Evocation

Chapter 22- Good Nights

Thirteen days of searching has passed. Thirteen sunrises and sunsets. Thirteen dives. Thirteen days of hope. Thirteen days of heartbreak.

Tomorrow is the end of the eight weeks Alastair gave us to find the Skull Gem. Tomorrow is the end of Captain Bradley's debt to the bastard. Tomorrow is the end of me.

I've stayed in bed with the door locked all morning, but with the smell of fish cooking for lunch, I'm realizing I should get up. I pull Hadrien's pillow into my chest, smelling it. It's heavy with his scent. Our sleeping arrangements have been the same as when we've first set sail, so he's been sharing my bed. I squeeze the pillow tight, giving me courage to get up and face the day. My last day.

After quickly getting dressed in whatever is left in my drawers, I step out onto the deck. I see most of the crew swimming in the water below, diving down and coming back up for air with nothing in their hands moments later. Captain Bradley is leaning against a railing with his hands on his head in distress, watching the minutes tick by with no Skull Gem.

I walk up and lean against the rail beside him. "I knew this would be the outcome," he says into his hands, not looking up. "I knew we were going to search and give it a fair shot. I knew that it would be like looking for a grain of rice inside of a lake." He laughs an incredulous, fake laugh. "Worse, it's like looking for a fucking rock on the bottom of the fucking ocean. We couldn't reach it, even if we knew exactly where to look. I knew this would happen. Yet I'm so severely devastated at the outcome."

I don't say anything. There's nothing left to say. We watch the crew dive. We watch them panic. We watch them fight for my life.

"Have you decided how you're going to do it?" My voice sounds small and far away, like an echo.

"I have a gun. I think that will be the fastest." He looks over at me, his eyes faraway. "Unless you had a better..."

"No." I shake my head. "That option is... fine. We will need to go somewhere private. I don't want them to hear it." My voice struggles to stay steady with the tears threatening to pour out of me.

"Where do you want to go?" Captain Bradley sounds just as close to breaking.

"We can leave in the night. I don't want anyone standing in your way and making this harder than it needs to be." I say. "We can swim off to the caves there," I point to the rocks to the south of us. It'd be a several minute swim, but I've got nowhere else to be. There is no hurry. "Then they wouldn't have to see."

"You're not going to fight?" He asks. He sounds desperate, like he almost wants me to.

"There is no point. If we go back to Alastair with me alive, he will have someone else do the job. Your debt will not be paid. Your baby will be born in his captivity. There is more on the line than just my life, here."

"We'll leave in the night, then." He says.

"I'll come to your room."

Hadrien approaches us from behind, offering me a plate of cooked fish. The plate looks small in his large hands. "The rest of the crew has already eaten lunch. I was about to bring you some. Can you sit?"

I walk with him to the top of the quarterdeck and sit on a wooden stool next to the helm. Hadrien hands me the plate of food. I pop some in my mouth, chewing slowly.

"What were you two talking about?" Hadrien asks me, watching me closely. His large arms are folded in front of his chest. His dreads are laying over his shoulder, adorned with golden chains and beads.

I shrug, putting more food in my mouth.

"We know what tomorrow is," Hadrien says.

"Aye," I swallow, nodding.