Chapter 25
Alister grinned down at Rosetta as she stared up at him, the sun washing over them, warming their skin. They were standing face to face, barely a metre apart as the ship swayed beneath their feet.
Like it always did, the light made the blue of her eyes look like shallow waters and they sparkled with a warm depth he thought might be deeper than the ocean itself.
It had been a month since he’d found Rosetta, gotten all his answers, discovered he had a son, and they’d once more set sail together.
She liked his ship a lot more now since he’d restored it. He’d even gotten his mattress replaced because he couldn’t stand her refusing to lie in his bed. They had yet to test it out though.
She didn’t like to part from Adrian, his son, for too long. He’d liked the name because of its relation to the Adriatic Sea. Rosetta had rolled her eyes at him for it.
They’d returned to the northern hemisphere, making their way to Tortaya after going to Dunecaster for supplies. He’d discovered Rosetta had been nearly out of food and water because she’d been fleeing him. She hadn’t had the freedom in Luxor to stock her ship properly.
They were heading west because he wanted to show his mother what he’d accidentally done, get abused for it, and then wait for her to cry with joy.
He knew his mother well enough to predict exactly how she would act, and was sure she would enjoy meeting her grandson – especially because he was intending to marry Rosetta and not abandon her like his father had done to his mother.
Before they’d left the southern waters, they’d quickly stopped off at the location on the map they’d acquired. It hadn’t been too many days from where he’d caught up to her and was nothing more than a volcanic island right in the middle of nowhere.
One side had been covered in lava, constantly spewing down the mountainside because of a large crack in the volcano. The other side was covered in grass and sand, peaceful by comparison.
Anchoring their boats on the calm side, as though there wasn’t a violent, raging river of fire and melting death nearby, they’d rowed to the sandy bank.
After climbing a ledge of unsteady rock with just his men, since Rosetta didn’t want to leave Adrian, they’d searched for the entrance to a small cave against the volcanic mountain.
As soon as they’d entered it, sweat dotted their brows as warm air swirled around them. It wasn’t too unbearable, but it definitely wasn’t a cool cave like most.
After only a short walk in the narrow passage, it had opened up to a large space.
Shovels dropped from hands. Gasps rang out.
Alister had almost fallen to his knees.
They’d found it. They’d found Dustin’s trove.
Hidden and nestled away in the southern seas, on an island nobody would think to check, in the middle of nowhere so far from other land that no ship would pass it on purpose, was a cavern filled with an abundance of treasure.
Loot spread from grey cave wall to grey cave wall.
Golden vases, candlesticks, and even coins littered the ground, as if they’d run out of chests to fill.
There were silver plates, cutlery, and every kind of valuable item there could ever be.
There were even chests of high-quality clothing and garments.
Everything had been tossed carelessly into piles.
There were five chests of varying sizes, mostly medium, spanning the cavern. Mixed inside were bronze, silver, and golden coins, as well as sparkling gems and jewellery.
“It’s real,” Pierre gasped out, turning his head in every direction.
“Mad Dog was right,” one of his lower-ranking men remarked.
“He was still insane,” Alister quipped.
He may have been right, but his father had truly been a madman. Still, Alister reached down and grabbed a coin from the ground, feeling its warmth under his fingertips.
To hide all this booty on an island that could destroy it... Alister clenched the coin in his fist. I can’t believe I found it.
He’d finally done what he’d promised, and there was one thing he could take to prove it. Dustin ‘The Raider’s’ infamous pirate flag, a winged skeleton symbolising death, was draped over one of the chests.
“What do you want to do, Alister?” Pierre asked, bringing him out of his resumed trance of breathless, wordless shock.
“Take the largest chest.” He pointed to the one in the middle. “That’ll be enough to pay everyone’s wages and make them happy.”
He walked towards the flag, wanting to touch it with his fingertips, to hold it. Hell, he even wanted to brush it against his cheek in admiration.
“What about everything else?”
“We leave it,” he said, turning his head back to his men right as he reached the flag. “We’re the only ones who know where it is. With this flag, we can tell the world we were the ones to discover it.”
“The finders of Dustin’s trove.” Pierre laughed, placing his hands on his hips and throwing his head back. “Our names will go down in history as the greatest treasure hunting pirates ever.”
“Aye,” Alister grinned, ripping the black flag from its resting place. It stirred up dust and soot. “Perhaps they’ll stop calling me ‘One Eye.’”
He really hated that name.
They left most of the treasure behind, taking just one chest and the flag. They could return to it anytime they wanted.
It was one of the most joyous days of his life. He’d finally completed his goal, finally done what he’d set out to do.
He’d searched for it with his father since he was eleven, and then for five years by himself. For nineteen years – he’d recently turned thirty – it was all Alister thought about.
He thought he may have been a little disappointed he no longer had a driving goal. There was nothing making him point in a certain direction with determined glee, nothing keeping him on the sea.
In a way, he’d almost felt like he’d lost his purpose.
That was, until Rosetta reminded him he could still hunt other maps. She told him, if he wanted to, he could add to Dustin’s trove and claim it completely as his own by building on it.
It wasn’t because she’d told him this that brought him relief, though.
Alister realised she still had goals, was still going to follow him, and he could focus all his obsession on her instead. He could follow other maps, travel the world freely, and do it all while having this pretty woman by his side.
He was still going to be a cutthroat pirate, but he could plough her in every ocean while loving her. She gave his life purpose, alongside the son he would raise and shape to be like him...
To be like her.
Strong like him, smart like her, and as fearsome as them both.
That’s why the happiness he’d felt the day he’d found Dustin’s trove was overshadowed by the one he was experiencing now.
He was surprisingly nervous about the eyes of nearly a hundred and fifty men staring at them on the quarterdeck of the Laughing Siren.
He tried not to look at them and focused purely on Rosetta, who had a strange flush to her cheeks that he rarely ever saw.
Her gaze darted to the side to avoid his, before flicking back as though she knew she had to look. He was without his eye patch; he’d done that purposefully.
He wanted her to look at him completely, at what was good, what was ugly, and know only this scarred face would be above her every night.
He’d slit the throat of anyone else who tried to touch her.
He’d never noticed how she could be a little awkward and shy, but perhaps it was because this was a strange day for both of them. He knew neither of them had ever expected to be doing this with anyone, least of all each other.
He was in his best clothes, which just so happened to be what he usually wore.
She was in her dark-green dress. Why? He didn’t know. He thought he might have preferred her in her usual getup, but he was just content that she was here.
There was a stranger on her ship, a man neither one of them knew, speaking to them. Or rather, at them.
His voice was shaking with fear.
With two guns pointed at his head, one held by Pierre, the other Naeem, he should be afraid.
He was the captain of the small fleet ship they’d sunk just a few days ago and had imprisoned until they found some shallows in which to drop anchor.
“D-do you, Rosetta Silver, take Alister Paine to be your lawfully wedded husband?” he asked her.
Both Alister and Rosetta could have done this, since any captain of any ship could technically marry two people. It was legal and binding, as long as it was recorded in their ledgers.
Neither had wanted to state the binding words, though. It felt like it would’ve cheapened their marriage if they had. They just wanted to agree to the vows like normal people.
So, when there was a fleet ship on the horizon, they’d both agreed to imprison its captain and force him to do it. They’d gotten his name, gotten him to sign their ledgers, ones they would later sign themselves.
Alister wanted to do this on the seas rather than on land, and Rosetta hadn’t cared. He just wanted to do it sooner rather than later. She had a history of being a runner; thinking back on it often got his hackles rising.
“Yes,” she answered without hesitation.
“A-and do you, A-Alister Paine,” the man started, his voice growing shakier by the second. His fear worsened when Alister turned his eyes to him with a foul glare for ruining this. He swallowed deep, and continued steadier, “Take Rosetta Silver to be your lawfully wedded wife?”
“Aye.” He immediately winced. “Fuck, shit. I mean yes.”
He’d bloody practiced this!
“Then I pronounce you legally married. You may now kiss your wife.”
Alister shot his hand out and wrapped it around the nape of her neck, pulling her towards him. Then he dipped her slightly by twisting her body and covered her lips with his.
She returned the singular but lingering kiss, her fingertips gently placed against the sides of his jaw.
Their crews applauded and cheered, throwing their hats into the air in congratulations. A few even discharged their pistols.