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My legs almost bowed, confusion poking at my reality.
What the hell?
Zuri stood there, her muscles tightening.
What was going on? She was chief master? How?
Zuri’s jaw twitched, the only thing on her that betrayed her recognition of me. Her looks fooled people. As an earth fairy, she was stunning and angelic, but the girl was tough as nails. Her hair was loose and natural, but that was where she stopped being a typical earth fairy. She was excellent at hiding all emotion. She was who I sent in when I didn’t just want a physical threat like the twins, but a cold, chilling warning.
“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised you’d show back up sooner or later.” She strolled up, her orange-brown eyes jumping from me to Croygen, a frown crinkling her brow. “Guess you finally got what you wanted. Though for all your claims about revenge and hating him, he’s still alive.”
Zuri was a tough girl, but I knew her. I helped her out of poverty. She was putting on this act, pretending I was the enemy, for Batara’s men.
She had to be.
“Weapons?” She spoke over my head to the guards.
“Just two pistols and a dagger.” The man behind me handed them over to her, my eye catching on my father’s dagger glinting in the morning sun.
She nodded, taking them.
Smart girl. I thought. She now could give them back to us when the moment was right.
“Captain will be interested in seeing you.” Her gaze drew back to me, her expression still emotionless. “I’m sure he will bethrilledto see you’re still alive.” She whipped around, heading for the helm. The men shoved us forward, pushing us through a throng of crew that had gathered on the deck. To the side up near the quarterdeck, I saw the twins, their blond hair and height making them stand out like neon signs. They stood still, but their eyes widened, meeting mine in a moment of true shock.
“Captain?” Zuri called ahead. “Thought you might want to see the scurvy dogs we found trying to stow away onboard.” Zuri addressed a man in a captain’s hat, his back to me.
He twisted around.
Like a boat capsizing on a stormy sea, I felt my entire world flip over, sinking me under it.
The crooked, wicked smile I knew so well, one usually meant for our enemy, pulled on his mouth. “Kitty-Kat.”
I barely breathed, nothing feeling stable under my feet.
“Gage…” I whispered.
My gaze darted between him and Zuri, trying to make sense of this. Batara had made him captain? This had to be under duress, right? They were the ones who could sail this ship. Batara had to be using them as slaves.
Yet why give them titles? Hand them such freedom if they are prisoners?
“Wow.” Gage strode closer to me, his gaze rolling down my figure salaciously. He did that all the time, but this time, something about it itched my skin. “You look stunning for a dead person.” His eyes met mine, his friendliness dropping away. “But you have to be a ghost. That’s the only explanation for why you would abandon your crew. Leave them to be tortured, starved, and locked in a rat-infested cell to rot.”
“I had to.” My heart pounded. “He told me if I didn’t get this nectar for his son, he would kill all of you.”
“So where is this nectar?” He opened his arms. “Did you come back offering it to him, finally here to save us?” The ridicule was thick in his tone.
“It’s more complicated…”
“No. It’s simple.” He stepped up to me, snarling. “You left us here to rot.”
“I’m sor—”
“I don’t want to hear your excuses.” He shook his head, his attention rolling over me again. “We were told you were dead, yet here you aremonthslater. And I don’t recall you ever trying to rescue us in that time. What do you think, Zuri? Think she’s coming tosaveus now?”
My head whipped to her, my breath starting to clip, waiting for a sign, a glance from her that told me she was on my side. That this was all a ruse. I grasped onto the idea because it was the only thing that made sense. Except… that was not what I got. Rage and hate stabbed through Zuri’s eyes to mine before she turned back to Gage, her chin rising.
“No, Captain.” She shook her head, gripping the handle of my father’s dagger she took from me. It was in her tone, her demeanor. I knew. My crew had turned their backs on me.
