“Ambition,” I said.
Oliver nodded to himself, considering before he eyed my arm.
“Did you always have only one arm?” he said.
Oscar let out a laugh that was light and airy, wrong in a building that carried death in every crevice. There wasn’t a single spot here that death hadn’t visited. It was in the screams and the walls, holding secrets that were better off buried at the bottom of the sea.
The thought of the sea left a pang in my chest. I missed her. Her untameable waves and mercurial moods. When the rest of the world went to shit, she was always there with her promises and destruction. Maybe that was why I was drawn to Rose in more ways than one; she and the sea were of one mind.
“It’s new,” I said, raising what was left of it.
I could still feel what should have been there. My hands ached bone-deep with invisible scars. Not that I was ever in a position to barter, but I wouldn't have minded the loss of my arm if it weren’t for the phantom limb still attached.
“How?” Oliver asked, sober.
“Wraith,” I answered.
“Ironic, don’t you think?” he said.
I shrugged my shoulders. It didn’t matter much what it was.
“He used to be fun,” Oscar said.
“I bet.” Oliver grimaced. “I doubt either of you is going to like what I’m about to say next.”
Oliver stepped closer to his brother, hands balled into fists. It was killing him not having the letters, but if prison taught us anything, it was to savor the small moments and make them last.
“Then maybe don’t say it?” he asked.
“James thinks Rose is dead,” Oliver said, holding up one of the letters.
Oliver tilted his head. “Why would we not like that? It’s actually a point that brings sweet dreams in this hellhole.”
I braced for the impact of the words written across Oliver Bailey’s dark eyes. It was in the way his brow pulled down along with his shoulders and the worry in the creases by his eyes.
“James is telling everyone they are engaged once more.”
For the first time in four months, I realised I wasn’t ready for the gallows. I should have killed him before leaving London last year, but I was eager to put distance between the Wraith andLondon before my good sense kicked in and I lost Rose once more. He was a loose end that I couldn’t leave her with.
Sinking his ships and undermining his influence within the company he stole was a tactic, but not a solution. Insects like James Allan always returned to plague the rest of humanity.
Of course, he would see this as an opportunity to repair his name after Rose scorned him. No doubt he would let the ruse go on and then announce Rose had taken ill. He would be a grieving fiancé with a clear name. The Bailey family would not be able to counter it, having not spoken to Rose, who they believed to be in Paris with Oscar.
“You need to write everything I say and relay it to Rose,” I said, hating the way my heart pumped out warm blood with a new fervor. “I have a plan.
Chapter five
All Concerns are Noted
Rose
Beware the island that breathes. Beneath its shell lies hunger, and beneath hunger, patience. The sea does not rage—it waits.
-An excerpt from The Mysterious Deep: A Comprehensive Understanding
Pink and orange skies adorned the evening landscape, painting Meidera with the finest brushstrokes. Most people lived and died never seeing natural beauty like this. For the lost and the weary, it pressurized inside their chests and reminded them that there was still life worth living. Not for me.
Life wasn’t meant for living when the ones I loved were sentenced to the gallows. No, this thing inside of me wasn’t life. It was death, or at least the promise of it.
