Page 73 of A Princess, Stolen
Was Dad a bad person?
“Do you want to talk about it?” I suddenly heard Nathan ask.
I glanced up, confused. “About what?”
“About what happened down there in the water. About you and your mom.”
Suddenly, I had a lump in my throat and felt my eyes moistening. “How…”
“You were talking in your sleep, Willa.”
I stared at my hands. I didn’t want to say these things and yet I wanted him to know everything. “I…my memories are coming back,” I finally forced myself to say.
“Your lost three days?” he asked gently.
The words squeezed my chest like an iron fist. He hadn’t forgotten! He still remembered my words in the Palace of Shards.Oh damn!He made it impossible for me not to cry. A tear rolled down my face and I wiped it away impatiently.
“I’m the little bird, you said. Again and again. Is that part of your memory?” He crouched in front of the bed so that we were at the same level.
“That was what Mom said,” I whispered.
“And who is Mr. Sparkles?”
I pressed my lips together briefly. “My…my stuffed bunny…from childhood.”
“I suppose the name said it all.” He winked at me and wiped another tear from my cheek, and this gentle gesture caused more to flow. More and more.
I was so confused. “It’s…it’s the Atlantic,” I stammered. “The closer I get to it, the more memories I find. As if it wants to tell me something.”
“Or your mom,” Nathan said. “Like the other day in your trance?”
I nodded. “I think my mom wanted to leave my dad.” It made me deeply sad. Was that why I had pushed everything intothe furthest corner of my soul? But it couldn’t have been just that. I looked at Nathan and he looked back. My heart suddenly beat faster. I suddenly felt infinitely vulnerable. I was confused and I was afraid of Isaac and Sparta. Afraid about the names on Nathan's back because part of me suspected that they were connected to Dad. I thought about the images in my memories uncertain why I was stuck on Mr. Sparkles, and thinking about my bunny made me cry even harder. He was only a stuffed bunny! And after Mom drowned, I put him on my shelf and punished him as if Mom’s death was his fault. Now I would have liked to have him with me and hold him close.
“Willa… Will, look at me.”
I automatically pressed my fingers to my eyes and shook my head. I didn’t want him to see me cry.
“Hey, come on. Please.”
He sounded insistent and loving, so I put my hands down, blinked, and saw his blurry figure in front of me.
He was standing. “I have something for you,” he said roughly now and held something in front of my face. I blinked again and my vision cleared. He cleared his throat. “It’s not much. Nor does it sparkle like your Mr. Sparkles…but maybe it will help you anyway…” There was a smile in his voice.
My heart suddenly fluttered like it did at Rosewood Manor. The bracelet hadn’t been lost to the sea. He still had it.
“Would you like it, Will?” he asked quietly. “Do you want it back?”
I swallowed and nodded.
Hesitantly, he sat next to me on the bed. “Unfortunately, I couldn’t save the ring. It slipped out of my fingers.”
“It doesn’t matter,” I whispered, and in those seconds, it was true.
Nathan looked at me. “You said the other day that there was nothing strange about you except your tic, but that was a flat-outlie.” He shook his head. “Everything about you is strange, ghost girl.”
“I know.” Who would cry over a stuffed rabbit when they were held hostage on a cutter?
“You scare me,” he whispered.
