If she were honest with herself, he wasn’t filthy, and perhaps not even no-good, not with all she’d seen, all he’d done. Ornotdone, in their case. How poorly she’d misjudged him. All of them.
Titania had forced them to ally with one another, but it wasn’t because of the mermaid queen that she wanted to help them now. She owed them for the curse she’d placed on them. And their captain…
Even if it were only for a few days, only until they retrieved the scale of Leviathan and removed their curse, she wanted to bewith him no matter whose ring he still wore. Today, tomorrow, the next. She’d been with him as long as she could.
He had to know it wasn’t just strong ale fueling her desire.
Tink cleaned herself up and dressed in a hurry. A few benign motes of dust glittered from the sheets, the table, even the floor, but those weren’t the good stuff, just a byproduct of its creation. The real pixie dust still clung to her wings, as it would until she chose to shed it. What was left in the room wouldn’t be useful to her or anyone else, so she let it lie. Most humans would never know it from normal dust anyway, and there was plenty of that around too.
She flung open the door, only for it to crash into something on the floor that groaned. Not something—someone.
She slid out the open crack to find Smee sitting on the floor outside the room, rubbing his head. “I’m up…I’m up.”
“Whatareyou doing?” She braced her hands on her hips.
“Just took a little nap is all.”
“Outside my door?”
He rolled his neck before pushing to his feet. “Outside the captain’s door.”
The tips of her ears burned.
Smee didn’t seem to notice, still rubbing the sleep from his eyes. “He asked me to make sure you weren’t disturbed.”
That was kind of him, and Smee. Sleeping against the door couldn’t be comfortable. “Thank you.”
“Always happy to help.” A sheepish grin spread across his face.
He was—that much was obvious, and loyal to a fault too. Hook couldn’t have picked a better first mate. Tink smiled. “Do you know where the captain went? When he’ll be back?”
“Didn’t say.”
A sigh caught in her chest.Of course not.
“I think…I’ll go look for him.”
He stretched his arms above his head. “Bed calling me back. So soft.” He stifled a yawn. “We’re to meet here before noon.”
She nodded. “I’ll be here.” Hopefully sooner than that.
The hopes she held of finding Hook in the downstairs common room were dashed. It would have been so easy to drag him back upstairs and spill her heart. She was ready, prepared. But nothing was ever that easy, not for her.
The streets were busy that morning. A storm was coming, she overheard someone say. The sky was still clear, but far on the horizon dark clouds gathered. Tink wrinkled her nose as she caught sight of them. Hook wanted to get back to the ship as soon as possible, but being stuck here with him a few more days wouldn’t be all bad.
Quick shopping in the market yielded new clothes, which she stored away in the backpack she carried. Finally, she’d have a shirt that fit, though she’d grown fond of Hook’s. At least that was one chore done. She’d gotten so thoroughly distracted by her meeting with the witch yesterday that new clothes had been the very last thing on her mind.
The trill of a pipe drew her attention as she wandered back toward the inn. People clapped along to the lively tune, a small crowd forming in the cobblestone square. The musician was good, and she’d know. Pixies loved music almost as much as nature. They all had an instrument they favored, usually several.
Applause rose as the song finished. A few well-clad citizens cheered in appreciation. Tink caught a flash of red hair as she wove through the gathered people, aiming for a better look. She squeezed between two large men—Gamoreans, by their uniforms—coming to the front of the circle of onlookers. A boy, standing on a box, raised a wooden pan flute to his lips and began a new tune.
Tink sucked in a breath. The tune was familiar, one she’d often played in the Crow’s Roost back on Tortuga, but it was theboy who made her eyes widen. She hadn’t been seeing things yesterday. Peter, the boy who stole her treehouse and handed her over to Hook, stood before her.
How in the scared plains did he get here?Whywas he here?
She scanned the crowd for the rest of his gang. It’d be just like them to distract these people with a song while the little ones picked pockets. Though if they did, the kids did a great job of keeping out of sight. The only child in the crowd was a little girl with ribbons in her hair who stared at Peter in a gleeful trance.
If he’d torched her treehouse… Her foot tapped on the ground, completely out of rhythm with the song. Not that she’d need the treehouse anymore if their quest was successful. She could finally go home.And leave the captain behind?A traitorous voice whispered in her head. She swallowed. Well, there was time to figure that out later.
