Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
WENDY
“ D id you have to bring that thing with us?” Laurette asked, wrinkling her nose at the burlap sack I had slung over my shoulder. It was stained and dripping blood but I refused to set it down.
“Of course I did,” I huffed, giving her a surly look because I was exhausted and in pain and needed a warm meal in my belly. “It’s a gift. I can’t leave the gift behind.” Very patiently, I explained, “The whole point of gifting is to give a person something. If you have nothing to give them, the gifting experience is ruined.”
She snorted. “You’re a madhouse.”
That made me smile. She’d said that twice today, and I knew it shouldn’t make me smile but it just sounded so cute. I was a madhouse.
“The captain and his husband are secured, Wendy,” Jaden said, striding down the deck of the beautiful ebony schooner we were borrowing. It came with a small crew and two married captains, but it was the best of the options we had upon fleeing Eldrick’s fortress. Ten of the people we liberated from the basement cells 1 had come with us.
The others had stayed behind to oversee the glorious bonfire we could spot even from the harbour, orange flames devouring the contents of Eldrick’s nightmare collection, blackening stone, collapsing parts of the structure entirely. The people who stayed behind assured me they’d be safe in the village and that anyone who gave them any issues would find themselves quickly dealt with. Everyone in need of healing had been taken to the doctor’s office in the village. I felt a little bad to be sailing off without even checking they were okay, but I was in a rush.
I was going home.
“Great work, Jaden,” I told the tall, strapping man as he slouched over to Laurette and I, his clothes as bloodstained as mine, his beard and afro drenched in the stuff too.
“The crew are piss scared, you know,” he grunted, his hand pressed to his ribs. I was trying very, very hard to ignore my own injuries.
“Never heard that phrase before.” I forced a grin. “I like it. And fair point.” I looked around at the crew who were preparing to sail with shaking hands, stiff shoulders, and trembling knees. They were a peaceful crew of a ship that never caused trouble. They must have been terrified at the sight of twenty blood-covered prisoners boarding their ship. They probably thought we were murderers and thieves or something. 2
“Hi, everyone!” I waved my hands, biting back a curse at the dozen stabs of pain through my body and carefully lowering my arms as sweat pricked my upper lip. “I just wanna clear something up, if you have a minute to listen.”
Panicked looks were exchanged. Flighty glances aimed my way. They kept their distance.
“I’m only borrowing the ship until I can find my own. I’ll be out of your hair in no time, I just need to find my captain again. He has nightmares, you see. He needs me, and he needs this—well, don’t worry about what’s in the bag.” I smiled reassuringly at whoever braved looking my way. “You’re not in any danger, and I promise we won’t hurt you. We’re not evil criminals; we just escaped an evil criminal. So no need to look so afraid. We’re all friends here.”
“You tied up our captain,” a sandy-haired man in his forties muttered, not coming closer but glaring at me from a distance.
“Well, yeah, but I tied him up with his husband. I’m not a monster. And I’ll let them go the second I find the Banshee. Pinky promise.”
“The Banshee?” The man’s skin bleached and he took a step back. “You mean the Harbinger? We don’t want anything to do with the black sails.”
I forgot how everyone was afraid of my ship, my captain. Love for the Banshee swelled behind my breastbone.
“But, consider!” I said, giving the crew an excited look. “I’ll owe you. You’ll be best buds with the captain and crew of the Banshee. No one will ever mess with you again. Plus, I really, really want to go home. My whole body hurts and I just want my captain.”
Strangely, the sandy-haired man’s eyes softened. “You really mean us no harm?”
“None at all,” I promised, giving him a winning smile and hoping he didn’t see the blood seeping through my shirt from a welt I’d just reopened. “I just need a lift home, that’s all.”
He exchanged a long glance with the other crew members. “I want your word that you’ll leave us the second we’re within sailing distance of the Banshee. And you leave our captain unharmed.”
“Done.” I held out my hand for a shake, admiring his bravery as he strode closer and shook my hand firmly. Motherfucker, that hurt. I did a valiant job of hiding it if you ignored my gasp. “I’m Wendy Darling.”
A laugh burst from him, startling me. “Phillip,” he told me, shaking his head as he released my hand. “Phillip Darling.”
My eyes shot wide, shock blasting through my agony. “You’re one of us? You’re a Darling?”
He must have left Mama’s house before I got there. But what were the chances of meeting another Darling in the wild?
Phillip rolled his eyes, stepping back. “Tell me you don’t have a head in that bag, sister.”
I widened my eyes, all innocence. “Nope. No heads. Just a… steak. Yeah, a steak. My captain loooves steak.”
Phillip sighed, shaking his sandy head. “Crew, meet Wendy. She’s insane but she’s family. Now, who has recent news of the Harbinger’s location?”
A woman with long braids stepped forward, eyeing me warily. “Last I heard, it was circling the Swordfish Isle.”
My heart skipped. The island where I boarded the Banshee, where I first joined the crew. Aw, fuck, I was gonna cry.
I swallowed the lump in my throat and said, “Then we sail for the Swordfish Isle.”
Laurette gently patted my shoulder, giving me a look loaded with both longing and understanding. “You’re going home, girl.”
I was. I was really going home.