Page 274 of Hidden Tide

I look toward the ambulance where Mom and my sisters wait.

“What does the compass point to?”

“Not what,” Captain Marquez whispers. “Who.”

Before I can ask another question, the medic closes the ambulance doors.

The sirens begin.

Ben leans against me.

In my palm, the small brass key catches the emergency lights.

Grandpa’s compass has led us across an ocean of lies.

Dad’s key will lead us to the truth.

But tonight, Simon is in custody.

Donald is in chains.

Naomi and the hostages are safe.

And the man I love came back to me.

For the first time in years, the tide has turned in our favor.

EPILOGUE

Calle

“Home is not the harbor where your journey ends. It is the person who makes every storm worth surviving.”

—James Sinclair

Three months later

Ben still watches me when he thinks I’m not looking.

He stands near the bow of the Sea Whisper with one hand resting on the rail. The wind moves through his dark hair, and the late-afternoon sun shines against the water behind him.

His injured leg has healed.

Mostly.

He still favors it when he first gets out of bed in the morning, although he insists that has nothing to do with the steel beam that nearly crushed it aboard the Argent Star.

According to Ben, it’s because my bed is too soft.

That excuse might be more convincing if he didn’t sleep in it every night.

“You’re staring at him again,” Storm says.

I look away from Ben.

“I’m making sure he isn’t doing anything he shouldn’t.”

“He’s standing.”