Chapter 12 #2
The remainder of the day went as Finley expected.
In and out of sleep. When out, she would attempt to sit and Ai and Rafe would share provisions from the kitchen and they’d swap stories and laughter until Finley drifted into dreamland once again.
Her head was light, and she could barely sit for more than a few minutes at a time, but if there was going to be a day like this, she couldn’t help but be glad there were people who would spend it with her.
Even if she was unconscious for most of it.
“What are your plans after all this is done?” Rafe asked at one point while Finley was drifting in and out.
She couldn’t get herself to join in on the conversation.
The truth was, outside of Ai’s request Finley hadn’t thought past breaking the curse which was unusual for her.
Usually, she had her next five steps planned before breakfast. But she couldn’t focus on other plans or ideas right now.
The cure was all that mattered. If she allowed herself to get distracted…
She wouldn’t let herself go there.
“We’re going to go home.” Ai’s voice raised half a pitch higher in excitement. “It’s been so long. I keep in touch with my family, but it’s not the same.”
“And Finley’s family? Why have you stayed away so long? I know all your pirating and adventures must keep you busy, but with a ship like The Mystic I’d imagine getting from place to place wouldn’t be a problem.”
Finley focused, ensuring that her breath was steady and slow to make them think she was sound asleep.
A few moments of silence, probably so Ai could determine how to answer.
There was a long sigh. “My family wasn’t pleased when we first ran away.
Neither of our families were, which isn’t a shock.
We were only sixteen after all. So, it took us a long time to get the nerve to return home.
In time my family welcomed me back, even if every time I see or hear from them it comes with pleas to come back to a respectable life. ”
“And Finley?”
More silence. Another sigh. “Fin, I know you’re listening.”
Finley stayed in place, frozen to the bed and clinging to the pillow. Then she turned to face them still curled up on one side. “It’s hard to go home and see family when you don’t have a home and family to go to. Is that what you wanted to hear?”
She always had less of a filter when she was so tired. Lying and avoiding the truth took up too much energy, and she couldn’t think straight.
“You still have a?—”
“My parents weren’t quite so welcoming,” Finley interrupted Ai.
“They always wanted to control me, and ever since I was a child we argued. All my parents cared about was their image and pushing themselves away from our sorcerer relatives. When I was cursed, all that was ruined and they wanted to send me away to the fae in Eral Forest. They claimed it was to find the cure and protect me, but they’d talked about sending me there in the past. They wanted me out of their hair and controlled.
Becoming a pirate wasn’t exactly keeping me under control and preserving the family name. ”
Her head felt light again and she had to pause. It was enough to notice the hesitation on Rafe’s face like he wasn’t sure if he wanted to hear the rest of the story. “You don’t have to…” he started to say but the story rolled out of her mouth like waves.
“So I avoided going back. What was the point? Then one day, a few years ago, I returned. Thought I would check in, and Ai missed her family. Apparently, a sickness had come over the household. It went fast. They’d buried my parents only a week prior to my arrival. No one had known how to contact me.”
Finley still dreamed of that day. All through the manor, the servants had wandered about, unsure of what to do, peppering her with questions and needing guidance on what was to come next.
She’d wandered around her childhood home in a trance unable to grasp the reality of what she’d arrived to.
It wasn’t until she went out to the gardens in back and saw their headstones that it hit her.
All alone, she stood and stared at the two graves, and then she screamed.
She yelled and kicked at the stones and cursed until her throat was hoarse.
All the frustration and anger and hurt she’d endured from them her whole life poured out, and the knowledge that it would never be repaired.
Her relationship with her family was a disastrous shipwreck with tattered wood and wreckage scattered across the sea with no hope of repair and without survivors.
She yelled until she fell asleep, only to be awakened by a servant the next morning still lying on the ground over her parents’ graves.
“I took care of what I needed to, closed up the house, gave the servants recommendations, then returned to The Mystic. I haven’t been back since.” A grand yawn overtook Finley, and she stretched like a cat. “And that’s my tragic little story.”
Finley didn’t remember falling asleep or what Rafe and Ai’s reaction was to her sudden confession. All she remembered were dreams of storms and weapons and sorceresses with babies and graves. It was one of the most restless sleeps she’d had in ages.
“Shhh, you’re all right. I’m right here.”
She barely registered Rafe’s voice or his hand on her back. Had she talked in her sleep? And was she shivering? “Where’s Ai?”
“Helping with something up top,” Rafe answered, the bunk mattress sinking as he climbed in next to her.
Finley stiffened but didn’t open her eyes. More out of surprise than anything. “What are you doing?”
“You seem like you need some company. Bad dream?”
She turned over and pried her eyes open. The bed was narrow so his body touched hers even if he appeared to attempt to keep his distance. “It wasn’t my favorite,” she admitted.
Rafe lifted his arm and lowered it as though he wanted to rub her back but hesitated before he finally did so.
It wasn’t sexual or forward, just a comforting touch.
When was the last time someone other than Ai touched her that way?
It was oddly nice. She scooted herself toward him and let her head rest on his chest. Cool darkness surrounded him but it felt familiar and safe.
The only one more dangerous than her — or maybe Amelia — was Rafe.
He could probably kill her and anyone else with the touch of a finger.
But instead of making Finley afraid, it was comforting.
“I had a friend about twenty years into my new life with Stula,” Rafe said.
His voice was quiet and slow and everything around seemed to slow with it.
“I was commissioned to kill him. He was a warrior and had survived more battles than anyone I’d met.
Apparently Stula didn’t like that. I resisted as long as I could…
but Stula doesn’t like that either. He gave a good fight, and I like to think he understood.
In my line of work, it’s difficult to make good friends. ”
Finley nuzzled closer to him. He was so comfortable. And something stirred in her. She’d had to betray countless people in her life too, but there was something different in his tone. For the first time he didn’t have an air of bravado or pride for dolling out Stula’s will.
“We’ve all lost and betrayed people we care about and have to live with the consequences,” he continued. “But some days it’s harder than others.”
She let her head relax more on his chest and put her arm around his torso and listened to the sound of his heart. Death’s Prince did have a heart after all.