Page 29 of Astrid at Sea

In fact, on more than one occasion on this trip, I had awoken to the sight of Kis asleep on Viktor’s chest, never without a few fresh scratches.

They have a love-hate relationship.

“You’ll find out soon enough, my pirate.” I leaned over to press my lips against his cheek to make up for the scratch that Kis had just rewarded him with.

Roscoe, Manny, and I kept our mouths shut during lunch because we still needed time to wrap our heads around everything. We also spent the rest of the day watching everyone together, trying to remain as discrete as possible. Disappointingly, we didn’t spot anything out of the ordinary.

However, at dinner, we couldn’t hold ourselves back any longer.

“We had to clean up another pile of sick today,” Roscoe suddenly announced, and Caspian choked on his mouthful in surprise.

“Warn a man before announcing something like that over dinner,” Caspain grumbled, but it didn’t stop him from getting stuck right back into his food as if nothing had happened in the first place.

“It was outside Garth and Odin’s room,” I said, running my fingers through Kis’ fur.

Manny quickly added, “Not that we’re suggesting Garth or Odin were the ones that had been sick.”

“This is all so confusing,” Jerrik frowned, a befuddled expression on his face. “Strange things have been happening around here. Nothing like this has ever happened on our other trips.”

Viktor stared at his friend. “Is there something you haven’t told us, Jerrik?”

Jerrik pursed his lips, watching Viktor for a long moment before he sighed, giving in. “I didn’t want to say anything at therisk of sounding like a child, but one of my blankets has gone missing. It was a gift for my wife so I wouldn’t be cold at night, and I’d like it back. I promise I won’t get angry. I just want my blanket back.”

“Since you’ve mentioned it–” Hammond frowned. “–I’m also missing a tunic.”

“I feel like I’ve been hearing someone walk around at night, but every time I’ve checked, there wasn’t anyone there,” Latham added.

“And I feel like we’re going through the nuts sooner than we should,” Gustav added, exhaling deeply. “Whenever I go down there in the morning to retrieve some, I feel like there’s always less than there was the previous day.”

“Someone came into our room last night but then left before we could see them,” Viktor said, a perplexed expression on his face. “I don’t know what’s happening on The Serpent this mission, but I don’t like it one bit. Whatever it is, I intend to get to the bottom of it,” he warned, glancing around the circle to hold all their eyes, studying them. When he reached the last person, he sighed and shook his head. “I know it’s not any of us,” he murmured quietly. “But I can’t think of any other possible explanation. Unless…” His jaw clenched, and it looked like he didn’t want to admit it.

“Do you think it’s a stowaway?” Odin asked in a small voice.

An eery silence engulfed us as we all realised how obvious the answer had been from the very beginning.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

After dinner, Latham, Laurence and Dagfinn searched the top deck, Caspian, Gustav, and Jerrik searched the second deck, and Hammond, Roscoe and Manny searched the bottom deck. They all returned with nothing to report.

“I guess there’s nothing we can do tonight,” Viktor sighed, addressing the crew. His arms were wrapped tightly around my waist from behind while he leaned back against the railing. “I’m on night duty, so I’ll stay here on watch. If there is a stowaway on the ship, we’ll find him. Or her.”

The crew murmured their good nights before heading down to the second deck to head to bed.

“You should head to bed as well, my siren,” Viktor murmured, dropping his head to brush his lips against the crown of my head. “There’s no need for the both of us to be awake all night.”

I lifted my chin in defiance, refusing to abide by his words. “If you’re staying awake all night, so am I.”

“But then we’ll both be tired tomorrow.” His lips tugged down in a slight frown as he tightened his arms around me, pulling me closer. “And there’s no need for that.”

“If we’re both tired tomorrow, we’ll nap together,” I bargained, my lips twitching higher at the corners.

“You make a very valid point, my siren,” my husband chuckled and bowed his head lower to press his lips to mine in a gentle kiss.

“We should probably get to the wheel,” I whispered against his mouth. I couldn’t resist trailing my hands up over his chest and shoulders, looping my arms around his neck as I played with his hair, tugging his face closer to mine.

“We should,” he groaned and pressed another kiss to my lips before reluctantly pulling away.

I couldn’t help but pout when he did, but Viktor quickly turned it into a smile when my husband gave me another quick kiss.

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