Chapter 28
“Ireally can’t stay,” I say, stepping into the kitchen of the safe house. I adjust the collar of the clean clothes she gave me and adjust the square of rhodium fabric around my bare hand.
“You owe me a cup of tea and an explanation.” Rita tilts her chin at the table. “Now, sit.”
Swallowing, I lower onto the seat. There have been times I’ve heard her speak with a harsh tone—usually to the younger girls who stumble into the safe house well after curfew. But not once has she taken one with me.
She plucks two mugs from the cabinet and slams the door shut. “I knew you for an entire decade—fed you, clothed you, nursed you back to health after I found you drunk on the pier. And you never thought to mention you were the heir to the sea?”
Leaning her hip against the counter, Rita unlatches the sugar canister and adds a spoonful of sugar to the steaming mug. She drops in a spoon and stirs with much more vigor than necessary.
“Trust me, I wanted to. But even if I did, you’d forget immediately. It was part of the curse. No matter how hard I tried to tell Thea who I was, she always forgot.”
She sets the cup of tea in front of me and wipes her hands on her apron. “You didn’t tell me about entering The Gales either. Not until I caught you.”
I press my tongue into my cheek and stare at my blurred reflection in the tea. “It would put you in danger.”
Letting out a huff, she circles the driftwood table and sinks onto the seat across from me.
“I house women in secret, Briar. Everything I do is dangerous. But you?” She shakes her head, the act so like my mother it makes my heart ache.
“What you did today was foolish. What were you thinking? Being inside the castle after everything that’s happened? ”
“I’m looking for Inez, and she’s somewhere in one of their dungeons.”
She leans her elbows on the table and presses her fingers against her temples. She’s lived in Sarenia her entire life—a native of the Earth Court. But it’s not unfamiliar for those of different courts to know the members of my crew.
“So Callum has her.”
I nod, and my stomach churns. For years, I brought women to Rita, disappointed they weren’t members of my crew. The last thing I want is to explain how I finally found them again, and managed to already lose one.
“Are you going to explain why you were in the castle?” I say, lifting the mug to my lips. In the time I’ve known her, Rita hadn’t entered the castle walls once. Not only was she not welcome, but it was in her best interest to go unnoticed.
She’s quiet for a long moment, and my gaze trails to the wall over her shoulder, at the mural painted by the many hands that passed through the safe house. Some have been worn by time—the paint faded. But others are so new the paint still looks wet.
Mine sits somewhere in the middle, the paint neither new nor old. Yet the ache that climbs into my chest has lived there a lifetime. I stare at my addition—the ship sailing through the clear ocean waves. My dream. Just out of reach.
Rita clears her throat. “Callum is evicting us.”
My spine stiffens, and I shake my head. “He can’t do that. You own this building.”
“Apparently, that isn’t enough.” She pulls a slip of paper from her apron pocket and unfolds it, sliding it toward me.
“I got this in the mail yesterday, notifying me that my land now belongs to the crown. I went to the castle to try and refute it, but it was useless. I have to be out in thirty days.”
I scan the notice, and my heart wrenches. “Where will everyone go? Where will you go?”
She shrugs, pulling the paper back. Folding it, she tucks it back into her pocket. “I might be able to find some temporary housing or maid positions for some of the girls, but I fear that most of them might end up in dangerous situations. And as for myself…”
Her voice trails off, but it’s enough of an answer. “You have nowhere to go.”
She nods, dipping her gaze to her tea.
My chest constricts, as if there’s a vise around it, squeezing the air from my lungs. I stare at my hands, one gloved, the other wrapped in fabric.
Rita never left me behind, and I won’t do the same to her.
“I’m bringing you with me,” I say. “And whatever women you have staying here.”
Her eyes widen. “To where?”
I abandon my tea and push myself to my feet. “Ignata.”
“I—”
“I’m not taking no for an answer. But you can only bring what you can carry. So go pack, and I’ll go tell the rest we’re leaving.”
The air shifts, and a crash comes from the foyer. My heart catches in my throat, and I palm my dagger as Rita and I make eye contact. We ease to our feet, and I bring a finger to my mouth, rounding the table.
I burst into the doorway, and my brow furrows. “Thea?”
“For fate’s sake, Briar,” she says, clambering up from the pile of boxes she landed against.
I offer a hand to Thea, heaving her to her feet as Rita comes up from behind me.
“I saw fire,” Thea says, chest heaving. “It took nearly a dozen jumps, but I transported there, and when I couldn’t find you, I—”
I wrap my arms around her, holding her tight. “I’m okay, I promise.” Pulling back, I rest my hands on her shoulders. “How did you know I was here?”
“I didn’t.” Tears choke her voice, and she swipes a hand beneath her eyes. “It was just the last place I could think of. I figured if you weren’t here, the only other option was you were arrested. Or dead.”
Rita shifts beside me, but I force myself not to look at her. I can’t let Thea know how close I came to both of those things—that if it weren’t for Rita, my fate could have been much worse.
“And Kressa?” I say.
I catch Rita glance at me, raising a brow. But there’s far too much to explain, and we don’t have time right now.
“She’s in the rowboat waiting for me to return with you. But with the fire, the harbor is on high alert. She said if we aren’t back within the hour, she’s returning to the ship.”
I scoff. “Of course she did. I’m sure if it were up to her, she’d rather me be dead.”
Thea shakes her head. “Actually, she begged me to come and find you. I was already planning to, of course, but I’ve never seen her so upset. It was—it was like how I felt being separated from Celia.”
A lump grows in my throat, but I swallow it down and turn to Rita. “Start packing. We’ll go up and tell everyone we’re leaving.”
Rita’s gaze lingers on me, but she nods and disappears around the corner.
“I saw Isolde,” I whisper, grabbing the handrail.
Thea’s eyes widen. “And? Is she going to meet us back in Ignata?”
We climb the staircase to the handful of occupied rooms, their doors cracked open.
I linger on the landing, shifting my feet over the worn wooden planks.
“She is, but not as soon as we hoped. Things are complicated with Callum, apparently.” My hand dips into my pocket, fingers brushing over the emerald.
I could tell Thea about it, but any knowledge of what I have could put her in danger. It’s already risky enough that I’ve told her I saw Isolde, but that can easily be explained by accidentally running into her in the castle.
If, at any point, Thea doesn’t have rhodium on, Elias would be able to read her mind. Or if they interrogated her. But there’s one thing I can tell her.
I pull my hand from my pocket. “She said Kressa has my compass.”
“And you believe her?” She lifts a brow, staring at me as if she knows there’s something I’m not telling her.
“At first I didn’t, but I think she’s telling the truth.”
“Briar, she turned you in to Caelus. What makes you think she’s telling the truth?”
I shrug, glancing down at my feet. Isolde is trusting me with the emerald, and that’s enough of a gesture to make me believe her. And what she said makes sense. With her earth and fire power, Kressa has more power than anyone else. And if she has my compass…
“Right now, I trust her more than Kressa,” I say.
Thea sucks in a cheek. “The lesser of two evils, I suppose.”
I nod. “I’ll do everything I can to find the compass and stay alive until Isolde comes to Ignata. But for now, we need to gather the women and bring them to the harbor. They’re coming with us.”
“Yes, captain.”
My breath catches—my feet rooted to the spot as she walks to the first door and raps her knuckles against the wood. It’s the first time in days I haven’t been doubted—my motives not questioned. My first mate, forever at my side.
And still, I’m not even telling her the complete truth.
I let out a low breath and move to the next door, easing it open. Two women occupy the room, one sitting on her bed and the other at a desk—neither of whom I’ve met before.
“We’re leaving in ten minutes,” I say. “Only bring what you can carry.”
The second half goes without saying. They arrive only with what they have on them, which is usually what fits in their pockets.
Without asking why, or where they’re going, they give a nod. They must already know about the eviction—already waiting for word on when they’ll leave.
I move to the next room, and within minutes Thea and I have covered the entire hallway. By the time I leave the last room, women start filing down the stairs, some with rucksacks and others with only a few things peeking from the pockets of their skirts.
Rita waits at the bottom of the staircase.
“Are you sure about this?” she says, tucking a grey, coiled strand of hair back into place.
“Yes, but we have to move quick. You’ll lead a third of the women down one path, Thea will take another.” I tilt my chin at a row of cloaks hanging beside the door. “Can we borrow these?”
Rita nods.
Pulling one from the hook, I drape it over my shoulders and pull the hood far over my head.
I hand another to Thea. “I’ll take the last third.
All of the guards in the city will be swarming the castle, too worried about the fire.
No one will even notice us. We’ll each take a different path to the harbor, and go straight to the pirate docks. Cassio will take us out to the ship.”
“Cassio?” Thea hisses under her breath.
I hook my fingers beneath her hood and pull it onto her head, tucking her hair beneath it. “Trust me, I’d rather you transport each of us to the ship yourself, but I don’t think that’s an option.”
She presses her lips into a thin line.
“He won’t hesitate to help, I promise.”
A dozen women stand on the steps, staring down at us. Their eyes are tired, sunken, but I’ve seen enough of women like them in the last decade to know what else lingers beneath. Hope. Bravery.
I cup Rita’s hand in mine and squeeze. “Let’s go.”