I glanced around at the other tables and was surprised when I received two nods from pirates I’d never even spoken to—possibly named Mumbling Mudd and Vulture, if I rememberedcorrectly. So… maybe I really had earned my spot here. Or at least I’d started to.
One could hope.
After I finished eating, I carried my dishes to the wash tub and sighed when I saw how many dishes there were. Did I really have to scrub all of this before I could go relax? It’d been a long day, and I wanted to sit and just be for a little while. For weeks, I’d done nothing but chores from the time I woke up to the time I fell into my hammock and crashed for the night.
Did I really need to do that tonight too?
“Ghost?” a soft voice said from behind me.
I turned and found Willy, the youngest member of the crew and the powder monkey on the ship, staring at me. His hazel eyes were wide and made him look even younger than his eighteen years. His blond hair was tucked under a brown knitted cap and sticking out the bottom, making him look cute instead of fierce like everyone else here. I’d never seen him without his cap on. He was a sweet kid and far too innocent for a place likeThe Black Wraith. I had no idea how he ended up on this ship, but I hoped he found a way off of it before these pirates ended up getting him killed or arrested.
Or found a way to turn the kind boy cruel like many of the others.
Maybe I could convince him to come to Asteris with me.
Not that I even knew the kid well… yet.
“What’s up, Willy?”
He looked surprised, but I didn’t know why. Was he surprised I knew his name? Considering our jobs overlapped at times since we were both on the bottom of the totem pole, I wasn’t sure how I couldn’t know his name after a few weeks on the ship.
He cleared his throat. “It, um, it’s my turn to wash dishes.”
My brow furrowed. “I thought I had to.” Every single night was left unsaid, but I knew he understood.
He shook his head. “Nope. It’s on me now.” He gently nudged me out of the way, and I stared at him for a long moment before sighing. Even if it ended up being only for one night, I’d take it.
“Thanks.”
“Yep.”
With a shrug, I headed toward my little corner, not wanting to play cards with anyone since I had nothing to bet. When I sat down, I frowned because I was unused to having free time before bed. I’d wished for this time, and now that I had it, I had no idea what to do.
Without meaning to, I searched the lower deck for a certain pirate first mate but couldn’t find him. After debating with myself for several minutes, I decided to take my secret snack up to the main deck. Surely, I couldn’t eat it down here with so many others around anyway.
I certainly wasn’t going up to look for someone. I needed to get some fresh air and see the sky and the sea at night.
If that certain someone happened to be up there… well…
Shaking away thoughts of Reaper, I climbed the ladder to the main deck, and my gaze instantly went up to the crow’s nest. I knew he liked taking shifts up there at night, and apparently, my eyes had a mind of their own and searched him out without my say so.
It wasn’t hard to see him from this angle since he was sitting with his leg and his prosthetic hanging through the rail and over the edge as he kept watch. Most people sat down up there after a while, so I wasn’t surprised he was.
And honestly, I’d noticed him limping a lot after the raid, and I didn’t think all of it was from his failing fluxstone. He’d hurt himself. The uncharged fluxstone only made it worse.
I knew Reaper’s prosthetic had three fluxstones and one had run out mid-fight. It had been really hard for me to resisttouching his prosthetic and charging the stone right then and there. My magicwantedto be used.
But the pirates would either hook me up like a machine themselves or sell me off if they ever found out.
I wasn’t about to let that happen, especially not when I’d already escaped that fate once.
It turned out fine anyway because I could sense all three of Reaper’s stones nearly fully charged, so he obviously had his own supply.
I walked over to the mainmast and glanced up at the crow’s nest that sat atop it, then I pulled out the treat Sage had given me, carefully unwrapping it.
It was some kind of pastry that had—I lifted it to my nose—apples in it.
Sage must’ve made it from the apples we’d procured from the merchant ship. The thought made me frown. I had a treat because we’d stolen from someone else. Stolen and killed.
