With a snapping twist, he turned on his heel and disappeared through the heavy drapes behind the counter. Hook’s eyes narrowed. So they weren’t all walls after all. He’d assumed as much.
He glanced over his shoulder toward his companions. Smee had his arms crossed, a grin on his face. He nodded in acknowledgment.Yes. This was going better than he expected.So far.
Tink, on the other hand, looked like she might run back out the curtained entrance. Her arms hugged her chest under her cloak. Her gaze darted around the room as her shoulders hunched in. Suddenly, she twisted to her right, a soft gasp echoing into the quiet.
“What—” Hook pushed off the counter, crossing the room to her before he registered what he’d done.
Her blonde head shook. “I felt something. And now I smell—” She clapped a hand over her mouth, capturing a sudden sneeze.
There it was: a hint of bitterness in the air he hadn’t noticed before. She turned away and sneezed again. He adjusted his stance and reached for the blade at his hip. What devilry was this?
Something moved behind the shelves. The softest thud whispered from the curtains behind the colorful rows of bottles and jars. He advanced, trying to see beyond the clutter. If someone spied on them—
“Thank you for waiting.”
Hook snapped back toward the counter as the shopkeeper returned, his honeyed smile back in place. He adjusted his blue velvet hat as if the drapes had knocked it askew. “She’ll see you.”
Tension slipped from his shoulders.About time.
“Tomorrow,” he continued. “Come back at noon.”
He froze. Hot fury surged through his veins. “Tomorrow?” he spat. They couldn’t afford to spend a day waiting around. “We’re here today. Right now.” And so was the witch. He had no doubt of that.
The shopkeep lifted the pouch of coins as if it were a dead animal and dropped it on the edge of the counter. “Tomorrow or not at all.”
Bloody hell. He stepped to the counter and snatched up the coins before slamming the tip of his hook into the polished wood. “Tomorrow.”
A forced smile greeted him, accompanied by another dramatic bob of the man’s throat.
The witch’s information better be worth it. So help him, if they’d wasted all this time for nothing...
Hook turned on his heel and headed for the door, gesturing for Smee and the still sneezing Tink to do the same.
“Ta-ta,” the man called after them.
Blinding sun and thick humidity had never been so welcoming as when they stepped back out onto the too-quiet street.
Tink sneezed again and rubbed at her mouth. “Merrin’s teeth, that was awful!”
The hint of a grin twitched on his lips at the odd curse.
“One jar had these things floating in it. Looked like eyeballs…” Smee paled and turned away.
“That bad?” Sage shoved off the wall where she’d reclined against the storefront.
A shiver wracked Tink’s slight form. Hook fought against the sudden urge to comfort her. She’d made it abundantly clear on the mermaid’s isle, and every day since, how little of him she wanted. But what happened in there, and why’d it only affect her?
Sage stared between them, brows raised in question.
“Cap—”
He cut Smee off with a raised hand. “We have a meeting tomorrow at noon.”
She shrugged. “It’s a meeting.”
Did none of them understand the urgency to be away? The bloody curse could set a storm upon them any day now. And if Captain Blackbeard caught wind of where they’d made port, a storm would be the least of their worries.
“Well, if we’re done here, I’m going to Market Street,” Smee said.
