Aris leads me down the deck. He smiles gently. “I know things got off to a bumpy start on board, and I know this journey must be full of fear and pain for you. It’s certainly not the way you were hoping to explore the world. But we will get your father’s treasure back. And then we will have a real adventure.” He takes my hand in his. A tingling sensation runs up my arm. Unlike the gold, which always threatens to stop my heart, this feeling makes it beat faster. It makes me come alive.
“And,” he continues, “the first thing you need is a smile on your face.”
I try to offer him one, but we can both tell it’s forced. My encounter with Royce left me shaken in a way I’ve never felt before—no one has even spoken to me like that. I can’t decide if I should tell Aris, but I don’t want to taint that friendship for him, not when I know he has so few happy memories. I decide against it, instead bolstering my smile until I feel real happiness creep through me, becoming more powerful the longer I look into his gray eyes.
They’re soft and kind. They take on the reflection of the water around us, turning them a beautiful shade of gray-blue. There’s a brightness to them as well that seems to spill out into all aspects of his personality.
He can’t keep a silly grin off his face. “I knew you’d need a little help.” He cups my chin, then leans closer, and for a moment I think he’s going to kiss me.
Instead, he says, “That’s why I thought you’d like to dance.” He tilts my head until I can see several of the crew bringing out what I suppose pass for instruments. Thipps holds an accordion that wheezes when it opens and closes. Another sailor has a fiddle. “The men always think dancing on the first day appeases Triton and makes for a safer journey because if Triton’s happy then Poseidon must be. They hope that starting things out on the right foot will carry happiness into the days that lie ahead.”
Aris’s enthusiasm makes me want to say yes, but flashes of Lord Libton, one of my suitors, hightailing it from the dance floor fill my mind. And there’s the fact I can’t dance.
I shake my head.
Aris’s smile falters.
My heart drops. He’s going to think I don’t like him or that I’m ungrateful after all he’s done for me. I cast around for what I can say, how I can explain.
“Aris . . .” I start.
“No, I understand.” He clears his throat, taking my rejection in stride. “It’s only that I think it would be good for you.” His eyes search out mine. “The happiest I’ve ever been was when I was honored by a local tribe on the smallest of the Polliosaian Islands for saving several of their fishermen who’d been swept out to sea. They threw a great feast and wanted me to dance. I refused because I had no clue how to dance like they did, but do you know what their king said to me? He said, ‘In order to enjoy the dance, you don’t have to know all the steps. You just have to be part of it.’” He looks pointedly at me.
Before I can reply, the music strikes up, and a makeshift dance floor is cleared around the main mast.
Thipps has climbed into the rigging and dangles over all of us. The other musicians have situated themselves on various barrels.
Hettie must’ve gone back downstairs, as I don’t see her on deck. I hope she’s feeling better, but I also don’t want to be in the cabin with her if she’s going to be sick. That probably makes me a terrible cousin, but I try not to dwell on my guilt.
Slowly, other sailors abandon their tasks and take up positions around the musicians. Phipps lounges on a nearby barrel but begins slapping his knee and rising as the tune starts picking up speed. He’s the first one to meander onto the dance floor, where he kicks up his legs and spins in circles.
It isn’t a dance I recognize, but it’s enthralling because he looks so utterly free. He links arms with another sailor and spins around. Several men hoot and holler. Only Brus sits off to one side with his arms crossed. He keeps shooting me glares when he thinks I’m not looking. I ignore him.
Eventually I forget about Brus and everything else, the music loosening the tension I hadn’t known I’d been carrying in my shoulders. Everyone claps along in time with the music, and I join in. I find I can’t help but hope that Aris will ask me to dance once more because he may be right . . . it appears I need this. Don’t I deserve to feel happy? Free?
And as though the universe is making up for my curse all at once, I get my wish. Aris smiles before extending an arm and pulling me onto the dance floor. The men hoot louder. I catch snippets of Thipps and Phipps arguing about who’ll dance with me next.
After a moment to catch the tempo, Aris loops one arm around my waist and takes my hand with his free one. We twirl across the deck like two untouchable stars twinkling as sunlight glints off the sea around us.
A laugh escapes my lips and is taken by the breeze running over the ship. I can barely feel Aris’s arm against my back, and yet it’s there, constant, reassuring, always guiding. I forget about my skin, my gloves, my cloak, my need for anonymity. I lose myself in the moment, happy and free.
We sweep across the deck as the melody heightens. We spin faster and faster. I close my eyes and let the song cast its web over me, knowing that if I stumble, Aris is there.
The music reaches a crescendo. Aris pulls me close. My heart leaps forward in my chest. A grin spreads across his face. He lets me slip backward, leaning with me and catching me in a dip.
His chest touches mine, his face inches away. His eyes have taken on a new energy. His gaze shifts to my lips. We stay frozen in that moment, both breathing hard. He makes the slightest movement forward. I respond. Before our lips meet, a voice cries out from the crowd.
“Demon!”
The moment shatters. Everything shatters. I didn’t realize the music had stopped and that the deck had fallen into silence.
“Demon!” the voice cries with more urgency.
Aris quickly pulls me up. A breeze rustles my hair. My hand snaps to my hood, but it’s pooled around my neck, exposing my skin, exposing me.
“Throw her overboard,” Brus cries. He looks to his fellow sailors for support.
“Triton take us all,” one man curses. Or maybe he meant it as a prayer.
“I’ll take care of this,” Aris soothes. He tries to hide me behind him, while also putting his arms up in a gesture of peace.
“What’s going on?” Royce pushes into the circle. He takes in my fallen hood, and I see understanding click into place on his features.
But to my surprise, Royce doesn’t leap to Brus’s side. “Calm down, Brus,” he says. “This is King Midas’s daughter, and she’s not going to hurt anyone.” He shoots me a look as though to say, Don’t make any sudden movements. “She holds the purse strings for this journey.”
“She’s gotten to the captain too,” Brus shouts. “We’ve got to get her off the ship before she ensnares the rest of us with her magic.”
I open my mouth to protest that I won’t be ensnaring anyone, but I decide it’s better not to draw the men’s attention back to myself now that Royce has it.
Several men grumble and whisper among themselves.
“Look at her,” Brus pleads. “She’s cursed. She’ll curse us all.”
“Go back to your duties,” Royce says, and for once, I’m thankful for his gruff tone. “There’ll be no more dancing.”
The men stand there for a moment, and I can’t decide if they’ll obey him or not. After a few more heartbeats, the men slowly disperse.
Brus gives me a long glare as he stalks off.
I exhale. But it’s not over yet.
“Royce.” Aris steps forward, breathing hard. “Are you really going to let him get away with that?”
If I thought Royce’s eyes held unkindness when they looked at me, they hold pure hatred when they turn on Aris. “Watch yourself, Aris.”
Aris steps forward. “Kora’s life is more valuable than you’ll ever know. And if you can’t keep your crew in check, then I’ll be forced to.”
“I know how valuable she is,” Royce snaps. “Make no mistake about that.” His words cascade like ice over my body. I shiver.
The two men stare at each other for a moment. I sense they might come to blows right there, which I’m pretty sure will end the thinly veiled cooperation toward a common goal that we have now.
As much as I’d like to see the smugness knocked out of Royce, I still need him. I place my arm on Aris’s. He startles, seeming to remember I’m there for the first time.
“I suggest you two head downstairs and stay there while I try and clear this up with the crew,” Royce says. Then he charges off in the direction the men went.
Aris stares after him with a look sharper than a sword blade.
“It’s all right.” I put my hand on his arm to get his attention. The situation could have been much worse.
Aris exhales. “It’s not all right. You could have been hurt.” He swallows.
“I wasn’t,” I say.
“I won’t let anything like that happen again,” he vows. “I want you to feel safe.”
“I do,” I tell him. It’s true—I feel safe when I’m with him, and I never want that feeling to go away.