Baddie Alina and slightly better Darkling?
What if Alina and stayed the night of the winter fete instead of running away? What if she had chosen the Darkling over Mal? What if the Malina ship sank fast and the Darklina ship sailed?
All these charact...
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I woke up chained to a wall with no idea how I got there.
Struggling with the heavy chains, I attempted to sit up. The last thing I remembered was leaning in to kiss Alina, her shoving me away, and her elbow coming toward my face... and then nothing.
Looking around, I saw that I was in a barred cell barely large enough for me to lie down in. It was dimly lit, lanterns swaying gently with the rocking of the floor. None were within my reach, however. From what I could tell, I was still on the ship, in what I could only assume to be below the deck. I could see the dim outlines of cannons and three-layered bunk beds.
Footsteps thumped down the stairs in an uneven gait. My gaze flicked to the stairway. A lean boy with high cheekbones, younger than me by two or three years, came limping down the stairs, wearing gloves and leaning heavily on a cane. "You're awake," stated a gravelly voice.
"Awake and chained to a wall," I called back. "How about letting me out? Or you could at least tell me why I'm here."
The boy walked over, chains jangling. "Wouldn't you rather have our dear Ms. Starkov explain it to you?"
He used her name. Her name, not mine. That got my attention. Jerking to my feet, regardless of the chains, I demanded, "What did you do to her? Where is she?"
With a raspy chuckle, he replied, "I think you misunderstand. Alina is up on deck. It is almost noon, after all. She spent the night in a comfortable bed one floor up, and now she's learning how to steer the ship. Now, I'll let you out, but first, you must understand something. If you attack me, you're dead. The whole crew has orders to throw you overboard if you make one wrong move, and I hear tell that there are sharks in these waters. Also, there's no land within 50 miles since we're meeting someone very special on their ship, and not on land."
He opened the cell door and unlocked my chains. Rubbing my wrists, I stood. "Where's Alina?"
"Like I said, up on deck. And if you're hungry, you know where the galley is."
Brushing past him without uttering a word of thanks for freeing me, I ran up the stairs to the main deck, grabbing an apple out of the galley on my way up. Reaching the open air, I blinked, blinded by the bright sun glaring off the water. There was indeed no land in sight, and, as the boy had said, Alina was at the back of the boat. She was up by the helm, laughing at something Jesper, who was standing next to her, had just said. She had her hair out of the braid she had kept it in while we were in Kerch, and he pulled it playfully. A sphere of light encased his hand, and he waved it around, acting distressed. She laughed again, and the sun glared at me from the water below. Frowning, I walked toward Alina. Ascending the flight of stairs, I reached the helm and Alina looked at me, releasing Jesper's hand.
"I hope you don't have a headache. I tried not to hit you hard enough to give you a bad one, at least." She smiled apologetically, not looking sorry at all.
