Page 106 of Found at Sea
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Kellan
“Fortune was in your favor that day,” a man at the dock said. He moved his steely gaze from theCrimson Nightand to me. “That ship should be at the bottom of the sea with the damage it got.”
“Or perhaps it wasn’t fortune or luck at all, but rather a skilled crew,” I countered, matching his stare.
“Nah.” He chewed at his nails before spitting one into the water. “Things don’t work that way ‘ere at Silver Falls, mate. You have to be lost to find your way to this place. It’s the only way you woulda got ‘ere.” After chewing another nail, he shoved his hands into his pockets. “You’re ‘ere because fate wanted ya to be.”
His words caused the hairs on my nape to stand on end, and I cocked my head.
“Come again?”
“Are ya deaf as well as dumb?” he asked, frowning. “I says that only lost souls find their way to Silver Falls. We’re the outcasts in the world of man. S’why you didn’t see us on that fancy map of yours, eh.”
I didn’t have time to ponder his meaning before Kris appeared on the deck of theCrimsonNightand shouted down at me. I ascended the ramp up to the main deck and stood beside him.
“Ship should be ready to sail in three days’ time,” Kris said. I nodded and calculated the remaining days until the curse took over, which wasn’t many. I’d be a shade by the end of the next week. He looked toward the town. “Strange place, ain’t it?”
“The strangest.”
“Kellan!” Fletcher ran toward the dock, his red hair blowing chaotically in his face.
He wasn’t wearing a coat, and I snarled at the fact. It was too cold for him to be out in the freezing air with no covering, and there wasn’t much meat to him to begin with.
I treaded down the ramp and back to the creaky dock, heading right for him.
“Why are you out here with no coat?” I growled once within reaching distance and shrugged mine off.
He bounced on his heels as I draped it over his shoulders. “I need to talk to you!”
“Well then talk, boy, before you go into some sort of fit.” I’d never seen Fletcher so hyper before, and my anger at him being so careless dissipated. Almost.
“It’s about the curse,” he said in a rush, and before I could voice discontent at the topic once again, he blurted out, “I think the shell is here! Somewhere in Silver Falls. There was this old man in the tavern who talked to me while I was having a drink of ale, and—”
“You were drinking?” I interjected. “Ah, that explains a lot. Stop with this and go back inside.”
“No! I mean, yes, Iwasdrinking,” Fletcher rambled, and his green eyes were big and too damn innocent. “But I didn’t drink much. This man looked to be like eighty years of age, but he had a youthful gleam in his eyes…well, eye, because he had a patch over the other. And he told me that—”
“Boy,” I snapped, causing his mouth to shut. My irritation had reached its peak. “I do not care what some old drunken fool told you in the tavern. Whatever words came from his mouth were untrue, and he targeted you because you’re young and naïve and would’ve believed anything he said.”
“Kellan, that’s not—”
“Enough!” That one word had so much force behind it that he flinched. “Return to the Inn and wait for me there. I will not discuss this a moment more. Go.”
Regret instantly slammed into me at seeing the sadness in his mossy eyes. I thought he might speak, but he only stared at me with an expression that rang of disappointment before he turned and slowly walked the way he’d come.
“Why won’t ya listen to what he has to say?” Kris asked. “Boy’s just tryin’ to help.”
I watched Fletcher until he was out of sight. “The last thing I wish to do with the time I have left is chase down another myth. Another story that is precisely that…a story. Fletcher means well, but his desperation to save me is only making it harder for me to accept my fate.”
“Maybe ya shouldn’t accept it, Cap’n,” Kris said and withdrew his flask of rum before taking a swig. He offered it to me, and I took a drink as well before handing it back. “If it washissoul that needed the saving, would ya be so quick to stop fighting?”
“No.” My answer was instant. “I’d never stop until I found a way to save him.”
“There ya go.” Kris held up his flask before throwing it back for another drink. “Can ya blame him for doin’ the same for you?”
His point was valid, but it still didn’t change my decision.
