Chapter 1 Stubborn Shadow #2
“You didn’t have to pinch me.” Pip scowled.
Kit grinned. “Sorry.”
Instead of answering Kittredge’s question, Pip craned his neck to peer behind Sable, then did the same to Kittredge, and then he studied the docked ships below, his face crumpling in confusion. “Where’s everyone else? Calla? Eryx?”
Shit. That.
Kittredge’s eyes flicked to Sable’s, and an understanding passed between them with the warm exhale of the Gullet’s breath.
She wrapped her arm around Pip’s shoulders and pulled him along as they cleared the passage for the other pirates and kept walking deeper inside the cavern’s bowels.
“Right. About that… Sable?” She looked helplessly at Sable.
Right. Despite years of trying, Kittredge still couldn’t lie to save her life.
Sable cleared her throat. “We’re on a mission,” she said carefully.
Pip’s eyes widened, and his visible excitement made Sable’s heart twist painfully in her chest. “A mission?” he asked, hushed.
“A secret mission.” He pouted at that, and after a quick assessment, Sable spun that around. “But you can help.”
She tried not to feel guilty when his face immediately brightened.
This was for his own good. If only Kittredge were this gullible.
She made a show of pausing for emphasis, but really it was just so that she could think.
If she knew Calla–and she did, in spite of everything–she knew the Moonshadow would be on their tracks, so this could be her best opportunity to throw them off the scent and gain the time she needed to do what she had to do.
“We need you to stay here, and when the Moonshadow docks, tell the captain we booked passage for Korrava. And that they need to wait here for us. They cannot follow.”
Pip frowned. “The volcano island?”
“Yes.”
“What are you going there for? It’s dangerous.”
Sable gave him a stern look, and he pouted again, kicking at a pebble as they walked. “Right, right. Secret,” he mumbled.
Sable nodded, more to herself than to him. This was a good distraction. If the crew suspected what she was up to, they’d think she planned to destroy the Heart by throwing it inside the island’s active volcano. It was entirely plausible. She had considered it.
At least you are not as foolish as the others who have tried to destroy me.
Sable ignored it. “Can you stay and do that for us?” she asked Pip seriously. “It’s important.”
Just as seriously, Pip nodded, and then kept walking, which pulled both Sable and Kittredge up short.
“Now?” he asked, frowning.
“We’re in a rush,” Kittredge said apologetically. Then she frowned in concern. “Where are you staying, Pip? Are you safe here? We can talk to someone to take you in before we go.”
The look Pip threw them at that was positively offended.
He crossed his arms, scowling. “You don’t need to worry about me,” he huffed.
“I found work at an inn while waiting for the Moonshadow to dock, and they give me food and board but no drink. All proper-like. I can look after myself!” He straightened his back and puffed out his chest, trying to make himself look tougher.
The wave of tenderness that hit Sable nearly knocked her off her feet, and then she wanted to kick herself, because she nearly wished they could stay. She nearly wished things were different. She couldn’t slip up like this, with the Heart waiting to grant any accidental desire.
You could take him with you.
Sable dug her nails into her biceps until she was sure they would leave bruises, just stopping herself from snapping at it. She didn’t want Pip’s last memory of her to be thinking she’d snapped at him.
There was no way in hell she’d let him anywhere near the Heart. They’d already lingered too long. It had taken notice of him.
“Good,” Sable said, and she coughed away the sudden roughness of her voice. “That’s good, Pip.”
Kittredge shot her an understanding look, then she smiled at Pip, and it was sad. “We’ll catch up with you once this is over, yeah?”
Pip visibly perked up, an easy grin playing on his lips as he forgot all about the tough act. “Yeah!” he said. “And I’ll make sure to tell the captain exactly what you said when I see her! Korrava, volcano, absolutely do not follow.”
He stepped back then, waving at them, and something like grief settled deep inside Sable’s chest. She waved back, staring at the grin on his face, at the brightness in his eyes, at the way the breeze ruffled his unruly curls.
She wanted to remember this moment, add it to the things she could hold on to as she lay awake in the deep of night, fighting her own thoughts from straying.
Moments like this were what she was fighting for, even if she wouldn’t be here to witness them any longer.
As Pip skittered off, his laughter carried with the wind stirring from the mouth of the cave, sending an unpleasant shiver down her spine. “I have so much to tell you once we’re all back together! You’re not gonna believe me!”
They watched him go, then they turned to each other incredulously. “I honestly didn’t believe Eryx was right about that, but…”
Sable shivered again. “Yeah.”
How did a boy survive the sirens? Sable started walking again, shaking her head at all her unanswered questions, and nearly bumped into Kittredge as the pirate stopped dead in her tracks.
“Shit,” she said.
“What?”
“I lost one.” Kittredge huffed. Sable glanced at her open palm, where three juggling balls rested instead of four. Before she could say anything, Kit waved her off. “I know, I know, there’s no time. Let’s go.”
Sable sighed. If a juggling ball was all they lost on this journey, that would be nothing less than a miracle.