The whaling boat splashes into the water. Jules and Camden are already inside it.
“Wait,” Arsinoe says. She reaches for the rigging, but Jules casts off. “Wait, I said!”
They look up at her sadly.
“I don’t want to go without you,” Arsinoe whispers.
“I know. But you have to.”
The moment Jules’s oars touch the water, the island’s mist creeps out. It swirls around the boat greedily with something that almost seems like relief. Like affection. As if it was Jules, truly, who the island was trying to keep.
“Look after them for me,” Jules calls to Billy and Mirabella.
“Jules, get back on this ship!” Arsinoe takes a deep breath, about to jump over the rail, but Billy grabs her by the shoulders. He pulls her to his chest, and she shouts and struggles, watching Jules grow smaller until the mist thickens and Arsinoe can no longer see her face.
“It will be all right,” Billy says. He squeezes her, hard. Mirabella comes closer and takes her hand.
“It will be,” Arsinoe whispers as tears drip from her chin.
She turns her head to look into the sun, toward an unknown country. An unknown future. Anything could await them there, and the possibilities cloud her mind. She does not remember what it was like not to live in fear or in resentment, of being killed or of having to. She hears Jules’s voice calling to her across the water.
“I love you, Arsinoe.”
“Jules, come back!” She turns around. “It’ll be different, you’ll see!”
But when she looks, Jules and the island are gone. The mist of Fennbirn has disappeared, and where it was only moments ago there is only the sea, clear and sparkling.