The night was dedicated to celebrating, in a way that reminded Alina of the night before. Pirates wanted an excuse for a party, she noticed.
Bonfires blazed along the coast line, and the sweetest fiddles melded with Genya's haunting soprano as the crews of the Court of Piracy sang along to only the most raucous sea shanties. They drank an entire bar's worth of rum and roasted fish as they retold the tales of the day, most exaggerated and more colorful than what had actually happened.
Alina had passed around a few times, and even danced with some of the pirates, now free in their human shapes under the moonlight.
But now she stood apart from them, looking to the moon over the water.
I'm glad we could help you.
The moon seemed to smile back at her.
Alina then heard something clink against the tip of her boot. She leaned down to remove a heart-shaped pearlescent scale set into a golden frame she could put on her golden chain, now absent of the medallion she'd known all of her life.
It was a last gift from the goddess, a last thank you for their quest.
And now it was all over. The mystery, the adventure. Alina knew where she came from. She knew the truth behind the ghost ships she had seen that night. She knew the answers to so many mysteries about the arcane in the New World and all the stories at sea.
And yet, it couldn't end here. She slid the stone on her golden chain and adjusted how it lay over her sharp collarbones.
Nikolai had been right, when he said that the sea had a way of waking appetites. It had always been there, her desire to explore and experience everything. But it had been amplified by being at sea.
She couldn't go back and marry the Commodore. She couldn't go back to being meek and quiet little Alina, who wore taffeta and did as the Governor said out of fear.
No, she was Alina Starkov, the daughter of the great Captain Daiyu and the navigator Starkov. She was the chosen of Luda, the Lady of the Water.
She would never deny that.
No, she would stay a member of the Volkvolny.
"What's that there?"
She turned to see Nikolai swaggering up to her, a bottle of rum in his hand. His cheeks were flushed—clearly he had been enjoying that he could eat and drink again.
"A thank-you gift." Alina held the scale up to the moonlight. She could only hope that Rusalye was not hurt to get it.
"Interesting." Nikolai took another swig of the rum, straight from the bottle. He offered it to her. "Care to share a drink with your king, Starkov?"
She merely raised her eyebrows. "Do you want me to take the rest of it?"
He said nothing, his grin curling further up his face.
Alina recognized the unspoken dare, and snatched the bottle from his hand, and downed the bottle in only a few gulps before thrusting it back in his hand.
Nikolai blinked, looking a little redder in the face as he examined the empty bottle. "Not a single drop!"
Alina ran her hand over her lips. "I recall you telling me I drank like a pirate on the first night I spent aboard the Volkvolny."
"Ah, good times," he teased.
The two fell into a comfortable silence for a moment.
"You've changed since then," he said, eyes clearer than they should have been. Alina suspected he was not quite the lightweight he claimed. "I suspect it will be strange, to see the proper lady disembark back where she started."
"Oh, I don't want to go back to Keramzin, I'd like to be rid of the Commodore," Alina said quickly.
"Then where will we take you, now that you've fulfilled your end of the bargain and then some?" There was something cautious, guarded even, about his expression.
"I was thinking I'd like to stay awhile, aboard the ship." Alina stuffed her hands into her pockets. She looked out to sea. "Learn to fight, become a real pirate. I think I'd like to better live up to my mother's legacy."
"Do you now?"
Alina bit her lip as she looked back to Nikolai. She was surprised to find her own yearning, her longing reflected back in his eyes.
"Don't you want me to stay?" It was bait, and the both of them knew it. Would he take it, or would he let her continue to flounder through the exchange?
His expression softened, growing more serious. "Of course I do."
She raised her eyebrows, just as he did before. "Is that all?"
"You are a cruel, cruel siren, Alina Starkov," he declared as he dropped the bottle onto the sand. He took her into his arms. "I want you to be my Pirate Queen. Well, fellow Pirate King."
Alina placed her hand on his cheek.
"Well?" He prompted.
She did not answer him. Instead, she grabbed the lapels of his long-coat and pulled him down into a kiss.
"That's one hell of a way to say yes," he mumbled when they broke apart.
Alina found herself laughing. "I suppose we are an overdramatic pair."
"But that's where all the real fun is." Nikolai winked.
Then he looked past her, to the crowded beach.
"You know, the Volkvolny is empty, right now." He gave her a sly grin. "It would be easy to slip into my cabin, without anybody knowing."
"You are a corrupting influence, Nikolai!" She grinned, before sparing the distracted pirates one last glance. "I suppose a pirate romance would be incomplete without that sort of ending."
Nikolai gestured towards the gangplank. "Then by all means, lead the way."