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“Paedar . . . I didn’t tell you, and I should’ve, but . . . I can’t keep it any longer. Not after what I know.”
“Speak!” I hissed.
“He was . . . he was my meet, My King.”
Pesha screamed when I grabbed her arm, not enough to be painful, more a bit of panic, more a hope that maybe . . . “He’s here? Does he have her?”
Tears lined her lengthy eyelashes. “No, My King. Just came for a meet, but this time, he be bein’ joined with another man from thecrew. They . . . saw the royal ship. They be slinking aboard your decks.”
I snapped my gaze to the Ever Ship. A dark kind of smirk played over the scarred side of my mouth. Hesh’s men boarded the king’s ship?
They’d expect to send me to the Otherworld.
And, instead, I’d be certain to send them.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
THE SERPENT
“Think she was speaking the truth?”Tait scratched his stubbled chin. “I’ve not seen anyone out of place.”
“Could’ve concealed themselves amongst the crew at the Tower,” Aleksi said.
“More half-witted assassins.” I slumped in a chair at the table. Assassins were bothersome on any day, but these sods, wherever they were on the deck, were wholly aggravating. Each pause, each delay, kept me from Livia and added another layer of violence in my soul.
Sewell tapped a finger onto the page of the book. “Dark tides, little eel. Dark tides, indeed. But get one to whisper, and we might see the minds of false eels.”
“Aye. True enough, Sewell.” I gripped his shoulder, shaking him slightly. “We get one screaming, we might learn exactly where Hesh or Larsson are keeping her. We make them scream now.”
Valen, somber and quiet against the wall, scrutinized my every movement. The earth bender had said little about traitors, merely followed, keeping a close ear to our rapidly spun plan to show what happened when the Ever King was betrayed.
Sewell’s mouth twitched. “Burn the bones, little eel.”
When I put hands on them, they’d do more than burn. They’d rot from the inside out.
On the main deck, Tait and the earth fae ordered the crew into a line. Men shifted with unease, others hardly cared, lighting their smoke herbs and puffing out clouds to the fading sunlight.
When I stepped onto the deck, their spines straightened.
No one appeared out of place, and it only fueled the rage in my blood more.
“Heartwalker,” I said, voice low, so no one would hear me over the thrash of the sea. “Any desire for my death?”
“I’m blocked, Erik. They came ready with spells or wards, knowing what my voice does, no doubt.”
Wards. Spells. An isle that could not be accessed without a bleeding key. The more tales that were said, the more I knew Larsson had his own aid from damn sea witches.
“Then we do it my way.”
“I prefer your way for this.” Tait’s teeth flashed viciously.
Tavish stepped away from the rail. He’d come aboard, insisting he aid us in the hunt. “I’ll work to break any curses or spells.”
“Unnoticed.”
“I’d never be noticed.” He faded to the far side of the deck.
I stood in the center of the front line of my crew, hands clasped behind my back. “Arms out, you wretches. If you move out of line, you eat your blade.”
