Page 25 of Voices in the Stars (The Lost Witch #1)

The world swayed around me. My back rested against soft fabrics, a scratchy blanket was wrapped around my front. With a groan, I finally opened my eyes.

I was alone. The room was dark. There were faint rays of light that came from swaying lanterns. They were bright enough to light up what was directly around them, but that was it. The ceiling dropped enough that it looked like even I was at risk of bumping my head against it.

Hanging beds filled the room. They were attached to two wooden poles, three on each one. The bottom scraped against the floor while the other two dangled above. Glancing over the edge, I was in the middle bed.

I laid back, staring at the swinging material above me.

I closed my eyes as I felt myself swinging side to side.

I focused on taking deep breaths as I felt myself heating up with nausea.

Each movement made my stomach churn. I was incredibly grateful that I had eaten very little the past couple of days.

I gave myself a few more moments of self-pity before swinging my legs over the edge, sliding off the bed—only to crash right onto the hard floor.

My grunt sounded throughout the room as I kneeled on the floor. This was one of the roughest mornings I’d had. Sucking in a sharp breath, I pushed myself up on shaky legs. The upside of all of this was that I was wide awake as I made my way to the only door.

It pulled open, revealing a set of stairs. A bright light that appeared at the top made me squint. Everything seemed to make the rolling in my stomach worse. I kept my gaze focused on each wood step as I moved toward the loud voices.

My breath caught as I stood in the open air, sickness momentarily forgotten.

I was on a boat. People were moving around me as I walked out onto the deck.

Some shot me glares, but I didn’t stop to pay them any attention.

Large sails hung overhead, the fabric swooshing with the air, keeping them puffed out.

A large smile broke out as my hair whipped around my face.

Water stretched out in every direction. The only sign of land were the faint outlines of mountains in the distance. Even they were far enough I couldn’t make out any details, not even if their peaks were snowy. I turned in a circle, stopping when I saw Atlas.

He stood above me, leaning over a railing near the wheel. He was already staring down at me, fangs on display as he smiled. He half-raised a hand in greeting.

As I went to call up to him, something crashed into the side of the ship. I lost balance, stumbling. Someone reached a hand to grab me, but I pushed them away as I ran toward the nearest railing, emptying the contents of my stomach into the water below.

“You should stay down below.” His voice was gruff as he stood next to me.

I groaned in response, watching the dark water as it sloshed against the sides of the boat. My feet kept trying to slide out from underneath me as the boat rocked.

“Listen, Ezryn already wants nothing to do with you. Do you know how hard it was?—”

His words were cut off by my gagging. There was nothing left in my stomach, but that didn’t stop my body from trying to expel everything.

“Are you okay?” he asked, placing a hand high on my back.

I nodded even as the next wave of nausea hit me. “Never been on a boat.”

His mouth opened and shut several times; his brows furrowed together.

“How did you get on this side of Feycrest?” Atlas questioned .

“Born there” was all I could choke out. I didn’t have the fight to argue his ridiculous question.

“Come here,” he whispered.

I weakly shoved against his hands as they grabbed me. He shook with a laugh as he forced one of my arms to wrap around his back while his arm wrapped around my waist, his free hand grabbing mine.

“Leave me alone,” I mumbled as he led me away from the railing.

I still leaned against his warmth as my legs stumbled with the swaying of the ship.

My cheeks started to burn as I felt his muscles flexing against my arm.

He was strong. I was certain carrying me would be very easy for him.

He was practically doing it now as I was being dragged toward the front of the boat.

I focused enough to see we were headed toward a large piece of wood that pointed out above the water.

My heart leapt into my throat as he led me to the edge.

I pulled against his hold, but it was useless.

He barely even flinched at my attempt. This was it for me.

He was going to throw me into the rushing water below us.

I opened my mouth, apologies on my tongue ready to come rushing out, only to be choked down by nausea rising up.

I closed my eyes as Atlas grabbed my elbows. I waited for the shove to come. Instead, I was slowly lowered to the floor. My stomach wasn’t any happier about sitting.

“Open your eyes.”

I jumped at the closeness of his voice. His head practically rested on my shoulder.

His arm wrapped back around my waist as his fingers spread across my stomach.

I hated to admit it, but their warmth was helping with the sick feeling.

His legs were on either side of mine while his other hand grabbed an edge of the boat, keeping us steady.

I tried twisting to the side to look at him.

All I caught was a quick glance of his soft smile before he grabbed my chin, moving my head to look in front of us.

I sucked in a sharp breath as excitement swept through me.

I tried to sit up more, but Atlas kept me pulled close against him.

His head fully rested against my shoulder now, twisted slightly to avoid his horns.

Sunlight danced across the moving waves.

It warmed my face, chasing away any lingering chill I had.

This was the closest to true freedom I’d ever had. If I could just forget about what brought me here. Though, sitting like this was doing wonders to help me forget all of it. If I was back home, I would be getting moved into Adrian’s house. My freedoms stripped away while he threw away the key.

There was still a nagging thought in the back of my head.

That this was just a false sense of security.

Atlas was just using this moment to gain my trust before he decided to kill me in the end.

It was clear how quickly his mood could change.

Even now, if I said the wrong thing, there was nothing stopping him from pushing me into the water.

I leaned fully back against Atlas now as I closed my eyes again.

Selfishly, I wanted to enjoy whatever was happening while it lasted.

A salty breeze pushed my hair around our faces.

I felt more than heard Atlas softly grunt before moving my hair.

I laughed at him. Somewhere birds were calling to each other.

I jumped as there was a loud squawk right above us.

Leaning forward, I looked up. Atlas’ hand slid from my waist until it was lightly resting on my hip.

I could feel his stare as I watched the giant birds as they flew above us.

“Atlas,” a deep voice yelled behind us, “you two need to get away from there!”

Atlas cursed before he jumped up, holding a hand out to pull me up with him.

His face was twisted in a grimace. The smile dropped from my face as I watched a man march over to us.

Long, silver hair swayed behind him from where it was tied up with a strip of leather.

His face pressed into a glare, fully focused on where Atlas’ hand still held mine.

My cheeks burned as a sinking feeling took over the joy I had been feeling.

I dropped his hand like it had burned me.

I had gotten too comfortable with him. His hand flopped back to his side.

There was a quick glance at me before he stood to his full height, staring back at the man.

It was unnerving to watch how he was able to wipe all emotions from his face.

“She was sick.” His voice was flat.

“I don’t care,” the other man snarled, stepping up to Atlas. “She needs to get away from my crew.”

Atlas’ fist clenched at his side. He stood a few inches taller than the man I figured was the captain.

This would easily be in Atlas’ favor if a fight were to break out between them.

Which is exactly what was about to happen.

Power pulsed from Atlas as neither one broke eye contact.

The last place I wanted to be was between these two when it all went down.

I grabbed one of Atlas’ hands, giving it a reassuring squeeze before letting it go.

I walked across the boat back to the stairs.

My legs still trembled as I moved slowly.

That was pushed to the back of my mind by my racing questions.

I’d been treated like a hostage and now like a monster.

There was something else going on here that I didn’t know about, and I was tired of being left in the dark.

Something told me that just listening to the angry hushed voices behind me would tell me more than I wanted to know.

Yet, all thoughts of listening vanished as the boat rocked violently, causing a new wave of nausea to rush through me as I ran for the closest edge. I was going to be in for a long day.

I spent the remainder of my day with my legs straddling one of the rails, dangling off the side of the boat.

I rested my head against the railing. It had been a cool break from the sun beating down on me, but even it had quickly heated up.

My eyes burned from the light reflecting back up at me.

Every strand of hair that moved hurt the top of my head.

The burn crept down my one cheek that was faced up.

I didn’t even want to picture how I looked now.

There was nothing I could do about it. Every time I tried to move, my stomach twisted and sent me careening back.