Page 83 of Found at Sea
24
Kellan
With each passing second, my curse loomed closer. Breathing down my neck and causing a prickling on my skin. In moments of happiness, like when I lay with Fletcher in our bed and made love to him, when we spoke about anything and everything, and when I heard his light laugh…the curse was there. Waiting.
It wouldn’t have to wait much longer, for time was near its end. Not even two months remained before it took effect.
Some days I thought it best to just surrender to the inevitable, to stop searching for an answer and enjoy the time I had left. To drink, feast, fuck. And love.
But Fletcher kept me going. He gave me hope where there was none to have.
Fletcher rested against the foremast that afternoon. His lute was nestled in his lap and he idly plucked at the strings. His auburn hair had grown longer in our time at sea, and it touched the middle of his ears.
If I had it my way, he’d never cut it, for I loved to twirl the strands around my fingers as he told me stories and grab handfuls of it when I bedded him.
Alek sat beside him near the bow, and they chatted amidst his playing. Both men looked happy. They’d made amends from their quarrel and were back to being inseparable.
Four days had passed since the incident at Bone Bay, and the crew had returned to their old selves, treating Alek just as they always had. Horace still yelled at him, Sexton still sought him out to tell him accounts that weren’t true but Sexton wholeheartedly believed them to be, and Tig often showed him the ropes and tried to teach him the art of rigging.
The only one who’d changed was Dax.
The shift in his attitude might’ve been imperceptible to the others, but I saw it—the condescending look in his eyes and the devilish smiles, as if he knew a secret and was enjoying the fact that no one else was the wiser. I started keeping a close eye on him, no longer feeling the bond I used to.
I nodded in greeting to some of the men as I passed them, going toward Fletcher. I’d refrained from hovering around him so far that day, not wanting to disturb him and his work, but I couldn’t stay away any longer.
At my approach, he beamed up at me.
“Afternoon, Captain,” he said with an unfaltering smile. “Are you in need of your cabin boy’s services?”
Alek chuckled and leaned his head on Fletcher’s shoulder. “You didnotjust ask him that.”
“I did,” Fletcher said, briefly looking at Alek before moving his beautiful eyes back to me. He was in quite the mood, and I adored it. “It was an innocent question. Maybe there’s an errand you need me for?”
“What were you playing?” I asked, gesturing to his lute.
He was trying to get a reaction from me and he wouldn’t get one. At least not while we were around all the other men. But later that night when we were in our bed? Aye, I’d teach him a lesson.
“Music,” Fletcher answered with a deadpan expression.
Alek laughed again, and Fletcher’s lips twitched.
“Watch yourself, boy,” I said, attempting to sound stern but failing. “That sarcastic tongue will get you punished.”
Fletcher grinned as he focused on the neck of his lute and twisted one of the small nobs to tune it. Once he was pleased with the sound, he began playing an upbeat song. Alek sat back against the foremast and tapped his foot to the melody.
As Fletcher started singing, I watched him with a smile, remarking at how far he’d come. He used to be such a bashful boy who cowered at the thought of performing in front of others, and now he did so freely and with no indecision.
“Oui! It’s back!” Sexton shouted before running starboard side and pointing at the water.
Redmond rolled his eyes and stroked his beard. “Ya need to lay off the grog, mate. ‘Snothing there.”
“But I saw ‘em!” Sexton said before leaning over the gun-wall and searching the water. “Must be one beast of a fish. Like those ones with the sharp teeth that can swallow a man whole.”
“There’s no fish big enough to swallowyouwhole,” Redmond retorted with a laugh.
“He’s right!” Tig yelled from his perch atop the spar of the main mast. “I do sees somethin’ out there. Oui, boys! Looks like it’s caught in the net!”
Fletcher snapped his head around before setting his lute to the side and jumping up to his feet. Alek followed him, and the carefree attitude from moments before was replaced by a shadow of worry.
