Chapters (51)
- Title Page
- Copyright Notice
- Dedication
- PROLOGUE
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- THIRTY-NINE
- FORTY
- FORTY-ONE
- FORTY-TWO
- EPILOGUE
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- Also by Adrienne Young
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- Newsletter Sign-up
The feel of my mother was close. Lurking all around us. And maybe she was. She could have dropped the stone into the sea, but she didn’t. She’d kept it even though she never came back to the skerry. And I couldn’t help but think that she’d kept it, maybe for me. That maybe she’d given me my name so that one day, I’d find it.
West took the stone from my hand, turning it so it glittered. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“No one has,” I whispered.
He looked up at me then, a question in his eyes. “What do you want to do?”
Midnight was like the dawn of a new world. It would change everything. I didn’t know if the Narrows was ready for that. I didn’t know if I was ready for that. A rueful smile broke on my lips as he set the stone back into my hand. “What if we do nothing?”
“What?”
Midnight had called my mother to it. At the right time, it had called me too. “What if we leave it here? Like she did.”
“Forever?” Beads of light moved over West’s face.
I looked around us, to the sparkling walls of the cave. “Until we need it.” And we would.
He thought about it, holding the wet hair back from his face with one hand. “We have the Lark.”
“We have the Lark,” I repeated, smiling wider. It was more than we needed to start our trade route. More than we needed to fill the hull of the Marigold with inventory, and establish a post.
West took a step toward me, and when I tipped my head back, he kissed me softly. “Back to the Narrows?”
The taste of salt lit on my tongue as I repeated the words against his lips. “Back to the Narrows.”
EPILOGUE
The masts creaked against the push of wind, the sails of the Marigold unfolding like wings.
I stood at the bow, watching the deep blue water rush beneath the ship. We were soaring over the sea so fast that when I looked up, Jeval was already upon us.
“Let’s bring her in!” West shouted from the helm. “Strike all sails!”
Paj and Auster climbed the masts, letting out the downhauls so the ship would slow, and Hamish unlocked the anchor crank.
I took the length of line at the foot of the foremast and secured it, my eyes on the barrier islands. They were like black, jagged teeth. The blue waves crashed in a spray against them, rolling in with the high winds. The docks I’d known in my time on Jeval were gone, replaced by what looked like a small harbor. Huge beams of wood rose out of the water, making twelve ship bays.
In the distance, I could see a small skiff headed toward it from shore.