54.) Escape to the West

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Ryan helped me pack.

"How high is the reward exactly?"

"Enough to buy a small castle." She gave me some amount. I hated bad I was at anything economics. My parents had given me a particularly shoddy education when it came to money. Whatever we needed, drowning someone, and stealing it from someone was always the answer. It was a convenient lifestyle. It didn't help me to know how much a castle would cost, but the number Ryan gave me had enough zeros in it I could believe it.

"This area looks so well off." I took a deep breath as I looked down at the bag Ryan had given me. I really didn't have anything.

"You still need to keep moving."

I nodded. The bag was light. Too light.

"It's storming out there."

"That wasn't going to stop you and Cal, was it?"

I stopped. "Did I do something wrong?"

"No, I just don't like you leaving. I'll be fine. I'll get over it. Don't worry about me."

"You'll have Cal to comfort you."

"I like you, Arriana."

I smiled, but I could tell the corners of my mouth hadn't budged. "Who doesn't?"

Ryan cracked a smile. "You'd be surprised."

"Is that an insult?"

"You wish." She smiled.

I hugged the bag to my chest. I didn't want to say anything else. I couldn't have strung a thought together if I had wanted to. I occurred to me as she left to the room to tell her that I would miss her. That much was true. It occurred to me to wish her well. That also would've been true. But I didn't.

The storm had arrived. It was overhead just then. The waves were quick and fast. They were growing every second, almost like an animal that had just been challenged. I waded in, letting the cold sting my skin. If there hadn't been an incentive to leave, something to focus on, maybe I would've stayed there. I would've tested out whether human sirens could get frostbitten or have hypothermia. I wanted to go home, but that didn't stop me from dreading it.

What would I even say?

I turned to Ryan. I was leaving again. What could I say?

Leland was next to her, clinging to her. I was leaving. What could I say to any of them?

Castor was holding my bag. He was in a rowboat. Castor was in a rowboat. Because we were running away. That was all I'd ever done, wasn't it?

However though I wanted to be, I was a runner. In the question of flight, however hard I wracked my brain, I couldn't think of a time when I hadn't had running as a goal.

I closed my eyes. My mother was a runner. Of the two, my father was the fighter. He fought to make things work. I was my mother. I am my mother.

I took a breath. The water stung, much like always. I let it happen. I resurfaced. Ryan was on the shore.

"Ryan?"

I swam closer. There were only a few feet. My muscles burned. It was all I could do to keep myself from slamming into the sand.

"Arriana. I'm going to miss you."

I nodded. The salt spray was getting in my eyes. My eyes burned. Everything burned. My skin was still changing. Transformations took time. They always had. It shouldn't have bothered me. It never had.

"Go!"

Cal took her hand, pulling her back. Leland followed them. They all seemed like they'd folded into themselves. It was cold. I knew that. I hated seeing them like that.

Ryan! I called, my throat suddenly sore.

She turned around. I pulled back, behind where the waves were breaking.

I'll miss you too!

She nodded. I could barely see her hands, but I still remember her blurry shape clear as day. "We'll meet again. I'll find you."

And with that, she and Cal disappeared behind a rock. And just like that, I was pulling Castor in a boat out to see in a storm. And just like that, I was going home.

Juniper and Castor were good company, but they only made my throat hurt more. The storm wasn't as bad as I had expected. It wouldn't have been bad at all if I hadn't been towing Castor's boat part of the time, getting smacked into it the other part.

The storm could've only lasted an hour. I wouldn't be surprised if in all actuality it had been less.

I didn't get time to mourn Ryan and all the lost chances. Castor noticed first.

Castor, for all his obliviousness and flaws noticed the huge ship first.

I was the one who noticed the flag. I knew it. It was a friend of my father's. I tapped Juniper's shoulder.

"Is that...?" She had recognized it too.

"What?" Castor was tipping his boat.

"I know that ship. It's probably too late to avoid it, huh?"

Juniper said something. Her lips moved, and he tensed up.

Not wanting to miss the moment, I said all I could think of. "The Serpent of the East."

At that moment, it turned. They had seen us. All we had to do was wait. 

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