Page 46 of A Princess, Stolen
“Only when the temperature dropped?” He took another step toward me so that he was standing right in front of me.
I felt his breath breaking in tiny bursts against my face, tart and fresh, and infinitely confusing. It sent a hot-cold shiver through every cell in my body.
“Really…it’s scientifically proven…that you see ghosts especially when it gets cold,” I stammered, but he grabbed my wet braids, wrapped them around the edges of his hands, and pulled me toward him.
“I thought there were no ghosts?” he asked in a whisper.
“There aren’t,” I whispered, “only when the temperature drops…”
“Only when the temperature drops…are you sure, ghost girl?”
His lips were dreadfully close to mine. My stomach tingled, and I felt betrayed by my body. Nathan kissed me again. This time, more gently but without letting go of my braids. I tasted peppermint and the sea as my heart pounded in my throat and a burning sweet tremor fluttered deep in my stomach. An impatient, shimmering longing for something I couldn’t explain. Maybe for distance. Maybe for space. Maybe for courage. Maybe for the freedom that I always associated with him.
This is completely crazy!
He pushed me against the wall again, holding me there with his body so that I didn’t topple over with the swells. Instinctively and to steady myself, I wrapped my arms around his waist. I grasped the fabric of his hoodie tightly in my fingers, and at that moment, it almost seemed to me as if this kiss could overcome countries, borders, and time just like all the many forgotten memories in my mind. As if it could bridge eight years and return me to the time of the Palace of Shards. As if it could give me back something that I had lost a long time ago.
Chapter 10
Nathan went out again to retrieve my life preserver, but the water had washed it overboard. He gave me his and tied it so tightly that I couldn’t get it off on my own. “Not even in a trance,” he teased and shook his head again, completely dumbfounded. “We’ll talk about this later.”
I didn’t know how to explain everything to him properly since I barely understood myself. Why had I even seen Mom? The last time was years ago. Was it my fear?
As we climbed the stairs to the bridge, Nathan followed so that I wouldn’t fall. In the control room, I sat on my jump seat completely soaked, and pulled my legs up, placing my feet on the seat. Everyone stared at me strangely but said nothing.
I was completely beside myself. Because of Mom and Nathan. I could still feel his kiss on my lips, my first real kiss. I had imagined it differently. And even though my thoughts had rarely turned to the subject, I had painted this moment in pastel colors. Now, there was a picture full of chaos and darkness, full of anger and wildness. Full of turbulence. And yet I loved the image.
I kept glancing at Nathan, and every now and then, he caught my eye. Then, he smiled so slightly that I imagined none of the others could see it, only me.
However, my feelings were swiftly replaced by the fear of capsizing. The wind shifted. The severe weather changed course and the violent gusts and high seas unleashed a formidable storm over the next hour. No one was talking about storm tails anymore because we were in the middle of the inferno.
I needed the bucket. I vomited until there was nothing left in my stomach before I looked out from where I was huddled in my corner.
The waves grew into mountains and the wind howled across the main deck as if God was playing a giant pan flute. The rain descended from the sky like a waterfall. The cupboard doors merely rattled due to the little leeway they had thanks to Troy’s cable ties, and dishes, tools, and a thousand other things clattered as they shifted from side to side. It was spooky. The Agamemnon suddenly seemed like a tiny nutshell that was being tossed back and forth by the fury of the sea.
I looked at Nathan but his gaze was focused. For minutes, the waves had barely been visible through the spray. Everything was as white as a blind eye.
I was relieving my hand from the frantic grasping when a violent shudder ran through the cutter and I was tossed hard from my seat onto my knees. It took a while for me to realize that a wave had broadsided us.
There was chaos on the bridge. Sparta had also fallen and the others were clinging to consoles and rails.
“Water over the deck and hatches!” I heard Nathan shout.
I pulled myself onto the jump seat and stared out. My fear turned to panic that was purely about survival. I saw through the spray that they weren’t waves but breakers. They seemed as high as houses, much higher than the cutter. I clung to a railing. TheAgamemnon tipped sideways, rose at an angle, and for a split second, all I saw was a dark gray wall of water. Simply water. Only water. A rising monstrous wave. The rusty steel groaned, and suddenly, we were floating on the crest, weightless in the sky. Then, the cutter plunged downward like a roller-coaster ride and slammed broadside into the wave’s trough. I was knocked off my feet and thrown against Pan, who was closest to me.
“Sit!” he yelled, this time, though, it didn’t sound angry, just fearful.
A dangerous situation seemed to have become a life-threatening one. Coming from all sides, these waves were too high for the small cutter. With my heart racing, I crawled back to the wall and gripped the rail with both hands. My eyes fell on Nathan. I saw him from the side. He looked like he was fighting the sea. Actually, he always seemed to be fighting something.
“Turn!” I heard him saying almost imploringly. I assumed he meant the cutter. I knew from Dad that a boat could be knocked over by side waves, so the bow had to be perpendicular to the waves. It was called riding the waves.
I didn’t get a chance to think about it any further because another blow shook the hull. I kneeled and peered through the windshield before the bow was slammed into the sea again at an angle. Spray and water washed over the glass, and for a few seconds, we were blinded by the sea.
“Shit!” the man with the greyhound face shouted from somewhere. “Turn around, damn it!” Everyone suddenly shouted in unison. Sparta threw up in the bucket that had rolled away from me and a frightened Pan crossed himself. It was as if death had suddenly entered the room. The bow sank further than I had believed possible. Water flowed over the deck, buoys, cranes, and nets. I held my breath and stared, stunned by the white wall in front of us. A roaring mixture of water, spray, and wind. But something was different. Something squeakedand creaked as if the cutter was about to burst apart and the nails were flying around our ears like projectiles. A dark feeling trembled in my stomach like a premonition. I blinked and then I saw it. Something flying, yellow.
“Watch out, get down!” I shouted and ducked, and the next moment, the flying thing crashed full force into the bridge window. Glass shattered and a collective scream reverberated over the consoles and equipment. When I looked up, the top of a fishing crane was sticking out of the front window exactly where Nathan had been standing. He was kneeling on the floor, staring into my eyes, dazed and shocked.
Everyone else glanced in my direction in silence. Taurus was on all fours, pulling a shard of glass out of his hand when the next blows struck the ship’s hull like bolts.
