Page 8 of Of the Stars and Sea

“There is nowhere in the Southern Realm we could go where they wouldn’t follow us, where they wouldn’t hunt us down and skin us alive for stealing from them,” Amara adds, her throat bobbing.

I run my fingertip along the edge of the mug. “There are some places that not even Blythe Quint or the king’s armada would dare to go.”

Wells leans back in his seat and scrapes a hand over his face. “The place you speak of isn’t somewhereweshould venture to either, Captain.”

“What other choice do we have?” I hiss. “It is either this or we stay indentured to Red Beard for the rest of our lives. Is that what both of you desire? To never sail free across the Aelynthi Sea ever again?”

My chest rises and falls, and yet I can’t catch my breath. Every day of my life has been a hard-fought war. Every day I’ve had to claw my way to the surface for air before being pulled under again by some force I have no control over. Fatigue has settled deep in my soul and I know if I don’t find some way out soon, it will be the end of me.

Amara reaches across the table, settling her hand over mine. More than just my quartermaster, she is my closest friend and the only person who dares to try to calm the fiery storm raging within me. “You know we will follow you wherever you decide to lead us, Rowenya. If this is the path you think will gain us our freedom, it is the path we will walk with you.”

Focusing on the feeling of her hand over mine, I let my breathing calm before I look around the tavern. There are a few wandering eyes beneath bushy brows that land on me before they quickly dart away.

Fucking hells.

Wells granted us a distraction and my outburst damn near ruined it.

Taking a long swig of my ale, I pray to the heavens that the other patrons chalk it up to my being deep in the cups and not something worthy of them lending an ear to hear.

I wipe the foam from my mouth with the back of my hand and set my mug back on the table.

Wells stares absently at his own mug as he says, “Just tell us what you need us to do, Captain”—his gaze flicks up to meet mine—“and it will be done.”

And so we spend the rest of the evening hatching our plan until the candles snuff out in the lanterns and the floor of the Misty Sea is littered with puddles of ale and crumbs of cheese and bread.

Chapter 3

Raindrops splatter onto my hand, skittering outward in several directions, making even smaller droplets of water. The ripple effect—my father used to talk about it all the time. How one decision made by one person can lead to a thousand other events happening, so far away that the person who started it all would have no idea the impact their decision made on the world.

The weight of that conversation I had with my father years ago sits heavy on my mind tonight. Amara and Wells agreed to join me on this perilous venture. The risk of what we are about to do is beyond anything any of us have attempted to overcome before. And now there is one more soul added to the mix. One more life that may be left in ruins should we fail.

“I’d say the rain pisses me off, but it’s a perfect shield for us to do what needs to be done tonight,” says Raven, my navigator and resident thief, as she wipes the onslaught of water from her face.

Her ability to snag someone’s purse and sneak into places she doesn’t belong is unprecedented and the exact skillset we require for the night. At the green age of twenty-one years, I fought Amara and Wells on letting her join us. She should be back on theTrinitywith the rest of the crew where the risk isminimal and she can evade whatever hell will be brought down upon us should we fail. But the plan requires one more person to join the fray, and she’s the only other member of the crew who has the sleight of hand to pull off stealing the artifact from Blythe.

When she was fifteen years of age, I found her outside a brothel in two scraps of cloth that barely covered her private parts, begging to provide service to whatever bastard was willing to give up his shillings for the night. Unlike the other young women I’d passed by time and again, her feet had been shackled to the outside wall. When I asked the madame why she was chained, she’d told me the girl kept running away.

It cost me a bar of gold and two rubies, but I bought her freedom from the madame that night and trained her how to read the stars and the wind that fills our sails.

She’d taken to it well. Worked harder than anyone else on the crew, making every ounce of gold and ruby I’d spent that night worth it.

Silently, I curse myself for letting her join us. She should be back on the ship—safe from the monsters of this place. Safe frommeand my obsession with freedom.

Instead, she lies on her belly to my right with a spyglass raised to her left eye.

“Agreed.” Wells slides his hand over the shoulder of his leather coat, flinging a wave of water into Amara’s face. She chomps her teeth at him with a wicked growl.

“What?” he laughs. “It’s not like you can get any wetter.” His smile is mischievous and I shake my head, knowing exactly what he’s about to say. “That is, unless, you allow me between those beautiful legs of yours.”

Amara rears back her fist and punches Wells in the bicep. “Agh! Damn you, woman! You punch like a man.” He rubs hisbicep up and down, but the look of desire shining in his eyes for her only deepens.

The metal cuffs in my hair sing against one another as I shake the rain off my hair. “The two of you are going to get us caught before we even have a chance of stealing the Serpent’s Key.”

Amara scoffs. “I played no part in this. I was just defending myself, Captain.Heis the one?—”

“Hate to break up the party, but Blythe is on the move,” Raven interrupts.

I watch as the spyglass in her hand moves steadily to the left. Large raindrops pelt my fingers as I shield my eyes with my hands so I can see better through the onslaught of rain and peer down into the street below us.

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