Page 69 of Viking

EPILOGUE

Six months later

Iread through thestack of papers. Large messy print decorates the pages, each with a slightly different flair. All the words are the same: bat, cat, rat, sat, and mat. We’ve graduated from two-letter words to three, and I couldn’t be prouder of my Sisters.

Andrina and several other women are doing so well, but Attina won’t even embrace the idea of reading and writing. She sits by her bed day and night and prays to the Mother for our souls. I don’t have the heart to tell her the Mother was a pathetic junkie who never held any power. She was weak, and my knife sunk into her belly just as easily as it had with the Prophet. They were not holy. They were not gods. They were just people who fooled others, like my mother and father.

In my experience, the only thing worth worshiping is love.

“You gonna sit there all afternoon, or are you actually going to do some work?” Viking says, and I set the stack of papers back in my purse on the seat beside me.

“I am working. I’m grading papers.” I take my feet off the helm and walk over to him. He’s shaking crabs from the last of the wire pots into the ice chest. “You told me I wasn’t allowed to help anymore.”

“Well, not if you’re gonna toss them back in the ocean, you’re not. We need the money with a lot more hungry mouths to feed.”

“I can throw one back.”

“You can throw the females with eggs back.”

“Nope. No deal.” I cross my arms over my chest, pushing up my breasts. Viking notices. He licks his lips and his mouth turns up in a half smile.

“Fucking ball buster.” He shakes his head. “Fine. You can throw one male back.”

“The biggest male.”

“It’s like you want your sisters to go hungry.”

“Okay, a small male then, and you have to take me for milkshakes after.”

“Don’t I always?” He stuffs the trap with meat, and I help him heft the heavy pot, tossing it back into the water. Viking returns to the helm to start the engine, navigating us toward the mouth of Blackbeard Creek.

I wait outside as he delivers the bushel to a local restaurant on the pier, and when he returns, he grabs my hand and leads me to the diner. I don’t even mind that he smells like the saltwater crabs, because there’s something comforting about the ocean clinging to his skin. Besides, I probably smell like it too.

“Hey, you two,” Maddy says, as we walk in and sit in our booth.

I lift our joined hands and give her a wave. “Hi Maddy.”

“You kids want the usual?” she asks with a wink. Viking practically seethes at being called a kid, but he’s a lot more even-tempered nowadays—probably on account of all the sex we’re having.

“Yep. The usual.”

I wait for Maddy to head to the kitchen with our order before I poke his boot with the toe of mine. “Stop being such a grump, old man.”

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