As we left the palace, I saw numerous people walking into its direction. Although I was fuming with anger, I felt grateful not to be in their shoes. Verdi’s hand clenched my wrist, and his other hand was pushing my back. I turned around, and a sharp pain went through my wrist as a result.

“I am perfectly capable of walking on my own."

“I am just making sure you will not flee,” said Verdi grimly.

“Where would I go?”

“I would not know, which is exactly why I am trying to prevent it." 

He didn’t look at me, instead he seemed like he was searching for something. We were passing the tents of the guards again, but a fog had covered the island.

“Where are we going?”

“I am not going to take you to the cells, although I will probably have to think of a very good excuse for it later.”

“And now you suddenly are concerned for my well-being.”

Verdi sighed.

“You know very well how concerned I am.”

I scoffed.

He suddenly stood still, pulling me back in the process, I almost fell, but he pulled me up, grinning. I janked myself away from him. 

“Well, you should not be, you should be concerned for my mother instead.”

“To put it bluntly, I do not care for your mother, only for you,” he said angrily.

“How romantic.”

“I am glad you are bringing up romance , Jane,” he said wickedly.

“I bet you are,” I said dryly, “so, where exactly are we going?”

“We are going back to the shore, and hope for the best.”

He was silent during the rest of the way back.

It became clear to me why we were headed to the shore when we got there. The white tower was high and imposing, looking down on us, as if it had been waiting all along. The ship was still lying behind it, but it was now empty. The golden siren figure shone in the light of the setting sun. 

Verdi opened the wooden door, decorated with small ships, to the tower, revealing a simple staircase. The stairs itself was very large, and my legs ached after a few minutes.

“Are you starting to get tired, Jane?”

I didn’t answer him, fearing my breathing would give my tiredness away. When we at last reached the upstairs, I was surprised by the amount of light that came from the large windows. The room seemed to be in contact with the sun itself, which was currently setting. Four red leather chairs were placed in the middle of the room around a wooden table. The table itself displayed a mug and a plate, which was empty, but a few crumbs had remained from a previous meal. Behind the table was a fireplace which was currently empty, but stacks of pots and pans were abandoned next to it. What really drew my attention, however, was the huge velvet chest in the corner of the room, a lock kept the content hidden. When Verdi stepped into the room, he shoved the pots and pans aside to reveal a stack of firewood, and got to work. In the process of trying to light a fire, his gaze suddenly fell on the chest in the corner, and a longing expression appeared on his face.

I followed his gaze, and discovered a flag against the wall. The symbols, a classic death’s head with crossed bones, made the origins of the inhabitant of the tower at once very clear to me. I thought of Verdi’s longing gaze, and the tattoo on his neck.

“I hate you,” I spat.

I had thought I could have moved past Verdi’s lies and his deceptions all in the name of my own well-being. But now he had taken it too far.

“You never were an unwilling victim to the sirens, were you?”

“I never claimed-”

“You didn’t need to! You made your intentions towards me very clear, all the while not speaking a word about Niobe, or about your origins at all. You do not care for me at all. You were a pirate weren’t you? Seeking new adventures perhaps? And when you finally got bored of it all, you decided to create a distraction from your imprisonment.”

Verdi gritted his teeth, and got up from the fire-place. The fire was lighted, and growing larger, as it got darker outside. The flames were mirrored in Verdi’s eyes, making him seem even more furious than he already was.

“You do me great injustice by accusing me of this all, Jane. At it is not just my fault by being unclear to you. But I will make my past and current intentions very clear to you now.”

He stood before me, and I realised I had backed away from him, and was standing right beneath the flag. I looked up at his eyes, and realised that despite his vagueness and cruelness, I was very happy to be in his proximity.

“I was a pirate for many years, under the order –for a lack of a better word- of Marcin. I was greedy, young and idealistic. Almost as soon as we heard of Bone Island, we ventured there, but not because of the beautiful, terrifying sirens that were waiting for us there, but because we knew that their ability to lure ships certainly would result in great riches stranding there. And who believed in sirens anyway? I did not, at least, until I saw her.”

He sighed. A sigh, I suggested, he had been holding back for years.

“Niobe had once loved a mortal, and had two children, and this unconditional love she has for them, made me suspect that perhaps sirens weren’t as cruel as one might think. I wasn’t completely wrong in making this assumption, but I wasn’t completely right either. However, these realisations came many years too late, when I had already sworn myself to her.”

“Not that she is married to him, but there are men who make promises to sirens, and those are binding. If he will abandon my mother, he will die.”

I remembered Asni’s words, and I lifted my hand, to hide a tear that threatened to leave my eye.

Verdi meanwhile tugged at his shirt, to reveal the wing tattoo on his neck.

“This brand ensures that I will die if I betray her by leaving this island with no intentions of ever returning. So, in a sense, you are much more of a free creature than I am.”

I sniffed.

“That is such an unfair thing to say,” I said, looking past him, refusing to meet his gaze.

“But you will listen to all that I have to say,” Verdi said.

“The first years with Niobe were spent in a dream world, but the first time they let me off the island, was when I realised how twisted my life had become. Ever since, I have desired to escape, but found myself wretchedly incapable of doing so. Marcin, and all the members of my crew are in the same situation.”

“Except they have not made extra promises.”

I tried to cover my tears, but he tugged my hands away from my face, and lifted my chin. My face was consumed by anger.

“That is true Jane, but you have to believe the fact that, despite my past mistakes, despite my scandalous behaviour, I do love you, and I am trying to protect you. I now realise that I should never have taken you to this island. I have, after all these years still not learned to control my desires.”

I thought my chest was going to explode from the pressure it was experiencing.

“I hate you still,” I said, my voice hoarse, “but despite it all, I cannot bear the thought of having never met you. I do not regret my journey to this place. Neither does the fact that my mother is being lured back here make my wretched feelings for you any weaker.”

“I know that. I have known from the beginning, and the worst thing about this is that I have now committed myself to helping you get out, despite the consequences I may face.”

I smiled, although I still felt like crying.

“Does your promise to Niobe specify your conduct to other women?”

Verdi’s forehead touched mine, and his dark eyes glinted mischievously, while trying to look innocent. My senses registered nothing else but him. 

“I am afraid it does not,” he breathed, before embracing me, and kissing me in a deliciously slow manner.