“It’s mine now, you sandeater.”
She lunged for it. Kor pulled away, getting up off the bed.
“Give it back!” she said, rising with him. But that’s where she paused.
Kor was twice her size and twice as strong. Eris was faster, lighter, trickier. But the cabin was too small to move well in, and the ship rocked over the waves, making it difficult to stay steady.
“I’ll give it back...” Kor smiled too calmly, his gaze taking in too much. “Ifyou give me something first.”
Eris’s stomach twisted. Her body hummed with hate. She knew what he wanted.
She also knew she would never give it to him.
Seeing her answer on her face, his own darkened.
“There’s no chance it took the legendary Death Dancer seven days to steal that ruby. What were you doing the rest of the time, Eris? Meeting with a sweetheart?”
A sweetheart?She would have laughed, but he took that moment to lunge for her. With the bed to one side and the cabin wall to the other, she had nowhere to move.
He grabbed her shirt, pulling her toward him.
Before he could do worse, Eris kneed him in the groin.
The ship lurched. Kor stumbled back, dropping Safire’s blade and wincing hard.
“Bitch.” He spat the word as Eris snatched up the knife before it slid across the floor. Her hand shook as she gripped the hilt, pointing it at him. She was no good with weapons, and Kor knew it. He also knew that without her spindle—which was currently locked in a box somewhere aboard the ship—she couldn’t step across.
With Kor blocking the cabin door, there was no escape.
But the scariest thing? Eris didn’t think about all the ways she might possibly get out of this unscathed. Instead she thought about what Jemsin would say.
Kor was cunning and cruel and power hungry. He’d be a dangerous enemy if he ever turned against Jemsin. It was Eris’s job to keep Kor cooperative and loyal and close.
Kor might hurt her if he got his hands on her, but the captain would hurt her worse if he lost his dominance over Kor.
“You’re not so formidable now, are you Death Dancer?” Kor gripped the door handle, still weak from the blow she’d dealt him.
Eris kept the knife steady. Her heart pounded in her temples. Her breath came quick and fast.
“Without that spindle, you’re nothing. Just a helpless...” His words trailed off. He smiled, his eyes lighting up with a sudden thought. “That spindle. What would happen if I accidently used it for kindling, I wonder?”
Eris went cold. “You wouldn’t,” she said, even though the look in his eyes said the opposite. “Jemsin would kill you.”
“Or, useless as you’d be to him, he’d killyou.”
He turned the doorknob. Eris moved then, throwing herself at him. But he’d already opened the door. Her shoulder collided hard with wood as he shut it on her. She heard the sound of clinking keys. She grabbed the handle, trying to wrench it open.
The door was locked.
“I’ll come back for you when it’s over,” he said through the wood.
Eris’s rage grew within her like a tempest’s screaming winds.
And that’s when she remembered...
She still had the pin in her hair.
Eris didn’t think about Jemsin this time or what the consequences would be. She just took the eight steps up to the deck, Safire’s stolen knife gripped in her hand.
