Prologue
I gasped as a man stepped into the candlelight. Gone was his beard and long black hair. His identity as the Pirate no longer existed. From him, Jacob Kramer emerged from the shadows and began to live again.
“Jacob?” I asked in shock when I recognize his face. It couldn’t be Jacob.
“It’s me, Anna.” He said softly and extended his arms out to me.
I ran to him. His arms engulfed my small frame and hugged me tightly to him. My face found a perfect place to nestle on his shoulder. I breathed his scent into me. He smelled like a mixture of wood and the sea, something much different than I remembered. Large tears fell from my face as I cried into his chest. I clung to this moment with Jacob as if it would last forever.
“Did you ….paint all these paintings of me?” I whispered as I stared at them.
Jacob nodded his head. “I did. I didn’t want to forget the beautiful blonde I risked my life for. You look like Regina, but I recognize your soul.”
I pulled my face out of his shoulder and wiped my tears away. “They told me you were dead.”
“Who told you?” He asked me as his hands attempted to wipe away my tears.
“Katie. She said Judge Slider signed your death certificate. You died in Caterpillar Canyon.”
“I never went to Caterpillar Canyon. Slider sent me to Silence Island. I was a prisoner there until William busted me out.”
“The Island? Why did he send you there?”
“Do you remember the night you rescued Sarah from Miss Maxine in the attic of the Academy? I saw you leave your room that night and followed you to the attic. I was the guard who saw you hiding in the shadows. I snuck into the attic the secondary way, put on one of the uniforms, and allowed you to get the upper hand against Miss Maxine. Once Miss Maxine discovered me, I ended up on the Island. When I was there ….something made me forget who I was. I couldn’t remember, not even the night Sarah and I burned down the Academy. Only when I saw you just now did I finally remember who I am. But tell me about my sister. Where is she? My parents?”
I muttered a vulgar word to myself when he asked the dreaded questions. I did not want to be the one to tell him about his family, but there was no one else. “Um, Katie and your mother is alive ….I think, but your father passed on. I don’t know when he died. Oh, Jacob! How did you survive all these years? How are you alive?”
“Are Katie and my mother still in Lee?”
“I think so. They were when I was taken. She was Regina’s best friend, you know. Even though she was forced to betray her all those times, Katie never stopped being her friend. We’ll get them back, Jacob. I promise.”
“I know we will. I’m ….just happy to heat they’re alive. After all these years, I thought they were dead. I thought I was an orphan.” He chuckled. I saw tears brimming along his eyes. He did not wish to cry in front of me, so he spoke quickly. “Um, after William helped me escape the Island, I became a Whisper. It’s Slider’s curse on them that keeps me alive, but I didn’t think it kept anyone else alive.”
I laughed. “How could something that evil old man did turn into something so wonderful?”
He took my hands into his and played with my fingers. “It is wonderful, isn’t it? The moment Queen Veronica told me about you, and your resurrected soul, I felt something come to life inside my heart.”
“I never stopped loving you, Jacob, even when I was forced to be Regina. I tried dating other boys, but no one seemed good enough to me. I guess I subconsciously did not want to be with anyone else besides you.”
“That is a very romantic idea, my love.” He smiled at me.
I kept my body pressed to Jacob’s. I felt lost in this moment and did not want it to end. Time clicked away the minutes as Jacob and I stood together, refusing to let one another go. I pushed my chin up so Jacob could kiss me, but the notion finally hit me. “Jacob, what did you say about the Academy? You and Sarah burned it down?”
He turned his face down to look away from me. I saw the shame in his actions. “We did.”
“Why?” I asked.
He sat down on the chair that matched my vanity table. I saw him take a deep breath. “When you were Regina, Sarah and I went to the Academy to find out if Slider took you there. He was not there, but Corrine was.”
“Corrine?” I asked fearfully.
“Yes, your first group roommate. Apparently, she tried to possess Sarah when we attended the Academy.”
“I suspected as much.”
“The necklace you gave to Sarah stopped Corrine from succeeding. Corrine told us as punishment for failing to kill you, your necklace was placed on her. It ….turned her body into a monster.”
I gasped. “My necklace? The one with the jade heart?”
He shook his head. “She was chained in the attic and forced to wear the necklace. It seems that Corrine was tasked with the duty of murdering you, but she couldn’t. So, she possessed Sarah to do it for her.”
I took a deep breath. “What did I do to Corrine that would make her want to kill me?”
“She didn’t want to, per se. She told me her mother made her do it.”
“I wonder who Corrine’s mother was.” I wondered out loud, not expecting Jacob to know the answer.
Jacob trembled as he shook his head. “Miss Maxine.”
Thunder clapped somewhere nearby. It shook the ground we lived in. “Miss Maxine was Corrine’s mother?”
I wanted to say I knew my old first year roommate, but the fact was Corrine did not tell me where she came from or anything about her parents. It would certainly explain the oddities I encountered with her at the Academy. My mind could not grasp that a girl so young would be capable of such violent acts. I denied what Jacob said to me by shaking my head, but he insisted it was true. “I assume Corrine spoke the truth. Remember the year Sabrina was attacked at the Academy? Sarah confided in me that it was her who attacked Sabrina, but Corrine made her do it. Now, I think you were the target, not Sabrina.”
I whispered, “When we were roommates, Corrine mentioned that Sabrina was not meant to be the victim. I didn’t think she meant me. Miss Maxine must have been under the orders of Judge Slider.”
“It’s possible. Anyway, in the attic, Corrine taunted Sarah about it, and um ….she kind of lit Corrine on fire.”
I opened my eyes wide, but it was not enough to express the shock I felt. “Sarah ….did what?”
Jacob’s voice reached a lower tone as he said, “Sarah burned Corrine alive.”
I brought my hand to my mouth to cover my gasp. Behind my hand, I asked, “How could Sarah do that, even to someone horrible like Corrine?”
“Anna, the Whispers are good people but something bad lives within us. It feels like evil lives and breathes inside me, and Sarah, like ….we don’t have a choice.”
Jacob’s words frightened me. I looked deep into his eyes. I saw so many tragedies there, and death. “We always have a choice, Jacob. We just have to make the right one.”
He laughed. “Oh, how I’ve missed you, Anna. There are not many optimists left.”
I hugged Jacob closed to me. As his body pressed into mine, I felt the darkness clinging to his soul. I vowed to help Jacob and Sarah escape it once again.