“Yeah. She really does.”
He glanced at Hawk-Eyes, who was close enough to have overheard our conversation, and she sighed before giving him a nod and waving him off. “Go on.”
Willy didn’t have to be told twice. He rushed off in a hurry, taking his knotting rope with him.
I glanced over at Viper again and grimaced. The man had been in a terrible mood since he’d boarded the ship in Duskwater Harbor in the late morning. Max had been just as grumpy after being forced to run an errand with the captain.
Since I couldn’t act too familiar with Max in front of the crew, I hadn’t had a chance to ask him what happened. But I knew he’d had to meet with a few unsavory people while our captain negotiated payment for some of the goods we’d… stolen. My guess was that Viper hadn’t made as much money as he’d hoped, which made him act like a pissy toddler to the rest of us.
It couldn’t have been that bad, though, because a bunch of the crew had to haul our engine fluxstones out of the hull and replace them with new and fully charged ones. Many of the uncharged fluxstones on the ship had been replaced with new ones.
Max had come back with new and fully charged fluxstones for his prosthetic last night as well.
Which was good, not only for Max’s well-being and for our entire crew in general, but for me because I didn’t feel the pull to charge them, at least for now. Once they started running out of energy, that sensation would reappear, but I was happy for the break.
Viper screamed at Ariella again, and half the crew flinched.
As Patty walked past me, I heard him mutter, “What the hell crawled up his ass today?”
It seemed like a rhetorical question, but Hawk-Eyes replied, “Didn’t you hear that Trickster and Vulture left. Joined another crew or somethin’.”
Patty huffed. “Probably just decided to stick around at the brothels for a while.”
Hawk-Eyes rolled her eyes and snorted, shaking her head. “Maybe. Not sure if that’s what’s got Cap so pissed. Could be because he saw some suspicious boats on the other side of Duskwater. Unmarked, but it was obvious they weren’t pirates. Pretty sure they’re a Sunada House fleet, comin’ to collect on some warrants.”
My stomach flipped and soured. Arrest warrants?
I swallowed around my dry throat. I had no doubt Sunada had an arrest warrant out for me—any runaway fluxweaver was labeled a wanted criminal, usually with a reward for their capture—but there was no way they knew what ship I was on, right?
Even if they somehow figured out which ship I’d boarded,The Black Wraithhad a disguise on when they were docked at Sunada.
They didn’t knowThe White Swanwas actuallyThe Black Wraith.
Right?
Patty’s eyes went wide. “You serious?”
Hawk-Eyes shrugged. “That’s what Reaper said. That’s why cap’s pushin’ Ariella so hard. Don’t wanna get caught.”
I sure as hellfire didn’t want to get caught either, but pushing Ariella the way he was wasn’t right. She looked ready to pass out. I was surprised she was still standing, to be honest.
Didn’t Viper understand that pushing her this hard wouldn’t do her or us any good in the end? She’d be down for the count, unable to help us, if he didn’t lay off her.
Not to mention she was an actual person, not a machine. You just shouldn’t treat other people that way.
What a flaming goblin prick.
Plus, we didn’t even know if that fleet was after us. They could’ve been after any number of pirate ships. I mean, there were a billion of them on that island, after all.
I pushed away the bile that wanted to rise at the thought of being hunted down by a Sunada fleet and focused on Ariella. Someone needed to help her. Someone needed to step in and do something to… to stop Viper.
But I didn’t think that someone could be me.
I had no doubt Viper would throw me overboard if I dared to challenge him, and even Max wouldn’t be able to stop him.
Before I could try to get Max’s attention—out of everyone, he had the best chance of helping her—Ariella fell to the ground, and our ship rocked as the strong wind she’d been controlling came to a stop.
Viper started screaming at her, even though she was flat on her back with her eyes shut.
