^“What are you doing, Cassy?” I whisper, and she jumps. I laugh quietly as she looks around at me and puts a finger to her lips. I nod and move next to her as she hides behind the barrels in the room. I came down to get some spare blankets we have down here and found her hiding. She points to the hole between the barrels, and I look through just as I hear voices.

“Ha, I win,” Roger says, sitting and playing chess with Livvy. I watch as Livvy blushes and tucks a bit of her hair behind her ear.

“Can we play again? And maybe you could teach me that move?” Livvy asks.

“I’d love to show you, Olivia,” Roger says, and then he clears his throat. I lean back, and Cassy takes my hand, leading us up the stairs and into the corridor before she speaks.

“They are so sweet, don’t you think?” she says with a cheeky grin. Cassandra looks lovely today, more relaxed and happy than I’ve ever seen her. Truly stunning. Her hair is down, longer than it’s ever been because she has taken all the braids out except the one with the brown feather. I glance at her tight clothes, long boots, and the shiny, green necklace that stands out on her chest.

“They have become close, but I guess that’s because they’re similar in age.” I say, and she nods.

“Do you know why Roger is a permanent member of this ship?” I ask her, and she shakes her head. I take her hand in mine and lead her down the ship, pushing the door to my bedroom open. I sit down on the bed, and she sits next to me. I like how relaxed she is around me now, around us all.

“We found Roger in the middle of the lost sea. His family had lived on a tiny island there for years, maybe as long back as when everything was destroyed,” I tell her. I remember the journey well, we were looking for something but never found it. A crown, said to have power enough to destroy the King. Instead, we only found shipwrecks and dangerous waters. We will have to go back, but we need to find out more information about the lost crown before we do that. The Lost Sea is full of mermaids, they have their own city under the water. They wouldn’t let us near the sunken ship we needed, the one said to have the crown.

“How did they survive?” she asks.

“They had coconut trees and built some kind of tunnel to get fresh water. Honestly, they were lucky until the mermaids found them,” I say.

“Mermaids?” she asks with wonder.

“I haven’t seen one, but Roger has, they killed all of his family and he escaped in a boat. When we found him, he was close to death,” I say, remembering the stick-thin shell of a boy we found.

“So, why does he stay on board?” she asks me.

“He says he wants to learn to fight like us and avenge his family by killing the mermaids that killed them. I don’t blame him, but he is foolish to think he has a chance against them. So we keep him close and make sure he doesn’t do anything foolish on his own.” I tell her.

“What do you do for fun, Jacob?” she asks me, lying back on the bed. I watch her quietly before pulling the box out from under my bed. I lay it on the bed and open it as she sits up.

“What are those?” she asks, looking at the three long crystals in the box. They glow blue and sometimes move, but that’s only when we get close to the mermaids.

“They’re called mermaid hearts,” I tell her and she looks at me strangely before looking back at the crystals. She goes to touch one, and I grab her hand.

“You can’t touch them, not you.” I say, looking at her mark, and she nods.

“These can heal people and are said to be made by the Sea God for the mermaids. I don’t know if that’s true, but I had four of them, and when Roger was dying, I pressed it against his heart, and he lived. The crystal disappeared the moment it touched him,” I tell her.

“That’s amazing,” she says, and I shut the box. I slide it under the bed and look at her.

“I collect rare things, I have others I could show you if you want?” I ask her, and she nods, with a small smile. We spend the rest of the night looking at the things I’ve collected, and she doesn’t seem to get bored of me. When I fall asleep later that night, I know I found the rarest thing in the world when I jumped into that ocean after her.