CHAPTER 4
I hated Kyte. The feeling was mutual too. Only a few days before, he’d insisted that I had no element. When my father had argued that I was nothing without an element, Kyte had picked up on the word with almost sadistic pleasure: nothing.
I still wanted him to live, though. Rose loved her father. I didn’t want to think of how losing him would change her.
“Kyte’s dead,” Eleanor repeated in monotone, as though we might not have heard.
“Are you all right, Eleanor?” Alice asked.
Eleanor seemed distracted. Confused. She wouldn’t even look at her sister. “We should prepare to release his body to the water, and offer a blessing for safe passage.”
The sail hung limp against the mast now, and the ship’s progress stalled. We were past the columns, but we had more water to cover before we could turn south and take advantage of the ocean breeze.
Alice stared at the sail, then at her sister. We needed Eleanor’s help to fill the mainsail, but something kept Alice from asking—probably the way Eleanor hadn’t even looked at her yet.
I pointed to the sail. “Please, Eleanor. We need wind.”
In the past, I never would’ve doubted that she’d come through for us. Eleanor was calm and cautious—Alice’s opposite in every way—but always reliable. Her element was strong too. Now the expression on her face was distant and desolate.
She closed her eyes. High above us, the sail snapped suddenly back into place. Eleanor’s hair, which had been blown backward, snapped forward, obscuring her face. I couldn’t even tell that she was engaging her element, but the ship was moving again.
Job done, Eleanor walked to the bow and faced the oncoming ocean.
The Oregon Inlet receded. Islands to the north and south became smaller as we pulled away. We were charting a new and uncertain course, but it wasn’t just our home we were leaving behind.
“I need to see Rose,” I said. “Pay my respects.”
Alice studied the sails, and the position of the sun. “Let’s get the ship turned around first. I don’t know how long it’ll take to get to your refugee colony, but we can’t waste time. We need to find food, check our water supply.” She turned the wheel and the ship began to shift course.
Ananias and I worked the winches that lowered the last of the sails, and the ship kicked in response. It was an amazing vessel. If Dare had access to a ship like this, then surely the other Guardians had as well in the past. It was yet another thing they’d kept from us.
Once we’d come about and were heading due south, Griffin took over at the wheel. He seemed to relish the opportunity.
I joined Alice below deck. Kyte’s trail of blood was terrifyingly easy to follow, and with each step I grew more anxious. Kyte’s body had been dragged to the same cabin where I’d left my grandmother Tessa. The mysterious seer had been exiled from our colony years before but had reemerged a few days ago to help us escape the pirates.
I raised my hand but couldn’t knock.
“We’ll deal with it,” said Alice reassuringly. “Whatever the history is with Tessa, we’ll deal with it.”
She was wrong about that. Tessa wasn’t just connected to our colony but also to the pirates who had killed Kyte. How would Kyte have reacted to her in his final moments? Would he have told everyone that Tessa was Dare’s mother?
“What am I going to say?” I whispered.
“That you’re sorry.”
“That’s all?”
She tapped the door lightly. “Sometimes that’s all there is.”
In the moments before Rose opened the door, my mind raced through everything that was wrong about this scene: Her father was dead because of pirates led by my uncle; I wouldn’t be able to hold her and console her, because my element hurt anyone I touched. Suddenly I felt like the last person who should be standing before her door, telling her that I was sorry her father had to die.
There was a click and the door opened. Rose stood in the doorway, eyes red, face streaked with tears. Her hair was a mess, clothes disheveled, but she was still beautiful. Everything about the situation left me tongue-tied.
She watched me without blinking, arms straight at her sides. She didn’t speak, either, didn’t make it easier on me.
“I’m . . . I’m so sorry, Rose,” I said finally. “Kyte was—”
Her eyebrow twitched, such a small movement, but it felt significant. Perhaps she wanted to hear what I had to say about her father, the man who’d tormented me my entire life. Wanted to hear me say how much I’d miss him, when we both knew the opposite was true.
“I’m sorry,” I said again.
She opened her mouth but still said nothing.
The door opened wide and Dennis moved alongside her. Behind them, their mother was kneeling beside Kyte. His body lay on the floor on the very same blankets that Tessa had been using. They were soaked in his blood. I could see it everywhere, could smell it even.
What I couldn’t see was Tessa.
“I’m sorry, Dennis.” That word again, sorry. It felt less meaningful each time I said it.
Dennis took his big sister’s hand and pulled her back—not roughly, but with determination. Then he raised his free hand. From behind me, air rushed past, filling the room. With his eyes still fixed on me, Dennis turned his fingers. A breeze began to circle around them, making their clothes flutter. Faster and faster the air moved, kicking up dust in swirling clouds. The blankets rose too, so that droplets of blood spattered across the walls.
I couldn’t take my eyes off Dennis. Not even when Alice grabbed my sleeve protectively. Or when, with the slightest flick of his wrist, Dennis slammed the door shut so hard, it crashed against the already splintered frame.
Rose was only a yard away, but the distance between us had never felt greater. A day earlier, we’d held hands, and I’d dared to believe that we were meant to be together. Now, without a word, Dennis had made it clear how his family felt about me.
“Give them time,” said Alice.
I stifled an angry laugh. “Kyte’s dead and Tessa’s gone missing, Alice. I don’t think time’s going to help at all.”
She swallowed the urge to snap back at me. “Tessa will be on the ship somewhere.”
Yes, I thought. And I know exactly where.
I marched to the end of the corridor. Dare’s cabin door was closed, exactly as Griffin and I had left it. I half expected to find it locked now, to discover that I’d dreamed being inside the room.
It opened just fine. The desk, shelves, and bed were exactly as we’d left them. The logbooks looked untouched. But something was different.
One of the windows was wide open.
“What’s going on, Thom?” demanded Alice. “That door was locked last night.”
“It was unlocked when Griffin tried it this morning.”
“And you didn’t say anything?” She turned her back to me and studied the map hanging beside the desk. She placed a finger beside the words Fort Sumter refugee colony. “Please don’t tell me that’s where we’re heading.”
“You know it is.”
She smacked the desk. “So we’re trusting our future to a map from Dare’s own cabin?”
Instead of arguing, I walked over to the machine I’d touched earlier. When I placed my hand on it the message returned, but quieter than before.
Alice didn’t move as the voice instructed us to gather at Fort Sumter, Charleston, South Carolina. I let the message play twice before I pulled my hand away.
“Why didn’t you tell me about this stuff, Thom? It changes everything.” She returned to the map and used her fingers to make measurements against it. She was planning, just like always. “Even with a small crew, we can just about sail this ship. If there’s enough food and water, we’ll be all right.”