When All is Lost

12.

While waiting for a moment with my father, I listen to the air sprites who support the ship. Their calls are different from the shadows, softer, like breath. I smile as I feel them venture closer, one or two breaking off to caress my face and arms.

"What are you doing?" Nate asks, appearing beside me, amusement dripping from his voice, and two glasses of water in his hands.

"The air sprites are saying hello," I whisper, scared of disrupting the timid sprites.

"Of course they are." He turns leaning on the rail of the ship.

Turning to him I forget about the air sprites, letting them get back to work. He looks young, arms crossed, dark curls pushed back.

"Food's ready if you're hungry." My father interrupts us and Nate grins disappearing to grab us bowls of soup.

My dad and I stay by the rail, watching the city appear below us.

"Do I have to go back?" I finally ask.

My dad doesn't look at me, instead, he fixes his gaze on the palace looming into view.

"Yeah, you do." He wraps his big arm around me and pulls me in tight. The affection giving me the strength to leave him again.

"Are you spying on Adam?" Seeing James wandering the ship has my back up.

My dad laughs, "No, why would I?" He pauses and raises his eyebrow, "Should we be?"

"No." I decide not to mention the James thing, I'll catch him at the bar next time we go in and find out what his version of all this is.

Quickly I tell my father everything I heard from Tommy about how close he's getting to discovering that I am the leak in the palace. He offers me little more than a sigh and a tsk before the Prince returns with some strange looking soup.

We are both so hungry that we eat it without asking what it is. By the time we are finished neither of us cares, it was delicious and hot, who cares what went in it?

We arrive at the docks and slip off the ship. I nod to James as he offers his hand to help me from the ship. He seems oddly out of place and yet incredibly at home with the rest of the crew.

"Thanks for not saying anything." He mutters to me as I pass by, and I glance back surprised.

Maybe it is a genuine attachment.

I thank as many of the crew as I can, our journey has been so slick and I'd like to endear them to me so they don't talk. My father assures me they won't, but still, a smile never hurts anyone.

Nate speaks with the healers in the house as I speak with the crew and by the time we leave he has promised to send further funds and medicines to them. By now I'm on first name terms with half the pirates and there's talk of a card game in our future. I grin as he meets me at the door.

"What?" He asks, sleep deprivation is showing on his face and in the way his body moves, and I roll out my neck.

"Nothing, just, you made friends with the doctors and I made friends with pirates." I grin, heading out into the courtyard.

"Typical" He mumbles, and I laugh into my coat. The smell is vile, and I can't wait to get home, somewhere in my future there must be a bed.

Even the thought of my bed brings a blush to my cheeks, thank goodness it's dark, I wonder if Nate expects to join me. What are we now?

Nothing, I remind my wandering mind. We are nothing, with no future.

Prickling on my neck has me searching the shadows ahead of us, I hear a rustling and am immediately on guard. Nate must have missed it, but he shifts his stance when he sees me react.