Page 82 of Anomalies

I didn’t survive anything; I was saved. But I don’t correct her.

She urges me up her porch steps. “Pax and Phoenix got out what they could when the flames got low enough, but they didn’t get much.” Gemma unlocks the door to her cabin, and I follow her inside, instantly spotting the ash tracked across her floor that leads to a small pile of my things. “They got mostly clothes and a few pairs of shoes.” She points to the boots I wore for the first Selumira; the brown ones with pointed toes and tiny designs embroidered in gold. “I went back this morning just in case, but I couldn’t find anything else.”

The picture of my mother.

“Thank you,” I say on a heavy exhale and when I turn back to face her, she has a change of clothes extended out to me.

Gemma’s silent as I get dressed, and when I reach for my boots, I catch her staring at me. “I’ve never seen him like that before, Cin.”

“Like what?” I feign confusion, but I know exactly what she’s talking about. I think I broke the Captain just now. But I don’t care. I can’t care. “G, he never sent my letter.”

Her tanned skin pales, and her mouth falls open. “What do you mean?”

“I found it in his office. He said he forgot.”

“Forgot!” she shouts, completely stunned. “He forgot?! Oh, I’m going to⁠—”

“I don’t need you to do anything, Gemma. It’s done. I’m going to figure out some other way to get that letter to them.” Even if I have to hold Pax at knifepoint to do it.

Gemma twists her lips to the side, anger still simmering in her blue eyes. “Well, how can I help?”

I don’t deserve her.

“First, we’re getting breakfast,” I tell her. “Then we’re getting drunk.”

Her eyes are bright in wicked amusement, the second the words leave my lips. “By the lake?” Gemma asks, but she’s already reaching for the drawer her swimsuits are in.

The last time we did this, Pax had to carry me back to the cabin after Gemma and I spent ten hours roasting in the summer sun and drinking our body weight in some fruity cocktail she made. We haven’t wasted a day away since, but gods do I need it.

Is it the best way to deal with my problems? No. Not at all.

But it will numb them.

Some of my best plans have been conjured in the blissful state where nothing else matters.

20

LUCINA

The Captain wasn’t at breakfast, and Gemma and I didn’t bother eating lunch, not when whatever pineapple concoction she made for us went straight to our heads and the desire to move fled with the passing breeze.

Only when my eyes glossed over did that pain in my chest ease, and thankfully I’ve managed to stay in that sweet spot ever since, but the sun is starting to set over the tree line and our drinks are getting low… and Gemma⁠—

“G.” I turn to look at her, propping myself up on my elbows, and she smiles widely, pulling down her sunglasses to look at me.

“Yes, baby?” she drawls slowly, her voice like honey.

Yeah… drunk.

“We skipped lunch,” I tell her, peeling myself up and off the towel, my head spinning with the movement. “We can’t skip dinner.”

“Who says?” Gemma turns up her chin, finishing off the rest of her drink.

“I say.”

Gemma doesn’t move a muscle.

I roll my eyes up to Pax, who’s sitting on the edge of the dock. “Nuh-uh,” he shakes his head, jabbing a finger at me. “You promised me I wouldn’t have to carry either of you back.”