Page 31

Flint

“What’s in it for us?” Asks Branko, sounding very much like a king. “We already gave you homes and land on our island. You still need to clean the ship halves out of our cove. If we personally marry you to your lady love, what do we get in return?”

I let go of Bettina’s hand to retrieve a treasure from the large inner pocket of my jacket.

Bettina shakes her head at something, but I know this will work.

I’ve loved these volumes since I first laid eyes on them.

While the crew scavenged the kitchen for usable goods on multiple trips to the wreck, I saved the books.

The pages made Branko and Magda heroes in my eyes.

Imagine what the villagers will think of Magda’s tales, written in her flowery prose.

The school could use them to teach—well, the child-appropriate parts at least—how to live by the pirate code.

This place would never fall to moral ruin like the colonies!

“Magda, I saved your journals from the wreck. Not a page sank to the deep. Look, I even wrapped them in the forecastle sail, so not a page was lost,” I say, handing her a thick volume.

“Eeek! Get it away from us!” She shrieks and bats it into the fire.

Branko and I exchange shocked expressions. Bettina claps her hand over her eyes.

“That’s not the reaction I was expecting,” I mumble as I try to recover. “I studied those volumes to learn about Patricia’s Wish . I have so many questions to ask.”

“You studied them?” Magda says, standing from her perch on Branko’s legs. She wraps her arm around me and steers me away from where the group boils grains over the bonfire for a pre-dawn breakfast.

“Yes, every word,” I reply. I’d love to convey how much I learned from her books, but her reaction and tone have me on edge. “I memorized everything.”

“Memorized? Everything?”

“Why, yes,” I reply, rubbing the goosepimples that break out over my arms. “I learned so much from you.”

“Well, unlearn it, fast,” she snaps. “There’s history in there that’s not congruent with the present, you see. Past situations that would displease Branko, so we’re not going to bring them to his attention. You should have stuffed them into Davey Jones’s locker!”

“It wasn’t my intention to discuss those passages. I was referring to the sailing and—”

“Let me speak plainly, as you are a learned man,” she says, stopping us behind a tree. “Those passages and all further passages won’t be brought up again on this island, or I will drain your little lady in her sleep so you wake next to a corpse. Savvy?”

“Savvy,” I croak.

“Excellent,” she says, licking my cheek with the flat of her tongue. “Definitely her, not you, she tastes much better. Now, let’s plan your wedding.”

I stagger after her with my hand on my defiled cheek.

She seemed a little mad in her writings, which is why Bettina struggled to read them, but I had no idea.

Maybe staying on this island isn’t for the best. If Chub and Catalina leave, then we should leave with them.

If Betts wants to stay…we should stay on the far side of the island.

Far, far, away from Magda.

“Come, child, I have just the gown,” Magda says, picking up Bettina. Fear dances down my spine as I realize how much smaller my lady is compared to the she-devil. She’s already given Bettina a near-fatal wound.

“Can I come too?” Asks Gretta.

I shout yes at the same time Magda shouts no .

Bettina

They’ve argued over who will preside over the ceremony for the last hour. Only the rising sun could send a fuming Magda back into her lair, but not without the promise that we will repeat our wedding with her officiating after the sun sets.

“She will forget about it by then,” Branko murmurs as he watches her retreat. I recognize his quiet approval of her antics and endearing smile. It’s the same expression Flint wears when we’re arguing. I never feel like he’s taking me seriously when he wears that smile.

“They always do,” Flint whispers.

I roll my eyes to the palm arch overhead. I can’t believe how fast the villagers constructed it. The large hibiscus flowers shower us with their floral scent. I wear a large red one on the side of my face to obscure where Magda scratched me.

The big gash on my belly had to be resewn, too, and Magda’s only white dress exposes the midriff of the woman who wears it. I don’t believe she only has one white dress for a minute. She wanted to flaunt her handiwork, but I don’t care.

I couldn’t be happier—even if my officiant and groom banter at my expense in front of my crew and new neighbors.

Greenhorn sits in the front row with Eze and his son.

Behind them sit Hash, Gretta, Gunter, and Iyla—who speaks even less than she did before.

Her overnight alone on the forecastle half of the ship makes her afraid of her own shadow.

Good thing Sharps and Boom from Magda’s crew took her in.

Even now, Boom holds her hand for support.

“Friends, new and old, we are gathered here to join Bettina, the Former Kraken, and Flint, the Former Hybris Astor, in matrimony. It is the power you have divested in me, as well as the love that beats in their hearts, that assures such a union can take place. Love on the high seas is a trial. A physical trial, when your boat sinks as it did on our shores. A mental trial, when heads butt and tempers blaze while deciding how best to stay alive. An emotional trial, when the head and the heart don’t agree, and the soul must insist on reuniting with its other half.

But the greatest trial is finding one another, so Bettina and Flint, I am happy to inform you that the most difficult part is over. ”

“Unless you’re married to a vampiress,” someone calls from the crowd to a chorus of giggles and snickers.

“I’ll always find you,” Flint whispers.

“I’ll never stray far,” I retort, which makes the front row sigh.

His wink is so handsome…especially when he’s in his fancy colonial suit with his hair tied back. He looks the part of a gentleman, and I can’t help but swoon. I have the biggest crush on my husband. Is such a thing allowed?

“Does anyone object to the union of Bettina and Flint? Speak now or forever hold your peace—”

“Keep her smiling like that, I’ll pay you a salary—”

“Not the right time, Sabrina!”

“Oh! That’s not an objection! No, we want them married. As soon as possible. Yes, continue on—” My sister stammers and laughs with her equally unruly husband. The troublesome krakens sit at the edge of the surf where the ocean water can keep their tentacles moist.

“Thank you for the permission,” Branko grouses with an eye roll of his own. “Now I see why Chub is grouchy all the time. Did Teeth really officiate Chub’s wedding with no jokes and a straight face?”

“There were a few jokes until my sister transformed into a kraken in the middle of it, and I took over. Then I married Teeth to Sabrina at the same time—you know—so he couldn’t back out.”

“I’d never back out!” Teeth yells from the back of the crowd.

“Unbelievable,” Branko says, shaking his head.

“Are we too late?” Chub’s Irish brogue is answered by a chorus of cheers and whistles.

He pushes a cart that contains an exhausted Catalina, who holds a bundle against her chest. After witnessing the miracle of childbirth, I doubt he will let her feet touch the ground again.

He stood guard in front of the witch’s hut until he deemed them fit for company.

I guess the birth was full of complications, besides being weeks before the time Catalina predicted.

Seeing them healthy and smiling is a relief.

They stop at the front of the aisle. With a glare, he scatters the villagers sitting in the second row to the back seats.

“It’s the baby,” I coo, pushing my bouquet into Flint’s arms. I lift Magda’s giant dress to my knees so I can trot to the cart.

“This young lad is Ellis Junior, and he’s just like his father—”

“Short, loud, and full of piss and vinegar?” Branko says with a hearty laugh.

“No,” Catty says cooly. “He’s strong, stubborn, and topped with the cutest curly red hair.”

She pulls back the blanket to reveal a nest of curls on top of the baby’s head.

I’ve never seen a baby with so much hair.

It must be a mix of his mother’s Arachne Other with his father’s coloring.

She passes him into my arms, and I instantly swoon.

My heart melts as he sucks his little fist in his sleep.

I can feel eyes burning into me, and sure enough, Flint watches me with a peculiar look on his face. We may end up at Chevelle’s doorway, after all.

Flint clears his throat.

“I’m sorry, but it’s a baby,” I whisper as I hand the bundle back to Catty. We hug briefly before I hike up my dress and scurry back to the arch.

“If we can, please. I’d like to be married and maybe kiss my bride before sunset,” Flint says, handing me the bouquet.

“Blimey,” Branko says, “then you may kiss the bride.”

“Wait, what about rings, vows? I have things to—” I fist his lapels as I cut off his complaints with a toe-curling kiss.

Our tongues duel as the flower jumps from my hair.

His hands roam over my curves to find my arse and lift me off my feet.

My legs wrap around his waist as he carries me away.

Magda’s dress rips, guaranteeing us the wrath of the vampiress eventually.

I toss my bouquet of wildflowers into the crowd, and someone screams that they’re getting married next.

The voices fade into a blur of noise as we leave the party.

“We will say vows when Magda repeats the ceremony,” my husband grouses.

“Where are you taking me until then?”

“Wherever the hell I want,” he growls against my lips. “But that marriage bed in our hut is the first stop.”

“But what about the party? Leaf made a cake!”

“I don’t know what you’ll do for food, but I plan on your nectar sustaining me.”

“Avast ye, I need a better plan than that, dear husband—”

He cuts off my complaints with a hard spank to my arse.

“No sassing your husband,” he says with a growl, and spanks me again. “Don’t think I’m letting your feet touch the ground until I’ve dipped my quill in your inkwell as your husband. Once I have you in a marriage bed, I may never let you leave.”

“Aye, Aye, husband!”