He tilted his head ever so slightly, and a muscle flexed in his jaw. Maybe joking with him was a poor idea at the moment.
“I’ll keep reading,” Dilly said, saving me from Bash’s wrath. “Whoever wrote this knew more than the average person about Atlantis, but as the book progresses, there is a distinct tone of madness. However, there is a port town, Angra do Heroísmo, that is mentioned many times as well as some strange phenomena there.”
She drifted off, tapping her finger slowly.
“But?” Bash asked.
She lifted her eyes to him and then to me and back to him.
I did not like where this was going.
“It’s outside of her domain, but getting there will bring us closer than anyone wants to be to it. A strong gale, a miscalculation–I don’t know if it’s worth the risk.”
Bash closed his eyes briefly and moved to the shelf, pulling out a map filled with x’s and red lines. Oscar was up in a second, hovering over the map.
“Absolutely not,” he said, looking up at Bash with his mouth open. “You can’t seriously be considering this.”
“Who’s territory?” I asked, dread already giving me the answer.
Bash ignored us all and looked to Dilly.
“Are there any other cities or ports mentioned in it?” he asked.
She frowned, wiping her face with her hand.
“Briefly, but nothing like Angra do Heroísmo. I’m only one-third into the book, though, besides skimming. I need more time to say for sure,” she said.
“Bash, do I need to remind you how bad it was last time?” Emille asked.
Fuck.
“No, you don’t have to fucking remind me,” Bash said, punching his hand into the map.
I jumped at the sound of the impact, red already blossoming over his knuckles. This was bad.
“So we make for the port, and if anything changes in the book, we will change course,” I said, voice dry and less than I wished it was.
Val poured another glass, but this time she handed it to me.
“Do you have a death wish, Princess?” she asked.
I threw back the drink and let it burn everything and anything.
“Turns out I have a living wish, and if we have to risk it, then we have to risk it. If we don’t get answers, I die anyway.” I said.
I lifted my eyes to Bash, who looked like he might need a Kraken to fight at any minute.
“If Ximena wants me dead, she will find I’m a little harder to kill than I was a year ago,” I said.
Oscar swore and began pacing, muttering about how everyone must have lost their godsdamn minds.
He was probably right.
Ximena was a mysterious creature, and her obsession with my husband knew no bounds. Last year, when she merely suspected Bash cared about me, she had tried to kill me. The only reason I lived was that he convinced her he didn’t care at all.
I glanced at the ring on my finger and swallowed.
“She will know,” Dilly said. “The Aloja are notoriously well informed since the port thrives the way it does. You won’t beable to hide the thoughts of the crew. Before you had plausible deniability–now…”
