Page 130 of The Sky Pirate's Stowaway
Butcher’s lot laughed really loudly, catching my attention again, and I had a feeling they weren’t actually working at all over there. With Max down below, they could get away with not doing anything since Viper was useless and didn’t seem to care what they did.
If it was anyone else messing around like that, he would’ve thrown them overboard already, or at least threatened to multiple times over.
“You two good?” Ariella asked when she was close enough.
“Yep.” I shot her a grin, ignoring the nasty pirates across the ship. “I’m fine.”
Willy gave her a small grin, but it didn’t meet his eyes, and he didn’t reply to her. Ariella frowned at him, looking curious and a little sad herself. He was usually so happy to see her, but after he found out she’d been spreading rumors that he and I were a thing, he’d been upset.
Because it was so obvious how Willy felt about Ariella, except to maybe Ariella herself.
I was honestly surprised anyone believed the rumor, but at least it pulled some focus off of Max. Although, it wasn’t working as well as Ariella thought it would.
Now the rumors were getting all jumbled up, and people thought there was some weird love triangle happening between us all… or a love square? Was that a thing since there were four of us?
But Willy’s feelings were hurt, not because he cared if anyone thought he liked me personally, but because now he felt like he couldn’t pursue Ariella because he didn’t think she liked him back. And he wanted to ask her out on a date so badly.
Just last week, he’d asked me if I thought she’d want to go somewhere with him once we got to Asteris. Now, he didn’t want to mess anything up, and he was unsure if she liked him back. As he kept saying, if she liked him, then why would she pretend he was with someone else?
It was a mess, and I had no idea how to fix it.
He honestly thought she’d done it to put him off, and I felt terrible. Before I left the ship, I was going to have to tell him the truth.
Max and I might’ve had a great relationship thus far, but we were still new, so I was absolutelynotan expert in romance, but I still wanted to help my friend.
“Anyway,” I said with a strange laugh, trying to break the tension. “Are you doing okay, Ariella? Viper’s not pushing you too hard, is he?”
She shook her head. “Nah. I’m good. He hasn’t been too bad lately.”
“Probably because he thinks he’s gonna have Ghost plugged in soon so we don’t have to worry about running out of energy.” Willy shook his head in disgust.
“You know what’s the most annoying thing about that?” I asked them. “Even if he doesn’t plug me in, I’ll still have to do whatever he wants, you know? It’s not like I’ll be able to say no if he wants me to charge a bunch of engine-grade fluxstones so he can sell them or whatever. Idiot.” I sighed. “He’ll still have absolute control over me… over my magic.”
“If he could control me by plugging me into a machine and making me a mindless zombie, he would’ve done it a long time ago,” Ariella said with a sad sigh. “I’m sorry there’s even a way to extract your magic, Ghost. Those machines shouldn’t even exist.”
I gave her a nod. “We can definitely agree on that.”
After a few minutes, Willy asked, “You can really just charge as many fluxstones as you want?”
I shrugged and looked down at the rope in my hands. This wasn’t something I typically talked about with others, but… I trusted these two. With my life.
So I took a breath before speaking. “I’ve never run out of magic, at least not completely. I’m sure I have a limit—especially because charging the engine-grades the other day wore me out. But I’ve never used so much it drained me empty. Yeah, I wasn’t in great shape, but my magic surged back quickly. I maybe could’ve charged more a little while afterwards… maybe. I never tested it because I was hiding it before now, you know? I didn’t really go around charging every fluxstone in sight.”
“Makes sense.”
I hesitated before deciding I may as well keep telling them about it. About my magic, my most guarded secret that wasn’t a secret at all anymore. “Sometimes, if I don’t use my magic often enough, it sort of builds up, and I have to release it. I can push it out into a regular rock—it doesn’t have to be a fluxstone—but that rock wouldn’t be able to power things.”
“Huh.” Willy stared at me for a few seconds before shooting me a grin. “I’d like to see you use your magic sometime.” His eyes went wide, and a blush formed on his cheeks. “Wait. That was rude. Was that rude? I mean, I would like to, but only if you don’t mind.”
His nervousness made me offer a smile back. “I wouldn’t mind showing you. Everything on the ship’s charged up right now, but the next time I charge something, I’ll let you know.”
I’d gone through the entire ship the other day and charged all the fluxstones—it was something I’d wanted to do the entire time I’d been here, and now that I could, I couldn’t seem to stop myself. Every time someone—mostly Sage and Max—ran out of power, I recharged their fluxstone right away.
Honestly, I really loved being able to help them.
Ariella tilted her head to the side. “Uh… aren’t you leaving once we get to Gearhart? We’ll be there in a few days. You… might not have time to show him.”
Her words felt like a punch to the gut. “I…” I trailed off, unsure of what to say.
