I really should have known. My brother is nothing if not loyal to his people, and Reva’s wonderfully stubborn. Put the two of them together and you get two people anyone would love to have on their team.
It seems like the space behind my ribs is a busy old place at the moment. I’m constantly being nudged and tugged and prodded, and all that is on top of the general ache from missing Reva. Stifling a sigh, I pick up Amble’s trousers and hurriedly cover myself up with them.
I wish we could go back a few months, and I could sit and enjoy Reva’s company when she turned up in my shop with a mystery item of unknown origin.
But we can’t go back, only forward. And despite knowing that Finch and Reva are heading this way, I have no clue what might happen once they arrive in the city.
I WIND UP SPENDINGa few days with Gower’s family, her wary wife and slightly fanatical son. Three nights of sleeping on their tiny sofa is enough to make me wish for life back on the ship. Despite the constant threat of seasickness, it’s still better than feeling like my spine might never straighten after being scrunched up and twisted at a weird angle.
Considering that I’m a wanted man and there are pictures of my face plastered over the most inconvenient areas of the city, I can’t exactly strut about the city. But I can’t continue to hang around inside Gower’s tiny house either. So, I keep myself busy.
I head back to the crypt house where I woke up, trying to see if I can observe my way into understanding exactly what is happening here. I see people coming and going, including Jack and his brother.
Every time I see Jack, it’s like a fresh knife of betrayal in my gut. Especially when I see him mingling with Araminta Stone, grinning at her like they’re the best of buds.
My mind has felt clearer over the past few days. And I’m slowly piecing together memories of when I was stuck with her. I remember she spent a lot of time monologuing at me as though I were a lamp or some other inanimate object that couldn’t understand what she was saying. She told me over and again that she’d spent years on building her collection of stolen, undiluted magic and that it still wasn’t enough for the elitesorcerers, like Jack’s family. It didn’t seem to matter how much power she amassed; she was still not seen as one of them.
But she was going to show them, and then they wouldn’t be able to deny her any longer.
I never got the details onhowshe was going to show them. And then we destroyed her entire collection.
I still don’t have the faintest idea how she could have got from there to suddenly schmoozing with Jack’s family.
What I do know is that I need to get him alone and tackle him, find out exactly what it is they’re planning and why Jack is acting like he’s one of them. But before I can put my cobbled together plan in motion and grab him when he’s alone, I get another of those alien sensations in my chest. This one is another strange sense of certainty. Just like I knew that they were headed this way, I know the exact moment that Reva and the others arrive in the city.
Chapter 29
Reva
We continue our journey toward the capital, travelling faster than I thought possible for this ship to go. Mostly because we’re being carried along by a monstrous creature from the deep.
I take the chance to do something I’ve been craving for a long time now and slip on my sealskin, submerging myself in the water where I’m traveling along at incredible speed.
We can go so much faster like this. Such a good mate.
Noush’s excitement is met with a mental snort from me, but she doesn’t care. She’s too busy enjoying the cloud of wild bubbles surrounding us and the feel of the water slicking over our form.
I just wish we could stop for a minute and see what there is around here. I bet no one’s been in these waters in a long time.
I bet the same, but that doesn’t mean we’re stopping anytime soon. As much as we might want to explore, to dive deep and spin around and see what treasures we can unearth, now’s not the time for it.
I wonder when it will be again.
We could ask him,Noush says to me as we shift position so that she can take a breath of air that’s thick with salt and seaspray.
Ask who?
Our mate,she insists.We could ask him to stop and let us look at the treasures. He seems tense.
I let out a soft laugh inside our shared headspace. I want to ask her which one she means, but it doesn’t really matter. Finch is as tense as I’ve ever seen him, and will be until we get his brother out of ‘that bloody city’. And his monster seems to be a beast made up of nothing but fury and spite.
Even if we wanted to, he wouldn’t listen, Noush.
I don’t even think he can.
Noush scrunches up her eyes, partly to reject my words but also because the water’s hitting us at force. The water travels over us but it stings slightly and it’s more of a struggle than anticipated to fight the surge of water until we can push our head above the surface every time we need to take a breath.
Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. I can barely make anything out through the stream of water. Perhaps we should have just stuck to the ship with Aster and Torin and the rest of the crew.
