Chapter 14 Kaspar #2
“Wow, Ghost, drool much?” Ariella laughed. “If you don’t shut your mouth, you’re gonna catch some water pixies in it.”
I snapped my mouth shut and felt my face heat with embarrassment. Phoenix tails, we were supposed to be keeping this thing between us a secret, and here I was, drooling over the guy right in front of my friend. I was giving us away, and it’d only been a day.
With a small exhale, I gave myself a moment to get my act together before I faced Ariella, pretending she didn’t see a damn thing.
“How do we check the harnesses again?” I asked, staring at the pile of them and ignoring her eyes on me.
“Pick them up and give all the straps a tug, check for frayed lines, or anything else abnormal. If you see something off, you show me, got it?”
That seemed easy enough. “Got it.”
Ariella and I got into a rhythm, checking the gear and placing it aside, and as soon as I thought she wasn’t going to say anything, she leaned in and whispered, “So what’s going on with you and Reaper?”
I froze, and my eyes widened. “What do you mean?”
She rolled her eyes. “I see the way you two look at each other. Reap won’t tell me anything.” She leaned in again. “So? What’s going on? Are you two hooking up?”
“Uh, no. Nope. Why in the world would you think that? Reaper hates me.”
She stared right at me and slowly lifted a brow. “You can’t fool me, Ghost. You like him. Like, like-him like-him.”
“Please say like one more time.”
She snorted and smacked my bicep. “You can tell me. You like that big, muscly asshat of a man with sweet eyes.”
“You noticed his eyes too?”
“Ha!” She pointed right at my face. “I knew it. You really do like him. Give me the scoop.”
This time, I rolled my eyes at her. “There is no scoop. Nothing can happen between us. And besides…” I sighed and yanked on a harness. “I’m not gonna be on the ship much longer.”
She sat up straight. “What? What do you mean?”
I winced. I hadn’t meant to say that out loud. “I… I’m staying in Asteris.”
“Why the hell would you do that? That place looks nice, but it can be just as bad as Sunada.”
That wasn’t the first time I’d heard that, and I didn’t know if I should believe her or not. “How do you know? You been there a lot?”
“I’m from Asteris. Outskirts of Gearhart, in the slums. Trust me, I’m from the part of the kingdom they don’t want you or anyone on the outside knowing about.”
“Oh.” I blinked, processing the new information before deciding to answer her question. “I have to send for my family. They’re counting on me.”
Everything in her seemed to deflate. “Oh. Well… if it’s one thing I understand, it’s doing something you don’t want to do for family.”
I stared at her for a long moment. “Is that why you’re on this ship?” Out of everyone, she seemed to fit the least. She wasn’t your typical pirate in any sense of the word, and I knew there was a story there. She didn’t even have a real pirate nickname, and no one would tell me why.
“Yeah, it is.” She pulled on a line aggressively, and I could tell that part of our conversation was over. She wasn’t about to tell me her life story, but that was okay. If she would’ve told hers, I might’ve felt like I needed to share back.
And that wasn’t something I could afford to do.
Instead of pushing for answers, I asked, “Do you know why Willy’s on the ship?”
“You’ll have to ask him that yourself. It’s not my story to tell.”
“Fair enough.”
As soon as we were quiet, my gaze automatically sought out Max without my realizing.
I found him on the starboard side of the main deck, speaking to Bones.
I was pretty sure the guy was in trouble, but Max wasn’t shouting so it couldn’t be too bad.
He put on a good show when he reprimanded people for doing stupid and dangerous things.
Max was standing on his right leg, with none of his weight on his prosthetic, so I watched him carefully for a few seconds. When he walked away from Bones, he wasn’t limping exactly, but he was being very careful with his leg. Which likely meant it was hurting him.
Master Redman always struggled at the end of the day with his own missing leg, and when he was trying to hide his pain, he looked a lot like that.
Mermaid tails, Max was hurting. And he was too stubborn to take a break too.
Maybe I could help him later.
“Nothing going on—uh-huh,” Ariella said sarcastically.
I grimaced, and all she did was snort.
“I’ll get it out of you eventually.”
“My lips are sealed, Windy.”
She snorted. “Get back to work before I sic Reap on you.”
I chuckled.
“Although, you’d probably like that.”
Despite myself, I laughed and threw an elbow into her ribs, making her squirm and laugh with me.
For the rest of the day, I continued working, but my eyes kept moving back to the handsome man I really wanted to kiss again.
Half the crew was asleep in their hammocks, and the other half was in the galley, playing cards and betting on everything under the sun. They seemed sufficiently distracted, so I checked that I had everything I needed in my sack, made my way to the ladder, and headed up to the main deck.
The first thing I checked was the captain’s quarters, and I sighed in relief when I saw the shut door. He never hung out with the crew or stayed out on the deck at night. Viper locked himself inside that horrible room with all those dead creatures strewn about. Every. Single. Night.
I had no idea how the man slept in there without getting constant nightmares.
The thought made me shiver as I walked over to the mast that had the crow’s nest on top.
Tilting my head back, I double-checked that Max was up there, and a smile crossed my face when I saw his legs hanging over the edge. With one more glance around, I found the coast clear, walked over to the shroud, and made my way up the rigging.
The first time I’d climbed up to the crow’s nest, it had scared the crap out of me, but it was second nature by now. I wasn’t scared of heights—good thing too since we flew so high above the sea—but not having a safety net freaked me out a little.
As soon as my head popped up over the edge of the crow’s nest, Max said, “Good evening, Kas.” Such a formal greeting.
I grinned at him. “Good evening, sir.” I mimed tipping a hat at him.
He snickered and scooted over so I could sit beside him. I made sure to sit as close as possible so we were touching from hip to knee, our shoulders pressed tight together.
He didn’t seem to mind since he didn’t try to scoot away.
“How was your day?” he asked me after we sat in companionable silence for a few minutes.
“Well, I was having a nice day until someone called me a lily-livered knave.” I brushed a fake tear away and made my voice sound upset. “Hurt my feelings somethin’ good.”
Max stared at me with wide eyes, and I had a feeling he couldn’t tell if I was teasing or not, so I grinned at him. He blew out a breath, let out a short laugh, and shoulder-bumped me. “You’re a little shit sometimes.”
“Yep! Nice name-calling, by the way.”
He snorted and shoulder-bumped me again. “So… how was your day, really?”
“It was good. Sparrow got to see how bad I am at sewing.”
He turned to me. “You can’t sew? But you stitched my head up fine.”
“Yeah, don’t ask me why, I’m usually fine with stitches, but when it comes to all the intricate sewing people do on fabrics, I suck.” I shot him a grin. “And sorry to tell you, but I didn’t do that great a job on your head.”
He snorted. “It was fine. Even Stitches thought so.”
“If you say so.”
“Still, I never would’ve sent you over there if I’d known that. I’m sorry, Kas.”
I laughed and nudged him because he looked so worried. He was adorable. “It’s fine. I can sew, I just can’t sew all fancy. And don’t worry, Ariella saved me from Sparrow’s wrath anyway.”
He snorted. “I don’t think Sparrow has a mean bone in her body. Her wrath.” He chuckled again, shaking his head.
His happiness made me smile. The man didn’t smile or laugh enough, so it was my job to make him do it more.
I opened my sack and pulled out an orange, passing it over to him. “Sage said you didn’t eat yours today. You need to eat it to prevent scurvy.”
He sighed. “Yeah, yeah.”
“Why do you keep skipping out on food?”
“It’s not on purpose. I got distracted because Viper went off on Bones, and I didn’t want his skinny ass getting thrown to the sea serpents. I forgot tonight was an orange-for-dessert night.”
I gestured to his orange. “Eat.”
He sighed again, but he started peeling it, so I called it a win.
My hand hesitated over the other item I’d brought with me, and I decided to wait for a bit before I took it out since it was sure to make him uncomfortable.
After a few bites, he said, “You know, we’ll reach desert territory by morning.”
My eyebrows shot up. “We will? I… thought we were going around?”
Max shook his head. “Most people do since it’s too dangerous for many ships. But the Wraith has made this trip a thousand times over, and it’s far quicker than going around. It shaves weeks off our travel time.” Under his breath, he said, “Not that I want to get there quicker.”
I winced at that. I didn’t want to get there quicker, either.
But that was a worry for another day, so I concentrated on the other thing Max said. Traveling over the desert. It was even more dangerous than the sea.
The fluxstones in the engine room seemed to brighten in my mind’s eye as I thought about how little energy they had left.
What if we didn’t have enough to make it all the way through?
“What about the fluxstones? Won’t we have better luck of running into someone we can trade with if we stay over the sea? ”
He shrugged. “I wouldn’t call what we do trading. But it’s not my call to make, anyway. And honestly, unless we find a Sunada fluxstone merchant ship, there’s little chance we’ll find anything. It’ll be fine. Like I said, we’ve traveled this way a million times.”
“But… aren’t the monsters… bigger?”