I looked away from him toward the outer hull of the ship. “I am sorry. I’ll listen next time.”
“There won’t be a next time. I promised to protect you, and it seems that I’ve forgotten how inexperienced you are with the magical world. Don’t mistake my words. You know a great deal about how things work within the reach of your Mother’s realm, but the paths we have to take are outside of her purview. It won’t happen again. We will set sail when you are able to walk again.”
“Just let me rest a little,” I replied.
His soft footsteps left the room.
My relationship with Seamus had always been one of mutual respect. He knew what I could do, and even though I didn’t know his limits, I trusted him. But today, when he warned me about the ale, I just continued on. It was my fault. And the words he’d just spoken to me meant that he didn’t see me as an equal anymore. I’d defaulted to inexperienced sidekick, and it was my own fault. He was right. It didn’t matter how many baddies I’d fought in Steelshore; he knew where we were going better than I did.
We were going to see…
“Your mother!” I screamed as I bolted up in the bed. The pain had mostly gone during my moment of self-pity. I threw off my blankets and marched out onto the deck to find a gaggle of scruffy-looking men who stopped what they were doing to stare at me.
“Get back to work!” Seamus ordered. I turned and looked above me to see him standing against the railing.
I slowly stomped up the stairs. Of course, the stomp was more in my mind, because I didn’t feel like tempting fate. I kept my voice low as I hissed at him.
“The Queen of Wonderland is your mother?”
“Indeed.”
“Is that all you have to say?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Seamus.”
“I’m glad you are feeling better. I’m ready to sail. You should probably find a safe place to get out of the way,” he said, then turned his back on me to approach the ship’s wheel.
I stood across from him. He looked over my head at the crew performing tasks that meant nothing to me. I hated the look in his eyes. Like I’d disappointed him. It struck me that he’d shown more emotion in the last few hours than I’d ever seen from him.
“You aren’t on good terms with her,” I surmised.
He grasped the wheel and leaned toward me. “We are not talking about this right now. Please.”
I reached up and put my hands over his. “Forgive me for disappointing you.”
I removed my hands and slowly descended the stairs without looking back. Stu waited for me.
“How are you?” he asked.
“I’m fine.”
“Are you and he, an item?”
“No. I have. Had. Well, it’s complicated, but my heart belongs to someone who might not exist anymore.”
He nodded his head. “That’s a tough one.”
“You understand that?”
“Sure. Considering the magic we experience so often, our minds are changed with each instance. A new discovery. A horrible truth. And sometimes that magic is so strong, it alters us completely,” Stu said.
He did understand, and I couldn’t have put it into words like he had.
“So complicated.”
“Very. Look. I’m a good listener if you want to talk.”
“Ah, no. I’ve had that offer quite a bit from my friends.”
“Well, I foresee us becoming friends, but at the moment, I’m a stranger. Sometimes you need an unbiased ear. Be careful on the deck. Seamus warned all the men not to pester you or you’d burn them to ash. Can you do that?” he asked.
“I can’t believe he said that.”
“You can! Damn, girl.”
“Woman.”
“I am corrected. Damn, woman.”
After taking a seat on a barrel of gunpower which made me either look stupid or very dangerous, I watched as the sailors tied ropes, oiled pulleys, loaded supplies from the dock, and exchanged friendly jeers. Seamus stayed above, keeping an eye on his crew. Occasionally, he would shout out an order. The men responded immediately to him. I lowered my head for a moment when I felt a rush of wind by my side. I looked up to find him, standing next to me holding a pocket watch.
“We are cutting it close. Dawn is in about two hours. We have to get out of this dock in the next thirty minutes or we will have to wait until tomorrow,” he said without looking at me.
“They have been working hard. No one is slacking,” I said.
“Stu managed to pick up a very experienced crew which is what we will need to get there and back safely. Excuse me for a moment while I make final preparations.” He turned to face the door. “You owe me no apology, Wynonna. You must know that you mean something to me. To see you suffer in any way, angers me. I’m taking you into a world where you could die in an instant and the Phoenix would die with you. That would be my legacy. I killed the Phoenix, which I wouldn’t give a damn about. It would kill me to know that I killed you.”
He opened the door and slipped into his quarters before I could respond. I meant something to him. What was something? I sighed.
Stu approached me gingerly. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine,” I said, hopping off the barrel. I brushed the dust from my pants, then looked up to Stu. “Thanks for what you did in there to help me.”
“He hasn’t had a woman on a ship since his last tragic relationship. Your presence here makes him feel weak because he cares about you. I never thought I’d see him feel anything again. For you, it can be daunting to deal with his many faces.”
“Many faces?”
A loud bell rang once. Then, a pause. Then, another ring.
The crew rushed to form two lines facing each other from the door of Seamus’ quarters all the way to the bow of the ship. Stu guided me to the line and put me on the right side of the door. He shoved the pirate next to me and took his place.
“So many faces,” he muttered.
The door to his quarters opened, and a billowing black smoke tumbled out onto the deck of the ship. Seamus stood with the lights behind him silhouetting his figure. He’d changed clothes into a long, black coat with gleaming silver buttons. The black shirt underneath opened enough to see his chest.
A long black sling hung over his right shoulder to where the holster for his sword rested at his left hip. As he stepped forward into the light, I covered my mouth to hold back my gasp.
He looked like the Seamus I knew, but his hair hung down past his shoulder in dark brown waves. A kempt goatee graced his normally shaven face, and his golden eyes sparkled like a shiny doubloon. Around his waist he wore a red sash that fluttered in the wind with a flintlock pistol tucked in it.
I knew he was a pirate, but he’d only ever looked like a businessman to me with his quirky cane. His hint of pirate had always been in his speech.
He stopped in front of me and turned to look into my eyes. He lifted his right hand and put it under my chin. “Your jaw is on the deck, Miss Riggs.” I swallowed but didn’t dare move away from him. The look in his eyes was one of a man who had seen many things and none of them had scared him. No softness. No caring. It was cold but alluring.
He dropped his hand and focused on the sailors.