Page 17 of Beneath the Starlight and Storms

“No…” The man blanches at the look Hook gives him. “I swear it! I didn’t stick around afterward. I just took the gold and left.”

Hook frowns before glancing back at the item in his hand. He runs his thumb along it, and I get a good look at what it is. A silver bracelet. The chain is delicate with a small oval piece of marble in the center.

“Who sold you this little trinket?” Hook asks the man now trembling so hard I can hear the rattle of his teeth.

“I…. I found it,” the man stutters.

“You mean you stole it.”

The man clears his throat before attempting a smile but instead it comes out looking like more of a pained grimace.

He swallows hard. “I may have…acquiredit at the black market.”

Hook focuses back on the bracelet. “It masked your presence while you were stealing at Trell House?”

“Y-yes. I overheard that the wearer only needed to think of something or someone they needed to… stay hidden from and you’d become invisible to them.”

My interest immediately peaks at his words and any thought of trying to make another run for it flees my mind.

I thought my only other option would be the Darling witches. But it seemed Peterdidlie to me after all. There was another way out of all of this.

I just needed to get my hands on that bracelet. If I can get a hold of it, then I can easily escape Hook and stay hidden from anyone else that is looking for me.

“Take it to my office upstairs.” Hook takes one last look at it before handing it to Cash.

He glances at the man that now looks close to passing out, his entire body trembling in fear with Cash’s grip the only thing holding him up. “Butafteryou find out what else he knows.”

“Yes, Boss.” Cash drags him away while he screams and begs to be let go.

Before I get a chance to try to subtly enquire about the bracelet, another man walks in just as Cash leaves. His face is covered by a black hood with the rest of his clothes just as dark.

He heads straight to Hook but pauses when he spots me.

I can’t see his facial expressions, his hood still covering his face, but he tilts his head towards me as he looks at Hook.

Hook nods a reply to the man’s unspoken question, and he answers immediately.

“It was a bust. We found a similar item but it’s not the one we needed. And the men that were guarding it were not too happy to see us. It didn’t end well… for them.”

Hook’s mood swiftly changes. He becomes the man of nightmares, of dark stories and tales of horror. And the ruthless man Peter told me he was.

The hooded man clears his throat taking a step back. “Arden is usually never wrong when it comes to this type of information…”

Hook grinds his jaw. “He lied to us and sent you on a wild-goose chase.” His eyes grow unfocused as he stares ahead. “I’ll deal with him.”

The man nods before turning to me. I can’t see his face, his features still hidden beneath the shadows of his hood, but I can feel his stare on me.

He’s probably wondering why I’m still standing her free, instead of tied up in chains. Or maybe he’s here for me, ready to drag me away just like the thief a moment ago.

My body tenses as my mind flits from fight-or-flight mode. But before I get a chance to figure out how I want this to go, Hook steps closer to him.

“You can leave,” Hook grits out, staring angrily at the back of his head.

The hooded man quickly turns and dips his head to Hook before disappearing into one of the many halls on this floor.

Hook’s intense mood slowly falls away from him as he silently stares at me, wearing a strange look I can’t decipher. Before I get the chance to figure it out, he swiftly turns and heads up the staircase.

“Follow me.”

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