Page 43 of Devour the Dark

I don’t miss the glassiness in her eyes. The way she doesn’t move yet vibrates with rage.

“You know a thing or two about running,” I guess. “So you understand why I’m reluctant to run back.”

She sucks in a long breath through her nose, takes a step closer to me. A risky thing, inching toward a monster. I respect her boldness.

“I’m not reluctant to run back,” she says, and then, with a grit of her teeth, adds, “I am honing myself like a blade. Hands strong enough to kill. A mind strong enough to trick. I’m waiting for the day when he thinks he is safe. And then I will corrode him and his court, day by day, act by act. And when he has descended into paranoia, given in to the chaos I have sown, I will slip inside his bedroom—my bedroom—and I will jam my blade into his throat.”

I smile over at her. “I admire the gentleness of your plan.”

She rocks back, frowning at me, and then she laughs. “I haven’t told anyone that plan. I’ve been afraid they’d tell me I’m crazy. Violent.Mad.”

I lean over. “Let me tell you a secret: we’re all mad.”

She laughs and rolls her eyes. “I suppose you’re right,Madd brother.”

“So you do know more than you’ve let on.”

“Of course.”

“Do you know who my mother is?”

“Another theory.”

“You know who my uncle is?”

“Yes.”

“Then you have all the dots. Now connect them.”

“I think you know I already have.”

I push away from the railing. “Don’t tell them yet. Let me find out what we’re walking into on Darkland. I don’t want them to get caught in the middle if I can avoid it.”

She nods. “You’ll keep my past between us?”

“I’m not much for gossip. Would you like to pinkie promise?”

She snorts. “You know I don’t consider them binding, right?”

I hold up my hand between us, pinkie outstretched and say nothing.

She huffs. “Two pinkie promises in one day. A new record.”

We hook fingers and shake.

“I’m honored that both belong to me. You do know that if you break a pinkie promise, I get to break the pinkie?”

“I’d like to see you try,” she says and slips back inside the ship.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

VANE

Darkland risesup from the horizon just after noon on the fourth day at sea.

Plumes of smoke curl in the sky like ghosts and that familiar scent of steel and ash immediately makes me feel at odds with myself. I made a life on Neverland, but Darkland will always be home. It doesn’t mean I want to return to it.

Roc joins me at the railing as the harbor draws nearer.

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