Page 33 of The Last Lost Girl

“My work bestie,” I tell him, knowing that if he doesn’t understand cell phones, he’ll have no idea what that means. I don’t give him Devin’s name. “Can I please have my phone? It has really important stuff on it.”

“Like what?” He lifts his chin, amusement glittering in his eyes.

“Like more pictures I don’t want lost at the bottom of the sea!” I snap.

“Are all of them of your… work bestie?”

I laugh out loud when he says the words, because he says them as awkwardly as Smee holding up my bikini top. “No.”

“Can I see them?” he asks.

My smile fades. “Definitely not.”

The playfulness in his demeanor and tone ends. “It’s locked.”

I swallow, then try to grab it again. “Give it to me.”

He holds it out over the railing. “Unlock it, or I will drop it into the sea.”

My eyes well with tears. If I unlock it, he will see Belle. And if I don’t, he’ll destroy what I have left of her. What if I never find her? What if the shadow is all that’s left of my sister, and I can’t find a way to free her from it?

A tear slides from my face. “Don’t drop it,” I whisper, begging him.

He retracts his arm and presses the button to wake the device, then holds it up to scan my face. Delight flushes over his features when he learns the phone is his to peruse. He’s gotten what he wanted.

I don’t know how much battery is left, but it won’t take him long to find the snapshots of my favorite moments. Belle and I took a lot of pictures during the time we’ve been family. It kills me to fail her now in such an epic fashion, but I couldn’t let those memories be swallowed by the sea.

Hook said I reminded him of someone, and I still have the most horrible feeling that it’s Belle. And now, he’ll see her. See us. Know that we’re close. He’ll ask who she is and I’ll have to tell him. She’s my sister.

Not by blood, but by something far more vital.

My skin is darker than hers, and my hair is brown where hers is wheatfield blonde. My eyes are gray while Belle’s are golden. She possesses a svelte form that’s beautiful. Otherworldly. I am decidedly too human to be mistaken for something as ethereal as my adoptive sister.

But…

We wrinkle our noses the same way when something grosses us out. We roll our eyes too often, at everything and nothing at all. We are hopelessly, but necessarily I now realize, paranoid. Private. Evasive. Tricky.

Soon, Hook will see her on my screen and immediately know what I’ve been hiding from him. I just don’t know what he’ll do after that.

Behind Hook, the mermaid chatters, low and mournful. Like she knows my tears mean I’m hurt, too. That I’m just as fucked as she is.

Thumb furiously working over the screen of my phone, Hook presses buttons as he walks away, yelling to his men to get on deck and raise the anchor.

I trail him and just as I’m about to take the steps below deck to try and steal a hammer or some other tool I can use to free the mermaid later, Cairo meets me at the landing.

“You shouldn’t go downstairs right now. Sydney’s in a foul mood.”

He says it like I know who Sydney is. I don’t.

I drag a crate over to the bow and sit with the mermaid, considering and discarding a dozen ways to find a tool and free her as the crew does as they’ve been ordered. I return their nods and waves, but I only know Smee and Cairo, both of whom dutifully warn me away from the bow.

Of course, I ignore their advice and remain with the mermaid, wishing I could understand any of her words.

The anchor is drawn up from the sea and the black sails overhead are loosed from the riggings. They billow and stretch, bowing like the spine of someone who’s been crouched in one position for far too long.

I keep hoping Belle will come for me, even Overshadowed as she is, and crash me back into Neverland. It would be worth the second helping of pain to get off this cursed ship.

thirteen

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