Page 34 of Witchsea

“Secrets are weapons for those who might use them against you.” We both stare at each other, because if he has secrets, so do I, and I’m not sharing them with him either. Things have been tense between us since the night of the nightmare and the attack that nearly killed me. He was so furious and protective, and everything I never expected to feel has settled into my heart. It’s there, it’s beating, and it’s going to ruin me.

I haven’t been able to broach the conversation I overheard between him and Chaos, mostly because I don’t understand what I heard. Chaos thinks I look like someone? He thinks his captain is being cruel by being nice to me? I don’t know if Chaos has a secret crush on his captain or he just hates me, but I’m missing something. I’m mostly glad to be alive, and questioning how I’m alive seems like a bad idea at the moment, as we sail into certain danger. “Where’s your cat?”

“She doesn’t like water and there is a storm.” I shrug.

Ren smirks. “She can’t feel the water or rain; she is fucking with you.”

“Oh, I know, but calling her lazy makes her mad, and mad Limi is vengeful,” I mutter.

“Don’t fall off the ship.” He pushes off the wall and begins climbing the stairs. “I’m not going to catch you this time.”

“You’re such a gentleman, Ren!”

His laugh echoes around me. “I never said I was. I’m a captain, vagozari.”

“What does that mean?” I snap, but he has disappeared into the storm above deck. Another nickname? Map is bad enough. I run up the stairs, and through the open door, which Ren is holding open with one hand against the strong winds. The rain and the wind relentlessly try to push me over as I stand on the slippery deck, my cloak flapping around my legs, desperate to break free. Ren is walking like the storm isn’t even there, and I have to hold my hand above my eyes to even see where I’m going as I follow him.

I risk looking up, taking in every inch of sky, which is filled with thick gray clouds, and lightning shoots across the sky with bright yellow zaps. The salty tasting seawater sprays over us and up the sides of the ship as we continue to cut through the water. There are many parts of the world that scare me, but storms, giant waves, and an angry sea are quickly getting to the top of my list. I dread to know what things are in the sea below us, braving the waters for a meal.

Tracker’s on the wheel. Chaos is storming around, barking orders at what’s left of the rain-soaked crew. Everyone is staying away from the edges of the ship, and I don’t blame them. One wave, and they could be easily swept into the sea.

My eyebrows rise, but I continue squinting in the rain as I cling to a pillar when we cut through a massive wave. The entire ship is groaning as it dips and flies up the wave, sending my stomach on a flip that makes me feel sick. With that wave gone, I get a good look at the sea in front of us. It’s a sea of moons. Crescent-shaped moon rocks are standing, hanging out of the sea. Brilliant sparkling silver rocks, hundreds of them, thousands maybe, stretch as far as I can see, all different sizes, and every one is a crescent shape like the moon in the sky.

“It’s real,” I whisper, unable to fully understand what I’m seeing. The books, the legends of this place, always seemed too magical to be real. But magic is real, and so is this place. So are the rumors, it seems. Around the rocks are the broken remains of hundreds of ships, and even from here, I see the glittering of white human skeletons on the rocks around the ships.

“By Noctaris,” I mutter, clinging even more tightly to the pillar.

Ren makes his way over to me, leaning down. “Which way?” His blue eyes are bright against the dullness of the world right now. I use them to focus.

“Forward, I guess.” I glance down and I see my stomach is glowing blue, well, the map is. Even through my dark clothes, it is glowing so bright. “We must be close.”

“Come.” He offers me his hand. My heart leaps as I take it, even when I tell myself he only wants to take my hand so I don’t fall over and get hurt. He walks us straight across the deck, and I have to cling to him so I don’t slip, which he allows. He holds me up, right to the steps to the wheel.

“Hold on to the rail,” he commands when he lets me go, and I pull myself as close to the wheel as I can get.

Tracker nods at me, looking between us. “You’re not going to throw up, are you? You’re very pale.”

“I’m more shocked this place is real!” I shout over the storm.

“What stories did you hear?” Ren questions, standing with his arms crossed next to the wheel. How does he do that?

I clear my throat. “That the god of sunlight, Arash, went mad because the goddess of the moon, Noctaris, slept with him, became pregnant, and gave their child away to a witch family. She wanted the baby safe and knew Arash would ruin him or her. I can’t remember if it was a boy or girl.” I have to keep my voice loud. “He was so angry that he pulled all the moons from the sky, Noctaris’s precious family, and sent every single one crashing down into the sea here. He left two in the sky, the smallest moon and the biggest moon, so Noctaris could watch the final ones fall while he killed her, knowing that when the largest fell, it would destroy the world.”

Lightning flashes and thunder claps even louder, making me pause and grip the rail all the more tightly before continuing. “Noctaris was broken, and the sky wept in her grief, the tears falling onto her moons and imbuing them with great power. The moons became explosive when touched, and when Arash went to pull the largest moon down in his fury, it exploded to dust around him, scattering moondust across the sky, leaving nothing except for the last tiny moon.” I gulp, looking at the glittering moons in the sea. “Now all these moons left here are a treasure that only the insane will attempt to mine… The moons are dangerous and they can explode like bombs, and the gods curse anyone who steals from this place. They are said to hold pure diamonds within them, but death is a promise for anyone desperate enough to touch one of these moons. The dead here are proof of that.”

“This is a place no one goes unless they are as mad as Arash,” Tracker mutters, side-eyeing Ren.

Ren is watching me, though. “Selendris is Noctaris’s sister, and she keeps the storms around this place to protect it. But many still come here,” he says, looking out at all the wreckage. “There are a thousand ships, with thousands of gold pieces littered around this place to prove that, but not one diamond. Selendris has creatures of the sea, and she makes sure the diamonds never leave. Even one is said to be the most enchanting rock in the world.”

“Luckily, I don’t like shiny rocks or gold,” I mutter.

“You’re a thief,” Tracker points out.

I shrug. “I was always stealing for a reason, not because of greed. I sold anything pretty I had.” Except for the locket from my parents, but that is gone and destroyed now too, and I hate how sad it makes me feel. It’s just a thing, it’s not them.

Chaos is barking orders again, and Tracker hands the wheel to Ren, neither of them commenting on what I told them about what I stole. Tracker stands as still as Ren against the storm and turns to Ren. “My magic isn’t working here.”

“Brilliant,” Ren growls, turning to me. “Come here.”