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Someone throws a punch, and the woman’s screaming goes quiet.
All I hear is my breathing. Someone is binding my hands, and then I’m wrenched upright, onto my knees. My shoulder feels like it’s being ripped out of its socket.
A match sparks in the darkness, and a new lantern flares to life.
The scene is worse than I was expecting.
Corrick is on his knees, bleeding from his temple, but he’s slumped against the wall. At first I think he’s just dazed, but then I realize his eyes are closed, and his hands are bound just like mine are. Blood is in a spray across the front of his jacket.
“Corrick,” I whisper.
He doesn’t move. My heart thumps. But I watch carefully, and his chest rises and falls with breath.
Beside him, the young woman is unconscious on the floor, limbs sprawled, but there’s no blood.
Then my eyes shift left, and I recognize one of our guards. Sandy hair, a stocky build. Kilbourne.
Facedown, two bolts from the crossbow in his back. I wait, but his chest doesn’t rise at all.
I didn’t want to leave Sara. That’s what he said on the dock.I want to buy her a house.
I’ve seen death a thousand times by now, but this is different. I have to stop a whimper from choking out of my throat.
Rocco is on the floor, too, but he’s still alive. He’s panting, bleeding from a wound in his side, and Sablo and Rian both have a crossbow pointed at him. There’s blood on Sablo’s face, and a fair amount on his clothes, too. Rian has a trail of blood running from a slice on his neck, soaking into his shirt and jacket. His eyes are dark and terrifying in the shadows.
Sablo looks at the captain, then draws a finger across his throat, an eyebrow raised. A question.
“No!” I shout. “Rian, no. Please.Please.” I can’t get the words out fast enough, but they’ve already killed one guard. I can’t watch them execute Rocco, too. Ican’t. “Please, Rian.” My voice breaks. “Please. He’s a good man.”
“He’s a sailor. Proof that Prince Corrick didn’t honor our agreement.”
“No.” My voice breaks. “He’s a guard. A loyal guard who’s risked his life more than once. Please. Rian. Don’t hurt him.”
Rocco is glaring up at them both, but he speaks to me. “Don’t beg for me, Miss Tessa. He knows what he’s done. He knows what will happen when they catch up to him.”
Rian looks at me. “You should have left the room alone, Tessa. What’s been done here can’t be undone.”
“Please,” I say. “Please just … just explain. I want to understand. Was this all a trick to hold the prince for ransom? Was this … was this for …?” My voice trails off. I can’t even understand it. Everything seems unnecessarily complicated.
Then my eyes fall on the unconscious woman again. I don’t know where she fits in withanyof this.
“Rian,” says Gwyn. Her voice is quiet and resigned. “We shouldn’t leave the guards alive.”
“Please,” I whisper.
Rian doesn’t move. A muscle twitches in his jaw.
His crew is waiting.
I tug at the ropes binding my hands. “You don’t want to do this,” I say. “I know you don’t. You won’t let your crew fight. You don’t want to kill him. I know there’s a reason, if you’d just let me understand—”
“Tessa.” His eyes flick to mine. “It’s bigger than you and me.”
I hold my breath, because those crossbows are still pointed.
After an eternal moment, Rian lowers his. “Bind him as well,” he says. “Bring them all up to the main deck. Chain them to the masts. If the others survived, do the same with them, too.”
The others.Lochlan and Silas. My heart clenches.
