The Siren's Curse ✓

35. One Terrible Accident

"Sure." I nodded before following him to the upper deck where his hammock was. I didn't know why he brought me with him so I stayed quiet and waited for him to speak first.

Instead of saying anything, he moved past his hammock over to the wooden mast it was tied to. He glanced at me before he brought his hand up to pull something out of a small, carved out hole in the wood. His fingers were wrapped around a thin, rolled up paper. The map.

"Why are you showing me where you hid it? I thought you wanted to use it to feel more secure about us keeping our end of the deal?"

He shrugged, beginning to unfold it. "I trust you," he said as he spread the map out against the mast for us to view it.

There were two different pencil marks. One, which circled a spot on some tiny island, was labeled 'dirty pirate'. The other, circling an unfamiliar beach on a large, main body of land, was labeled 'kitten'.

The corner of my lips tilted up in a half-smile. "You really love calling me that, don't you?"

"No, of course not," he responded sarcastically, still holding the map up. "I just call you that all the time while secretly hating it."

"Sassy."

"It's my specialty."

"So we head northwest then, right? Last we checked the map, we were around here," I stepped closer, pointing to the general area we were currently in. My shoulder brushed his and I felt his gaze scanning my profile.

"Yeah, northwest," he mumbled.

"Okay, let's go tell Taehyung then," I said while turning to head back down.

"Wait," he caught my wrist and I stopped short, heart skipping for a second. "Aren't you curious about yours?"

I swallowed, gently removing my arm from his grasp. "I'm dreading it."

"Why?" he inquired, tilting his head to the side.

Biting my lip, I debated whether it was a good time to tell him or not. "Because I know exactly what it is. Or rather who it is, and I don't know if I'm ready to face them yet." I owed him my story. I'd been putting it off long enough. "I want to resolve things between my mother and sister. I want their forgiveness."

"Forgiveness for what?"

"For killing my stepfather," I answered quietly.

Jimin was silent for a while.

"He's who you killed before you jumped?"

"Yes... I still need to tell you what happened," I said, meeting his wary gaze.

"Only when you're ready," he replied softly.

"I'll tell you tonight then. I've been putting it off long enough."

After we'd agreed to meet up later that night, Jimin left to inform Taehyung where we were headed. I did my part in handling the ship, and as soon as we were steady, I was directed by Hoseok and Jin to go back to bed and get some rest.

I dozed for most of the day, occasionally tossing and turning when I wondered about both Yoongi's destination and my own. But there was one thought that continued to plague me more than any other, and that was the question of what would happen when Jimin finished his end of the deal.

When he had offered to bring us to our greatest desires, Jimin asked in return that I let him use my blood to become human. He said that as soon as he finished taking us to all our locations, he would go off on his own and live his life as a human.