In the background, the tavern begins to clear, people retreating to their corners, eager to escape the storm they’ve just witnessed. But I can still feel their stares, lingering like smoke. Who am I kidding, though? If anyone’s making a spectacle, it’s me.
Silverbeard waits for the last of the crowd to slip out before turning his focus back to me. His hand moves slowly as he pulls his pistol free and presses it against Zayan’s head.
“I don’t give a damn about this lad,” he says, voice low. “You know that, girl. My crew... and you—that’s all that matters to me. If I wanted a war, I’d put a bullet in him right now and make my point clear. But maybe a war’s unavoidable after what you’ve done. Maybe I should, in fact, start it myself.”
My throat tightens, dry as the salt-crusted deck beneath my feet. Zayan stands frozen, not a single twitch. Neither do I. It’s one thing to consider killing him myself—but to watch a bullet rip through his skull right here in front of me? That’s something else entirely.
Do I want that?
Fuck. I definitely don’t want thewar.
“Wait,” I blurt out, stepping forward, my heart hammering in my chest. “What did he tell you?”
“He told me just enough, Gypsy. Enough for me to know where your heart’s been wandering.” His face is hard and long, his nostrils flared, his bushy eyebrows so close to his eyelids they look like his lashes instead. “That you grew tired of your father’s ways.”
“That so?” I ask.
“Damn right.”
“And you believe him?”
“Still undecided,” he quips, eyes flicking to the side. “But what I believe doesn’t matter anymore. You see, it’s the people. They fear us. Worship us because we protect them. That’s why they give us their gold. But when the protector doesn’t seem worthy of their trust anymore... they find another. And I sure as fuck won’t stand by while they turn to Roche and his bloody Red Ones. Your stunts today give them enough reasons to do that, Gypsy girl.”
My heart stutters. If word spread that Silverbeard’s Serpents were slipping—if we are slipping—there might be blood on the water before sunrise. Roche wouldn’t waste a second to seize an opportunity like that.
But it goes both ways, doesn’t it? Roche didn’t manage to control Zayan either. I’m not the only one that invited chaos in.
“You can shift the people’s attention. You’re perfectly capable of making them believe whatever you want,” I wager.
“No, lass. I make them believe what theywantto believe. And that’s a difference.“ He takes a deep breath, cocking his head to the side and looking me down. “I’ll ask you a simple question. Did you buy the cursed compass from Old Betty today? Yes or no.”
Cali gasps. Gibbons chokes on his rum. Sizzle stops midway on his walk to the balcony again. I... I simply stare at my father.
“I don’t see… how that’s relevant,” I mutter, my gut twisting like a snake.
“Face the storm head on as I taught you, girl,” Silver booms, his voice louder. “Quit dancing around it.”
My mind spins, my pulse a wild drumbeat in my ears.
Fuck you, Zayan. Fuck you and your treacherous smile.
“No,” I bite out. “I didn’t buy it.”
“The boy says otherwise.”
“The boy is aliar.”
Silverbeard’s eyes narrow, the pistol still pressed against Zayan’s skull. “If what you say is true, then this boy deserves to meet his end for sowing discord among the Serpents,” he says. “But you must first prove to me that he lies.”
The crew gathers closer, their tankards gripped tight, eyes flicking between me and my father. But they’re watching me more than him. Of course, they do. They want me to strip down my belongings and empty my pockets.
I can already hear it—the things they’ll whisper about me behind my back once this is all over. A traitor. A skunk. A whore. They might be my idea of family, but loyalty to Silverbeard runs deeper than blood. They’d turn on me if it meant protecting him or their own necks.
My jaw clenches tight. “Innocent until proven guilty, right?” I snap back. “Isn’t that how it is?”
“It is the way I say it is,” Silverbeard declares, and his voice demands I obey. There’s no room for defiance. “And I say you prove the compass is not on you.”
I can feel the blood drain from my face. He’s not going to let this go, and with so many eyes watching, there’s no room to maneuver, no chance to hide what’s already mine.
