Chapter 41 #2
She couldn’t think of that now. She had to stay focused on the matter at hand. There would be time to grieve if they survived this.
She settled into the chair, leaning away from the Demon’s shiny boots. Today’s spurs were silver, etched with such fine scrollwork one would only be able to see it if one were kissing his boots or dying at his feet.
“Anything helpful in the journal?” Rowan asked, tying off his hair but not replacing the eyepatch.
The blank green eye was unnerving now that she looked at it dead-on, like it could see every part of her.
But then again, if it was the same eye the old seer had had in Stroud’s journals, maybe it could.
Zanta resisted the urge to cover herself. “Your eye’s magical. That’s what it said.” She hadn’t meant it to come out accusatory, but her voice held an edge she couldn’t shake.
Rowan blinked. “Did it now?” Logan, Fox, and Henri seemed nervous, the Demon’s sharp gaze fixed on her.
Zanta retrieved the journal from her waistband and stabbed at the cover with her finger.
“Stroud shipwrecked here almost thirty years ago. He met some Selkies just like Nia, and one of those Selkies was a seer. Her eyes had been plucked out and replaced with two stones. One green, called Truth, and the other black, Fate.” She wouldn’t tell them about Nia’s parentage, how Stroud had cruelly used her mother and tossed them both aside.
It was too personal. Zanta herself felt like she shouldn’t know.
Rowan’s fingertips touched the skin under his eye gently. “Truth…I see.”
“You don’t deny it’s magical?” Zanta asked pointedly. She’d half expected him to; it wasn’t the sort of thing he’d want spread around. Especially if it was the artifact Shaw hunted for.
A cocky grin twitched at the corners of his mouth. “I’ll admit I’ve been…seeing things here and there since I started wearing it.” He and Yves shared a look Zanta couldn’t decipher.
“What kinds of things?” Fox asked eagerly.
“Well for starters, when we met Nia, she was all shimmery.”
“Shimmery?” Henri frowned.
“Like caustic reflections, light reflecting off water. And then I remembered I saw the same shimmers around the chest back in—” He cut a glance at the Demon, then cleared his throat.
“In your quarters aboard the Monsoon back in Wave Harbor.” He pointedly did not look at his husband again as the Demon glared at them both.
“Nia’s pelt,” Zanta breathed.
“I’d assume so.” Rowan nodded thoughtfully. “I think the eye, Truth, let me see a hint of her true form.”
“That’s amazing!” Fox bounced in his seat like a child shown a magic trick. “I can’t believe I gave you a magical eye. You owe me a raise, I think.”
“Next prize we take you can have first dibs on anything interesting,” Rowan said indulgently.
“How come you didn’t tell us about this, Captain?” Logan asked, his voice low, as if masking a hint of hurt.
Rowan shrugged. “Robin said minor visual hallucinations were possible with the loss of an eye, just like your hand pains. I didn’t think much of it.”
“You were having hallucinations and didn’t tell—”
“I don’t see how this is helpful to the matter at hand,” the Demon interrupted Logan, earning himself a glare. He turned to Zanta. “Was there anything else of use in the book?”
“The Sleeping Isles are full of Selkies, like Nia, and they don’t like intruders. We have to try to get out as soon as we find her.”
“And how do we do that?” Henri piped up. “I don’t think we’ll survive the Storm Ring a second time. Especially with the Siren damaged.”
“There’s a way…” She trailed off, realizing that the way involved Nia freely giving her pelt.
Was that why they’d been so damaged despite having the pelt on board?
It was stolen? What if Nia didn’t want to go with them?
If she told these pirates, especially the Demon, that Nia was the key to their escape, it could put her in danger.
“Well? We await at your leisure,” the Demon purred, all sarcastic gallantry.
Zanta took a deep breath. She couldn’t very well keep this information to herself now that she’d said there was a way. Rowan wasn’t one to be cruel. He’d stop the Demon from gaining the pelt by nefarious means, wouldn’t he?
“A Selkie pelt, freely given, is necessary to weather the storms.” But what if Nia didn’t want to return with them? What if she wanted to stay here, with her people?
The Demon rolled his eyes, muttering something that sounded like “typical” under his breath.
Henri raised his eyebrows. “But both Nia and the pelt were on the Monsoon, and it’s wrecked more than the Kraken and Siren put together.”
A pang gripped Zanta’s heart. Her ship, her home, was gone, probably for good. Her best friend was gone. If Nia had confessed earlier and gotten her pelt back, would Sabriye still be alive? Would they even now be leaving this place on the Monsoon?
She wished Nia had trusted her.
“It wasn’t freely given,” Logan said. “Stroud stole it, right?”
Zanta nodded.
“So she’ll have to come with us. That was the plan already.” Henri seemed unsure of his own words.
Before Zanta could answer, there was a thump from outside as if someone had run into the door.
Everyone but the Demon sat up straight, hands going to weapons.
The Demon lazily set his feet on the floor, spurs clinking.
A few seconds later the door wrenched open, and Laurent rushed through, stopping short when he found all three captains staring at him.
“What’s happened?” Zanta demanded.
“Land. We’ve spotted actual land.”