Tasmin shook her head slowly. “No, I was given it by another master—I mean man.”
“Master?”
She pursed her lips. “Wrong word, that’s all.”
Jess once again threw me a look, making my skin prickle.
I didn’t know if the sixth sense between Jess and me came from being so close or from sharing experiences that not many had to endure. Either way, I knew she wanted to share a piece of our history with Tasmin in order to gain a bit of hers.
I nodded slightly, giving her permission.
“I had a master too, and my nickname was Jealousy,” Jess said quietly. “Given to me by Sullivan when I became his property.”
Tasmin froze, her fingers turning white around her strawberry melon cocktail. “What did you say?”
“She said that this island wasn’t always so perfect.” I ran my hands through my hair, looking down the beach toward our husbands and the stories that came with them.
“Sullivan purchased me and saved me from a bad situation,” Jess murmured. “He purchased Eleanor a few years later. He fell in love and she toppled his entire belief system and empire. She freed all of us. She’s the reason the man who bought me is now my family and why his second in command is my husband.” She inhaled and added even more quietly, “Ordinarily, we would not share that with anyone. It doesn’t define us, and it’s no one else’s business, but...I’m telling you because I think you’ll understand and find similarities between us. If I’m wrong, forgive me. But if I’m right...well, we know what it’s like.”
“Oh.” Tasmin swallowed and lifted her drink to her lips.
Skittles chirped and flitted from my shoulder to my bent knees, tilting her head as if waiting as eagerly as us to hear Tasmin’s tale.
Silence fell between us instead.
Tasmin looked away and focused on the sinking sunshine, her eyes locking on the horizon where a yacht even bigger than Calypso appeared.
It seemed Phantom had arrived, and they were free to go. Free to leave a conversation that had gotten dark quickly. A conversation she might not be ready to have.
Jess glanced at the men as they all turned to face the sea and the new addition to our small harbour. I sucked in a breath, ready to dispel the tension that’d sprung between us when Tasmin looked at me. “You freed everyone just by loving him?”
“I just reminded him that all living things deserved freedom.... He’d forgotten that along the way.”
“You sound like a woman I met recently. Tess. She loved a man who took her as a possession, but in the end...she possessed him.”
My heart skipped. “Tess?”
It couldn’t be...could it?
The blonde Australian girl who I’d met briefly in captivity in Mexico? The very same who married a man named Q, according to Sully.
A few weeks after our wedding, Sully had mentioned that some French vigilante had emailed him, threatening him with slaughter if he didn’t release me and the other goddesses immediately.
Sully had shown me the emails between them and the wedding video he’d sent as proof that I’d married him of my own free will. Q was too late to save the women on Goddess Isles—Cal and I had freed them while Sully had fought to stay alive—but it’d been a relief to know that Q had been the one to receive Tess and that fate had been kind to her too.
Fate had delivered her to her soul-mate as surely as fate delivered me to mine.
I wanted to ask for more details about Tess, to confirm if it was the very same girl, but I waved my curiosity away. Out of all the oceans and all the girls, the chances of Tasmin meeting the same one I had were ludicrous.
Don’t be silly.
Tasmin licked her bottom lip, before answering, “Tess helped us.” She looked at Elder in the distance, her stare tangled and full of love. “Her husband took me against my will, but it was merely a misunderstanding. Thanks to them, they helped in a war that Elder has been fighting for decades.”
“Wow.” I sipped my drink. “Sounds complicated.”
She shrugged. “I suppose.”
“Is that where you’ve come from?” I asked. “Why you’ve been at sea for a while?”
“After we were in France, we decided to go away for a bit. Just us.” Tasmin threw me a small smile. “Time to heal and space to be.”
“And you’ve travelled the world since?”
“Parts of it.” Her smile widened as willingness to share sparkled in her face. “This was our last stop. We hadn’t planned on personally delivering your yacht, but it worked out between our visits to Elder’s factory and now. However, we’re leaving tonight as we can’t be late.” She smiled into her cocktail. “We’re on our way to get married.”
“Oh. That’s wonderful.” I raised my drink. “Congratulations.”
“I never thought I’d ever say that or survive long enough to be a wife.” Tasmin continued to study her glass. “I’m ashamed to admit that somewhere along the line, I even thought of ending it so I wouldn’t have to endure anymore.” Her head snapped up, locking eyes with me. “I was someone’s toy for two years before Elder freed me. He treated me with patience and temper. He allowed me time to heal, all while pushing me past my comfort zones.” She shrugged again. “I owe him more than my life. I owe him my soul because if he hadn’t found me when he did, I wouldn’t be here today, and who knows where my soul would’ve gone.”