Marks of the Past - 13

Chapter 13

Since I was caught, I decided it would be fine to break Nik’s rules and act now. So I said the first thing that popped into my head. “I’m a fortune-teller.” 

I’d only come up with the idea because Mark had chosen that exact moment to make an appearance. For some reason, Mark’s ability to spy on people was what most interested me at that time, so I played off of it. 

The captain gave a dark laugh. “So she speaks.” He jostled me around a bit, maneuvering me so I was standing in front of him again, his hands still on my wrists. “You expect me to believe you’re a true fortune teller?”

“You don’t think I am?” I retorted, pretending to sound hurt. 

“Fortune-tellers aren’t real,” the captain said. “Right?” He nodded to his crew, who gave nervous echoes of agreement. “See, no one trusts you.”

“That’s your loss.” 

Nik was suddenly at my side again, trying to gently pry me away from the captain. “Apparently the drugs are still in effect. Sorry, sir, I think I’ll take her back downstairs.”

“I am not drugged,” I argued loudly. 

Nik’s grip on my arm tightened, but I needed him to trust me to do this so I spat at him. Hopefully he’d let me apologize later. 

“You can all let yourselves believe I’m lying, but I can prove that I’m a fortune-teller.” I glanced around, giving every person that dared look at me a death stare. “I can tell secrets you didn’t even know about yourself.”

I caught Mark’s expression out of the corner of my eye and he gave me a nod of understanding and slipped away. Now my job was to stall for as long as possible. 

The captain scoffed. “Sure, sure.” He pressed his face so close to mine that I could feel his hot breath on my cheek. “Do you know what I do with liars on my ship? I carve out their tongues and feed them to the whales.” 

An involuntary shudder rolled through me. He couldn’t possibly know that I was faking. 

So instead, I turned my head so I could see Nik. “See, I told you so. When you first woke me up while trying to kidnap me, I told you that you were gonna get betrayed. And look where you are now.”

Nik blinked once, obviously caught off guard. He stumbled over words for a moment but managed to save his response. “I … I can’t believe you were right.”

I gave him a smug smile. “Exactly.” Behind him, I spotted Mark returning from wherever he’d gone and knew my time to stall was over. “Do you need more proof than that, captain?” 

He drew up his lips in a snarl. “If you are a fortune-teller, tell me what my father’s name was.” 

I didn’t look at Mark, but I could sense him approaching me. Then he was at my side, hovering beside me. “His father’s name is Charles Richard Brown, and he was abandoned at the age of six. The real reason he runs this ship with such a strict hand is because he wants to show his wife and daughter that he’s powerful and won’t leave them like his father did.”

I repeated this, switching out the pronouns so I was speaking directly to the captain. His scowl deepened with every word until I finally finished, leaving the crew in stunned silence. 

The captain didn’t hesitate after that, yanking me upwards with his meaty hands suddenly on my neck. He pressed me up against the mast and I could feel my air supply dwindling. 

“Who told you that?” His voice was filled with anger and a muscle pulsed in his temple. 

I pried weakly at his hands, but to no avail. My vision was starting to blur and I saw Mark give me a small wave before fading out of sight, frowning. 

Just before I thought I was going to pass out, something slammed into the captain’s arm and I dropped to the ground, gasping for breath. I felt someone’s arms wrap around me and realized they were Chelsea’s, so I gave in. 

Nik was standing between the captain and I, his knife drawn. 

“You said that you wouldn’t touch our prisoners, and you just broke the code.” I could practically feel the fury radiating off of him.

The captain laughed without humor. “Your little fortune-teller is a monster, that’s what she is. I dunno how she came up with those things about me, but she’s a liar and there’s something wrong with her. No one in their right mind would buy her, so let me do you a favor.” 

Nik’s fingers flexed around his knife’s hilt. “Touch her again, and you’ll regret it.”

Another laugh. “Get in my way again, and I’ll toss you and your friends in the ocean and see how long you can float there without food or water.”

The two stared at each other, the tension between them also tangible. Nik’s muscles were taut as if he was preparing for a fight, and the captain had picked up his sword again, holding it in both hands. 

Jonah and Rave made their way over to Nik, Chelsea, and I - both taking up fighting stances. 

When the captain moved, I almost missed it. The charge was as fast as a viper striking, but somehow Nik was faster. He managed to impossibly duck away from the sword at the last second, and the blade sang as it sunk itself into the wood of the mast. 

But unfortunately for him, Nik was surrounded by the captain’s crew. They grabbed him at once, as if interpreting their captain’s orders though he had yet to speak. 

Rave, Jonah, and even Chelsea leapt to their feet to help him and soon everyone but Sophia, her mother, and I were engaged in a brawl on the deck of the boat. Fists flew and I lost track of the Shadows.

A glint of metal caught my eye and I spotted Nik’s knife lying a few feet away, discarded. Before Sophia or her mother could scream, I scooped up the weapon and got to my feet, pointing it at the crew. None of them stopped fighting.

Not until I heard Sophia scream - for reasons I didn’t understand - did the crew turn to look at me. With all eyes on me, I took action. 

In my head, I was back in James’s garden, Hazel at my side whispering unhelpful bits of advice in my ear. I could hear James ask if we could try knives because King Mark was good with them supposedly. My fingers wrapped instinctively around the hilt and the blade left my hand with a soft whistle … 

The captain gaped at me, the knife embedded in the side of the boat less than an inch from the top of his head. 

“Monster,” spat the captain, still seething. 

“Yes,” Nik said, pushing himself to his feet but wobbling slightly. “But she’s our monster.” And then he promptly passed out.

“You guys need to stop almost dying,” complained Chelsea as she finished wrapping the bandage around Nik’s middle. “I didn’t sign up to be a babysitter.” 

“To be fair, it wasn’t me who almost died this time,” I pointed out. 

“Yeah, and though that’s surprising enough, it just means you get stuck with the first shift of watching Kyle and Nik sleep.” 

I sighed, but I knew Chelsea was right. The least I could do was take a shift - even if I was exhausted. 

The captain had let us go on one condition - the second we stepped off his boat, we were to become “enemies''. I didn’t know what that entailed, but I wasn’t super worried about it. We were also supposed to stay below decks unless absolutely necessary. 

Jonah and Rave had been having a quiet, rather one sided conversation by the ladder for several minutes as Chelsea fixed Nik’s wounds. Somehow, he’d managed to get a nasty gash across the stomach. “Nothing he can’t handle,” Chelsea had claimed, but she still took her time cleaning it too. 

“Seriously, Leila, I was kidding about the watch thing. You look like you could be dead.”

“It’s fine,” I argued. “I just slept for several days, so I should be fine for a few more, right?” It was a weak attempt at a joke, and no one laughed either. “I’m kidding. I’ll sleep once you guys get some rest, okay?” 

Not that I wasn’t ready to practically fall into the cushions and sleep for a year. 

Chelsea, Jonah, and Rave accepted my offer, though, and all took their places among the hammocks. It took maybe ten minutes before the soft snores of the others filled the room. 

I leaned back against the wall, trying not to let the gentle rock of the ship put me to sleep. My eyes fluttered shut on and off until finally I caught Nik stirring out of the corner of my eye. 

He sat up slowly, unaware that anyone was watching, running his hands through his disheveled blonde hair. His fingers then drifted to the bandage around his torso and stomach. I saw him wince when he noticed the blood, but then he was back to business. He began to crawl out of bed, testing the floorboards. 

“Going somewhere?” I asked at last, feeling a small hint of satisfaction when he jumped. 

His eyes met mine and a small smirk formed on his lips. “Pulled the short straw, did you?”

“More like chose it. The others have watched me sleep for the past few days, I figured I’d return the favor. But you didn’t answer my question. Going somewhere?”

“Just for a walk.”

Right. He hadn’t been awake when the captain had warned us not to step foot on the deck until we reached Miryir. 

“We’re not supposed to go on deck. Captain’s orders.”

Nik gave a snort. “Please, as if he would see us.” He paused for a moment, as if thinking. “That little fortune teller thing you did there was clever. Did you use the Hidden Arts?”

“What do you mean?”

“Y’know, your magic? Did you, I dunno, summon a ghost or something that told you all about the captain?”

I thought of Mark and how I’d basically used him for my own gain. The next time I saw him, he wouldn’t be happy with me, that was for sure. I owed him one - though I wasn’t sure how many other ways I could help a ghost. 

“Sure,” I answered at last. “I suppose you could call it that.” 

He laughed a bit, but it sounded forced. 

The silence overtook us again, plunging me into my thoughts. I wondered what Mark would ask from me now that I’d basically manipulated him. Then again, he had done it willingly, without me needing to give him verbal direction. Maybe it was because I was his only way to get to Miryir and the Cursebreaker, or maybe he just was fond of me. I thought the first one was more accurate, but that raised another question; what happened if I died? Would Mark spiral back to the gray space in-between life and death, or would he find someone else to use as a host? It would have to be someone else in my family, so Lexi or Liam-

“Why did you like James so much?” 

It took me a moment to realize that Nik had asked the question … and he expected an answer. 

“I guess he was the first person to really treat me like a human being and not some creature of destruction,” I mumbled half-heartedly. All of my thoughts concerning James were jumbled and confused. 

He’d been nice to me, he’d treated me like a person. And then he’d told me that magic shouldn’t exist in normal people - despite the fact that both his parents were magical. I had to assume he meant the Hidden Arts. 

But then he’d gone and stabbed me, tried to kill me and my family. There was no recovering from that kind of hatred. 

“They saw your scar,” Nik said, as if clarifying for himself rather than me. “They thought that if they got close to you, then you would kill them just like King Mark did to an entire village.”

And they’d be right, I thought bitterly. Every magical person I touched would die, and I’d be responsible for the same amount - if not more - deaths than Mark was. 

“It’s their fault,” I mumbled, figuring I had to say something. “They’re all missing out.”

“Darn right they are,” Nik agreed with a laugh. “To think, right now I’m talking to the legendary Leila - descendant of King Mark and bringer of death. I think I might faint in your presence.” 

“It wouldn’t be a first,” I said, feeling myself smile a bit. 

Nik pretended to be offended. “You call that fainting? 

“What would you call it?”

He thought for a moment. “An unexpected nap.” 

This time I couldn’t stop my laugh and an unladylike snort escaped me. We both burst out in laughter and I pressed a hand to my mouth, trying to smother the sound before I woke anyone up. 

Suddenly, Nik sucked in a gasp and in the dim light I saw him clutch his side. 

“Sorry,” he said through gritted teeth. “My stomach feels like all of my guts are going to fall out.”

“And that is why you were supposed to be sleeping,” came a muffled response. 

I jumped again, startled, and heard snickering from both Nik and Jonah - who was now awake. 

“How long have you been listening?” I asked, forcing down the fear that made my voice uneven. 

Jonah didn’t hesitate. “Since the beginning. I couldn’t sleep with you two giggling like schoolgirls, and I’m surprised anyone else could. That’s not the point though. Nik, you’re supposed to be sleeping off your last injury and Leila was supposed to be keeping watch.”

“Hey, I am keeping watch!” I protested at the same time as Nik said, “I don’t giggle.”

Jonah chuckled to himself. “Wow, what a feisty bunch. Y’know, now I’m not gonna get to sleep at all. I don’t want to miss all the action.”

“The only action that’s going to happen is me killing you,” Nik retorted. 

“Ha, in your condition and with your girly knives? I’d like to see you try.” 

Nik made a sound that was almost like a cross between a snarl and a laugh. He lunged forward, one hand clutching his bandages and the other reaching for Jonah. 

It took Jonah about thirty seconds to dispatch Nik. The two boys were out of breath, and Nik grimaced as Jonah finally helped him to his feet. They brushed each other off and Jonah forced Nik to hobble back to his cot. 

“I totally won that one,” Jonah murmured as he took his seat back in his own hammock. 

Nik huffed. “I was injured, and you used your mind magic on me so that’s cheating. I should have won.”

“That’s actually a good idea, Nik. If you won’t sleep, I can use my ‘mind magic’ to force you to.” In the dim lantern light, I caught sight of Nik’s shocked face as Jonah must have used his magic on the other boy. Nik crumpled backwards against the bed mere moments later and Jonah turned to me. “I can take this shift, Leila. I wasn’t kidding about not being able to sleep - and you need the rest more than I do.”

“You don’t have to do that-” I began. 

“But I want to,” protested Jonah. “I heard what you said to Nik about James being the first person to accept you for who you were, but for the record, I think that all of the Shadows are behind you. Rave told me just yesterday that she thinks you’re the best thing that has happened to us since she’s got back from her year of solitude. Even Kyle would like you, I think.”

I blinked. There was something warm stirring in my chest and I realized that maybe it was pride and a sense of belonging. 

James may have been the first person to accept me, but he certainly wouldn’t be the last. 

“Thanks, Jonah,” I said quietly. “But we won’t know for sure until Kyle wakes up.” My words sounded so confident, and I couldn’t help but believe them. We would save Kyle. 

Even though I couldn’t see him, I swore Jonah smiled. “Alright, Miss Optimist, I have to knock you out now if that’s okay with you.” He held out his hand with his palm up and blew gently across it as if blowing away a pile of dust. 

My eyes fluttered shut, and the darkness took me away.

Author's Note

I struggled to write the conversation between Nik and Leila so let me know what you think.