“Easy now.” That’s the captain, his face looking the opposite of Kit’s. He’s closed off. Cold. All hints of the whimsical, loopy Finch have been wiped away.
This is a man who’d sign your execution order without a single reservation. Not if he thought you’d screwed over his people.
“I saw him, Tor,” Kit tells me, his voice still far too gentle for me to handle. “He was here. In a house with his brother and...” His eyes dart to Reva and to Aster before grimacing in apology. “He was also with the sorceress, Araminta Stone.”
“Do we have to keep using her full name every time we say it?” Finch mutters. At Kit’s raised eyebrow look, he shrugs. “What? It makes her sound important. More important than she deserves.”
“I tried to speak to him,” Kit continues as though his brother hadn’t spoken. “I hung around trying to catch him for ages and then I finally did manage to get him alone.” He clears his throat. “He said he brought me here because he thought I knew too much. He said that both his brother and the sorceress hadvisited the island. They’d been regularly fucking with my head so I didn’t know what was going on or which way was up.”
“Fuck.”
“And Jack knew the whole time?” Reva asks.
A surge of guilt goes through me. I haven’t even looked at her since Kit’s revelation, and I can’t imagine how she must be feeling right now.
“He didn’t exactly stick around for long. He just said something about everything making sense soon enough,” Kit replies. “I told him that things started making a lot more sense since I left the island. My mind feels clearer than it has in weeks.”
Reva shudders, wrapping her arm around his waist and leaning in while Aster squeezes Kit’s shoulder and Finch’s tentacles start patting Kit on the back, like they’re trying to soothe him.
“Torin? Care to join in on the cuddle pile?” Reva says. “I can’t see you, but it feels like you’re feeling a lot right now.”
I grunt, stepping forward to pull Kit into a hug, and Reva then slips her arm around my waist on the other side so that she’s sandwiched between the two of us. Resting her head on my chest over my pounding heart, I find myself letting out a slow breath. Just having her hands on me somehow brings my blood pressure down.
“I’m guessing that’s why I’ve not felt him through the bond at all,” Reva murmurs. “Do you think he’s purposefully blocking me?”
We fall into an awkward collective silence as none of us want to admit that, yes, it’s likely.
“I didn’t know there was a way to dampen it,” I mutter, then at Reva’s alarmed look, quickly backpedal. “Not that I would ever want to block you out, sweetness. Although I’m sure youlove being inundated with my grumpy moods or whatever the fuck Finch is feeling at any time.”
Reva pats my chest absently. “So he really screwed us over? He told the authorities where we were? He led them right to the island?”
“Did he also create that beacon of light so they couldn’t miss it?”
“Why would he? I don’t understand. His family are all awful dicks and he’s never got along with any of them,” I say. Maybe I’m in denial. Or shock. My puny brain can’t handle the information I’m being presented with here.
“His parents always thought he was useless,” I continue. “As though because he didn’t have enough magic, he wasn’t worth their attention. His brothers have always been nasty little worms too, so I don’t understand why he’d decide to align himself with them. Or why he’d team up with the sorceress either. Especially after we smashed all her stored magic. I honestly thought we might have killed her.”
“I can’t say I understand any of it either,” Kit replies, running a hand through his hair. He looks exhausted, with dark circles like bruises beneath his eyes, and his skin is paler than usual. He quickly explains what happened for him to wind up in this tiny house. Once he’s done, I don’t think I’m the only one to suddenly recall we’re inside someone’s home, airing our business for all to hear.
Kit seems to have the same thought. He hesitates for just a moment before striding over to the boy. There’s then the jangle of coins and the teen zips past us, out the front door before the rest of us know what’s happening.
“Any word on whether any of your gifts have been effective?” Finch asks.
Kit shakes his head. “The arrest warrants are plastered all over the city, so it’s hard to tell if any of them worked. Harderstill to remember if I actually set the curses in the first place.” He gives a grim smile, but he’s barely hiding his dismay.
Quite honestly, he looks wrecked, and that actually makes me feel a little better. If everything is falling apart, I don’t need to focus on the fact my best friend allegedly betrayed us.
Although what good reason Jack would have for being here in the city, mingling with shitheads like he’s one of them, I don’t know.
“I felt them,” Reva assures Kit. “I felt that insistence to get them delivered to the king.”
“But you wouldn’t have felt the underlying curse,” Kit tells her with a heavy sigh. “If people have been messing with my head as much as I think they have, there’s every chance I never set the curses meant for the king.”
“So you’ve just—”
“Been sending him little gifts.” He grimaces. “That’s what I’m thinking, anyway.” Slumping down on the sofa, he gestures for us to perch wherever we can. I’ve never felt my size more than as I’m trying not to take up too much space inside this tiny front room.
It reminds me a lot of the house I grew up in. A place with barely potable water where you’re constantly on top of each other. Although judging by the neatly repaired clothing the boy was wearing, his parents give more of a shit than mine ever did.
