Chapter 2
Kiera
For a moment, nothing. Nothing but suspended air and sound.
Then the room detonated like one of Nikella’s bombs. Shouts rose from every corner. Maz’s sisters shot forward as one, unsheathing their weapons. Twin blurs of movement darkened my periphery—Nikella and Aiden reaching for their own weapons.
But I couldn’t look away from Maz’s stricken expression. The strength bled from his grip, and I let his hand fall away from me.
Tears burned behind my eyes. “I’m sorry, Maz.”
Outraged questions and accusations hurled around me like arrows shot from bows, but I was numb to them. Sharp blades waved around me, but I couldn’t bring myself to grab my own.
Maz dragged his hand over his bearded face, then clenched it into a fist and slammed it on the floor. “SHUT UP!” he roared.
I flinched. Everyone else drew backward, falling silent.
He looked at me, his eyes swimming with pain and disappointment. “Why?” he croaked. “Gods damn it, why?”
The tears I’d held back for days suddenly spilled over. “Because I thought you all were the enemy. I thought you were going to harm my family.”
“So you decided to take out ours instead?” Sigrid hissed, still tapping her sword against her thigh as if she’d love nothing more than to plunge it into my gut. She gestured to Maz. “You handed our brother over to be tortured even after you came to know him?”
“No!” I blurted out, reaching out to reassure Maz before pulling back. “No, I would never give someone to Korvin. That’s why I told Renwell when the attack was taking place. I was trying to save you.”
I heard a sharp intake of breath. Aiden?
Something cleared in Maz’s eyes. “You. You were the woman I heard screaming when . . . when Korvin had me.”
I nodded, dashing away my tears. “I had to give Renwell a shred of what he wanted, or he would’ve never let me leave with you.”
Maz’s forehead dropped back to his cot. “You should’ve left me. My life is worth sacrificing for my kin and our allies.”
“I’m sorry, Maz,” I whispered again.
I shakily stood up, my gaze passing over the shadowed faces around me. Davka and Sigrid still looked murderous, but there was a flicker of understanding in Yarina’s eyes. The expressions of the other Dags and bone-rattlers ranged from confused to contemptuous.
Nikella’s face was unreadable, but Aiden . . . The intensity of his stare flayed me open like Korvin’s knife. A muscle in his jaw pulsed, and his throat clenched as if he were barely containing the words he wanted to say.
But I couldn’t handle any more. I rushed for the door, expecting someone to stop me, but no one did.
I hurtled through the dank passageways until I emerged topside.
I stumbled to the back of the ship and gripped the railing, heaving in the briny air and looking south.
Toward Aquinon. To the only family I had left, if they were still alive.
But perhaps they hated me now, too. Just like everyone else I’d betrayed.
Maz’s wounded expression and withdrawal from me battered at my bruised heart.
I bent over the railing and closed my eyes.
“Mind the draft if you’re going to puke again.”
I jerked sideways, staring wide-eyed at the red-haired man I hadn’t noticed a moment ago.
Skelly, the captain of Mynastra’s Wings, stood with his boots planted wide as he steered the ship.
I scowled. “Wasn’t planning on it.”
He shot me a smirk behind his bushy red beard. “All out, are ya?”
My scowl deepened, and he guffawed. “Ah, don’t take it personally. Most of you land lovers take days to find your feet . . . and your stomach. Mighty Mynastra must have a soft spot for you.”
“Or she was tired of me sullying her waves,” I grumbled.
The weathered skin around his gray eyes crinkled. “My money’s on that.”
I slowly joined him at the wheel. “You have a daughter, right?” I asked, digging through my memories.
He nodded. “About your age.”
“Where is she?”
“Home, at last, with her mother. I sent them back to Eloren after I paid off all the debts I owed there.”
My lips parted. All of his debts? Ruru had mentioned Skelly liked to gamble. But where had he suddenly gotten enough money to—
Aiden. The gold from the heist. No doubt, payment for the risk Skelly was currently taking.
My heart twitched at discovering at least one answer it craved.
Skelly glanced at me out of the corner of his eye.
“Of course, I left them with a large share as well. My girl will need something to take care of her mother when I perish in this foolish quest of Aiden’s.
Mynastra will, at last, have her wings,” he added morosely, as he gazed at the billowing white sails of his ship.
I frowned. “Why help him then if you’re so sure of your demise?”
Skelly looked at me as though I’d asked who Mynastra was.
“Because he saved my family. He found medicine for my wife when she was ill, and he ensured they could return safely to the home they missed dearly. I don’t care which Rellmiran rules.
I owe Aiden a debt, and that is something an Eloren never forgets. ”
I pursed my lips and looked away. Aiden always seemed to get what he needed from other people. Whether they did in return was another story.
“What of the rest of your crew? Do they also have such debts with Aiden?”
Skelly shrugged, keeping his hands wrapped around the spokes of the wheel. “Their stories vary. But each includes the choice to stay on this ship and to obey their captain.”
More blind loyalty. What inspired such a thing? Surely, they could see it only ended in early death.
Skelly nodded to where I was watching the sun sink beneath a mountain of pink and purple clouds. “That’s a good omen. Means calm weather ahead. By my reckoning, we should draw abreast of Calimber soon. Then it’ll be three more days to the Yargoth camp.”
My thoughts stuttered to a halt. Calimber. The sunstone mine where Aiden and Maz had been imprisoned. I’d also overheard Lord Garyth mention it to Melaena.
I grimaced. Two more people whose fate I didn’t know.
Garyth had wanted to know what my father was doing at the mine, hinting that it was something he didn’t want the world to see.
But now my father was dead, and Renwell wore the crown. His sickening smirk filled my mind. He’d felt he deserved that victory. Gods only knew how he’d schemed in the shadows to tear my family down. And I’d been his willing puppet.
Vengeance burned in my gut. “Turn the ship,” I commanded.
Skelly rasped a chuckle. “I don’t know who you think you are, lass, but—”
“If you want to help Aiden, point this gods-damned ship toward Calimber.”
The sea captain opened his mouth to snarl back at me when another voice cut him off.
“And why in the deep, dark, wandering hell should we believe you’re trying to help me?”
My whole body stiffened, and I slowly rotated to find Aiden towering behind me. He must’ve slipped up the stairs like the silent shadow he was while I was busy staring at the western horizon.
Gods, he was close. So close I could feel his warmth. I could reach out and stroke his inky black hair or scratch the dark stubble on his taut jaw. Or I could shove him over the railing as I’d already been tempted to do.
We hadn’t stood this close since I’d pressed my mother’s blade to his chest.
“Go ahead. It’s harder than it looks.”
I glared at him, trying to cover for my brief distraction. “You know as well as I do that something’s going on over there. What better time to find out than before Renwell gets there first?”
Aiden glared back at me, that same intensity from the infirmary burning in his eyes. I preferred his fury over his listlessness.
His jaw worked, still reluctant.
Come on, fight me. Give me a reason to fight you back. Give me a reason to unleash my demons.
“You have no idea what we’ll find,” he ground out. “We could sail straight into another ambush. Unless, of course, that’s what you want.”
His words found their mark, cutting through bone and exposing my guilt. “I wouldn’t be on this ship if it weren’t for you,” I hissed.
“Add it to the list of things you won’t forgive me for, princess.”
I inhaled sharply, my fingers curling into fists. “You think I shouldn’t hate you for what you’ve done?”
Aiden’s eyes narrowed to blades. “I saved you from the man you should hate the most.”
“I never asked you to save me!”
“And you’ll never have to,” he snarled, his nose nearly brushing mine, his breath warm on my lips. “Now tell me why you want to see the mine.”
My anger wavered. I wanted to keep shouting at him about every horrible thing I felt. But I also needed him to do my bidding. I needed to get the upper hand on Renwell.
Someone cleared their throat. We broke apart to find Nikella studying us with what looked like indifference, but I knew better. She’d been terribly quick to shoot me in the neck with that dart a few days ago.
“What’s this about the mine?” she asked, her walking staff—which encased her spear—cradled in one arm. “I told you I haven’t been able to get close to it in months.”
“All the more reason to try by sea,” I countered. “It’ll be dark soon. They won’t see us if we douse the lights.”
“No,” Aiden growled. “I’m not risking any more lives.”
“That hasn’t stopped you in the past,” I snapped.
Pain flared in Aiden’s eyes before he turned away, his face blank once more.
The scar on Nikella’s face seemed to deepen in the setting sun as she stared at me. “Unless you have information we don’t—”
“They’re building something,” I said, the memory popping into my head. “High General Dracles moved the newer army units from Calimber to Pravara, stationing his own elite soldiers at the mine instead. They’re guarding something important.”
“Where did you get this information?” Aiden asked stiffly, still facing the glowing horizon.
I swallowed. “My sister, Delysia. She . . . corresponds with one of the army captains, Henry.”
Aiden shook his head. “Of course she does.”
Fucking Four, he made me want to scream and commit violent murder.
I tried to breathe evenly through my nose. “It’s the truth. If you don’t believe me, there’s a really easy way to find out.” I stabbed my finger at the weakening sun.
Aiden was silent. Skelly waited for an order with white knuckles. Nikella simply stared at me as if she could divine the truth from each shift in my expression.
But every moment, the gentle breeze carried us farther north.
I threw one last blade at my target. “You underestimated Renwell in your attempt to assassinate my father. Do it again, and you might lose Rellmira forever.”
Aiden twisted his head to look down at me, his eyes like glowing peridots. “It wasn’t the first time I underestimated him.” Before I could respond, he glanced at Skelly. “Turn west. Make for Calimber. Alert the crew to snuff the lights and remain silent when we get close.”
My victory felt hollow as I watched Aiden stride off the back deck and disappear down the hatch.
Skelly grumbled curses under his breath, but slowly turned the wheel. Bone-rattlers’ heads popped up around the ship to stare at Skelly.
“Sundown silence and shadow! We sail for Calimber, so shake your bones and pray to Myn!”
A chorus of “Aye!” with the clatter of bones filled the air as we chased the fleeing sun.
I pivoted to find Nikella still watching me. “You think it’s a reckless plan?”
She shook her head, her long black braid swaying. “No. My brother thrives on secrets and having no weaknesses. I understand your need to find one.”
I blinked, taken aback. She might be the only person in the world with such insight on Renwell. Other than me, perhaps. But I’d been just as duped as Aiden.
Never again.
Nikella rubbed her thumb over the smooth wood of her walking staff. “But be careful, Kiera. You will never make him understand the betrayal you suffered. You mustn’t let vengeance steal your good sense.”
I huffed. “Like it did with Aiden?”
To my shock, her mouth twitched, as if trying not to smile. “I think there was more than one thief at fault for that.”
Then she also walked away, leaving me gaping at her back.
That was the last thing I expected Nikella to make light of. Let alone that she made light of anything. I’d thought perhaps whoever had carved up her face had also carved out her sense of humor.
“I hope you know what you’re bloody doing, lass,” Skelly griped at me from the wheel.
“Me too,” I said grimly as we both glared toward Calimber.