Page 116 of Tempest

Fell dipped his head. “It won’t take long to refill our water stores.”

“Unless the well has run dry or gone sour,” she said, still tasting bile. “It would be so like Rosby to let me down one last time.”

His gaze felt like cold metal against her face, the kind that never warmed no matter how long it lay against skin.

“Will you be all right?” he prodded.

“Enough.” Cat was strong, but not invincible. And she refused to spiral in front of Jasper Fell, even if he knew where the spiral began. “Tell your crew to be fast. For me.”

It felt like begging, and she wanted to be sick again.

“I will.” His reply was swift and thankfully sincere, his eyes holding hers. Cat wanted to look away, but Fell’s gaze was easier to weather than the island fast approaching.

He shifted, leaning down so they were nose to nose, mere inches apart. His voice lowered, filled with sympathy. “I’m sorry for what I said in Alvaris. I know what this place did to you. What it was to you.”

Again, Cat thought of turning tail and fleeing to her cabin.

Again, she did not.

“A cage,” she murmured, eyes stinging.

Next to her, Fell’s stern expression took on a haunting edge.

“An ending,” he offered. “And a beginning too. You must not forget that. One life ended here, and another began.”

Though she was loath to admit it, Jasper Fell was right. She wrenched her eyes away from him to watch Rosby come into sharper focus.

“I suppose I should be grateful,” she murmured, tracing the familiar coastline. Her eyes snagged on the poor excuse for a harbor, little more than a battered dock half-submerged in the water. Sunlight shimmered on the calmer waves, like a trove of jewels set aflame. If she squinted, she could still see the ghost of a ship just offshore, anchored in another time.

Sails tacked, a commotion on deck, blood and gunpowder, the firm hold of a pirate’s arms around her waist. The echoes of a different life.

Her fingers tightened on the rail.

The Covenant.

“I should be grateful,” she murmured as the vision faded. The harbor was empty, the island abandoned again. “After all, this place gave me Moseley,” she added.

Fell was good enough to allow her the cover.

“And me,” he said with a smirk.

Her heart clenched.

“And him,” she whispered, unable to stop herself.

It was enough to sharpen Fell, and he leaned away, putting some distance between them. His smirk became a sneer.

“Ah, yes, him,” Fell said. “Valerian Kane. You know I’ve a bet with myself, Cat.”

His disdain was easier to stomach than his pity, and Cat responded in kind.

“Oh?” She arched an eyebrow and crossed her arms, matching his stance. “I do love a wager. What is it? Whether or not I find Val?”

“No, I’m quite confident you will.” Fell shrugged and studied the waves, his keen captain’s attention skipping over the water. “But I can’t decide what happens after.”

Frowning, Cat did her best to ignore the sudden rush of unease coiling in her chest. “I thought that was already agreed upon.”

“I know better than to trust your agreements,” Fell replied, his laugh a blade. “Or your heart.”