Not forgotten.
Edmonds stared at his wrist a moment, then back at me. “It recognizes completion,” he said softly. “Binding.”
I couldn’t stop myself. “Your promise,” I said. “The North Sea will hold you to it.”
His gaze flicked to Bash, then Oscar, then back to me. “Yes.”
Bash’s shoulders went taut.
Edmonds’s mouth curved in something almost amused again, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “I will not seek to imprison or kill them. As agreed.”
I waited, heart hammering.
Edmonds looked at Bash. “If he wishes it, I will help him get revenge on Lord Smith.”
Silence sharpened.
Bash’s face didn’t change, but I felt the shift in him like a tide turning.
Edmonds tilted his head. “A man who built his life on respectability while leaving you and your mother to rot and her to die. A man who would rather see you dead than exposed. I could ruin him for you with a few sentences.”
My stomach dropped. All of this just to arrive at this singular moment. The moment when I learned what obsession and vengeance cost me.
Bash’s jaw clenched, the muscle jumping. He stared at Edmonds with a quiet so heavy it could have drowned a man. Then he looked at me.
And in his eyes I saw everything he’d ever wanted: to burn Lord Smith down to ash; to make him choke on the truth; towatch him lose all the power he’d stolen by pretending Bash didn’t exist.
I saw it.
And then I saw something else, too.
Billy’s voice. Val’s laugh. Inu’s rare smile. The Wraith’s deck is beneath our feet. Oscar’s devastation. My own wrist was stained with the reminder of what obsession cost.
Bash exhaled.
Slowly, like he was letting go of a rope he’d held so long his hands were bleeding.
“No,” he said.
The word was simple.
Final.
Edmonds blinked, as if he hadn’t expected it. “No?”
Bash’s gaze didn’t waver. “I’m done chasing him,” he said. “Revenge is a chain. I’ve worn enough.”
The rain hit my face harder, or maybe it was just my eyes burning. It felt like I was finally breathing.
Edmonds’s mouth tightened. He studied Bash like he was trying to find the flaw in that answer.
Then he gave a small nod. “Very well,” he said, and there was something almost… respectful in it, though it vanished quickly beneath restlessness again. “Your choice.”
He lifted the conch.
He pressed it to his ear.
And his entire body stilled.
