Page 85 of Of the Stars and Sea

His eyes shudder when his gaze finally meets mine.

What does he know?

What is he not telling me?

There’s an almost imperceptible shake of his head, but I catch it and my heart skips a beat. He knows something about my past, but he doesn’t want to talk about it. Not while Zaos is here.

Fine.

But the moment we are alone, he won’t be allowed to leave this room until he tells me everything. The wicked heat of betrayal licks up my spine, but I take a deep breath in to steel my nerves. Grayson is a pirate lord and I am not special.

I should have seen this coming, but I let myself be blinded by . . .

I’m not even sure what to call my feelings for him.

Whatever they are, I tuck them away to deal with later.

“What does that have to do with the Solise Mountains?” My words are clipped and Zaos eyes me carefully as Grayson reaches out to take my hand. I slip it behind my back and stare at the riddle, unable to touch him for fear that I might make true on my promise all those weeks ago and stab him in his stomach.

Grayson’s shoulders drop a fraction before his face shifts to that mask of stone he so easily wears. “Once King Renard deemed all pirates’ lives to be forfeit, he paid the Seiffre a hefty fortune to hunt us down unless we bent the knee. Some chose to sacrifice their freedom in order to protect their families. The rest of us were forced to scatter once the Seiffre pursued their bounty.

“By then, there were too few of us to fight back. Not when the king gave the Seiffre kin an entire fleet of ships. Those of us who were left decided to flee in search of somewhere else where we might maintain our freedom. The king’s navy had the Narrow’s Passage blocked. There was no way for us to head to the Northern Realm. So, we sailed south. Ready to take our chances, we searched for what could be beyond Dead Man’s Passage. It was better than surrendering our destinies to a tyrant.

Grayson pauses, his throat working as he swallows. “What we did not anticipate was just how relentless the Seiffre would be. They did not care about their own demise, for the fear of death had been wrought out of them since childhood. The only thing they cared about was the wild pursuit toward the deadliest of traps for any ship, no matter how strong.

“They chased us right into the claws of death.”

Emotion strangles his words as he takes in a deep breath and continues. “I lost many of my friends that day. Their ships sunk by cannon fire or run aground, into the rocks of the underwater mountains that litter Dead Man’s Passage. TheCaelestiawas theonly ship to make it to the other side of the passage, and that’s when I saw it. The very thing those stone isles are meant to protect—the Solise Mountain range.”

Zaos and I look at one another. Understanding flashes across his face. If some of the best captains weren’t able to cross the passage without their ships running aground, how would theCaelestiamake it through a second time?

“Is there any other place the riddle could be pointing us too?” Zaos asks.

The air is heavy with our silence as I shake my head. “No. Not that I’m aware of.”

Zaos uncrosses his arms and shrugs. “Well, Captain. We’ve followed you everywhere else in this wretched world. How bad could this really be?”

Grayson runs a hand through his hair and grumbles, “Bad. Really bad.”

Chapter 21

The midday sun is warm on my face when I step through the door of Grayson’s quarters and onto the main deck. Salty air fills my lungs as I breathe in deeply, then let it out in a long sigh. I do it one more time until I feel the tension in my shoulders start to ease, though it doesn’t take away the sinking feeling in my stomach since I heard Grayson disclose that he knew there were wicked men threatening the families of pirate lords.

He'd kept that from me.

I’d told him about my father and the struggles I’ve endured in the years since his death. All this time I thought my father was in the wrong. I’d thought he’d made a poor deal with Red Beard and our family had to suffer the consequences of his actions.

But it might not have been his choices at all that led to our family’s demise.

Grayson knew.

And he didn’t tell me.

Before he has a chance to walk through the door and explain his reasoning for keeping that knowledge from me, I stride across the main deck toward the hatch that leads down to the kitchen.

I feel their eyes on me—Grayson’s men watch me, like they always have since the moment I stepped aboard theCaelestia. None of them have said a word about what they think of me. Let alone, what they think of my . . . budding relationship with their captain. Their silence speaks loud enough, though. With the exception of Tommy and Doc, none of them have taken a moment to ask me a single question about myself.

Then again, I haven’t exactly given them a reason to feel like they can approach me.

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