The Misadventures of Anna Cabbot

Wingin' It

The metal ring was warm beneath her fingers and she let the lantern hang low by her side. Edgar rode her shoulder until she was on deck and then took to the sky with a caw. The padded over to where Carson and Nigel waited with Jenny, Pudge, and Breavy, who had his surgeon's kit in his hands.

"Oh. Shit." Anna came to an abrupt halt. "I completely forgot. Now?"

He looked apologetic. Almost.

She let the lantern between her feet and unzipped her hoodie enough for him to get to her stitches. He removed them perfunctorily; she looked everywhere but Breavy for the duration, gratified when they hurt a hell of a lot less coming out than going in. She covered up to her neck again when he was finished.

"Thank you," she said quietly.

"I'd tell you to be more careful but I think that would be moot."

"You're absolutely right about that."

"Take care, Miss Cabbot."

Anna picked up her lantern. "You, too, Mr. Breavy."

Breavy shooed her back to the others. She received a hug from Pudge, and another kiss on the cheek from Jenny, which reciprocated. When she finally looked toward the bow she was struck by how wrong it was to see the mast gone. She joined Nigel by the splintered stump.

"You did a stupidly brave thing," Nigel murmured. "You risked life and limb to save someone you'd never met from a situation you didn't have a complete grasp of. You didn't know what you were walking into and did it anyway."

"We," Anna corrected. "Me and Carson. I'm not an island," she added, looking up at him.

He laughed. "No, you're not. And you definitely don't know how to take a compliment."

"You're not wrong about that. I'm awful at it." She felt more than heard Carson come up on her other side. A quick glance over her shoulder showed he was still barefoot — wearing breeches, at least — with his sealskin looped around his neck like a cape.

"I'll bring 'em to you," Nigel said, "and you put 'em in the lantern. Right?"

"Sure." Anna still didn't know exactly how that process went, but she was damned determined she was going to figure it out on the fly.

"Batten down the hatches." He inhaled deeply and the water stilled completely, not a ripple or murmur anywhere. He circled his arms as though drawing air to him, and Anna felt the pull of his considerable power. He worked steadily, magic singing in the air between them.

One by one dark spots appeared on the horizon. Nigel pulled again and the ships inched closer.

Carson hovered off her left shoulder and blurted, "Rollercoasters."

"What?"

"Rollercoasters." He swallowed audibly. "When this is — when this is over, I want to go on a rollercoaster."

Anna turned fully to look at him head on. "Carson. You hate heights. Why would you ride rollercoasters?"

"Because," he croaked, "this just...it feels like small potatoes. Heights feels like small potatoes to this."

"Like, if you survive this then why should you be afraid of the other?" she asked quietly, heat simmering in her chest. She knew this feeling intimately, the idea of wanting to feel alive in the wake of staring her own mortality in the face. It wasn't about feeling invincible, but about feeling on a visceral level she was still here, and no stone had been left unturned. That no matter how small the opportunity, it hadn't been missed.