Chapter 30
Chapter
Thirty
Dirt and stone crunched beneath her boots as Erinna paced the small lookout point.
“I cannot believe him,” she seethed for the tenth time. Inez sat on the hard earth with a shirt in one hand and a sewing needle in the other. “Him and his…assholery!” Erinna cried into the air.
“There is more to it than just...assholery.”
Erinna paused midstride. Anger had given way to amusement.
She couldn’t stop the laugh from rising.
To hear such foul language slip through Inez’s mouth.
Out of everyone on that island, Inez was perhaps the kindest. In less than two weeks, they had formed a kinship, friendship even.
Something that seemed so foreign to Erinna, lately. A new friend. She relished it.
Her hands went to the bracelet around her wrist, having quickly become a source of comfort.
If she didn’t think too hard, she could forget its meaning and what it was for.
Her mind went back to Kane, and she scowled.
It was becoming a new coping mechanism that kept her from guilt and despair. Fury was an easy distraction.
“We had a deal.” Erinna glared out at the horizon. She had half a mind to storm down the hill and find the pirate, wherever he disappeared to.
Earlier, she tried to tear the camp apart in search of Kane, but Lila and Asher were quick to intercept and remind her she still had duties to tend to. I shouldn’t have let them persuade me.
“You’ll get your answers. I’m sure of it,” Inez chimed.
Erinna turned with more complaints ready to spill, but paused as she looked at Inez’s lap. “Is that…”
“Your shirt? Yes. You ripped a massive hole in the sleeve.”
Guilt sobered her rage. Erinna slumped beside her on the ground. “I can take care of that.” She reached for the fabric, but Inez tugged it just beyond her grasp.
“I insist.” Erinna tried again, but Inez sent her a look that sent chills up her spine.
“I…” Inez bit her bottom lip in thought. “I like to keep busy.”
It was a feeling Erinna was all too familiar with. She swallowed down an argument and let Inez continue her mending.
“How are you doing?” asked Erinna, voice low.
During their time on the island, Inez had finally started to look healthier.
Her body was still painfully thin but no longer showed signs of malnourishment.
Color had returned to her cheeks, and her eyes finally held life, but Erinna knew that such trauma couldn’t be cured in a simple fortnight.
Inez paused her stitching and stared off into the distance. “Every night I wonder if I’m finally going to wake up from this dream. It wouldn’t surprise me if this”—she gestured to their surroundings—“was nothing but a way for my brain to cope. But there are things that are too…certain about this.”
“Certain?”
Inez nodded and resumed her stitching. The threads were far superior to whatever Erinna could do. “You, Afton, Kane…you are too real to be a dream.” Her knee started to bounce, a sign Erinna started to recognize as frustration. Inez still had a hard time communicating her divinatory senses.
She reached out and gave her knee a gentle squeeze. “Well, if there’s anything you need. Let me know.”
“I do enjoy you yelling about Kane.” She grinned and nudged Erinna’s shoulder with her own. It was all the invitation Erinna needed to continue her rant.
“You, shipwright, I have a message for you.”
Scout stepped into the clearing, drawing gasps from Erinna and Inez who hadn’t heard him approach.
Of all the pirates, the famed lookout was the one Erinna saw least. Apart from his initial instructions when she took an observation shift, she’d barely spoken with or seen the man.
His scowl and glare were deeper than she remembered as he approached.
He glanced at Inez, and Erinna was sure he dipped his head slightly in greeting. Everyone liked the diviner more than her, and in all honesty, she couldn’t blame them. Erinna had a way of rubbing people the wrong way.
“Scout…sir?” Erinna attempted a respectful formality. Maybe it would help him warm up to her.
Alas, it only seemed to sour his mood. His frown deepened, and his hand hovered next to his side where Erinna knew there were a dozen throwing knives. His usual stance.
Heels still in the shadow of the treeline, he locked eyes with Erinna. “Captain Atwater forbids entry into Fort Solitude.”
Erinna’s head spun. The doors were finally open. But Kane promised her entry, didn’t he?
Inez was the first to speak. “They opened the doors?”
Scout softened a fraction of a degree. “Yes. The doors are unlocked, but it is not safe for entry. Stay out until otherwise instructed.” He aimed the last part at Erinna before disappearing back into shadow. Gone even quicker than he arrived.
“The doors are open,” Erinna breathed. They were a step closer to the library, a step closer to answers, and closer to finding a way to save her father.
She moved toward the path back to camp, but Inez grabbed her hand to halt her.
The mended shirt was flung over her shoulder and sewing materials stowed back in her pouch.
“You can’t go in yet.”
Erinna gave Inez’s hand a squeeze, trying to tide her own flowing determination. She was ready to storm in. Traps be damned, she would get into that library. “But it’s open. I can help. We can get what we need. I can start putting this all behind me.” She made a pointed stare at the mark.
Inez steadied herself and pulled Erinna closer. “No. Kane made it clear that it was dangerous. I…remember…my feeling when we were first here. Now is not the time.” The last statement came out as a warning.
Erinna squeezed her eyes shut against unwanted tears. It was the most progress they made in days, and still everything felt like it was always just out of her reach.
“You’re right,” she yielded and welcomed the comforting squeeze from her friend. She would turn her focus back to Kane and the information she was owed.
Erinna forced the last bit of food into her mouth.
She lacked an appetite, but the last time Rem noticed an unfinished plate, he’d complained feverishly in a language she didn’t understand and gave the rest of her plate to Brax.
The following morning, she was granted the smallest portion size on the island.
“We do not waste food here. Come back for more if you’re still hungry,” he had said, and Erinna wondered if it was more about hurt feelings than wasting food. Probably both, but ever since, she made sure her plate was clean after every meal.
Afton and Kane had been holed up in that small guardroom all day. There was no opportunity to corner him.
“Your time will come.” Inez patted her shoulder, before taking her spot next to the chef, shoveling food onto plates for hungry pirates.
The group let Erinna stew in her own mind while she waited. Kane would have to leave sometime, and when he did, Erinna was ready to intercept him.
Finally, the door opened, and he emerged. Kane rubbed a tired hand across his face and attempted to slink back to his quarters unnoticed. Erinna jolted from her spot and was at Kane’s side before he could hide.
“What?” he asked, voice clipped and hard.
“You owe me a better explanation.” Erinna tried to summon her courage and confidence as she stood before him. Kane stood half a foot above her and was far more lethal, but Erinna’s stubborn pride would do its best to match Kane’s stature.
Something shifted in him. A solemnity she wasn’t used to. “Do not test my patience, Yarrow.” His voice was steel.
“Stop testing mine.” She tapped into her anger. He should know better than to drop an explosive in her lap and bolt.
His eyes narrowed, but Erinna continued. “You can’t just tell me that and leave. What did he want to know about my mom?” She was tired of his half-truths and fickle bargains.
He tried to sidestep and brush past her. Erinna was ready for such evasion. She reached out, grabbed his coat, and pushed him against the nearest wall. Erinna knew she wasn’t strong enough to hold him long, but at least she had leverage with his back pressed against stone.
Kane stared at her wide-eyed, too surprised to resist. Erinna half expected him to recover and push her away, continuing this game of avoidance. To her surprise, he wrapped a strong arm around her waist and pulled her closer, dragging her deeper into the shadow.
A beat of silence. Kane slumped against her, like he was caving into some grand burden. Or being released from one.
“You’re right. I’m not being fair,” he whispered against her ear before pressing his face lightly into her neck.
Erinna was too stunned to respond. He held her close, close enough that her face rested against his shoulder and any leverage she had was gone.
“I’m sorry for leaving you like that. I can understand how that might be…frustrating.”
“I’m tired of these games, Kane. Please.” Erinna cringed at the quiver in her voice, the desperation. At least he couldn’t see the shame rise to her cheeks.
“I’m trying to tell you as best I can.” A faint hint of anguish filtered through.
It was more difficult than Erinna thought.
She figured, now that her own deal with Kane was fulfilled, she would be able to access more secrets.
Apparently, all it did was slightly free his tongue.
It was better than nothing. Erinna would take what she could get.
“Let’s try this. I ask a question, and you try your best to answer it.” On instinct, she reached out and patted his chest in reassurance.
Kane nodded and eased his hold, hands dropping to his sides. Erinna hesitated before taking a step back. “Do you know why he wanted books about my mother?”
“No.”
“How did you meet?”
“He found me behind bars. Right before all the nonsense started.”
Her stomach pulled into knots. It had been deliberate. “Do you know what he was planning, or just that he wanted those books?”
“The latter.” The tight edges of his shoulders relaxed as the web of arcanum seemed to ease. This would do. A simple back and forth. The most effective tactic so far.
“How did he know you were coming here?”
Kane let out a short laugh. “You figured it out. Why wouldn't he? He said he knew where I was going and that he could help me find what I needed.”
“And what was the exchange?”
“Well, the first was that I brought you home safely if things went…awry during my escape.”
“Did you kill Iprix?” It spilled off her tongue before she could stop it.
“No, no…that was not on me. I was waiting for him to die, yes. But I didn’t kill him.”
She bit the inside of her cheek. Erinna believed him to an extent, but the timing of everything didn’t sit well with her suspicions.
“I was meant to bring you home safely. That was what I gave your father. The assurance that you would make it out of the thrall alive while he ran off to fester in his own skeletons. And once we were in Iprix’s vault of knowledge, I needed to collect a few books for him.
In exchange, your father gave me that coded index, and a place to dock the escape boat. ”
Silence settled as Erinna processed the information and tried to wrestle with the growing sense of betrayal.
“Was that really so hard?” she sighed.
“Yes, Erinna. This”—he waved between the two of them—“is not something I make a habit of. Especially when I have a magical pact to work with.”
Disappointment pressed in. She felt no closer to understanding the machinations of her fate or her family. Her hand went instinctively to her mark. There might be something else he could help with.
“Is there anything else you can tell me about this?” She pushed her sleeve up and held her arm up to his face. Surely, he could answer that as easily as he wanted.
Kane took her wrist and brought her arm closer to inspect it. He traced it lightly in thought. The move sent shivers down Erinna’s spine. It felt far too intimate.
“I don’t know exactly what this curse is, but you were never meant to withstand its effects.” He met her gaze and raised an eyebrow. “Has anything unusual happened?”
She shook her head, but knew it was a lie. The Weeping Queen had come back. It had to be connected.
He dropped her arm and shrugged. “You’re pretty lucky then. But be mindful of anything out of the ordinary. Curses like these will leave a trace sooner or later.”
Dread cemented her feet to the ground. Reality crumbled whatever bubble of peace her complacency started to grow. She’d grown too comfortable while her father lay asleep beneath the effects of a curse.
“Thank you.” Her throat felt dry and raw.
They were running out of time, and the place was still full of traps. The library would be free game, but the fort that surrounded it was a different beast. There were protections warded into the stone and wood foundation. If they weren’t careful, one misstep or miscalculation could mean death.
Kane drew closer, as if the next words were a secret for only them. “If you wanted…we can find some information on the history and nature of aberrant Talents while we’re there.” His gaze was prying, and the corner of his mouth turned up in a smirk.
“I see no point in that.” Erinna refused to give him the satisfaction of holding his assumptions over her. Let him think whatever he wanted; losing always favored the first to break.
“What’s the plan for getting into the library? I heard you made a mess of things?”
Kane frowned and stepped back to lean against the wall. Finally some distance between them.
“We’re…switching to plan B.” The way he said it told Erinna everything she needed to know. There was no plan B. They were back to the drawing board, doing the same thing they’d been doing since she got there.
“What exactly happened, anyway?”
“Ask Afton,” Kane grumbled.
She rolled her eyes. Whatever or whomever was at fault didn’t change anything.
They needed to navigate the fort first before entering the library.
Erinna chewed her lip in thought. Her mind recalled the invisible guidance when she was resetting the bars, and Inez’s sense that they would need Erinna. That they would need her Talent.
“What if I could find a safe way through?”
Kane studied her face, trying to find the answer himself. “Find a safe way in, and the crew of the Hellish Rebuke would owe you a favor.”
“I will find a way,” she said with certainty, and Kane grinned. It was an expression that said he did not believe her but was excited to see her try.
“Do your best. But you will not take time away from Afton’s work.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
Kane let out a soft laugh and started again toward his quarters. “It’s a deal,” he called over his shoulder, leaving Erinna alone in the shadows to consider her impossible options.