it was beautiful, and everyone needed to see it, feel it. But I so desperately wanted to be a part of it too.
And that was how I thought I became the lover, but never the loved, and kept waiting for that grand and all-consuming tenderness.
But here, I started to feel it. And it was so simple and easy.
It was in laughter at dinner, in the shared glances at sunset, in the quiet moments when the sea was calm and all the world felt at peace.
Day thirty at sea, and I couldn’t imagine anything more beautiful.
“I think it is my birthday today,” I whispered to the waves.
It had been a very quiet month at sea, and something told me that Thalassa was making an immense effort to protect this ship. I sometimes could see storms breaking out around us but they never quite reached this vessel.
I always talked to her, and many times she didn't respond, but I knew she was there, always. I felt her always. Like now, with my fingers grazing the surface of the sea .
“Thank you,” I whispered, moving my hand through the water. “I saw gray clouds and violent waters yesterday behind us. You helped us. Thank you.”
The seas respect you, Lady Love.
“Well, hello.” I smiled. “It’s been a couple of days without hearing from you.”
Death controls the seas again, Lady Love. There are days when even I get scared of losing control. Fear reigns in my waters. You need to find The Veil, Lady Love. Only you can.
“What do you mean with that? Is there something in The Vile Phantom that can help you?”
Ask the captain, Lady Love.
“Why?”
I can’t say. He knows, Lady Love. Ask him about the archery lessons.
I immediately stood up with my hands still gripping the bowsprit. “What?” Some kind of fear started rising through my whole body. “What do you mean?” Flickers of memories with Diego began to appear in my head, accompanied by his sword penetrating Dara's heart. “What is it, Thalassa?”
Silence. In my mind only the sound of the waves crashing against the hull.
“Thalassa,” I whispered. But she didn’t respond, so I looked at the sky, closed my eyes, and I pled. “Thalassa, please. I'm not strong enough to go through that again. Please tell me.”
“Oi! Donna!” Jonah's voice made me open my eyes suddenly and look towards the deck .
“Get down from there! You don't want to miss this!”
Curious, I turned and made my way down from my perch, spotting Jonah waving eagerly from the deck. He wore a brad grin, his cheeks flushed.
“What’s going on?” I asked with a smile, sensing a playful energy in the air.
Jonah took my hand, his eyes twinkling.
“It’s Night of Many Faces, Pink Arrow. We’re being whoever we want to be tonight. And we’re getting drunk also,” he said, his voice full of mischief as he led me towards the aft cabin.
As we entered, my smile grew. The cabin was a chaotic burst of color and laughter.
Dresses and extravagant fabrics were strewn across the room, along with hats, masquerade masks, and bits of kohl that looked like it had been hastily applied. In the middle of it all, Efren stood, draped in a shimmering, emerald-green gown. His long blonde hair fell in soft waves down his back, and his cheeks were dusted with a rosy blush that intoned his usual flirtatious grin.
“Well?” he said, twirling with exaggerated grace. “What do you think?”
I smiled. “Why you look marvelous!”
“Thank you, princess. I knew you would like me in a dress.”
I let out a laugh. “What in the name of the Gods happened in here? Looks like a wave has destroyed a coral reef.”
“Well, can’t you see, Pink Arrow?” Ela chimed in, trying on an all feathered hat while balancing a glass of rum in her hand. “This is a mutiny. ”
“To Raaq’s closet?” I laughed.
She pointed her glass at me. “Aye.”
Coco flapped his wings from a perch nearby, her usual chorus of “Coco!” now accompanied by occasional mutterings of “Kiss!”
“Raaq brought all of this aboard,” Jonah explained, gesturing to the array of dresses and accessories. “From sovereigns, apparently. Stolen, naturally,” he added with a wink.
Raaq, sitting in the corner adjusting a velvet cloak on his shoulders, shot Jonah a look. “For the record, I didn’t steal all of them. Some were gifts.”
Ela snorted, rolling her eyes playfully. “Right. Gifts. From people you probably conned.”
The room erupted into laughter, and I couldn’t help but get swept up in their joy. It was pure, unfiltered fun, the kind that cut through the heaviness of the past few weeks.
They passed bottles of rum, taking turns in front of the mirror, trading hats and dresses as if they were the finest royal garments.
In the middle of it all, Ela nudged me with a conspiratorial smile. “You’ve got something waiting for you in our cabin.”
I raised a brow. “What is it?”
“You’ll see, Pink Arrow,” Ela said, her smirk widening. “Go on.”
Intrigued, I left the others and returned to my cabin, where I found a simple box on the bed.
I stared at the box, my breath catching the moment my fingers brushed against its edges. As I lifted the lid and saw the soft pink fabric, my heart skipped a beat .
The dress.
That dress. The Soulshroud. The beautiful pink dress I had fallen in love with back on land in Raaq’s shop, the one I couldn’t stop thinking about and hadn’t dared to take with me.
A month ago, I had stood in front of that mirror, the dress swirling around my legs like a whisper. It had felt magical, as if it were made for me, wrapping me in a sense of belonging I rarely found outside the sea. But when the captain told me it was the Soulshroud itself, my heart had clenched with fear. A dress that revealed your truest self. What would they see? A girl torn between love and vengeance? A pirate?
I had placed the dress back on the rack that day, my heart heavy with a mixture of longing and fear. I loved fiercely, I always had, but the idea of seeing myself, stripped bare of all the walls I had built, had terrified me. To confront who I was at my core…What if I didn’t like what I found?
I would alway be that girl who stood at the mirror with her doubts and faiths. But now, I had something I didn’t have back then. Now I was brave. The same girl, but braver.
And here it was again. That same dress. Waiting for me.
And resting on top, a note;
I wish you hadn't changed that day.
—Captain Calico P .
My heart had never beaten so hard. Never. I thought I was going to die.
I put a hand over my heart as if it would stop it from coming out of my chest. My fingers trembled slightly as I traced the fabric of the dress, feeling its softness against my skin.
He had thought of me. He had remembered that moment and chosen to give me the very thing I had been too afraid to claim for myself back then. He had seen my hesitation, understood my fear, and still believed I was ready to wear it.
My chest tightened, a rush of emotion swelling in my throat.
He gave me the dress. He gave me the dress knowing it was the Soulshroud. A gift not to mock me, but to show me that my truest self was something to be cherished, not feared.
My heart pounded. How could I refuse now?
How could I hide from the very thing I spent my life chasing—love, in all its raw and messy forms? If the dress really showed the truth, then it was a truth I needed to see. After all, love had never been something to shy away from. It was everything I was.
I exhaled, the sound shaky but resolute, and slowly began to slip the dress over my shoulders. The fabric felt like a second skin, molding to me in a way that made me feel both vulnerable and powerful all at once. It felt exactly like that day.
The pale pink hue almost blending with the blush that colored my cheeks. Every day, I thought about this color pink, delicate like the first light of dawn after a storm, the color of something fragile yet unyielding .
Here, in the soft folds of this dress, I saw myself as something more. Just like that day. Someone who was both vulnerable and strong. There was an undeniable strength in how the dress fit me so perfectly, as if saying: You are enough, as you are.
My fingers delicately traced the soft fabric, marveling at how it seemed to pulse with life, as though reflecting my own beating heart. I had never imagined something could make me feel so exposed and yet so empowered at the same time.
And he had chosen to give me this, knowing I would have to confront these feelings.
I looked down at my hands, at the way they clenched the sides of the gown. There was no denying it now—this was me. Raw, open, and unafraid of the love that had always guided me, even when the world around crumbled.
Slowly, I let myself breathe, my chest rising and falling beneath the soft pink fabric, I smiled at the woman in the small mirror of the cabin—strong, loving, and ready to face whatever came next.
“Just like I remembered.”
I turned to the unmistakable voice at the door. Well, perhaps not ready to face whatever came next, because I was indeed not ready to face him right this instant.
Captain Pierce leaned on the door, staring at me with those eyes that always came accompanied by a smile. He took three slow steps forward as he muttered something like “exquisite” but I truly couldn’t hear above the beating of my heart so perhaps he didn’t exactly say that, no matter how much I wished he did. Or maybe he did. Gods, did he ?
He was getting very close to me and I had to put my arms behind my back to avoid touching him.
Because it was true, I did want to touch him.
I wanted to wrap my fingers around that pendant he always wore around his neck that I was so dying to know what it was, and I also wanted to touch that tiny pearl hanging from that little hoop in his ear that it was always moving when he walked.
And I desperately wanted to grab that absurd white linen shirt with both hands and button it all the way up, so he couldn’t expose that tan chest of his with small hints of ink that I had never been able to see properly.
Or a hug perhaps? I really wanted to hug him. How should it feel to hug him?
“Again with that look.” He took another step. “And that blush that goes all the way down to your neck.”
I couldn’t breathe. I truly, truly couldn’t breathe.
“How did you get it,” I managed to ask, my voice barely a whisper.
He laughed softly. “I bought it.”
“You bought it?” I raised an eyebrow. “Or rather, was it like a loan?”
He smirked, impossibly handsome, and I had to take a step back, my hands still behind my back touching the wall.
“Seventeen doubloons.”
My eyes widened. “What?"
“That’s what it cost me. Seventeen doubloons. ”
I swallowed. He bought it? A notorious thief—wanted across all Four Kingdoms of Marethys for his crimes—bought me a dress. A pirate, infamous for stealing, spent his own money on this. On me.
“That is a very big amount of gold, Captain.”
His eyes examined the dress. Up and down, then up again, and then he clenched his jaw, and muttered, “Not enough.”
I had no heart anymore. Surely it must have already exploded from beating too much.
He took a step closer and I had to take a deep breath.
“Thank you,” I said. “You shouldn’t have—”
“I heard it was your birthday,” he interrupted me, whispering so close.
I frowned, but immediately understood and fought a smile.
“Did one of your little gusts of wind tell you?”
His laugh echoed like the sea in a conch shell, a soft, beautiful vibration that resonated in the hollow of my chest, blending with the nervous flutter in my stomach.
“Aye.”
“Aye?” I gave up the fight and let myself smile. “Are you eavesdropping on me, Captain?”
“I wish I was,” he sighed softly. “But no matter the time of day, I find myself on my knees, begging Ventus to give me at least a handful of remnants of what he hears you whisper up there all alone to the waves.”
My breathing quickened and I could feel my hands shaking behind me. My heart was beating uncontrollably. I needed someone to stop it. Or maybe not, I didn’t know .
“It’s too much,” I managed to whisper. So close to his mouth. So close that it was the biggest of efforts not to close my eyes.
“What is?” He spoke in a gentle hush, his question full of tenderness.
And truly, what was? This? Him? What was too much?
“This…” I swallowed the words that I really wanted to speak out loud, “… dress.”
He smiled and shook his head a little, as if he was waiting for me to say something else and was disappointed with the answer. He took a step back, and it was like I had finally surfed to breathe, but what I really wanted was to drown again if it meant he would take that step forward so I could feel his whispers against my face once more.
He looked down to his boots, and said with a smirk, “It was the least I could do after you secretly stole these boots from Raaq’s closet and put them under my table without anyone knowing.”
Oh Gods. “No, I didn’t—I wasn’t—”
He laughed and started to walk away slowly. “Your coral reef blush gives you away, love. As it always does.”
“Your boots looked very old,” I tried to justify myself quickly. “And as a matter of fact, I didn’t steal them.”
He raised an eyebrow in question, almost about to reach the door. “Oh?”
“It was more like a loan, I would say.”
His eyes sparkled as his smile winded, and I couldn’t help but smile too. A very big smile.
Gods .
He shook his head a little and reached for the knock, opening the door.
“In truth, now that I think of it better, I’ll have to take these boots off because they are too much.”
And something about that statement got me calling for him before he could step out.
“Captain.”
He looked back with half a grin and nodded with his head.
“Wear the boots, please.”
He then gave me a smile, one that reminded me of the shimmer of sea glass, softened and shaped by years of being tossed in the waves—pure and unguarded.
“And you wear that dress.”
???
When I returned to the others, they cheered, raising their glasses in approval. “Look at you!” Jonah exclaimed, spinning me around. “Now that is a dress!”
“I thought you liked mine better, Goldie Tusk,” said Efren from behind us.
Jonah let go of my hand, grabbed the collar of Efren’s dress and pulled him towards his face. “Would it kill you to hold your tongue for just a single minute?” Jonah whispered so brutally that my eyes opened in surprise.
Efren’s usual playful smirk faltered, his eyes widening just a fraction as Jonah’s words hung in the air. For once, I could see that the teasing glint was gone, replaced by something raw. It was as if the world around them blurred, and all Efren could see was Jonah, his expression caught between shock and admiration. His lips parted slightly, a flush creeping up his neck, and for the briefest moment, I swore his gaze softened, like he was one heartbeat away from closing the space between them and kissing Jonah senseless, right in front of everyone. But he held back, barely.
“That’s the last thing I want to do right now. Hold my tongue.”
His playful smirk returned again and in a quick motion Jonah let go of him, as if he had suddenly gotten nervous and remembered that he was drinking.
We all continued to laugh and drink, eventually joining Duke and Alastair on deck who were too shocked to ask. Ceol joined us too with his guitar, his fingers danced across the strings, filling the air with lively, lilting melodies.
The night came and we danced under the moonlight, the sound of the waves and music mingling in the air.
Caught up in revelry, and a bit much of rum, I grabbed a tricorn hat from a nearby barrel placing it on my head with a flourish, and stood up. “Wasn't this a mutiny?” I screamed from atop the barrel. “We have to appoint a new captain!”
Everyone laughed and raised their glasses screaming their own name.
“It's not fair to vote for yourselves!” I laughed. “Well, I have the hat! That makes me the captain. ”
Everyone roared in laughter, some doubling over as I sat on the barrel drinking from my cup. I began to wave my hand dramatically, as if giving orders, my smile wide.
“May I ask, who is leading this mutiny?” The captain's voice made us all stop laughing, and without thinking it twice, everyone pointed at me.
I gasped with a smile. “I’ll have ye walk the plank!”
Everyone started laughing and dancing again as I got off the barrel, dizzy surely because of the rum, not knowing where to put my feet.
“Is that what I sound like?” The captain's voice sounded very close to my ear, and suddenly I felt his arms trying to steady me. I could feel my cheeks warm from both the rum and his amused gaze.
“Well,” I said with a smile, “someone has to keep this crew in line.”
He chuckled, shaking his head. “Carry on, then.” And before he could let go of me, he whispered in my ear, “Captain.” His eyes lingered on me a little longer before he turned to join the others. And I had to start convincing myself to breathe.
As the night deepened, the air filled with laughter and music, the tension and responsibilities temporarily forgotten. I found myself swept up in the freedom of it all, twirling in my gown as The Rebecca rocked gently beneath my feet. The stars above were bright, scattered across the velvet sky, and the moon bathed everything in a soft, silvery glow .
We all danced around the deck, our movements a little clumsy from the rum, but no one cared. Ceol played a lively tune on his guitar, his fingers plucking out notes with ease. Even Coco seemed to enjoy herself as she flitted from one perch to another.
I felt light, as if the weight I’d been carrying since that day at the church had lifted, if only for tonight.
I glanced at Captain Pierce, who was leaning against the rail, watching with an amused but distant expression. I went towards him and said, “Are you too serious to join for a dance?”
He raised a brow, his smirk deepening. “Someone’s got to keep an eye on all of you. Make sure you don’t drink the whole supply dry.”
I grinned, stepping closer. “You know I’m the captain tonight, don’t you?”
He laughed looking down at me. “Looks like we’re in trouble then.”
“Oh, yes, we are doomed.” He only smiled while I continued speaking, “Because there is one member of my crew that is not dancing.”
“What a poor, miserable man.”
“Don’t fret, we can still save him.” He gave me a smile so pure that I felt the need to get closer to him. “What can we do to help him?”
“Hell if I know,” he whispered with sad eyes. “You are the captain, love, aren’t you? Tell me what to do.”
I blinked through the haze of rum, my heart stumbling at the weight of his tone. I didn’t understand what he was asking for, yet all I wanted was to ease the ache behind his eyes, to be the answer he was searching for.
My chest tightened, the warmth of the drink turning cold, and my fingers itched to reach for him, to offer something, anything.
But I had no idea where to start, and that made it worse. And just as I opened my mouth to say something, he muttered, “Don’t.” And clenched his jaw. “I meant that in good humor, don’t look at me like that.”
“Dance with me,” I suddenly whispered. And before I could acknowledge what was I saying, my hands moved on their own accord and I rested them on his chest. “Please, would you—”
“I think you’ve had more than your share of the bottle tonight,” he said, grabbing my hands and putting them down carefully. My cheeks turned red immediately and not because of the rum, but because I was embarrassed. Gods, he didn't want to dance. He was doing well until I came to overwhelm him.
I stepped back. “Apologies, I didn’t mean to—”
“No,” he interrupted me. “You haven't done anything wrong, I just—”
“I sometimes speak without meaning to, I’m sorry.” And I turned and left. Just like that winter night at the palace when I was eighteen, and I felt like a fool because of a kiss.
I rejoined the group as if nothing had just happened, as if I wasn’t feeling my heart on my throat every time I glanced at him.
The night seemed endless, full of joy and laughter, but as the moon climbed higher into the sky, one by one, everyone began to drift off their bunks, their energy finally spent .
And I found myself at the edge of the deck once more, looking out at the horizon, as I used to do every night from the shores of the castle.
The wind had cooled, carrying with it the scent of salt and freedom. And then I heard, perhaps what I so desperately and secretly wanted to hear, soft footsteps approaching. And suddenly he stopped beside me, leaning on the rail, his presence grounding in the quiet that had settled over the ship.
“Ask me again,” he broke the silence, his voice gentle.
I glanced at him, seeing the weight he carried beneath his calm demeanor, and I understood.
For a moment, it felt like we both did.
We were balancing on a knife’s edge between freedom and burdens of the past that had repercussions now in the present, both trying to find our way in a world that often demanded more than we both wanted to give. And I had been selfish enough to think that it was just me, and that he already built himself a place. But now he had to protect it. And not only this ship.
He met my gaze and the air between us grew charged once again, full of unspoken things. The wind tugged at our clothes, and the stars above casted our silent light over the ship.
“Be whoever you want to be tonight,” he said. “What do you want—”
“I want-” I took a breath, “I desire to be everything, I crave the whole of it. I hunger for the world in its entirety.” I couldn’t put sense to it, but I was on the verge of tears. “Tell me where to start, Captain. ”
“Dance with me.” His words were so fast, barely a whisper, and his voice cracked so much that I had to press my nails hard into the palms of my hands to feel that I was really here.
“There’s no music,” was the only thing I managed to respond.
And then, he said it again, “Dance with me.” So low and deep that I quickly nodded and took a step forward.
I looked down to see the toes of our boots touching. “You wore the shoes.” I could feel his grin even if I wasn’t facing him.
“And you the dress.”
I smiled, my gaze still on the floor. “How could I not? Seventeen doubloons is a lot of gold.”
He laughed very quietly, but I felt it in every bone of my body, exactly as I felt the next words he whispered run through my neck.
“Will you wear it forever, then?”
I looked up, and he took a breath when our eyes collided.
“Would you want me to?” I barely uttered.
He nodded and swallowed whatever he was about so say. But then, when I slowly put my hands on his shoulders, he said in a tone so low that felt like a secret, “Do you perhaps wish for me to soften my words with a please , just like you always do?”
My smile was a quiet, and almost shy thing, but the way his gaze softened, so deliberate, sent a warmth curling in my chest.
He was looking at the corner of my mouth, at the delicate hollow that formed every time I smiled but no one could notice if they weren't close enough. It felt as though he was memorizing that spot, tracing it with his eyes, and my heart quickened under his attention .
“Will you wear it forever?” His hand was suddenly on my waist, his thumb brushing just beneath the fabric of my dress, and I could feel the calloused roughness of his palm as it pressed lightly against the small of my back, drawing me in closer than I had ever dared to stand.
And then he whispered, so, so close, and almost broken, “Please.”
My mouth opened, but I truly didn’t know what could I possibly say, so I nodded, very slowly.
And now there was only the wind, the distant whisper of the waves, and the weight of him in front of me.
Neither of us spoke. There was no need for words—not now, not with the way the silence between us was alive, crackling with something electric, something dangerous.
His breath mingled with mine, the barest hitch in my throat every time his fingers shifted, just enough to remind me how real he was, how close we had come to this line but never crossed it before. Until now.
The ship swayed gently beneath our feet, but I couldn’t tell if it was the sea or the sudden rush of my pulse that made me unsteady. His other hand slid up my arm, fingers grazing my skin so lightly I shivered. My eyes flicked up, catching his in the moonlight, and his gaze was dark, molten, holding me there like an anchor in the storm.
I swayed with him, my body pressed so close that I could feel the rise and fall of his chest, the steady rhythm of his breathing. Each exhale sent the faintest breeze against my lips, our mouths nearly touching but not quite. His lips hovered there, barely a breath apart, so close I could feel the heat of him and wondered if he could hear my heart pounding in the stillness.
When his forehead touched mine, it was the softest, most intimate of movements, and my hands, almost without thinking, slid up the soft material of his shirt, brushing the side of his neck. He tilted his head slightly, and our noses brushed—just a whisper of contact, a teasing edge that sent a shudder down my spine. I could feel the warmth radiating from him, the tension his body coiled like a spring, as if he was holding back with every inch of him. Did he want to close the gap between us just as badly as I did?
The wind stirred, rustling my hair, but nothing could pull my attention from him. The sea lapped softly at the sides of the ship, and somewhere in the distance, the world kept turning. But here, on this deck, it was only us. Dancing to just the wind and the waves.
“You can have it,” he sighed softly.
I inhaled sharply, my chest tightening. “What can I have?”
“Everything.” His thumb traced the edge of my jaw. “How I wish I could bestow it upon you.” His breath was shallow as his lips hovered, dangerously close, his gaze locked on mine.
I could almost taste the kiss that lingered just out of reach, and with each passing second, the space between us felt like it was shrinking, pulled tighter until it was unbearable. And then he whispered,
“But I can’t.” His voice rough and low, and full of sadness .
My breath hitched, and the moment stretched between us, fragile and burning with a tension so palpable, I could feel it in every fiber of my being.
I frowned, and the thumb that was grazing my jaw slowly moved down to my neck.
“I don’t understand.” My voice was barely audible.
His thumb moved down from my neck to my bare shoulders.
“What you want…” His voice was so broken I almost started crying. He took a step back and grabbed my face with both hands, his thumbs were now caressing my eyelashes, as he muttered so softy, “I know what this look means, and I—”
I took both of his wrists carefully. “What horrible fate this look could mean, for you to want to look away?”
“I don’t—” He swallowed. “There lies the flaw, love. I am powerless to avert my gaze.”
I shook my head. “That is not a flaw.”
“It is when you don’t know what to do about it.”
I took a deep breathe and closed my eyes to whisper what I had been wanting to say since I opened that box and found his note on top of the dress, “Why wouldn’t you just—”
“Kiss!” Coco squawked from the rigging above.
The moment shattered like glass.
I froze, eyes wide, and a flush of heat rushed to my cheeks as Calico smiled.
We were still close, his hands on both sides of my faces and my hands grabbing his wrists.
“Happy birthday,” he mumbled quietly with that smile.
“We don't even know if it is really.”
“Well, it is from now on.”
“Kiss!” Yes, thank you very much, Coco. “Kiss!”
He laughed. And then, my heart skipped a beat as he leaned closer.
I braced myself for the rush of words I wasn’t ready to say, only to feel the warmth of his lips graze my cheek instead. Soft, fleeting, yet it lingered in the air like a promise unspoken.
A shiver danced down my entire body, my skin alive where he had kissed me. In that stolen moment, my world narrowed to the whisper of his breath, and for a heartbeat, I wished he would stay there forever.
He kissed my cheek.
Captain Calico Pierce kissed my cheek, and then he said, as if nothing had happened, “Happy birthday, Pink Arrow of the Nine Seas.”
And I would never forget about day thirty at sea.