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“Anything yet?” William asked, pulling me from my darkening thoughts.
With my hands on the helm, I shook my head. Since leaving the sea witch and her cryptic message, I’d had my eyes glued to the horizon. The closest the Nassa had come to seeing a storm was a few errant clouds riding high in the sky.
I’d also been trying to reach out to the council of gods who had damned me to this realm. I’d tried to contact them before. Hundreds of times. The result was always the same.
Nothing.
I wasn’t expecting anything different this time around, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t try. There wasn’t much I wouldn’t give to know the woman who held a piece of me was safe and happy.
“Are we going where I think we’re going?” William asked, casting a wary glance across the deck to the island looming in the distance.
Nidus, home to most of the realm’s land-bound shifters. I hadn’t set foot on the island since Leo’s uncle had accused me of having something to do with his daughter’s disappearance. I’d told him everything I knew about Lily and Wendy in the weeks after she went missing, but I couldn’t give him the answers he wanted. For that, he’d banished me and forbade his people from working with me.
A few of them would, however, still do business with my men. So long as it was done discreetly.
“That we are. Luther might have an idea we haven’t considered,” I said, though I wouldn’t get my hopes up.
“Do you think he’ll be willing to help?”
That was the question, wasn’t it? If it were just me asking for my own purposes, the answer would be a resounding no. But now another of his precious royal family had slipped out of our world, riding Never’s coattails into the human realm.
“With Leo disappearing in Never’s wake, I think we at least have a chance. If nothing, he deserves to know.”
William let out a heavy breath. “Will he care after all the time Leo spent tied up with the demon?”
“He knew why he was working her.” I adjusted the helm, taking advantage of the steady breeze catching the sails. “He only ever wanted to find Lily, and he was convinced someone in the demon’s camp would know something.”
“Did he ever learn what happened to her?”
I shook my head. “That was the only reason he remained at the demon’s side. No one had answers, but if anyone were to reveal anything that could give him a lead, he wanted to be there to hear it.”
A not-so-friendly greeting party was waiting for us on the dock when we brought the skiff in a short while later. To be fair, the Jolly Roger wasn’t the kind of ship that sailed by unnoticed. We’d been able to smuggle black rum by circling round to a remote part of the island and sending my men ashore far from any established villages or docks.
An older gentleman stepped to the head of the gathering crowd, his beard carrying considerably more silver than it had the last time I’d seen him. Shifters had the benefit of their own kind of healing magic, which meant they aged slowly, but they weren’t immortal.
Even in the Nassa.
“You are not welcome on my island, Captain.” Luther’s eyes glittered in the midday sun, highlighting the telltale glow in his pupils that gave away just how unhappy he was to see me.
I offered him a curt dip of my head. “There has been a development with the demon, and I could use your help.”
His expression didn’t change in the slightest. “The demon is your problem.”
“The situation concerns Leo.”
His nostrils flared, but he remained as he was with arms folded across his broad chest. “What news do you have of my nephew?”
“Forgive me, Luther, but it would be best if we discussed this privately.” I motioned to the crowd of people gathered at his back. “And not for my sake.”
A worried expression flitted across his weathered face, there and gone in less than a blink. “Escort the captain and his man to my home,” he said, without taking his eyes off me.
Four men, each carrying some resemblance to the alpha, flanked us. The village looked much as it had the last time I visited. The difference was some of the tension that had been simmering back then wasn’t quite so visible now. Lily had been next in line to lead the clan and govern the island. Her loss had been felt throughout the realm, but a great deal of time had passed. Now, with Leo in the wind as well, there was no telling what effect the news of his disappearance would have.
Luther didn’t make us wait long. He strolled into the room with an air of authority that was undeniable, but I sensed the fatigue hidden beneath the surface. “What news do you have of my nephew, Captain?”
Rather than taking a seat, he stood in front of the chair with his hands clasped behind him and his back ramrod straight. The alpha was one of the oldest members of his clan, but he still held himself with the poise and posture of a man a fraction of his age.
“You are aware he inserted himself into the demon’s camp several years ago, correct?”
