Page 56 of Ship of Shadows
I turned and he gestured to the steps and held out a cup of seafire. I supposed I could stop working for the day. Everyone else had. I set down the parchment and pen on a barrel, then accepted the cup and sat on the stairs.
Driscoll and Leoni dropped down on either side of me.
I looked between the two of them, Driscoll avoiding eye contact and Leoni’s face set like she had a mission to accomplish.
“What is this?” I asked. “Why are you two acting so weird?”
They both looked away, which only made my suspicions grow.
Bartholomew finished his song and started another, this one about the Seven Spirits. He worked fast.
Mia and Kara approached.
“Can we get this over with?” Kara asked.
I shot confused glances around the group. “Get what over with? What is going on?”
Leoni scooted away so she could fully face me. “We need to talk.”
The pirates dragged up crates that they sat on.
I set down my cup. “About what, exactly?”
Driscoll crossed his arms. “We’re asking the questions here.”
Leoni tipped her head toward Bastian, who remained oblivious to what was happening. “We saw you leaving Bastian’s cabin last night and him following you out. Shirtless.”
I scoffed. “That’s what this is about?”
“Do you deny it?” Mia asked, her tone gentle.
Kara, predictably, just scowled at me, her brows furrowed, making her piercing pucker.
“Do I deny that you saw me coming out of Bastian’s cabin? No, I do not. But nothing happened.”
Over breakfast, I’d told Driscoll and Leoni about Bastian’s sisters, what Mia had revealed of their childhood, but I might have left out our accidental rendezvous last night—and whatBastian had been doing when I stumbled in on him. Driscoll would likely have a stroke if he knew the truth.
“Oh, please.” Driscoll shook his head. “I saw those abs, okay? It was like the man was made of freaking stone. There’s no way you resisted that.”
Well, he was right. It was Bastian who’d resisted me. My mood darkened. “I snuck into his cabin to get the trident, okay? I didn’t realize he’d be in there. Sleeping.”
Mia and Kara peered at me with suspicion in their eyes. I didn’t know how I’d missed it before. The three of them were so similar, had the same crescent-shaped eyes, the same straight noses, high cheekbones. No wonder they’d felt so familiar to me.
“Well, that’s the last time I’m telling you anything,” I said to Leoni, annoyed I’d revealed anything to her and Driscoll.
Now they were all teaming up against me.
“And why isn’t Bastian getting an intervention?” I asked.
Mia shot a glance at her brother, his back still to us. “We didn’t include Bastian because he’s been hiding away in his cabin all day.”
I grabbed my cup of seafire and took a sip, making a face as the liquid burned its way down my throat.
“Okay,” Driscoll said. “Maybe nothing happened between you two last night, but what about when we found you cuddling on the beach?”
“We fell asleep together,” I said. “So what?”
Driscoll shook his finger. “Oh no. I know sex hair when I see it, and you both had the sex hair.”
