Page 68 of Virelai's Hoard
Riley had nothing to feel guilty about. She didn’t.
The captain just shook her head. Her lips moved, but the murmur was too quiet for anyone to hear. The look in her eyes vacant. She took to glancing from her skin to the sea beyond, her fingers clenching open and closed. Open and closed. She didn’t seem aware of what was happening around her anymore.
A daughter of the sea. What was it whispering to her?
The pirates around looked both irate and helpless, as if the sky had crumbled above their heads.
“What have we been chasing? If not Virelai’s Hoard?” someone thought to ask.
It was Sable who said, “The Heart of the Abyss.” She narrowed her eyes at Thorian, who didn’t seem surprised by the information.
Slowly, he swiveled his gaze on her, but his arms didn’t move from his sides. He was big, but it would only take a twitch forher blade to slit his throat. “What does it matter what she’s after? The gold is real. She never lied to you about that,” Thorian said, voice pleading. “And she’s still our captain.” His tone was hopeful, but he looked dismayed when Calla’s gaze remained blank, fixed on the sea. “Captain.” Silence. “…Calla?” He gritted his teeth, looking back at Sable. “She’s notwell.”
“We can all fuckingseethat,” Sable snapped.
“What the fuck is the Heart of the Abyss?” Ignatius asked, his one eye narrowing at them.
Kittredge licked her lips. “It’s supposed to make wishes come true.” Then, unconvinced, “Does it matter? We still end up rich, don’t we?”
Ignatius kicked at the skin. Calla flinched again. “Like hell it doesn’t. Why hide it if she meant anything good with it? I say it’s high time we throw someone overboard and got ourselves out of this mess.” He flung his hand at Calla. “Clue says we need to sacrifice someone touched by the sea, aye? Well, here we have her. Aselkie, no less,” he spit. “Can’t believe we had a two-faced sea creature walking among us all this time and we didn’tseeit.”
“You fool,” Thorian said, voice trembling in something like anger. Pain? “Why do you think the sea has favored us all these years? We’d all be long dead if not for Calla, or is your brain so clouded by pointless hatred that you can’t see it?”
“We’re not throwing anyone overboard, you hateful old bastard,” Sable threw over her shoulder. She missed Thorian’s surprised stare as she pointed to a group of pirates. “You there, tie him to the mast. He’s not getting out of my sight. Gadrielle, escort the captain to the brig. She looks like she might jump in the water at any moment. Merrow, Haddock, you’re the most experienced sailors on deck. Do you know what the hell is going on with her?”
No one moved.
Sable gritted her teeth. “Am I speaking to the wind here?”
Nyxen cleared his throat. “Ignatius is right,” he said, wincing as if he wasn’t happy to be saying that. “What are we going to do about themist, Sable?”
The mist had gotten closer. Thin wisps of it flew in the air right in front of Riley’s face. A chill went through her.
Thorian took a step toward Sable, features set into hard lines. The machete dug into his throat. “You’re touching the captain over my dead body.”
A lot of things happened at once after that.
Riley noticed something shift in Thorian’s posture, in his expression, but it was too subtle, too sudden for her to give out a warning. His wrist snapped up, knocking the blade out of the way. He didn’t bother reaching for a weapon. His bodywasa weapon. He lunged at Sable, slammed her against the mast. Air whooshed out of her lungs with a gasp, but she didn’t cry out.
The others did, though. The air had been crackling with electricity, the same way it had back during that first storm, and it only took this one spark for everything to turn into chaos.
Pirates grappled with each other, pushing, pulling, shoving. Someone knocked Riley’s shoulder as she tried to avoid the worst of the fight and slip by unharmed. A punch made for someone else grazed her cheek. Or maybe it had been aimed at her, the others too far gone to care who they were lunging at or why. A pirate backed into her as they avoided a kick to the gut and knocked Riley on her ass. Her eyes searched wildly for escape as she scrambled back to her feet. She found it. In a split moment, she sprinted for the rigging and hauled herself up above the chaos. Safe. She took in a deep breath and surveyed the situation.
Just in time to see Thorian pull his arm back and pummel Sable’s face.
Shit.
Sable’s head knocked against the mast, and it was a wonder the punch didn’t knock her right out. She swayed on her feet, machete limply hanging at her side.
This was bad.
If Thorian won, and Calla remained captain, the first item on their list would be to throw Riley overboard. What she’d just done was nothing short of a betrayal. She knew it. There was no pretending otherwise, and nowhere to run with the sea and the mist pushing in from all sides.
Thorian pulled his fist back again, and Riley sprung into action. This had to be a winning bet. Her life depended on it. She swung above fighting pirates, their screams and shouts and the discordant clang of their weapons morphing together. Some of them were trying to intervene, argue reason where people were too hot-headed to listen, but Riley’s focus was on Sable. She barely ducked out of the trajectory of Thorian’s second punch, swaying against the mast at her back.
When she was right above their heads, Riley jumped down.
She landed on Thorian’s head, and the impact knocked the air out of her lungs. Thorian stumbled on his feet. Riley, in true street rat fashion, scratched at his face and savagely bit at his ear, tearing out a chunk of it and spitting it on deck. Her mouth filled with the metallic slickness of his blood.
