“So the pirate has a heart after all,” he murmured.
His blue eyes shone bright against the damp stone surrounding us, like he was the only sign of life.
“His cell gets moved to the one next to Oscar, and mine. The Gaoler has nothing else to do with him,” I ordered.
“Back to giving orders. My, my, how far you’ve come, Captain.” Edmonds smiled, his white teeth like those of a predator.
I was well aware that I was playing into his hands. The problem was that somewhere along the way; I stopped caring.
“The boy, as you call him, has a name, Captain, would you like to know it?” he asked.
Something about the way his body curled over the table made me think of a serpent. Coiling around its prey and waiting for the life to leave it prior to devouring it.
“His name is Kit, and he was sentenced to twenty years in Newgate for pick-pocketing, as it were.” He placed his hands on the table and folded them nicely. “I used to think that you were the one I was looking for. A captain who successfully navigatedthe Glass Sea not once, but twice. Managing to steal the greatest known treasure to mankind.”
I didn’t answer him. There was no point. Edmonds was a man who knew every beginning and end of a conversation. The middle meant nothing.
Instead of saying his piece, Edmonds merely stood and folded his arms behind his back.
“I believe this little game of ours is entering the next phase. I received the most interesting invitation this afternoon. In three days' time, I believe I will find out that perhaps it was not you after all. In the meantime, I agree to your demands.”
An anchor pulled my heart down into my stomach as my dinner threatened to make an appearance.
“What invitation?” I demanded, standing before I could think better of it.
I might as well reveal every damn weakness I had.
Edmonds still with his hand on the door and turned to smile at me, a smile that I would see later in my nightmares.
“A mutual friend, Captain, a quite remarkable mutual friend,” he said.
I lunged for him, but he was out the door, and the guard was pointing a sword straight into my chest before I could do any damage.
“Don’t fucking touch her,” I yelled.
Fuck, I’d never felt so trapped or helpless in my life.
“I wouldn’t dream of damaging anything quite so valuable. Rest easy, Captain,” Edmonds said as he strolled away like he wasn’t taking my life away from me.
Rose.
Chapter eleven
The Price Of A Soul
Rose
To make a deal with the devil was to burn twice as much in hell.
-Lady Agatha Bailey
The Siren and The Kraken was the sort of place you didn’t go for a pleasant dining experience. In fact, it was some of the worst food I’d ever put into my mouth, and that was saying something given I’d spent a year on a pirate ship. The clientele was also not particularly good company. It was a colorful array of people trying to avoid their lives in one way or another.
Cracked stone walls with a variety of colors and sizes, as if they had just walked around London and picked anything that mimicked a stone. Coupled with dark oak timber that createdthe balcony overhead and beams that bore the weight of the building, it was a cozy enough establishment. The lantern light provided just enough ambiguity that a dark hood could mask most discernible features. That was the nice thing about this particular inn: if you had something to hide, there was an area where lantern light flickered, but if you were there to have a memorable evening, a burning fire crackled on the opposite side.
When I first met Flynn, we sat at this very table. It felt like a cruel joke that it was the only table available tonight. It was hard not to remember the sound of his laugh when I tried to make a joke or the way he leaned towards me whenever I spoke. Who knew a stranger would become the reason I woke up every morning?
Boisterous laughter cut through my melancholy, and I pulled my hood a little more over my face. There was some kind of celebration tonight. A large group of ten was already on their third round, and with every drink their volume grew. It seemed wrong to hear joy and camaraderie tonight.
