Chapter 46
After Will left, Amaya stayed tangled in his blankets for another half hour in a happy, satisfied daze. It was warm, and the sheets smelled deliciously like him.
She never would have left if her stomach hadn’t started growling, forcing her to get up before she missed the dinner window. She picked up her corset and examined it, letting out a heavy sigh.
“Dammit, Will . . .”
The corset itself was unharmed, but the laces were shredded into dozens of tiny pieces. There was no salvaging it. Amaya pulled on the rest of her clothes and made a mad dash to her room, where she laced herself into a new one before anyone could ask what had happened.
Serena intercepted her on the way to the mess.
“Hey!” she said. “Been looking for you.” Serena linked her arm in Amaya’s, bumping her hip. “Seen Bas lately? Last I heard, he had a few things he needed to get on top of.”
Maker have mercy.
Amaya glared at Serena. So, Sebastian had told her. Why was she surprised?
“No, I haven’t.”
“Wait a second. What’s that?”
Serena reached for Amaya’s hand, holding it up to stare at Sixth Sense in wide-eyed shock.
“Oh, shit. Are you serious?” She paused. Grinned. “Well, I guess he is.”
Amaya suddenly felt silly to have worried about getting caught with a ruined corset when Sixth Sense on her finger revealed so much more. She tugged her hand away.
“Shut up.”
“You shut up. That’s basically my brother you just slept with.”
“Serena!”
“Take it easy, princess, I’m not upset. Can’t speak for Bas, though—poor guy is traumatized.”
Amaya scrunched her nose. “Why?”
Bas was the last person on the Maelstrom she expected to be a prude, considering some of the stories she’d heard.
“Oh, because he’s a hypocrite and thinks he’s the only person on this ship who has sex. Anyway, have you eaten?”
“No, I’m headed there now. You?”
“Amaya!” Another voice rang out from across the deck, and Amaya turned to see Grace skip over with Mouse in tow. “Where have you been? We’ve been looking everywhere for you.”
Amaya blinked. Maybe Sebastian and Serena knew about her and Will, but that did not mean Grace and Mouse got to.
“I was, um . . . sleeping,” she said.
“Oh. You dropped this, by the way.” Grace dug through the folds of her skirt and presented the abandoned engagement ring. Amaya barely managed to keep her face neutral as the ring sparkled, a ghostly trinket from the life she’d just renounced.
“We found it on the deck earlier,” Mouse said.
“Um, thanks.” She accepted the ring but didn’t put it on her finger, slipping it into her pocket instead. Grace tilted her head and eyed Amaya’s hand, discovering Sixth Sense. Eyes bugging, she grabbed Amaya’s wrist to examine it.
“What is this?”
“Woah, no way,” Mouse said, peering over to get a glimpse at it. “Is that Sixth Sense?”
Serena grinned. “You bet it is.”
“I’m confused. What’s Sixth Sense?” Grace asked.
“One of the captain’s relics,” Mouse said. “I’ve never seen him without it. Well, except the ten seconds after I stole it that one time. I’m surprised he gave it away.”
The gears in Grace’s head visibly turned as she pieced the evidence together. She gasped as understanding dawned, regarding Amaya with reproach.
“Amaya! He’s a Sky Lord! What are you thinking?” she cried. “What about Victor?”
“I’m thinking it’s none of your business,” Amaya said. It came out harsher than intended. “Leave it alone.”
“Wait, I’m confused,” Mouse said, looking back and forth between the two of them. “What’s going on?”
“I’ll explain when you’re older,” Serena said, clapping him on the back.
Grace huffed under her breath. “It’s all perfectly clear to me.”
“Okay, woah. Tension.” Serena put one arm around Amaya’s shoulder and the other around Grace’s. “Ladies, my room for hot chocolate?”
“I’m hungry. Hot chocolate isn’t food,” Amaya said.
“Fine. Get your food and then hot chocolate. Grace?”
Grace still regarded Amaya with undisguised judgment, but she nodded.
“That sounds very enjoyable,” she said, despite not sounding happy.
“Can I come?” Mouse asked Serena, hopeful.
“No. Girls only.”
After dinner, the girls convened in Serena’s cabin. Amaya sat in the corner of the bed, a blanket around her shoulders and a mug of hot chocolate warming her hands. She blew away the steam before taking a sip.
If making hot chocolate was an art form, Serena had mastered it.
Grace sat across the room, perched on a little chair with impeccable posture.
She and Amaya were dressed in silky nightgowns from Vaelstead, while Serena had changed out of her coveralls into a soft pair of wide-legged pants and a tunic.
Her hair was down for a change, brushing just below her shoulders.
Grace watched the engineer curiously as she fussed with her eclectic hot chocolate machine.
An empty mug slid inside on a small conveyor belt and came out the other end moments later, piping hot and filled to the brim with chocolate and marshmallows.
A gauge mechanism on the outside of the mug indicated the temperature.
“Here you are, junior princess,” Serena said, handing the mug to Grace.
“Thank you. Did you make this yourself?” Grace asked, nodding to the machine.
Serena beamed. “It’s fun, isn’t it? My mom had a similar machine when she was the engineer. I improved it and programmed in her recipe.”
“That’s very impressive. How long did it take to build?”
“The first prototype took a couple days. This is the third model—probably took a week or two. Malcolm helped.”
“That’s the automaton?”
“You got it. My mom built him, too.”
“He’s quite a . . . peculiar automaton, isn’t he? I’ve never heard of them being so conversational.”
“He’s got a relic that makes him appear sentient—or makes him actually sentient, if you believe in that sort of thing.”
Grace shook her head in amazement. “Wow. I didn’t expect to encounter so many intellectuals on a pirate ship.”
Serena snorted, sending a third mug through the machine for herself. “What did you expect?”
Grace shrugged. “Brutes, I suppose. Like the two men who helped rescue us.”
“Brutes,” Serena echoed with a chuckle. “We come in all shapes and sizes. Ford and Crowe are the primary muscle, but everyone has different roles. A ship full of brutes wouldn’t fly very far.”
“There aren’t many women,” Grace said. “Just you.”
“Just me. Well, and Amaya.” Serena threw a wink in Amaya’s direction, and they both smiled. Before today, Amaya may have rejected the implication that she was part of the crew. She didn’t now.
“Why aren’t there more?” Grace asked.
Amaya’s interest piqued at the question, having wondered the same countless times before.
“Well, the first Sky Lords were generals who fought in the war,” Serena explained.
“There were female soldiers, certainly, but not as many. Women kept the relic factories running in the sky cities while the men fought. When the Sky Lords began assembling their crews after the war, they picked their closest associates, most of whom were men. It’s just kind of continued that way, but things are changing.
Slowly. Not every crew is welcoming to women, and many of the ones that are bring them on for the wrong reasons.
Our crew isn’t like that, mind you—Will would lose his shit.
But I think it does dissuade a lot of women from joining up. ”
“Doesn’t that get lonely?” Grace asked.
The engineer’s lips twisted in a vaguely melancholy smile. “I wouldn’t say that. But this is nice.” She gestured to Amaya and Grace. “This sleepover shit is brave new territory.”
Once her hot chocolate was done, Serena plopped down with Amaya and nudged her.
“Well?”
Amaya took another sip of her drink. “Well, what?”
“Don’t just sit there! Spill! What’s going on with you and William?”
The question wasn’t surprising, but it still made Amaya blush for the millionth time tonight. She swirled her drink, smiling shyly into her cup as recent memories danced through her head.
“Yes, I’m curious, too,” Grace said. Judgement still undercut her tone. “What happened to Victor? I thought you were in love!”
Amaya opened her mouth to speak but closed it upon realizing she had no idea what to say. She and Will hadn’t labeled their relationship or discussed their future beyond the acknowledgement that they wanted one.
So, she didn’t start with Will.
“I was never in love with Victor,” she said, looking at Grace.
The teenager’s dark eyebrows drew together.
“But you got engaged. You’re still engaged, whether you’re wearing the ring or not.”
“After the way I left him last night? I highly doubt he still wants to marry me. If he does, I’ll call it off when I see him next.”
She’d have to go back to Sorrento at some point, if only to say goodbye to her father and get Daisy. But after that, it wouldn't matter if Victor decided to expose her. She’d be free.
Grace frowned, appearing conflicted and distinctly unimpressed.
“I thought you had more integrity than that,” Grace said.
Her words cut deep, but Amaya wasn’t going to apologize for choosing Will.
“It turns out I don’t,” she said shortly. “Sorry to disappoint you.”
“I mean, it’s not just that,” Grace pressed. “He’s a pirate. Is he . . . is he truly honorable? Are you certain he cares for you?”
In response, Amaya held up her left hand, where Sixth Sense glimmered on her ring finger.
“Yes.”
Serena grinned. “Yeah, no shit he cares about you. Come on, details!”
Even Grace cracked a smile at Serena’s insistence, and Amaya rolled her eyes.
What she and Will had felt too new, too intimate, and too fragile to share, even with her friends. It would be a disservice to speak aloud the words she hadn’t even dared to share with him: that she was rapidly and irrevocably falling in love.
“You don’t need details from me. Sounded like Sebastian gave you plenty,” Amaya said finally.
“I’d rather have a firsthand account. Bas is notoriously dramatic,” Serena countered.
“What do you want me to say?” Amaya cried, throwing one hand in the air in exasperation. “Yes, we slept together. Is that what you want?”
Serena wagged her eyebrows. “No, that’s common knowledge, silly. What I want to know is if he was any good.”
Grace shrieked, her hand flying to her mouth. Amaya’s face flushed an even deeper shade of crimson.
Of course he was good—she couldn’t imagine anything better—but it wasn’t about that.
Being with Will was more than a pent-up release or a cautious experiment like what she’d had with Camden.
It was an explosion of searing passion mixed with heartrending vulnerability she finally felt free to express.
And while she hadn’t known her body was capable of experiencing that, she hadn’t known her soul was either.
Thinking about it made her want to drag Will away from training, or the relic workshop, or wherever he was and tumble back into bed.
But she couldn’t just say that to Serena and Grace.
“He was—I mean, we—” she stammered out, struggling to find words she could comfortably say.
Serena just laughed, patting Amaya’s knee.
“Relax, I’m just giving you a hard time. I do not want to know any of that, trust me. Ew. But Sixth Sense?” She let out a whistle.
Amaya scrunched her nose and shoved Serena playfully.
“All right, I get it. I’m the scandal of the century.” Eager to not talk about herself anymore, she asked, “How about you? Anyone ever caught your eye?”
“Oh, sure. Here and there. But living on an airship doesn’t exactly lend itself to stable relationships, and I’ve never met anyone good enough to consider leaving the Maelstrom for.” Serena shrugged. “I have a few friends I meet up with in certain sky cities when we pass through, though.”
“Like the chocolate vendor at Breezeway Park?” Amaya asked, remembering Serena running off. “When you ditched me?”
“I resent that. You had a lovely evening with William at Cloudspire, which, by the way, you owe to me,” Serena said, smiling. “But, yes. Don’t tell Bas.”
“Maybe if Bas had somebody, he’d keep his nose out of everyone else’s business,” Amaya muttered.
“Oh, he did have somebody,” Serena said. “Evelyn. He was gonna marry her, actually.”
“What?”
“Problem was, he was seventeen. Dad pitched a fit and threatened to leave them destitute, so Bas called it off. She’s married to somebody else now, but I don’t think he’s ever really gotten over it. Now he just . . . sleeps around in the sky cities and pretends that’s all he wants.”
“Damn.” Amaya didn’t know what to say to that. Or what to think, other than she felt guilty for judging him.
“Yeah, well. Enough about him. How about you, Grace?” Serena asked, turning to the younger girl. “Who do you have your eyes on? Mouse?”
“Goodness, no!” Grace insisted, shaking her head vehemently. “There’s nobody. Nobody!”
Serena and Amaya exchanged glances and simultaneously burst into fits of giggles. Grace glowered at them at first, but it didn’t take long for her to join in.