Page 96 of A Curse of Salt

‘Bane?’ I breathed.

She looked uncertain, for once. ‘It’s nothing. I heard his name mentioned in Bray, I—’

‘Don’t you dare lie to me, Aberdeen.’

The ship heeled, the fury in my chest rearing as I stared down my sister.

She averted her gaze, looking around like she was searching for something. An explanation, perhaps. Then she huffed an angry sigh. ‘I’m only trying to protect you.’

‘What. Have. You. Done?’

Her voice was almost pleading. ‘When I got to Bray, I . . . I was coming to save you. Felicie and Father were never taken.’

My lips parted, a breath of disbelief escaping. What?

‘I at least had to know if you were alive. And when I heard all those outlaws clamouring for your blood . . . I had to do something.’

‘Why didn’t you just tell me?’ I demanded, my voice echoing somewhere distant, somewhere far from my body. ‘I could have explained. I never would’ve left.’

‘Exactly,’ she said emphatically. ‘I needed a way to get to you, and when I found Bane . . . All he wants is to bring Oren down, Aurelia. He assured me he won’t hurt you, he just wants you out of the way.’

‘So, what – he sent you to kidnap me in his place?’

Confusion flickered across Aberdeen’s face. ‘I sent myself. I promised him I would keep you safe until the battle was over.’

‘And then what?’ I cried, voice shrill against the vicious wind. ‘Don’t you realise what he wants with me? He’ll use me to crown himself king! You’d rather force me into marriage than—?’

‘Of course not,’ she snapped, cutting me off. ‘I would never honour a deal with a pirate. I’m taking us home, Aurelia. You’re free.’

The words sat between us, sinking through the heavy air. ‘What do you mean, free?’

She folded her arms impatiently, fixing me with a hard stare. ‘Bane told me those pirates had some kind of hold on you, that you’d hardly come willingly. I said I could make you – and I did, didn’t I?’

‘You were right to lie to him, but not to me.’

‘Can’t you see I’m trying to save you?’ Aberdeen shouted, the wind tearing the words from her lips.

I took a step towards her, letting my voice drop low. ‘If Bane thinks we’re on our way to a safe place, then where, exactly, is he?’

The colour faded from her dark cheeks. ‘Whale Rock. He said he’d meet us in Bray, after . . . Once it’s over.’

‘Over?’ My voice sounded a thousand leagues away. ‘If he believes I’m already his, what battle is he trying to keep me safe from in the first place?’

‘I may have suggested . . . I just thought—’ Aberdeen swallowed, drawing herself up. ‘I told him he’d have a better chance of taking down a king if he had the army of one.’ Foreboding washed over me, leaving goosebumps in its wake. ‘He wants to take the Heartless King’s fleet.’

The world fell away. I gasped for air, but there was none. There was nothing. Only words, ringing through my mind. Then he, too, would be stone. If I couldn’t stop this, save them . . . Every last thing loved by the people I’d left behind would be lost.

I was going to be sick.

‘Ria?’ Aberdeen’s hand was gripping my arm, trying to pull me back to the world, the one she’d torn apart.

I tugged myself free. ‘You don’t know what you’ve done.’

Her silver-blue eyes were dark with concern. ‘I’m sorry, I—’

‘We have to go back. You have to take me home.’

‘I am taking you home,’ Aberdeen insisted. ‘Bane won’t find us there. We’ll be safe, I swear.’

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