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 aboutPatricia’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 discussthosepassages. 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 shoutyesat the same time Magda shoutsno.
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.
