Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
Lightning webbed through the sky like shattering glass, illuminating the raging sea.
The water was no longer the Caribbean blue that I loved, but a menacing green that churned restlessly ashore.
Rain lashed down and the wind assaulted the shutters of my small cottage.
Each gust threatened to tear them from their hinges.
I braced myself, my knuckles white on the door frame.
Sails rocked back and forth on the horizon, the ship’s mast straining to stand upright in the storm. The sight sent my heart racing.
A silhouette stood on the cliffside, backlit by the storm. Harsh words still rang in my ears. They echoed around the forgotten food on the table and the hearth now gone cold.
My hair whipped about as I stepped out into the squall. The path down to the water was already running with mud, and my skirts grew heavy with it as I sprinted after him, calling his name until my throat burned.
He didn’t turn around.
The ship was waiting. Even through the rain, I could see the crew scrambling, ropes straining in the unforgiving wind.
“Don’t!” I screamed, the sound swallowed by the cracks of thunder. “Please don’t go!”
For one heartbeat, he stopped and I was so certain he’d turn back that relief flooded my chest. Maybe he would look at me the way he used to, with such care and adoration. Maybe he would turn around. Choose not to go…
Choose me.
He didn’t turn. He kept walking away from me. He didn’t look back.
I sprinted until my heart threatened to give out, but no matter how fast I ran, I never got any closer.
He stepped onto the ship.
“Please!” I cried, reaching out as if I could grab him and force him to see what he was doing to me.
My feet skidded to a halt atop the cliff, just in time to watch the ship disappear into the churning waters, carrying my life away with it. A scream tore through me with a vehemence that rattled the skies.
He was gone.
I awoke with a gasp. The cabin was dark around me except for the glow of the green lanterns outlining the door. I lay there with my heart hammering as the ship rocked beneath me, my grief so all-consuming that I could only breathe and wait for it to recede.
It never did. It left an ache in my chest that refused to ease, no matter how hard I rubbed at it. I tried to remember the dream that had left such an impact, but it was dissolving piece by piece, as my dreams normally did.
I pressed my palm flat against the mattress, listening to the water and the low creak of the hull while I breathed through the pain. Footsteps were slowly multiplying on the deck above, the crew waking before the sun to set a course for the day. To where, I was unsure.
I tried to convince myself that this feeling meant nothing. No matter what had caused my heart to break, it was only a dream, and dreams were naught but a stressed mind seeking relief. This was just the remnants of the fever burning away.
Why, then, did it feel like my soul was torn in two?