33. Chapter Thirty-Three

Chapter Thirty-Three

Dominick

O nce our feet stepped onto the sand, something felt different. I turned to look at Peter and then Meria who were on either side of me. They merely looked about. As we reached the dense jungle, there was a thickness, also, to the air–as if it pressed upon us, holding us, waiting to alert the island of our presence. To say I was apprehensive would have been an understatement. I was still trying to wrap my head around the information Meria had told me about Peter. How could he be so kind when I had been so mean to him? Does he want a relationship? Want us to be friends–brothers again?

“It is so thick–the air here,” Meria said, coming up beside me, moving me from my confused thoughts and ever confused feelings about my brother, back to her and the confused thoughts and feelings that she gave me.

It seemed I would never escape them. I just wanted–

What do I want?

I was free of Veeto; I had a ship; I did want to save my sister, but I was starting to wonder if I needed to save her for the same reasons as before. There used to be a piercing pain in my heart whenever I thought about Peter and my mother, a pain more acute than all the others. It had, somehow, become less sharp, less painful, and more like a bruise or an ache. I looked down at Meria. She was so beautiful, standing there in men's clothing, her hair tied back by that braid. I would gladly have braided her hair every single day; it was incredibly pleasant. For during the time that I was braiding her hair, the pain within me disappeared–just like it always did whenever I was near her or touched her. I still wondered how that could be, but it had to be because she was a mermaid. Nothing else made sense.

“I like it much better than the dry air, but it makes me want to swim,” she whispered even closer to me. I pictured her beautiful turquoise tail. It was a similar shade to some of the warmer waters I had traveled. She was beautiful–remarkable.

“It is thicker–” I trailed off as Peter called from ahead.

“She’s here!” he shouted, and all of us started running to meet up with him. He was bending over something that was on the muddy ground. Picking it up, he wiped it off with the front of his white shirt and held it up.

“This is one of her books,” Peter said with enthusiasm.

“Anyone could have that book–” I began but stopped myself as I looked into Peter's eyes, once filled with bright hope, then growing dim from my words.

“Let's keep looking,” I said with a grunt as Peter stuck the book in the bag at his side.

We walked for a while, and I wasn't sure we would find anything more. Was it possible that she was there, but that she had died? That dark thought was unwelcomed, but I couldn't help but wonder if that had, possibly, happened. I would not voice that thought to Peter. I bit my lip as we continued to walk.

We reached a meadow of tall grasses and flowers, swaying in a gentle breeze.

“How beautiful! I had no idea the colors from the reefs could be found on land!” Meria said, bending down and touching a blue flower. Her smile was distracting for a few heartbeats. I placed one hand on her shoulder, taking her hand with my other one to pull her back up. She had been putting her face into the flowers to smell them after Peter had called back that they smelled wonderful. Meria looked at me, and at my hand.

“We don’t know what is safe and what isn’t. Sometimes, beauty is dangerous,” I said.

Meria placed her free hand on my shoulder and nodded.

“They are so pretty,” she said.

“They are called flowers.”

“Flowers–how lovely,” she whispered. I looked around the group at the open space. There was something about it that made me apprehensive. Peter stepped into the grove a few feet away from the group, and with each step, golden dust floated up into the air until thousands of glowing orbs lit up the sky. We all stepped back into the jungle, but it was too late. Whatever was happening, there was nothing we could do to stop it–good or bad.

Peter kept walking.

“I am looking for Gwendolyn Darling. Is she here?” There were sounds all around us, like that of small tinkling bells.

A small orb floated right before Peter’s face, and he reached out his hand as if to touch it.

“Peter!” I began, but it was too late. I watched in horror as all the glowing orbs swarmed him. I ran to him, trying to push the orbs off of his body.

“Stop, Dom–Please, this is my chance to find her,” he said, pleading. His eyes were fierce and determined. My heart sank. I could not tell him what to do. I may have been his blood, but I hadn’t seen him since we were children. I had no place in his life to tell him what to do.

“What are they doing?” I asked.

“Can you hear them? They are going to bring me to Gwendolyn,” he said in his carefree way. It was as if it was merely some game.

“Remember what you told me about them? Can you really trust them?”

“They mean well, and they want us together. Let me go. I will stay here, and on your way back from your task, return and pick us up. I should have Gwendolyn by then.” He seemed so confident, happy, and sure.

“But–” I wanted to say so much, but I couldn’t. I could not say the things out loud I was thinking: that I had just gotten him back, and I needed him not to die before I had a chance to explain myself and try to make peace with him so that we could truly be brothers.

“Please, trust me, Dom,” he pleaded. I saw that little child again, the boy who had taken my hand when we had walked along the seashore in Walden, the little boy who had followed me around and who I cared about and missed during all those years we had been apart.

I looked at the orbs, which were floating beside me as if waiting.

“If you hurt my brother, I shall come back here and annihilate all of you. You know of the Traitor King? He is nothing compared to me. I am The Cruel Hand, and if you hurt him–”

There were more bell sounds, but within them, I could hear the words: “We know who you are! The Hand–the Healer–the Stolen Prince!”

Stolen Prince? More like a banished and exiled prince.

“Do not threaten them!” Peter said with clenched teeth.

“Safe, safe, safe,” I heard their voices in the tinkling of the bells. “Safe, the young prince will be safe.”

“Did you hear that?” Peter asked, reaching out his hand again, ready for them to take him to Gwendolyn.

“Yes, I did,” I grunted.

“You know, I never stopped loving you, Dom. I knew I would find you someday. I still have a thousand questions to ask you about why you left us, but I will save that conversation until after you return for me, alright?”

“I did not leave –”

“Alright? I will be back,” he said, placing his hand on my shoulder.

“Okay, good. Yes. We can talk when I come back to pick you and Gwendolyn up.”

He smiled wide and nodded. “See you in a few days,” he said, turning, and then as if he were in control of the pixies, they swarmed him again. I stepped back, and in a few moments, Peter was in the air, being carried away. I could still make out his small body up high in the air when Sands came to stand beside me at the edge of the small meadow.

“Remarkable–” Sands said.

“It is utterly horrifying. What if he falls?” I asked, worry coursing through me. Meria placed her hand on mine, and I turned to look down at her on my other side.

“But Dominick, he is flying,” she said, pointing to the sky. He was, indeed, flying. I smiled for a moment, then turned away.

“He won't fall,” Sands said, patting me on the shoulder.

“Well, we must get back to the ship. The sooner we find the Mirror Sea, the sooner we can come back for Peter,” I said.

“I hope he finds Gwendolyn, and that she is well,” Meria said.

“I threatened the pixies; they will be fine,” I said, feigning confidence.

“Sounds like you. I wouldn't expect anything different, but the ‘Traitor King,’ really?” she laughed as we both turned around and started walking through the jungle after Sands.

“I like to be consistent, and all magical beings fear him,” I said, squeezing her hand, which was still within mine. Until she let go, I would keep holding on.

“There is magic in the air here. This island is dripping with it,” she said. “Can’t you feel it? The water is also filled with magic, and that must be because of all the pixies that occupy this isle.”

“Is that why the air is so different?” I asked.

“It is possible.” We walked back through the jungle, happily, with no other run-ins with pixies or other magical creatures. Once I was back aboard my ship, I took a deep breath.

“Sands, we must set sail. We have to be back here in no less than four days,” I ordered.

“Aye, captain!” Sands said with dramatics; then he moved about the deck to command the crew.

I needed a minute alone. I did not want any eyes on me, so I walked quickly to my cabin. I had no idea that Meria had followed after me until I went to close my door, and there she stood in the doorway.

“Are you alright?” she asked me with that sweet look of concern on her face, a small crease on her forehead, showing her worry.

“Yes–of course.”

“Peter will come back. There is more to both of your stories. They are intertwined, I am sure of it.”

“I am not worried about Peter. He is a grown man and can do as he wishes,” I said gruffly.

“Dominick, I know you. I can tell you care about him. That would not be wrong, you know. He is your brother.”

“Meria–”

“I will leave you, but I just want you to know that you do not need to hide your emotions or your feelings.”

“I don’t have emotions or feelings; I am fine. It is just another day being a pirate.”

“Are you really going to lie to me? Remember in that cave? You told me on Marren Island that you still thought about your brother.”

“Fine, I am worried about him, alright? Happy?” I said harshly.

She smiled wide.

“Yes, I just wanted you to admit it. You are not as cruel and unfeeling as you pretend to be.”

“You do not know me, fully, Meria. I have lived a life that would scar you forever,” I said, stepping closer to her. I took her chin in my hand, and although I wore my gloves, her heat pierced through me.

“I would not mind a few scars, if it meant I could come closer to you,” she said tenderly, looking from my scar, to my eyes.

“I am not like your betrothed merman. I do not follow all the rules, and I do not–”

“You also do not report to my father every single step I make, nor do you betray me and get me banished, nor do you make me believe you want a life together and a family and then rip it all away.”

I blinked, dumbfounded, and then I was angry at what a fool that merman was. I already disliked him on principal, but hearing that–

“I will kill him, torture him to death–”

“No, you will not.”

“I will inflict him with so much pain that he will beg your forgiveness,” I snapped.

“No, you will not.”

“Yes, I will,” I said, taking her shoulders in my hands. “And I will enjoy it.”

“You do not scare me,” she whispered with a smile. “But nice try, my wicked pirate.” She then brushed her hand across my scar again, and I turned my face, frustrated; she could see so much within me, and I was afraid of what that meant.

“You are not at all like Edmar. Which is what I like about you, Dominick. You are not perfect, but I do not want perfection, nor what my father believes is perfection for me.”

“You should not want anything to do with me.”

“But I do. I cannot help it.”

I grazed my thumb over her lip, wanting more than anything else in this world to lean down and kiss those perfectly inviting lips.

“Meria, I am–”

“What?”

“I am tired.”

“Are you sure?” she asked, stepping closer to me. Her hand, then on my chest, played with the buttons on my vest.

I nodded, yes .

“Say it. Tell me you want me to leave, Dominick,” she whispered, and I stopped my thumb’s movement upon her soft lips.

“Do not ask me to do the impossible,” I said, leaning my face closer, down, until my nose touched hers. “I am a man, a wicked–”

“Pirate, I know. I like pirates,” she sighed as I pressed my lips to the side of her mouth–not touching her lips. I trailed my lips over her cheek and stopped when she wrapped her arms around my neck, her fingers playing with my hair. I closed my eyes and took in the feeling of her all around me. I did not want that moment to end. I wanted to take everything I desired from her, and be who I always claimed to be: cruel, selfish, and wicked. But I could not. She had discovered my bluff. She saw through the facade. I could not act the part, not in full, not with her. My eyes felt heavy, along with my body.

“Meria–I need you to leave,” I said again and took a step back, reluctantly. I should not have pressed my lips against her soft flesh because I knew I would not be able to focus on anything else from that moment on, but the desire I had to kiss her, in truth–to have those lips pressed against mine, was intense. But for some reason, a reason I did not understand, I could not do it. I could not kiss her. Why? Something held me back.

“Okay, I will see you later then,” Meria said, taking a few steps back. I was frozen in that spot, my hand still in mid-air as she backed away from me. “Thank you.”

“Thank me? For what?” I asked.

“For this. For opening up to me. I appreciate it.”

“I did not–What are you talking about?” I was extremely confused. I had not opened up at all. I had told her hardly anything, and I pushed her away when all I wanted to do was kiss her.

“You say things, Dominick, with your actions.” Then before I could ask her what she meant, she was gone with the door closed behind her.