Vinicola shifts, clears his throat, clearly wishing he hadn’t found a damn thing. “Right, well…” He stumbles over his words, but Gypsy doesn’t give him a chance to finish.
“How can it be here?” she cuts in, her voice sharp, almost cracking. She jumps to her feet, clutching her shirt like it’s the only thing keeping her from falling apart. Her eyes, wide and wild, are glued to the compass. She looks just as shocked as I am.
But there’s something else. Beneath the panic, the disbelief—I see it in her. Something’s off.
Ever since she passed out in that river, I’ve had this gnawing feeling. Like a storm on the horizon, ready to break. And here’s the problem—I don’t even know what to ask. Gypsy’s always been chaos in motion, tearing through anything in her path. But this? This damn compass? It’s shaking her in a way I’ve never seen.
I’ve kept my distance, sure. Didn’t want to push her too hard. Gypsy Flint might be a reckless, fearless force, but she’s damn good at building walls too. Doesn’t like being cornered—by me or anyone else. I’ve respected that. Let her handle her own mess. But now? Watching her come undone right in front of me? I can’t ignore it.
I glance between her and Vinicola, my fists clenching tight. Every part of me screams to grab that compass and smash it into the ground. But that won’t fix a damn thing. This isn’t just about a piece of metal. It’s about whatever happened back there, in that river, and the things she’s not telling me.
Time to act.
I step closer, my gaze locking onto hers. My voice comes out low, rough. “Gypsy… what aren’t you telling me?”
She looks at me, swallowing hard. “What?”
“There’s something you’re not saying out loud. I don’t know what it is, but I can feel it.”
She laughs. It’s that cold, dismissive laugh she pulls when she’s trying to keep me at arm’s length. But I don’t move. Hell, I’m not backing off now. I lean in, lowering my voice but keeping it steady.
“I don’t know how the hell you pulled it off, but I swear I saw that compass land at the privateer’s feet. If you switched it with something else, just admit it. Better than pretending it magically crawled back into the bard’s hands.”
Her laughter dies quick, tension thick enough to cut with a blade. Her eyes flick between me and Vini, who looks about two seconds away from turning into a statue.
“I didn’t switch anything,” she says, her voice tight.
I want to believe her. Hell, every part of me aches to believe her. But the compass in the bard’s hand, looking just like the one I saw last night, is sitting there like a knife in my back.
“Then how do you explain this, love?” I say, pointing at the cursed thing, my tone mocking. “What, it grew legs and decided to stroll over here for fun?”
“I don’t know. Maybe it did.”
“Really?”
She steps back, putting distance between us, the warmth of her skin slipping out of my reach.
“Fuck, Zayan. I don’t know how it ended up here,” she snaps. “I threw it away. Thought it was at the bottom of the sea. You didn’t see it in the jungle, and I believed you.”
“Maybe there’s more than one compass that look the same?” Vinicola offers weakly.
I shoot him a look that could knock a man dead. “There’s no way in hell there’s more than one of these. Roche would’veknown.Iwould’ve known. That gold’s too pretty not to catch an eye or two.”
I turn back to Gypsy. “Gypsy,” I say, softer now, like I’m trying to coax the truth out of her.
She rakes a hand through her hair, biting her lip, tapping her foot like crazy. Finally, she curses, and something in her shifts—her whole demeanor flips.
“Okay, fine,” she spits. “Thereissomething. Maybe. I don’t know if it’s anything real, but...”
Shit. This isn’t good. Not a damn good sign. I feel Vinicola tense beside me, but I don’t take my eyes off her.
“But what?” I ask, though my pulse is pounding so hard I can barely hear my own voice.
She takes a breath, her words tumbling out in a rush. “When I passed out in the jungle, I had a… I know how it sounds, okay? But hear me out—I had a vision. Something strange. Eerie.”
I tilt my head, leaning in just a bit. “Alright,” I say, my tone smooth but slower now, careful. “Go on.”
“In this vision, there was this monkey. The same one I was chasing through the trees. But it talked. Said it had a message for me. Said I’m a strange creature, and that I rejected the Lady’s invitation. Andshe’snot happy with me. It was about the compass. I knew it straight away. I just thought it was my drugged-up brain, or something, telling me I messed up by throwing it away.”
