Page 67 of Gods of the Sea

The questions bounced around in my head until they were too much to bear.

But I knew exactly who would know the answers.

CHAPTER 21—PURE

I stepped quietly down the stairs, trying not to wake the prisoners.

It wasn’t like they could attack me or anything. The most they would do is make a bunch of noise and get me in trouble. Luc and Adrian would scold me for my recklessness. That was all.

Regardless of the circumstances, I couldn’t keep my questions to myself anymore. I needed to know more about this man I was arranged to marry. It wasn’t that I wanted this bloody marriage; however, I wasn’t taught any real trades and only had a basic knowledge of arts and culture. Most of my time was spent with my father or with his colleagues, talking business. I didn’t mind it, and I could probably be fairly good at it, but what business could I take part in? Father had already lost his. Had I known sooner, I would have asked to become part of the trade to help him, but he had never indicated anything was amiss, and I had never thought to ask.

Marrying a complete stranger was the only way I wouldn’t be completely useless to my father. He had already lost so much… I couldn’t sit around and wait for him to lose even more.

I came to Jacques’s cell, peering in between the bars. He was asleep, his legs bent in a strange position and his face turned away from me toward the wall.

I gently tapped on the cell bar. He didn’t move. Deciding he must have been a heavy sleeper, I tapped again, whispering his name. Even in the dark, I could tell that he wasn’t even flinching, no movements despite how much noise I was beginning to make.

“Jacques?” I whispered, “Are you alive?”

No movement. Looking around, I picked up a broken piece of wood and pegged him in the back with it. He still didn’t stir. A warning flag flashed through my mind. Was he ill? Did he get sick down here? I hadn’t come down in days and anythingcould have happened. And if anything happened to him, then his father…

I reached for the key on the wall and unlocked the door, closing it behind me. I went to Jacques’s side, touching his shoulder.

“Jacques?” I asked again, nudging him. “Are you all right?”

I yelped as I was suddenly slammed against the wall behind me, two hands pressing my shoulders hard into the stone. Jacques’s eyes were cold, even when a small grin curled on his lips.

“You fell for the oldest trick in the book,” he teased. “You really have no sense, do you?”

I tried to shove him off, but he held fast, staring at me as if he was trying to analyze my existence. His eyes dropped to the key that was now on the floor next to us.

“Are you going to escape now?” I asked, trying to stay calm.

He chuckled. “I could. But then where would I go? I don’t have a ship, and I don’t care too much to take over this one, honestly.”

I shifted under the weight of his hands against my shoulders. “Aren’t you taking me back?”

His head cocked to the side as he looked at me. “Who said I was here for you at all?”

“But…your father…you said…”

“I said that my father sent me to retrieve you. I never said I intended to do it.”

I furrowed my brows at him.

“What?” he asked. “Did you think I really cared whether you lived or not? We don’t know each other. I have no attachments to you. Even less so with you at my father’s heel.”

He dropped his hands, taunting me with his smirk.

“I am not at your father’s heel,” I threw back. “I wasn’t even told who I was arranged to until after our dance.”

“Ah, that explains it then.”

“Explains what?”

“The way you looked at me when we first met,” Jacques said. “So…hopeful.”

I could feel myself flush. I turned my head down.

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