“You tricked me right back,” I said, shrugging on my less-than-fresh shirt. “I’d say we’re even.”
Though I was now fully dressed, if a little rumpled, I watched Sofie stand like that for a long moment, observing the way every line of her body was tensed. As if the sight of me repulsed her.
“You can look now,” I said, my voice as rough as the prior pair of weeks had been.
She was the first bride I’d loved—truly loved—since Amarylis. And she wasn’t even the person I’d thought.
Slowly, Sofie turned. Before I said anything else, I studied her carefully. The way she avoided eye contact with me. Her high, rigid shoulders. The shadow of grief or, I flattered myself, regret, that scudded over her gaze like clouds when she finally met my eye.
This wasn’t the sorceress I’d married. This woman was strangely subdued—almost defeated.
Ironic, then, that in destroying my plans she’d broken something in herself. “You gave me your word,” she repeated, her voice laced with pain. “Can you not even do that for me? Is it really so hard to keep it, to put me above your own petty wants?”
When I finally spoke, my words were softer than I wished them to be. “Who are you to judge that they are petty? You’ve spent a handful of weeks on the sea. You know nothing of our way of life. You clearly don’t understand it.”
I gestured for her to sit at the chair beside the first mate’s desk, but ever defiant, she remained standing.
Which made it all the more unusual that she said nothing in reply besides this: “Explain it to me then. Make me understand.”
Alas, poor, foolish Sofie. It must be a difficult thing to have so much power and so little sense.
I would not make this easier for her. Not after what she’d done.
“A pirate’s crew is not made of the choice members of society. We are not the fortunate ones. We are the ones who choose not to accept it, and to make our own fortunes. That is the path we’vechosen, and if it makes us ruthless and cutthroat at times, then that is a reflection of the way of this world.” I stepped towards her, not caring that I towered over her. “You want me to be softer. You ask me to make the sentimental choice. The romantic one. I don’t live in a world of romance, Sofie. If that’s what you want, you don’t want a life with a pirate.”
I might’ve imagined it, but I thought her lower lip trembled. “What are you planning?”
“Restitution.”
The answer was simple, final, and not the one she wished to hear.
She marched to the porthole window, throwing back the curtains and forcing me to wince as the late morning light flooded in. “Look out that window and think about who you’re taking on.”
Dewspell Academy loomed on the cliffs, proud and imposing. The white towers and red clay tile roofs weren’t dissimilar to the grand houses on the isle of Starfall, and yet there was no comparison. Dewspell looked as if a god had reached into a small mountain and stretched it into the sky. As prim and pretty as it was, it left a raw, imposing impression that almost—almost—made me think twice.
“You may have fooled me, but you won’t get the better of them,” Sofie said, her cheeks flushing for the first time in days. “I’ll ask you one more time, before you make another massive mistake and drag your crew down with you.”
Low blow, Sofie.
“What. Are. You. Planning?”
I couldn’t help but offer her a smirk in reply. “Dear Sofie. When will you learn? Your path in life may be to destroy others’ lives, but a pirate is always making something new. We never would’ve worked out.”
“What?” Her face was practically scarlet. “What did you just say to me?”
Ah. I’d hit a nerve. Nice to know such a thing was still possible.
I flashed my teeth at her. “And here I’d thought you heartless.”
“Me? You thinkI’mthe heartless one?”
“Don’t mistake me, Sofie. I don’t think we could cobble together a full heart between us. We’re neither of us good people. But I have my duty to my crew, and you just have your obligations to Dewspell.” I took another step closer, till I was near enough to grab her hands. I enveloped them in both of mine, my voice almost a whisper as I said, “You have a long way to go to even grow half a heart.”
Sofie gasped—and not because of what I’d said. I doubted she even registered it.
For I had lashed her wrists with a figure eight of magic, binding them together.
I might not have much ability in this new world of chaos magic that Sofie apparently thrived on, but I practiced a great deal, so the magic I’d learned at my mother’s knee wouldn’t fail me when I needed it most.
