44. Pippi
Caleb sat alone in Brew & Bites, nursing a beer that’d already gone flat, looking a little glum and a lot irritated.
But he exuded calm. Even when I rushed up to him and started babbling my story, Caleb’s emotions stayed steady. When he took my cold, shaking hand between his warm, calloused ones, some of my panic ebbed.
He didn’t prod or question anything. Just listened, and jumped into action as soon as I’d finished.
“The ruddin’ sods took Legacy as well,” he said as he led me through Brew & Bites, barreling into the RESTRICTED: ISLE STAFF ONLY doors.
“ Legacy ?” I asked.
“The ship they use for the tours,” he amended.
“Oh.”
Some of the isle attendants, noticing we’d burst into their corner of the building, sputtered and tried to wave us out of the area.
Caleb ignored them.
“There’s a boat somewhere, though? Right?
” I had to jog to keep up as Caleb cut through a rather dingy-looking cafeteria and lounge.
The floors here were a slate grey streaked with black scuffmarks from the employees’ shoes.
Ratty furniture dotted the area—couches, recliners, tables and chairs that looked like they’d spent a chunk of time festering on a curbside.
“There’s not,” Caleb had gruffed.
My heart sank. “But…how…”
He shoved against a door on the far side of the lounge and pulled me into a massive storage room.
As the flame sconces flicked to life, illuminating the rows of supplies, Caleb took me to a rack in the center of the room, where life vests and floatation devices hung.
Oh no.
My stomach plopped stickily.
“This’ll keep ye floatin’.” Caleb popped a life vest off its hanger.
“And this’ll take us out to sea.” He handed me one of the round floatation devices.
“They’re enchanted, mind. Dunna rightly know how it works, but they’re made to go to the isle or the ship.
Takin’ ye somewhere safe and the like. We may have to force them away from the isle since they’ll be thinkin’ we’re already safe.
” He slung one of the life vests over his shoulder.
“But we’ll get to yer beast. One way or another. ”
Stars, this man was a blessing, wasn’t he? A true gentleman. A shining example of the male species. We needed a hundred more like him.
Which was why I wasn’t willing to risk the one our society did have.
“Thank you,” I whispered. “But I…I think I should go alone. I—” Thin tendrils of Alistair’s fear still gyrated in my belly. “I’d hate to put you in the middle of this. When I don’t know what they’re doing, or what it’ll do to him. I should go alone.”
Caleb paused. “No. I dunna like that, lassie. What if yer hurt, eh?”
“Alistair would never hurt me.”
“Aye, I wasna talkin’ ‘bout him. But, as ye said, ye dunna what they’re doin’. Might be drivin’ him mad, whatever it is.”
“He still wouldn’t hurt me. He knows me. And he won’t hurt me.”
The same probably couldn’t be said for the people on those ships, unfortunately.
But I didn’t say that.
Caleb was already looking none too pleased at this arrangement.
But he let me go. Alone.
He helped me into the water, making sure the life vest was fitted properly, and then he stayed on the isle, watching from the dock with Melany, Sarah, and Marvin as I waged war with the sea.
“Ye’ll have to fight it, lassie,” he called.
The surf bit at my ankles, trying its darndest to rip me off the floater I clung to. And the rubber floaty hummed and burned red hot beneath my arms and chest as it shimmied, trying to take me back to the isle.
“Push, girl. Show that fucker who’s boss.” Sarah whooped.
Water slapped my face, making me cough.
The boiling floater smacked my stomach as it tried to spin around. Like, “Hey, you coo-coo crazy chick, land is this way.”
I kicked. Hard. Pummeling my legs through the water. But it was like trying to move a brick wall.
The floater dipped sideways with a wave and did a quick turn and burn, whipping me around to face the isle again.
My little cheering squad waggled their arms, motioning for me to keep going. But it seemed impossible.
Everything did.
Swimming out to sea. Winning against this stupid floater. Getting to Alistair in time. Hauling Jackson and the others off him.
It all seemed too big . Too much.
But then Alistair’s fear clawed at my belly again. Viciously, this time. And I could hear him. Whispered words of confusion. Of hurt.
I ground my teeth and shoved my full weight into the floater, forcing it away from the isle.
“Attagirl!” Melany whooped.
Hold on, Alistair.
I’m coming.
My legs propelled me through the water.
When the floater scorched my skin and started to rattle, angry at my disobedience, I smacked one hand over its rubbery surface and cursed at it to stay straight.
Onward we went, slowly, the floaty whining in protest the whole way.
The fog swallowed the end of the dock, taking my cheering squad with it. I could still hear them for a while. And I grasped on to their voices, their encouragement, suckling them up. Fuel to keep me moving.
Until the fog stole that too.
I was alone. Out in the middle of the ocean, where the curdling fog drooped low over the undulating hills of pewter green, making it seem as though the sky and sea were converging.
I swam, fighting the tears, the exhaustion, the fear . My heart still stuttered if I let my eyes wander too far around the ocean’s scope.
So I didn’t let my eyes wander.
The waves rolled me up and down. The undercurrent dragged at my feet, making it feel like I was trying to carry a boulder through a swamp with every paddle.
Fatigue dragged its nails over me, making my muscles quiver, and my joints scream with pain.
White curled around the edges of my vision, and little color bursts speckled the front.
I ground my teeth against my tongue and lips, using the sting of pain and the washes of blood, to keep myself focused.
The floater gave a sudden, violent shake, nearly bucking me off.
I grappled to keep a hold of it.
It bounced. Hummed. And abruptly shot forward, zipping across the ocean.
Oh, stars.
This was fast .
Why was it so fast?
My lungs heaved as the floater rode up the crest of a wave and caught some air, popping me out of the water for a terrifying heartbeat, before slamming my bottom straight into the next wave. The impact stung .
But the throbbing welt on my rump vanished when I glanced forward.
Burly shadows smudged the murky horizon.
Alistair was close, his emotions so thick, they were almost tangible.
Confusion.
Worry.
Anger.
Sorrow.
They all wrapped their thorny vines around my heart and pulled.
Yells punched through the fog’s muffling veil.
“What did you do with the girl, Alistair?”
Rune Bloodworth.
But this was not the same boisterous, happy-go-lucky Rune who’d declared a gazillion toasts and regaled stories to a captivated crowd. This version of him was cutting. Cruel. A silken slip covering a bushel of thorns.
The curtains of fog parted as my floater scuttled through. And my heart turned ice, ice cold.
The two ships were parallel to each other: the smaller Legacy closest to me, Valiant on the other side. And my floater picked up speed as it headed for the center of Legacy .
“Oh— shit .” I squeaked and whisked my hands off the floater and bailed. The sea snapped at my feet, keen on ripping me under, but the life jacket snagged around my armpits, keeping me afloat.
The floater skipped merrily forward and THWACKED into the broadside of Legacy .
That was the worst safety device ever. My goodness.
I’d almost been pancaked.
“Alistair,” Rune called again, “what did you do with the girl?”
Alistair said nothing.
“Onyx,” Rune boomed, “is he answering?”
So Onyx could hear him?
I’d have to mull that tidbit over later, when I wasn’t being slogged by the sea.
If Onyx responded, her voice didn’t reach my ears. But Rune snarled, “This isn’t good, Alistair. I’m trying to help you out here. But if you’ve taken this fine fellow’s woman?—”
Fine fellow.
Jackson?
Blegh.
“—that’s unacceptable. Tell us where she is. What happened? And maybe I won’t add this new rune.”
Oh, no.
I pawed at the water frantically, trying to swing around Legacy . Alistair was on the other side. I felt him. But couldn’t see him.
And the people on the ship couldn’t see me.
I flailed in the bobbing sea, choking on it, and waving my arms, occasionally coercing my waterlogged lungs into jetting out a squawk. But no one noticed me.
They needed to notice me.
They needed to stop this.
But no matter how furiously I doggy paddled, the front of the ship never seemed to get any closer.
“Alistair!” Rune shouted.
And this time, Alistair’s response smoothed across my brain. “I haven’t taken her. I would never .”
“Onyx?” Rune snapped. “Anything?”
Ssssuuuuccckk.
I cried when the ocean slurped me into the side of the ship. My head cracked against the wood, and my knees popped as my feet got dragged halfway under. The lifejacket cut into my armpits, chaffing me raw.
“I’m really surprised at you, Alistair.” Rune’s words barely rose above the rushing of water and the creaking of the ship as I flattened my hands against the hull.
“I can’t say I’m surprised at you, Rune,” Alistair bit back, his voice more bitter than I’d ever heard it.
Push, Pippi! I screamed at myself. Push!
It took everything.
Every ounce of strength, shoving against the ship, scraping my palms on the surface. Straining my shoulders until they popped. But I freed myself from the suction.
Go, go, go, go!
I clawed through the water, forcing it to yield to me. To let me pass. And finally, finally , I pushed myself around the front of Legacy .
And there he was, floating between the two ships.
His serpentine body was painfully contorted, with his neck all bunched in a vertical U-shape, pinning his nose to his chest, while his right shoulder lilted into the water, leaving him cockeyed.
As he teetered, he squiggled his left flapper in the water, using it as a counterbalance.