I get dressed slowly, adding more weapons than usual to my belt. I need to be ready to see Taika today. I take a sip of the coffee, letting it wake me from the inside out. It’s just pastsunrise, and neither of us has gotten much sleep. Still, I feel as prepared as I can be for what is coming.
I wonder now if Taika knew Smith was a traitor. She barely looked at me that day. Her eyes kept snapping to him, tracking him like a threat. She felt it. But she did warn me. Her voice echoes in my head even now. “You wish to protect those with bad blood in their veins?” She knew the person I was standing next to would sell me out.
While searching the room for smaller weapons to strap to my thigh and calf, my fingers brush against something cold and familiar. A seashell, nearly identical to the one Taika gave me. My blood runs cold. How does Kai have this?Why?
It was just sitting there out in the open, that somehow makes it worse. I trust him. I do. I know he’d never lie to me about seeing her, but my thoughts begin to spiral anyway. Seashells like this are rare and personal. My father had one too, given to him long ago. Maybe this one came from Kai’s father? Maybe it’s nothing, or maybe it’s everything. I grab the shell and leave to find him.
I spot Kai on the deck, leaning against the railing with his coffee in hand. The sun kisses his skin, illuminating the ink on his body. His hair is damp, dripping onto his shirt. He must’ve just bathed. He has to be the cleanest pirate I’ve ever known.
He turns around like he can feel me coming, that sixth sense of his always one step ahead.
“Good morning, my treasure,” he says with an alluring smile and a raspy voice. Then his gaze drops to my hand. He stills. He steps toward me slowly, carefully, like the space between us is charged. “What’s this?” he asks, gently curling his fingers around my hand.
“I could ask you the same thing,” I reply, not backing down.
His eyes narrow, studying me like I’m a riddle. “I took it off Archer,” he finally says. “After I killed him. I searched his body and found this. I wasn’t hiding it from you, if that’s what you’rethinking.” He nods toward the shell. “You carry one just like it every day.”
I open my mouth to respond, but he cuts me off. “Mira, this is dark magic.” His voice is tight. “You shouldn’t be carrying something like this.”
“What do you mean? It’s not dark magic.” I say, but even as the words leave my mouth, doubt crept in. Who am I to argue with someone who has magic in their veins about what's dark magic or not?
I open my mouth to speak again, but he cuts in, testing me. “Where did you get yours?” I break his gaze, turning to stare out at the sea. “Mira,” he presses, “if someone as vile as Archer had this, it can’t be good.” I look back to him, then slowly pull the shell from my pocket. “It’s from Taika. She said it was a direct line to her, if I ever needed help.”
I hold the shell in my palm. Then the pain hits. A searing heat licks across my hand like fire. I drop it with a cry, the shell clattering to the deck. Kai catches my wrist instantly.
“She can hear everything,” he mutters grimly.
He snatches the shell from where it’s fallen. Without another word, he hurls both shells into the sea. I see the wince flash across his face. She burned him too, but he says nothing. He turns his full attention to my hand, cradling it with so much care that my throat tightens. His eyes lock with mine. “She knows we’re coming.”
My body goes rigid. “How could she have heard everything… through a shell?” I ask, my voice shaking. Kai doesn’t answer at first. He is already heading toward the quarterdeck. “Kai! Tell me what’s going on! Don’t walk away from me,” I demand, stomping after him.
He stops, turning to face me. “We can’t go to her. The only advantage we had was the element of surprise, and it’s gone. We have to turn back.” He’s right. We are sailing straight into a trap.
Then he adds, “When you were little, did anyone ever tell you that if you held a seashell to your ear, you could hear the ocean?” The realization hits me like a knife to the gut. My stomach twists, bile rising in my throat. She’s one clever witch. It’s too late for us.
That thick, dark fog begins to roll in, just as it did the first time I saw her. It swallows the ship inch by inch, curling through the rigging and over the deck. I grab Kai’s arm and hold him close. “We’re here,” I say.
He looks down at me and presses a kiss to my forehead. “I know. May the tides be with us.” He covers my mouth and nose with a cloth, then does the same for himself. The crew around us coughs and gasps for air, same as before. But this time, we aren’t here seeking help. This time, we’ve come to collect.
Chapter thirty-four
Kai
The Soul's Curse
The ship jolts, pitching beneath our feet. Mira nearly goes down, but I catch her before her knees can hit the deck. The fog thickens, dragging across the wood like a curse, suffocating everything in its path. My lungs fight it off, but it clings to the air like poison.
I glance to the side and see a dock rising from the sea like it’s been waiting for us, like we’re late for a meeting. My ship is already tethered to it by magic of her doing. Lanterns hang on winding vines, the flames dimmed unnaturally low. She doesn’t want us to see clearly. One sense dulled by fog and shadows. She’s setting the rules before we even get to the table.
Mira and I make our way to the ladder. Before we descend, Jay finds me. He looks like he’s been ready for this moment longer than I have. “If we’re gone too long,” I tell him, “take the strongest of the crew and come find us. Don’t leave this ship for any other reason, even for a breath.”
He nods and presses a newly sharpened sword into my hand. “Understood, Cap’n. We’ll be waiting.” I grip his shoulder. A silent thanks. The blade won’t help me in what’s to come, I know that much. Magic prickles at my fingertips. This isn’t a battle that can be fought with steel.
I climb down first, keeping my eyes locked on Mira as she follows. I watch every step she takes. One wrong move and this place will eat her whole. But she has been here before, so she knows that more than I do.
The bridge greets me with a groan, wood lashed together by magic, creaking under my boots. I reach up and lift Mira by the waist, setting her down beside me with care. Even her weight, as small as she is, makes the thing shudder. It feels like we’ll fall right through it.
The water is black enough to swallow starlight. They say the waters around Alek were cursed by the first witch to ever bleed salt. Her magic sank into the tide like poison, and it’s been festering ever since. Her sinister soul, cursed to the witch waters.
