Page 105 of Ship of Shadows
Lochlan winced. “I was going to say it’s a shock, but little brother here doesn’t mince words.”
I pinned my gaze on Mal. “Oh, you want to talk about bullshit? How about your secret relationship with the sea princess?”
Mal stiffened. “How do you know about Marian?”
I’d left out that part of the story, just focusing on Bastian and his backstory with the shadow king, explaining why he’d taken the boys in the first place and the deal we’d made.
“We helped her get her voice back,” I said, then told them the story of Father and the trident, how he ultimately lost his life because of how he’d tried to help Marian. How Marian had been too ashamed to show her face here again.
“Father’s truly gone?” Mal asked.
He and Lochlan both wiped tears from their eyes.
“The bastard finally did it,” Lochlan said. “How many times growing up did we hear him tell us one day he’d find the trident and?—”
“Bring glory to us all,” we finished in unison.
We burst out into laughter, which turned into some more tears.
Mal shook his head. “Father knew about Marian. She never told me she planned to go find him, to tell him where we were.”
“He already knew,” I said. “The seafolk followed Bastian’s ship and reported back to us. Everyone in Apolis knew where you were, where our boys were. We just didn’t know how to get you back. Especially after Father left with all our men and then disappeared.”
“How is Mother?” Lochlan asked.
“How do you think?” Overhead, clouds moved across the sun, blocking out its rays, and shadows crept out, whooshing down into the water, splashing and flying in circles, paying us no mind.
“You get used to it.” Lochlan gave a half shrug.
Mal crossed his arms. “No you don’t.”
I tore my gaze from the shadows. “She’s devastated. She lost her husband, her sons, her court is falling apart. And then I left, which she didn’t exactly know about,” I admitted.
Mal’s head snapped up. “You didn’t . . .”
Lochlan barked out a laugh. “Of course she did.” He elbowed Mal, whose lips had flattened into a thin line. “How many times growing up did Gabby sneak out or plan some dangerous adventure without Mother’s or Father’s knowledge?”
Mal cut him a sharp look. “This is a little different, Loch.”
“Okay,” I said, not wanting to focus on myself any longer. “I’ve told you my tale. How I got here, how I’m in cahoots with the pirate lord.”
“I’d say it’s a little more than cahoots after I saw you two making out,” Lochlan grumbled.
Mal’s eyes bugged. “Making out?” He grimaced.
“We were not making out.” I glared at Lochlan. “Will you shut up and just tell me what’s going on here? Where are our boys? Are they okay? How did your shadows get taken?”
Lochlan cleared his throat. “Ours isn’t as interesting as a tale. Mal and I hid belowdecks for days, sneaking out when everyone awoke and emptied the little bunk room, getting into the barrels for water and food. The boys were all on the main deck, in some kind of trance from what we could tell. None of them tried to leave, jump ship, fight back, nothing.”
Because of the clock Bastian had used.
“When we finally docked, Mal and I didn’t know where we were yet. We knew the pirate lord had taken the boys, but not why. We decided it would be best to wait until the boys were on the island, then we could sneak onto land, gather them, and make a plan to get the bloody waters out of there.”
Mal snorted. “That was one of our more idiotic plans.”
“The whole thing was an idiotic plan,” I snapped. “The moment you saw that ship full of our boys, you should’ve come to me, to Mother, to Father. We could’ve figured it out together instead of you two trying to play hero.”
Mal’s cheeks flushed while Lochlan just smirked. “You have to admit, I make a pretty good hero.”
