Page 15 of High Seas

My eyes fluttered at the broken honesty in his words. He wanted nothing more to do with me. I couldn’t blame him. Not even a little.

I might not have known Victor or Kael’s ultimate plan, but I was part of it now and I hated it. Enoch said I was a tool they’d used to get to him, but I wasn’t a tool. I was their weapon. But not anymore, and never again.

I’d make that abundantly clear.

I walked across the deck and down the plank. Every step of added distance between us hurt worse than the last. I left Enoch on his ship without a backward glance and trudged up the hill, the rocks slippery underfoot as the sun peeked over the horizon. Tears flooded my eyes, but I gritted my teeth and pushed my way up…up…up, until I reached the summit. Mind numb, I walked into town, straight to the home of the only clone I knew where to find. Abram’s clone was gone, and apparently, I interrupted his girlfriend’s sleep. I made it up to her, though. One strategically-placed punch and she was out cold.

Chapter Six

Enoch

A tumult of emotions bombarded me as she climbed the steep pathway that would take her back to town. Once back at port, she would likely stow away on someone’s ship and sail to the far reaches of the sea. The light in her hand was broken, which meant she couldn’t return to her own time yet. If it remained damaged, I doubted she would ever be able to return home again.

It would be no more than she deserved. And yet, she didn’t deserve it at all.

Every day for years after the attack on my manor, I looked for her. Sifting through woman after woman who wore her face but never her scent, I searched, always coming up empty-handed. I eventually gave up and concluded that she must have been acting, playing a role; none of what I felt for her, none of what transpired between us, was real.

Someone had given Victor Dantone information about my castle, my people, and me and my siblings. The destruction left by the army of Eves was too efficient to have been without intelligence.

The sound of her footsteps as she slipped on the rocky slope echoed over the land and sea, mingling with the blustery wind blowing a swell of clouds across the sky. A storm was rolling in, and it would be a strong one. My ship was docked, tucked safely in a hidden cove that my crew and I had carved out just for her.

Thatch, once my first mate, saw an opportunity in Eve. It was why he brought her here. And it was why I had to release him from his debt to me. I pinched my eyes closed and took a deep breath.

In addition to releasing him, I had to let Eve go. My sister had long ago stopped killing the women who looked like her. The only exception was when one of them struck out, hell-bent on fulfilling their duty to their master.

She wouldn’t hurt Eve, I told myself– unless she knew it was really her. Terah held her personally responsible for all that had happened, and no amount of explanation or pleading would make my sister see her differently. If Terah found out she was here, she would take great joy in hunting her down and shredding her. And I didn’t even want to consider what Asa would do to her.

If Eve found Titus, perhaps he could help repair her magick and the two of them could return to their own time. I would be there, waiting for her, waiting to see if she could somehow stop Victor and set things right like she promised. I couldn’t fathom how, but the fact she was here meant that things were much more… advanced in that age than in any I’d lived thus far.

She didn’t know about the attack until I told her. She didn’t have details of the army. If Eve was anything, she was a terrible liar, and her tears were genuine upon hearing the news. The way she folded in on herself like she was at fault for it all, accepting the poison of my words like she deserved the bitterness I spewed, proved her blameless.

I walked over and picked up the splintered piece of railing, trying to see if I could fix it. The wood was as harsh, ragged, and out of place as I felt since she came back to me. Grabbing her gown roughly, a small piece of ragged, red fabric tore off as I balled it up and hurled it over the side of the ship. The fabric remnant fluttered to the deck and settled beside my boot.

After squeezing the excess water from it, I tucked the damp relic into my pocket and watched as the waves thrashed and then overtook the gown. It rolled around in the current for a moment before disappearing into the sea.

Pacing back and forth, I debated going after her, but a storm was blowing in and I needed to stay with the ship. That’s what I told myself, anyway. Greenish-gray clouds billowed, built, and thickened across the sky until lightning began to fork, streaks of light striking the sea too close to shore for my comfort.

A heavy splash came from the port side and I rushed to the railing. In the water, a steady stream of bubbles rose from the depths, but nothing emerged. My heart thundered. If she’d jumped…

Looking up at the craggy slope, I saw Eve standing on the cliff edge like an avenging angel. I could almost see the silhouette of her angry, dark wings.

“What was that?” I called out.

Fat droplets of rain began to fall. A few at first, and then more and more until the sky unleashed its fury in a deluge. Water flooded the deck, draining into the ocean.

“A message to Victor,” she yelled. “And believe me, I have plenty left to say to him.” She turned her back to me and disappeared over the summit.

I made my way to the cliff where she’d been standing and waited for her to come back. She returned a long while later, grunting as she tugged a limp body up the hill. Another soldier who wore her skin.

She had her double by the arm – the woman’s shoulder was out of socket, but she was blissfully unconscious and unaware. The woman’s suit glowed from beneath her clothes. Her boots scraped the ground as Eve dragged her.

I scoffed, “Killing a few of them won’t mitigate the damage they’ve caused.”

She stopped tugging and leveled a glare at me. “I know that. I’m not killing them.” Dragging the Eve soldier to the edge of the cliff, she crouched down and pressed her thumb into the circular magick on the double’s hand before standing and kicking her limp body off the edge.

Her twin plummeted down the rocky crag and disappeared just as she breached the surface of the water.

“She had a suit on under her clothes,” she remarked tonelessly. “Stakes were strapped to her side. Is there a way to tell how long they’ve been here?”

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