Page 44 of Freeing Hook

Maddox and Astor share a practiced glance, and Maddox steps forward, knife glinting. But then Astor puts a hand out, stopping Maddox.

“No need,” he says. “Get Wendy out of here. You too, Charlie. I’ll attend to this one.”

Charlie and Maddox are at my side in an instant, Maddox pulling me into his arms.

When the henchman begs for his life, Captain Astor’s laugh echoes through the alley. “You might have considered that the first time I asked you to stop touching her.”

CHAPTER 17

WENDY

Once, after my mother had allowed a particularly grisly suitor into the parlor with me, then left us alone for the better part of an hour, I’d found her in the wine cellar and begged her to end this plan of hers to find me a husband to break my curse.

Blood was still staining the fabric of my dress from where the man had bitten my shoulder. The pain of it was nothing compared to the hollowness in my chest.

I’d squared my shoulders and summoned that last bit of courage left in my bloodstream. When I spoke, I hadn’t sounded brave, nor had I sounded at all sure of myself. “I’m afraid this plan of ours”—why I’d said ours, to this day I still can’t fathom—“is proving ineffective.”

My mother had just stared at the dusty wine bottles, refusing to look at me. She never could bring herself to look at me immediately after the parlor. The next morning, she would be herself again, as if nothing had ever happened. But tonight I was dirty—a reminder of her failures as a mother.

“Oh, Wendy, my girl. Don’t be so pessimistic. Lord Erasmus is noble. He understands his responsibility to you.”

I fought back the urge to argue that noble men don’t take advantage of their potential brides, and continued. “Mother, if I can’t find a husband before my twentieth birthday—”

She snapped her head toward me, an ever-present smile on her face. At least she was looking at me now. “My sweet girl, we have years to find you a husband.”

Years. Years of enduring the groping hands of hungry men. I wasn’t sure I’d make it years.

“John’s found a book,” I’d explained, my voice warbling. “He says the fae are vulnerable to iron.”

“The fae are vulnerable to nothing, my dear, except upholding bargains,” said my mother, still searching for the perfect nightcap.

“Yes,” I’d said, fighting to keep my voice level. “But if we cannot fulfill our side of the bargain, I should like to be prepared.”

My mother had cocked her head at me with a thin-lipped smile. Then she’d brushed her hand against my cheek, stroking my Mating Mark. “My dear. I wish it were so. I wish I could train you to defend yourself against him. You have no idea how often I’ve imagined fighting him off myself. But we are not made to fight. Our bodies are at too much of a disadvantage. We must learn to resist in other ways. Our wit, our…” She bit her lip and sighed. “It would be simpler if you could fight your way out of this. But we must be wiser than that. We must be what they want us to be.”

Her words had landed in my pride, pummeled as it already was. I hadn’t been foolish enough to believe I could win a fistfight between myself and the fae Shadow Keeper. I’d only wanted something to give me an advantage, the element of surprise. A weakness I could exploit when it came time to run.

That conversation in the wine cellar is all I can think about as Charlie and Maddox carry me by carriage back to the ship. Beingwhat men wanted me to be had only gotten me so far. Sure, it had provided me an opportunity to slip from Vulcan’s grasp. But even then, I’d eventually been cornered in an alleyway, another man’s hand at my throat. And there was nothing I could do to escape. No words I could speak to outsmart a man who couldn’t be reasoned with.

My mother would have wanted me to go with Vulcan. To be what he wanted me to be, too. She would have thought I’d be safe there.

Charlie and Maddox each fuss over me in their own ways—Maddox constantly asking if I need water, like that will somehow fix anything that’s happened over the past night. Charlie pulls my head into her lap and tells me to prop my feet on Maddox’s legs, who doesn’t protest. I try to fall asleep, but there’s little use, so I ask questions.

“How’d you find me?”And why did Peter not?

“The captain saw Teeth passing you off to the traffickers,” Charlie explains. “He tried to get to you, but by the time he cut through the attackers, you were gone.”

“Teeth wasn’t though,” says Maddox. “He was still trying to escape in one of the safety boats, but he knew the captain was coming after him. His hands were shaking so bad he couldn’t get the knot untied that secures the boat. He told the captain everything. Apparently when we made port in Morella, he contacted a band of traffickers. Told them we had a girl with a Mating Mark. Offered to get you off the ship if they could cause a distraction. So they leaked the information to a band of pirates they knew would go after you.”

Charlie flits her hand. “Can no one even be bothered to hire their own mercenaries these days?”

Maddox continues. “All the while, the traffickers were at the ready to steal you away. Suppose Teeth thought telling us was his best chance at keeping his life.”

Charlie lets out a wry laugh. “He did manage to extend it by several hours. We needed him to lead us to the traffickers. By the time we got there, you were gone. One of the servants must have taken a liking to you, because he told us the name of the buyer and where he’d be keeping you. Even told us of his master’s plot to steal you back. So we came and got you.”

She says it so simply. Effortlessly. Like coming to get me was a given.

“You make it sound like it was easy,” I say.

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