Imperfect Hearts

IMPERFECT HEARTS

Book Three in the Guardian Series

By Caylen D. Smith

Copyright 2016 Caylen D. Smith

Smashwords Edition

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DEDICATION

To Those Who Love the Sea

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Nine

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First, I must thank my mother. You are the real VIP and always my number one supporter. You deal with the super hard work (very painful indeed). Like WOW! Golden sticker. But then there is my Aunt Gina, now that is a VIP too for all her love and support…my grandmother is too a VIP. Picking one to be my VIP is actually a hard decision. So, they can hash it out on their own. I’ll rent an arena and all that good stuff. The last one standing will be the TRUE VIP. That settles it quite well I believe.

Also, I thank the ones who make this possible, Deborah Raney, the blessed editor, and Daniela Owergoor, the brilliant digital artist. I couldn’t have done this without you two.

I do thank dearly my other family members for reading my series. You support me in your own special way, so you get a copper star. Love you!

To my friends, as well, who always ask questions and have bright faces whenever they talk to me about my work and writing this series and others. You make my day.

And lastly, thank you to those special people for picking up this book, and those who have been here since Aly got her debut. It truly brings joy to my heart. Thank you for the positive vibes.

CHAPTER ONE

I loved the sea. Just like my mother and her mother before her. And sometimes I believed I was born between the waves. This separate world is more than water. Its beauty, its vast unknown possibilities. There are two sides of the sea. The first was rather the embellished part. As for the other, it is ruthless, unpredictable, and cunning in every way possible—just like its people.

This is pathetic. Look at yourself—could the captain truly accept such a runt? There, in all his conniving glory stood one of the most ruthless of them all. Pete. A crew member of one of the notorious pirates of the Eight Seas. No sword dwelled in his hand. No sharp tool between his fingers, only barely bruised knuckles that have struck me time and time again.

Blood dripped down my nose, and the metallic taste filled my mouth. On my knees, I gripped my stomach and coughed once as I glanced up to the brightness of the sun. The sails of crimson colors whipped against the ocean breeze. The wooden planks groaned from being pelted by the waters below.

All my life, I have known to never trust a pirate. My city, the city that raised me to be a pristine woman, knew with all its stone and buildings that a pirate was nothing but a no good thief and scoundrel who cared for no one but the ocean and the glittering of gold.

I wonder, after all this time living in the same wooden ship with the lot of them, what my people back home would think of me now.

Weak-kneed, I managed to straighten myself and spit the excess blood piling between my cheeks. I wiped the drip slipping down my chin, examining the dark crimson glistening in the sun. He let you on this ship, so what makes me any different?

True, Pete might be a few years older than I, but I wouldn’t count him the most reliable of pirates to keep up a fight. Though I have heard whispers along the ship of how he was skilled with a knife or two.

His dark eyes narrowed, and the ocean breeze blew those onyx locks of his. If I didn’t know any better, I would have believed he was born as one of the shadow children told of in stories during the winter months.

I thought Captain Walker wanted you to teach her how to handle herself, came a calm voice from across the deck. Most of the pirates busied themselves with their morning duties, but the one with his dark blond hair tied back and set jaw seemed not to care about why everyone grew interested in Pete and me lashing it out so early in the day. The first mate stopped in his tracks and held his hands behind his back, staring hard at Pete. She is bleeding everywhere.

This was the most confusing part. To tell if some of the pirates on this ship cared for me. For as it would seem with the first mate, Jon, his main concern was my blood, slipping unwillingly out of my mouth, onto his captain’s ship.

Pete sneered. These were captain’s orders.

I straightened my shoulders, and the heat crept along my neck. You are playing dirty! How do you expect me to learn anything at all, when all you do is keep that lip of yours shut and throw punches!

This would not be the first lessons given to me by Pete. It was bad enough that I was not of the male persuasion, and Pete was taking every advantage of that fact. I’d even heard him grumbling about how unfortunate it was, him having to deal with a runt on this ship. He knew he had to endure the best of it since Captain Walker’s instructions were to teach me as much as needed so he didn’t have to fish my dead carcass out of the water if there were to ever be a battle between enemies. Walker might have agreed to help me find the one person stolen from me…but this didn’t mean I could last a single day on this ship and not contribute something.

His promise might last for a while with his fellow pirate, Tamar, now a leader of the gypsies, but for me that was a different story.

Sometimes I believe Walker knew of the tension between me and his navigator, Pete. Somewhere on this ship he enjoyed seeing me collapse over and over again on this rolling sea.

Enough, Alexandria, Jon said harshly. I think your lesson with Pete is done for the day. You both can go and continue with your duties.

I pressed my lips together and sent my gaze to Pete who didn’t so much as glance my way. How many more days will I have to endure this just so I can find—

Get going, girl, Pete snapped. Clean yourself up too.

I spat once at his feet. Be careful there. I might actually begin to think you care.

He stalked off, not saying a word, but I could see the tension in his shoulders, how his muscles contorted with every step he took farther away from me. Each step, knowing he couldn’t connect his fist to my face. His good behavior with me was only so he could continue this training, so he has an open chance to greet me with his punches. The loathsome pirate.

The first mate stepped closer and handed me a towel.

I took it gratefully and tried to rid my face of the blood and sweat. Yes, as a daughter of the Republic City, I have gone through the training courses inside of the living quarters. But it was nothing from the sorts like this. I never spilt this much blood. Maybe broken a sweat, or twisted an ankle. But never blood.

Staring at the stains on the towel, for the first time, I realized the trembling wasn’t the ship against the current, but my own body from the duel. I’d had worse. I’d been through so much more.

Gripping the worn cloth once more, I scrubbed at my face. No. I couldn’t bring myself to think of such things. Those memories were too fresh. The fresh scent of death I’d left back in a small city on the bay.

I breathed in deeply before raising my head. Jon?

He had already begun to secure the lines of the ship. I was too inside of my head to notice him focusing on his own duties.

I see you are making friends rather nicely, Alexandria, Jon said with a grunt as he tied the rope. His black eyes fixed on me, and then on to the towel. Shaking his head, his eyes searched the boat. Maybe I should inform the captain—

No! I held out my hand as if to stop him if he thought to take one more step. Don’t you dare. Walker offered me aid, and I know it wouldn’t have been received without some type of exchange.

A muscle along his jaw flickered. He seemed to do that. To wrestle with his own temper. But after being on this ship for a few months, I couldn’t recall ever seeing Jon lose his temper like so many of the other pirates.

All this to find one boy? Jon shook his head, and went around the other side to work on the rest of the ropes. What is so special about him? If he was caught by DeRavon’s men, then let it be. Going through all this isn’t worth your life for this kid.

Even hearing Captain DeRavon’s name spoken out loud sent the blood which flowed through my veins to a roiling boil.

My knuckles popped from gripping the cloth of my tunic between my fingers.

Jon noticed.

All of this is worth it for Aaron. I wouldn’t expect you to understand, but he and I have been through everything together. And I can’t—I just don’t abandon people because there might be a huge possibility that it will be impossible.

All this suffering, all this drawn blood was for Aaron Carter. During my travels to find my sister, along the way some unfortunate events had happened—I swallowed bitterly—unfortunate would be sugar coating the ordeal. I lost one friend to death, and the other to a ravenous pirate who was desperate to find this place called Gizimi Island.

I have come to terms with the death of my companion. I glanced out to the horizon where the ocean stretched to where ends meet. Landon was truly dead. The one person I was once connected to body and soul was no longer on this earth and nothing but a memory. Sometimes I knew I was only numbing the pain, for how long - I had no idea.

I’d lost one person, and I wasn’t going to lose Aaron as well. If he knew what I’d done to go through such lengths to find him, the possibilities of his reaction could be infinite. He could be impressed, angry, or make a joke out of it all. That is who Aaron was. A wild card that was so easily drawn, yet so unpredictable.

He might not have wanted me to search for him at all, but I couldn’t…I couldn’t bear returning home to our city and not having him by my side. The emptiness would be too unbearable to even imagine. If Walker and DeRavon were both on the same track, I knew in my heart that soon, hopefully, I would have Aaron back and we could finally go home.

I understand you, Jon said carefully. But you need to know when you see a lost cause.

When I see it with my own two eyes, I will get back to you on that.

Jon smiled at this. Good to hear.

I blinked once. Wait…you were—

Testing you? Jon shrugged and leaned against the pillar. Whatever you would like to believe, but I wanted to make sure you knew what you were getting yourself into. Obviously, you don’t mind getting your butt kicked every day. And you have those steel eyes of yours…seems like you earned those. I don’t see much with your type.

I bristled. My type?

The upper-class woman. The ones with the jewels and parties and such. A poor bunch I might say, and the way they talk is ghastly. I’d rather have shot my own heart out with a pistol, mind you.

"Well, I am glad I don’t fit your usual female."

He shrugged, and I stared at the cloth before he spoke again. Since your training is finished. Don’t you believe you should be somewhere?

My shoulders sagged. And with the amount of energy I’d wasted with Pete, I knew the last ounce I had left will leave me after what I was about to do. It would be impossible for me to find the energy for the rest of the day, let alone for the next hour. And seeing how the figure I was to keep watch over was nowhere to be found along the deck. My true day had only just begun, and I wanted to collapse.

With all this time out at sea, I think I knew the trouble my maid, Blythe Lewis, had gone through when taking care of me. But was I really that much of a handful for her? I would think I hadn’t been that troublesome.

Though Pete’s eyes were jet black, they sparkled in the sunlight. He cranked his head up to the sky. He pointed one finger upwards. Maybe this should be your first clue?

I followed his finger and my mouth snapped shut. All the way up was where he might be, and I had the urge to wrap my fingers around his neck. Marko had a tendency to climb up all the way to the crow’s nest and hide there. Oh, how I wished he was in the sleeping quarters, or somewhere that didn’t involve scaling such great heights to retrieve one small child. No, I haven’t looked there, but I know if he is, there won’t be any witnesses for what I might do to him.

Jon lazily saluted me and went back to his duties. Good luck.

I was going to need it.

The thin bars protruded from the pole, which could not be stable for me to climb but I had no other choice. I gulped as I thought of how easily I could lose my grip.

I grabbed the first bar and the rope snapped by my side, making me almost jump out of my skin. With my hand on my pounding heart, I stared face-to-face with the man who almost gave me a heart attack. Morph, haven’t I told you to not do that?

The overly thin man laughed and began to speak in his natural tongue. He came from some unknown island away from the borders of the Republic. Somewhere called Normonia. I only knew a few languages but this was one I had no knowledge. Morph, common please.

Sorry, Miss. His thick accent returned as he hung onto the rope, which helped him around the boat. Walker said he delegated the position of lookout to Morph, saying even though this man was questionable in the head, his ways around the boat exceeded even the best pirates he’d ever met. I see you are having a bit of trouble. Spotted Marko up there. Need a lift?

With a heavy sigh, I knew accepting his request was the smart decision, but knowing Marko was truly up there made it difficult for me not to be a tad disappointed. Sure—

His arm snaked around my waist and lifted me off the ground. The rush of air pushed down on my head and in no time we were above the small basket in the crow’s nest. He carefully placed me inside and stood at the edge.

Thank you.

Anytime, Miss. I felt he didn’t know how to pronounce my name. The only way he could address me was to call me, Miss. He flipped off the edge and disappeared below. I rushed to look, and my shoulders sagged at the image of Morph easily maneuvering about the boat, unharmed, on his rope.

Paper shuffling brought me back to the main point of my arrival here. Though I spun around, my spine uncomfortably knotted, but I managed to point a shaking finger straight ahead. There you are! I growled at the sight of a small boy’s back, as if he tried to blend in with the colors. Did he think I was stupid? I caught the slight movement of his hand stuffing something inside his shirt. Don’t play dumb with me, Marko…and show me what you are hiding.

He spotted me through his mess of bangs. It is really none of your business, old bat.

I sucked in a breath, which burned my lungs, but I ignored the pain. The need to correct him was inevitable. He would continue to do it no matter what I said. He was a stubborn child. Too stubborn for me to ever correct, no matter how greatly Walker wanted me to fix him. The expectations of the captain of this ship were so outrageous I currently believed he was doing this so I would be out of his hair.

To say I didn’t take the mature side of the situation might be true, unless viewed a different way. I wasn’t proud of what I did next, but after sparring with Pete, my blood still boiled and the ultimate need to release it unfortunately bestowed itself on this poor boy.

I lunged.

My hand slipped in his coat pocket, a coat too large for his small body, which made it all the easier to fasten my fingers on the leather and rip it out from where it was hidden. I ignored his protests and sat on the opposite side of the small basket, ignoring the sway of the ocean, which could have easily toppled me out of this nest.

His voice seemed so far away, but I could feel his presence lingering over my shoulder. He held no fight in his tone, but it was something else that I had yet to hear from the boy. Give it back, Aly.

I am only curious. I soothingly spoke, and cracked the spine of the book. You always carry this around with you…

His grumbling could hardly go unnoticed. So, when I opened the book and began to flip through the pages, I snuck a peek at him with stern eyes, which caused his incoherent mumbling to cease. With a bit of surprise, I discovered this was no ordinary book. At first, I thought he was reading, but pages upon pages were littered with pictures, charcoal drawings in fact. They could be on par with the ones hanging in the mansion where I lived.

You drew these? I flipped through more of the parchment to see many sketches of the crew. Jon gave out orders, Captain Walker watched his men clean the deck, Morph was lazily swinging on his rope. The rest were stenciled in along with the people on the mainland.

Yes, he said firmly.

I closed the book and bound it with the small string of leather, handing it back to him.

He snatched it out of my hands and secured it back in his coat. Satisfied?

I ignored the bite in his words. How did you become so talented? His way of speaking to me might be different than with Jon or Walker, but I hardly minded. We might disagree with various opinions, but at least we could agree on one thing: That we’d both rather not be around each other for the duration of my trip.

But though he had nothing to lose but the lectures of Walker for not listening to instructions, I could lose everything with one wrong move, even one as simple as not keeping Marko under my watch night and day. No matter where we