Now he looked at me again. “Nathan didn’t tell you that, did he?”
The interrogation was backward. I would get answers, but I was afraid I didn’t want to hear them.
“You don’t want to let me live because you’re dying too. Because you’re sick,” I choked out. “Nathan told me.”
He laughed, amused. “And you believed that?”
His words were like the brutal blow to my ribs a few hours earlier, taking my breath away again. “It’s not true?”
“Nathan would never have joined otherwise. And we needed him as the navigator at sea. He had been deep-sea fishing for a long time and he lived on the tributaries of the Mississippi, more on water than on land. And he was the only one who could really steer the Agamemnon. All I had to do was give him a reason to fuel his anger again—and that’s what I did.” Pale triumph glittered in his eyes.
Emotions rose from the part of my soul still numb in that silent, white coma. Despair. Anger. Perhaps grief.
Oh Nathan!How would he react if he found out? Like when he believed for a few seconds that I was going to die back when I said that about the coral snakes. And Isaac knew Nathan betterthan I did. He knew his fears and he had used them. For months! Maybe even over a year!
I swallowed again. “You’re disgusting,” I whispered hoarsely despite my fear.
This time, the blow was real. Unprepared for it, the force knocked me over with the chair and I hit the floor hard. Dazed for a few seconds, I tasted blood on my tongue, saw nothing but flickering stars, and my cheek throbbed.
When I could see something again, I struggled to sit up. Isaac was standing over me holding something out to me, but I couldn’t see it because my vision was blurred. I blinked several times and then my heart beat a thousand times faster.
A packet of peanuts.
Smugly, he shoved a handful into his mouth. “Would you like some too?” Now his voice was almost gentle again.
I shook my head frantically and automatically pressed my lips together. A mistake.
Isaac pulled his hand back with the package. “I thought so. Noah was extremely observant, but it was Nathan’s note and your reaction that confirmed it for me.” He reached into his pocket and unfolded something. “Found it on the Agamemnon.”
For Will.
All without nuts and eggs. Promise. Oh yes, if you need new clothes, feel free to use my things again.
N.
Memories of that time danced across Nathan’s neat handwriting, and I suddenly felt completely lost.Do you want it back, Will?
Would he ever discover where they buried me? Or would they leave me in the swamp, buried there with Lea?
Nathan’s curse. It was true.Tous ceux qu’il aime meurent. Where would he go and would he be able to love again one day if he had to let me go too?
Numbly, I stared at the floor, but I noticed Isaac turning away from me. “Prepare her!” I heard him say, but I didn’t understand.Prepare me for what?It wasn’t anything good. I rose to my feet as swiftly as I could, but then I spotted Maury and Billy entering the room, and…
“Troy,” I said involuntarily. Beneath all the fear, I felt my angry indignation. I wanted to hammer my fists against his face.
“Princess.” He pulled down one corner of his mouth mockingly.
“You are the worst, you bastard,” I said tightly. “You made Stanton believe until his death that you thought he was the traitor and you hurt Kjertan deeply.”And you wanted to kill me!I remembered how much strength he must have had even though he was no more than four inches taller than me. And now, only now, when I saw him again with the cowboy hat, did I realize why I had estimated my attacker to be so tall. The hood. The fine netting. They had deceived me. There had probably never really been eyes behind it! Maybe he had seen much further down through tiny slits. “I hate you,” I heard myself say because I couldn’t stop what was coming anyway.
For a moment, there was silence. Like that snow-white, comatose silence in my head only real. And trapped in that terrible void, I stared at Noah’s hands, now clenched into fists as he strode toward me. I saw his engagement ring glinting in the light and then someone in the basement turned on music. Roaringly loud. Some Pink song.
I backed away, but Billy and Maury suddenly held me firmly. I tried desperately to think of something nice like Dad alwayspreached to me when I was afraid of thunderstorms. I thought of Nathan and his laughter, and about the Palace of Shards, but the pain that struck me was all-encompassing. Noah’s first punch to my stomach made my legs buckle, but they held me upright, and he struck again while I was still gasping for breath. Red panic flashed before my eyes and the feeling of not being able to breathe rendered me defenseless. They shoved my head against the wall hard, but not too hard and they hurled me across the room, causing me to lose my balance and fall over the rickety table. Repeatedly, they slapped my face and ridiculed my attempts to defend myself. And when I was lying on the ground, whimpering with fear, they mocked me before kicking my arms and legs with their boots.
For a while, I didn’t know whether I was awake or unconscious, everything happened as if behind a black-red veil of pain. At some point, I heaved myself onto all fours and tried with my last strength to get out of their reach, but Noah grabbed my arm, pulled me up, and pressed me against the wall by my neck.
“She suffered,” he screamed. All I could see were his huge pupils, which were bubbling like oil. “Like a damn animal in a damn laboratory.” His hot saliva sprayed my face. “She was bleeding from her eyes and ears and there was nothing I could do to help her! No one could! Not even the damn doctors at the damn hospital in Portland. They had never seen anything like it. All I could do was rock her in my arms until she finally died. That fishing net would have been a merciful death for you.” Grabbing me by the neck, he yanked me from the wall and shoved me away, but I couldn’t catch myself, and I fell and hit the floor with my back and head. I screamed and my field of vision exploded in sparkling colors.
I lay there motionless, blinking weakly, but my senses were no longer working as they should be. I couldn’t see anythingclearly. Pink sang something about “90 Days” as Noah continued yelling.
