When we reached the boat, Seamus offered his hand for me to take as I boarded the vessel. I placed my hand in his and felt the rough calluses against my skin. It was surprising. His hands suggested he was a hard-working man, but his pristine clothes, pale skin, and the silver sheen to his hair gave the impression of someone who didn’t use his hands to make his living.
Once aboard the ship, I found Liam at the helm and Niall sitting to the side, ready to help untie the ropes.
“Do you know where we’re going?” I asked as I sat down on the rough-hewn bench.
Liam shrugged. “Northeast.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “That’s awfully vague.”
“It’s a funny thing about the magic found among the Fae. We purpose what we want and use the knowledge afforded to us by our elders and our education. Nature responds to it. We will get there by the magic of Nature. The Fae do not need maps or GPS.”
“That’s weird, but interesting.” I tipped backward as the boat lurched, and caught myself by gripping the seat beneath me. Warm hands pressed gently against my back to steady me as we started sailing forward at a much greater speed than I would have imagined.
When I turned, I found Niall sitting directly behind me his hands placed against my back. He blushed when I met eyes with him and pulled his hands away.
I smiled and offered, “Thank you.”
He looked away and turned an even darker shade of red.
With a smile, I turned back and watched the land we left grow farther away until it disappeared.
Chapter 4
Days had past, and we hadn’t seen anything but water and sky. Bright sunlight reflected off crystal blue waters, blinding me, but just on the horizon, several miles out, two dark spots on the water appeared. For a long time, I studied them, and then shut my eyes to rest, because it was all too bright.
Liam and Kyle had a quiet conversation near the helm. They were the only of the men who were awake. The others rested down in the hull. Unfortunately, the motion sickness affected me worse when I was below. The sunshine felt good on my skin, but caused stabbing pain in my eyes if I kept them open too long. I wished the Fae had sunglasses. I didn’t understand why they didn’t.
When my eyes were closed, I could hear their conversations over the lapping of the waves against the boat. Boring things about how to operate the ship. I called out to Liam, “Are you sure you can’t control the weather? I could really use a cloud right now.”
When I opened my eyes, Liam smiled down on me, leaning on the railing from the raised platform area.
“I wish I could, Princess. I would love to give you anything you asked of me.”
I rolled my eyes. Why did everything he had to say become suggestive?
“Land!” Kyle called out, pointing to the dark spots I’d seen earlier.
Liam backed away from the railing and darted toward the front. Because I was leaning against the railing on the side of the boat, I could see the two dark spots growing in size. Definitely land.
I stood, just as the three from down below opened the hatch and emerged.
Seamus came through first. “Did someone say land?”
I nodded and pointed toward the dark spots. “Kyle did.”
Declan rushed passed Seamus and leaned over the railing just in front of me, his wide shoulders and dark, long hair blocking my view. “I knew I felt it in my blood.”
I smiled. “Could you really feel it?”
Declan turned back toward me, a smile on his face that replaced the frown that had been stuck on him since we boarded the boat three days prior. “Yes, Flora. It’s like a small tremble in my chest. I felt it in the pit of my stomach and it flowed through my veins.”
I blinked. It was probably the most words he’d said to me since the day we’d met. Poetic and passionate. Declan was no shallow man—not just the strong silent type.
Niall dashed up the short set of steps to the raised area where the helm sat. I joined them, looking toward the islands. Darkness began to spread from the horizon. “What’s that?”
Liam frowned. “A storm. Be careful what you wish for, Princess, we have more than one cloud coming our way.”
“Do any of you know where that is? What island is it?” I asked, looking about them.
Seamus turned, his worried eyes focusing upon me. “Most of the area of our world beyond the shore is uncharted. Islands tend to change location, and we never know where things are. But from the look of it, I believe it’s Scylla and Charybdis.”
I frowned, straining to study the islands as the wind picked up. “In the Odyssey, Charybdis was a whirlpool and Scylla was a monster, right? Didn’t Odysseus have to choose between a rock and a hard place in the story?”
Liam hopped down from his place on the helm, smacking Kyle on the shoulder as he leapt over the railing. “We need to tie down the sails.”
Kyle nodded and followed after him, leaping between Niall and Declan. The two of them worked to get the sail under control as the wind grew in intensity. Darkness engulfed our boat. I peered up and saw only black clouds overhead. Rain was coming.
In front of us the two islands had become impossibly closer. We weren’t moving fast enough for us to have approached so quickly. Then I remembered what Seamus had said. If islands could move, was it possible that they approached us?
I swallowed.
Liam and Kyle returned. Kyle shouted above the roaring winds, “Three of you should go down below. There’s only room for three in the steering area at the helm. We need to keep covered in the
