I can’t help the choked laugh that shocks us both. To save face, I feign a cough, and when I risk a look back over he’s smoothed his expression as well, sky-blue eyes trained on the dense trees that swallow us now.
“What about you? Any close calls with a watery grave?” I ask, if only to fill the silence.
“Are we making small talk now? Was dropping you all I needed to do to get you to open up to me?”
Someone stifles a laugh behind us and I whirl to find a stone-faced Tavi and a bashful Bear. “Sorry,” he says. “It was just so petty.”
I don’t disagree. Rune sucks his bottom lip between his teeth; he obviously can’t argue either.
“No,” I say, turning back around. “I just think if we’re going to be stuck together for the next month or so we ought to . . .” I wave a hand, unsure what it means.
“Do you think we’ll become friends, Odi?” His tone is sickly sweet. Teasing.
I mask my irritation with purr. “Well I’m already sleeping in your bed.”
This time the subtle cough comes from Tavi, and I don’t have to turn around to know I’m right.
Rune finally grins. “Fair enough. No, I’ve never almost drowned in my line of work. I’m a strong swimmer.”
Bear’s chuckle continues for a moment, then the only sound is the chattering of whatever insects call this island home. “This is where you ask me a question,” I say, keeping my attention locked on our surroundings.
“Fine. Why do you want this so badly?”
I don’t need to ask him to clarify what he means. “With enough coin I could go anywhere. Be anyone.”
He shakes his head. “You could do that without the treasure, without the danger.”
Says the man who was going to send me into an earth prison before the map came into play.“You made it implicitly clear I wouldn't have that opportunity.”
He shakes his head. “No. Before that. Before any of this. Why decide you need the map? You have to worry your crew will notice you stole it. You could have vanished anywhere. Found work. Now you have a target on your back.”
“No one would allow me to work for them. Not if they knew who I was. If I was ever found out—”
“Surely the bars and temples on the mainland have seen their share of reformed pirates.”
I press my lips together. He’s not wrong, but they’ve never seen Nisse, Captain Ivor’s right hand, the ocean’s reaper, death’s mistress, or whatever other absurd name the rumors are favoring this month. “No. With enough coin, I can find a forest, far away from any cities or towns, far away from any nooses they might hang.”
“You’ll be alone.”
“Yes. Which means I’ll be safe.”
Again, we fall into silence. The crew still rustles through the underbrush, but there’s no breeze to stir the canopy overhead. The chirps and trills are silent. I slow, eyes catching on a clump of yellowing leaves with veins of red caught in the light, like stained glass. I pluck just one and tuckit into my pocket. Rune watches, his face impassive enough that I don’t think he’ll ask about it, but I can’t help but slow even more, a strange wariness blooming in my gut. The ground hums beneath my boots, but not in a way that touches my ears. It’s almost like—
The animal in me freezes.
“What is it?” he asks, like the alarm is plain on my face.
I shake my head. “Listen.”
His attention stays locked on me, his eyes tracing my expression. “It’s . . . quiet,” he says.
“The insects stopped.” I should have noticed. “Do you feel that?”
The earth’s rumble grows until the rest of the group is looking around in alarm. It moves through our legs, loud enough to reach our ears now. Above, birds flee, taking off in a blur of wings. Rune’s bladeshinksas it comes out of its sheath and the others follow suit, turning their backs to each other so we’ve got eyes on all sides. I reach for my hip, seeking a weapon that isn’t there. Trembling leaves overhead shake down in a feathery rain.
Then it stops.
“The fuck was that?” Elio says, his head on a swivel, but the forest is unchanged. Slowly, the insects begin to chatter again. A bird darts past, close enough to shift the air around us. Some flinch, but I just flick my eyes to the nearest weapon. Tavi definitely notices.
