Twenty-Eight
Aiden
That day,Jack and I take the rowboat with Alice’s sleeping form and Cameron’s body to a small coastal town halfway between Amber Bay and Anchorage. It’s a hell of a swim, even in our sea dragon forms, and we take turns pulling the boat by gripping the rope between our teeth, hoping Skye’s sister doesn’t wake up in the middle of the trip.
We wait until the tide is in, then nudge the two-person vessel as far inland as we dare—it’s late afternoon, so dusk is falling, but we still run the danger of being seen. Then we hide behind a rocky promontory, resting our aching muscles and fishing for cod to replenish our energy.
Not long after, there’s a commotion on the shore as the boat gets noticed and hauled in. I prod a sleeping Jack with the end of my tail and motion with my head toward the town. He blinks, then gives me a curt nod. Our job here is complete. The humans found the boat, and I hope Alice’s story will hold up to scrutiny.
We don’t have to hurry back, but we make even better time on our return trip. I don’t know what’s driving Jack to swim like a dragon possessed, but I’m glad: I want to see Skye. There’s one more thing we have to do on our way home, though.
Devlin Ward’s fishing boat, the largest of the Amber Bay fleet, is moored in a cove not two miles from Amber Bay. We swim right up to it, then shift to our human selves in the water and climb on deck. The boat is empty, and there’s some water damage from where a hatch was left open, either by Devlin himself or by the pair of witches who killed him. But it’s otherwise intact, and we won’t have to buy a new one, so some of our food supply chain is now restored. Wasting resources in Alaska is unheard of, and we’re no different.
Jack finds a pair of sweats and a t-shirt for himself and throws me a flannel shirt and fishing overalls to put on. “They smell like fish, but they’ll do for now,” he says, his expression grim.
I glance down at the bundle of clothes in my arms. “Feels weird, wearing a dead man’s clothes.”
Jack blows out his breath. It forms a cloud in front of his face in the cool evening air. “Unless you want your dick swinging in the wind, this is your only option.”
Snorting, I put on the ill-fitting shirt and button up, then park my bare ass on an overturned bucket to put on the overalls. “Nice.” I pause, looking over the boat. “I keep thinking… If I hadn’t pushed him out of Amber Bay, he might still be alive. The witches wouldn’t have found him here.”
It’s been churning in my stomach, this feeling of guilt over Ward’s death. I’ll have to live with it for the rest of my life, just like with the fact that I killed Skye’s ex-boyfriend. There’s also the fact that we’ll need to sink his body to the bottom of the ocean instead of giving him a human burial as his dragon form is too large and the ground too frozen to dig a hole of that size.
Jack comes to sit by my side, his serious gray gaze on me. “You didn’t push Ward out. He decided to be a complete asshole, and he shifted first—he almost killed my sister.” He runs his fingers through his short hair and adds, “If you hadn’t made him leave, I might have killed him myself.”
I lift my eyebrows. “Are you serious?”
He grimaces as though the thought alone is uncomfortable. “It crossed my mind for sure. Don’t know what would have happened if Skye hadn’t been able to heal Maya.”
“True.”
We stare out over the water at the horizon. At this time of the day, the slate-gray sea blends seamlessly with the evening sky in the distance, giving the impression that they are one.
“Do you think it’ll work?” he asks after a minute. “What Skye did, I mean.”
I lift one shoulder. “No idea. It’s just crazy enough that it might.”
“Had to be pretty traumatic for Alice to wake up next to Cameron’s dead body,” he muses.
At his words, I let out a low growl. “She made her own decisions. If she hadn’t betrayed Skye, none of this would have happened, and Cameron would still be alive.”
Jack dips his chin. “True. I’m surprised Skye came up with the idea. Pretty vicious of her.”
His grin tells me he’s impressed with her cunning.
“She’ll do great here.” I’ll make sure her life only gets better from now on. I stand, then power up the boat. “Let’s go home.”
* * *
Skye rushes out the front door and down the porch steps the moment we walk into the clearing.
“Were you waiting for us?” I ask as she wraps her arms around Jack.
She lifts her head and comes to hug me next. “Of course! So many things could have gone wrong.”
Ty appears at the door, leaning against the side of the house. “But it didn’t. And now we’re finally free of them.”
“Yeah.” Skye squeezes my hand, then pulls me up the stairs. “Come on in, it’s freezing.”
