Page 40 of Astrid at Sea

At this point, the skirt of my dress had already been soaked several times. Hopefully, Gustav would be kind enough to warmsome water for us when we returned to The Serpent so we could wash with it. The last thing I wanted was to catch a cold.

I watched as Jerrik swam away from us like a pro. My eyes remained trained on him the whole time, watching as he got smaller and smaller until I had to squint to be able to make out the shape of him.

And then I was alone with Crosby.

Not wanting it to be awkward, I shifted to Jerrik’s plank, now facing Crosby.

“I’m not very good at this,” he chuckled, his tone melancholy.

“I’m not very good at it either.” I shrugged, keeping my eyes trained on the water for any unsuspecting fish unfortunate enough to swim near us.

“You’ve caught two already. That’s more than me,” he pointed out.

“You’ll get the hang of it,” I tried to assure him. “You just need to concentrate harder and spear the fish faster. Your reactions are a little slow, but you’ll get the hang of it with more practice.”

“Does Viktor have faster reactions than me?” Crosby suddenly asked, catching me off guard with the strange question.

My lips parted in surprise, and I stared at him with wide, unblinking eyes until I finally managed, “What?”

“Is Viktor faster than me?”

“I don’t know what you mean by that.”

“Forget it,” he pursed his lips and shook his head.

My lips tugged down into a deep drown as I blinked at him for a few moments before I forced myself to drag my eyes away. I didn’t know what Crosby meant by the strange questions and wasn’t about to ask. With Jerrik far away, I didn’t want to encourage any more bizarre behaviour from him.

It was a while later before we saw any more action. My eyes widened when I spotted a seemingly innocent fish swimming toward us, casually going about its day. Unfortunately for it, but luckily for us, I quickly sprung into action. Just like Jerrik had taught us, I pointed the spear at the water and held my breath–that part Jerrik hadn’t taught me–as I waited for the fish to get closer.

I counted to three in my head before stabbing the spear through the fish. I had aimed for the body but missed it. Luckily, I snagged it by the tail instead. The fish dangled in the air as it flailed about in a desperate attempt to save itself, but I quickly reached out and held my hand underneath it as I brought it into the boat. This one was still alive, so I dropped it into the bucket with the other living fish. Crosby quickly slapped the lid over the bucket before it could flop out, and we both exhaled in relief.

“That’s eight now,” I grinned.

“You did great, Astrid. Well done.”

“Thank you.”

We both fell back into an unsettling silence as we kept our eyes on the water for the next unsuspecting fish. Well,Ikept my eyes on the water, and Crosby kept his eyes on me, which made me very uncomfortable.

“Astrid?”

“Yes?” I remained staring at the water, looking for more fish.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“Why did you say yes to him and no to me?” Crosby asked, catching me off guard with yet another inappropriate question. “What about Viktor made you say yes to him over me?”

“I don’t like where this is going, Crosby.” I shifted uncomfortably on the plank, but there was nowhere for me to go. Not unless I wanted to get into the water and swim over to Jerrik. If I were a stronger swimmer, I would have just to escapethis awkwardness with Crosby. “Now isn’t the time to speak about this.”

“Why not?” He snapped, his eyes burning with suppressed rage. “That day when you said no to me, you ruined my life.”

My lips parted in shock. “That’s not fair.”

“You ruined my life, and we both know it! Why can’t you admit it?”

A small flame lit inside me, burning fast. “How can you say that?” I scoffed. “You sound like a petulant child, Crosby. I didn’t ruin your life. I turned down your offer of marriage because I didn’t want to marry you. It’s as simple as that.”

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