Page 61 of Scourge of the Shores
When they returned to the south shore, Lucas put a hand on Danna’s shoulder. “Ye did well.”
“He’s hurtin’, too,” she said, remembering the dark, sorrowful depths of Robert’s eyes.
“Don’t matter ‘bout him. Ye’re what matters,” Lucas said.
“Do ye think it’s odd, Lucas, that with all those pirates, they haven’t attacked us, even after I walked away from Robert?” She looked up at him. “Robert’s keepin’ them from attackin’. If that ain’t worthy, I don’t know what is.”
Lucas pressed his lips thin. “He ain’t the one from the prophecy, Danna. He may be better than the rest, and he’s got some honor for a pirate, but he ain’t stayin’. He ain’t the one.”
“Even if I believed yer prophecy?—”
“Stop, Danna.” Lucas sighed and ran a hand over his face. “Ain’t nothin’ ye can do ‘bout it now.”
She held her breath. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means ye can’t change what’s already happened,” he said. “And ye can’t follow him, either.”
Danna’s chest tightened. “I know that.”
Lucas nodded, but his voice softened. “Aye. I know ye do.” He placed a firm hand on her shoulder. “But knowin’ and acceptin’ are two different things.”
Curse Lucas. He’d read her mind. Her throat burned, and she had to look away.
“Ye ain’t gotta figure it all out tonight,” Lucas said. “Take the day. Let yer hands heal. Get yer mind right.”
She shrugged. “My mind’s right.”
Lucas shook his head and put a hand on each arm. “Go to the Northern Boulder. Sit down. Remember why ye love the island. Remember yer legacy, yer Father, the reason ye’re here.” He pulled her in close and rubbed her back. “That place has always given ye clarity.”
She lowered her forehead to Lucas’s shoulder and pulled her fisted hands under her chin before murmuring an “Aye” in agreement.
He released her and sent her away.
Going over land was faster.
But instead, she took the western shore, where the waves stretched, endless and wild. Where the salt clung to her skin like something she’d never wash away. Where Robert walked with her.
Her body tensed, hating that now this beautiful shore would hold his memory.
She had never asked him to stay, but it was something she just knew. He was a Pirate King. He wouldn’t give it up for her, and maybe he couldn’t without letting the whole island get slaughtered and looted. No, the sea would take him back; the DeepMother’s appetite was always relentless. The sea had taken too much for her to even think about wanting more.
The sea had even taken a piece of her, too. And she wasn’t sure it would ever return her hope.
Lucas was wrong.
Clarity might bring peace of mind, but it wouldn't quiet the ache in her heart. It never had. It never would.
Danna climbed the short rise to the top of the boulder and froze. A pirate sat square in the center of it.
She swallowed hard. Her breath hitched before she could stop it.
Not just any pirate.
Robert.
"Ye’re on me rock," she spat, forcing steel into her voice.
He peered over his shoulder. “Yer rock?” he asked, standing up.
