A Yulean Sister’s Guide to Getting Kidnapped (The Yulean Sisters #2)

PROLOGUE

Ilowered my hat with one hand, the other buried in my pocket, wrapped around the letter I received. Was I a fool for accepting a meeting like this? Probably, but it was too strange to pass up.

It was just my luck we were already passing through the area, another coincidence I didn’t like, but… here I was.

Rain pelted my coat, falling so hard it bounced off of the stone path, plip, plip, pliping all around me. If it wasn’t raining so hard, I probably would have read the parchment again. It’s not like I needed to—I’d looked at it so many times already it was burned into my brain.

Captain Shadowhart,

This is my formal request for a job. It won’t be easy, but if anyone can do it, I know it’s you and your crew.

I’d prefer not to offer details in writing. My exchange is not for coin, but information.

I know what happened to the previous Captain Shadowhart.

If you’re interested, meet me at Frog Bill’s Tavern on Pelgrove Island on the eleventh, after the sun sets.

I’ll be waiting.

K.

Whoever this was claimed to know what happened to Tungesten.

He was found dead with no explanation, and someone claimed to have it. Whether he was lying or not, I couldn’t be sure, but I had to take the risk. His death hung over me like a storm cloud, and I craved to learn anything about it.

So, against my better judgement, and probably my crew’s if they knew, I was slithering down the path that led to the Frog Bill.

Pelgrove Island wasn’t a large one, so finding directions to it wasn’t very difficult. The outside was just like any other tavern. Dark wood beams surrounding a brick building and a shuttered roof. A big wooden, painted sign read ‘Frog Bill’s Tavern’ with a faded, fat frog next to it.

I entered the quiet tavern, fairly empty at the dusk hour. Just as they asked, I came when the sun was just setting beyond the horizon.

My eyes scanned the room. A couple at one of the tables and sailors at the bar, but I knew none of them were who I was looking for.

Then I spotted someone at a booth in the back, tucked into the side so far I almost missed them.

Call it intuition, but I knew that’s who I was looking for.

I snaked over, being cautious as I did. There was a high chance this was a trap. I was smart enough to know that, but I was here anyway, which I supposed stripped any intelligent credibility I had away.

Sat in the booth was a man with a shock of red hair and pale skin, much too pale for someone who worked on a ship in the sun all day. Piercings ran up his ear, and he fiddled with something under the table, a ring if I had to guess.

His teeth were white and straight as he grinned at me, not a kind smile, but one all the same.

“Shadowhart,” he said. “Good to meet you.”

I slid into the booth across from him, keeping my hands knotted at my front.

“And what should I call you?” I asked, hoping for a name.

“K is perfectly fine,” he said.

I was instantly irritated, but he was a potential client either way I looked at it.

“Okay, K,” I started. “I found your letter… interesting.”

His already too big smile widened. “I hoped you would.”

“So what’s the mission?”

“Straight to it then,” he said.

“I was hoping so.” Though it looked like he was looking for something else.

“Very well,” he said. “I need you to steal a necklace.”

I had to work hard to keep the surprise off my face. “A single necklace?”

He nodded. “A very important one.”

“So you want to hire an entire crew to steal… one piece of jewelry.”

“I don’t care how many of you it takes,” he clarified. “I just want it.”

“Where is it?”

He leaned in towards me. “Around the spoiled neck of Princess Sage Yulean.”