“To keep me safe? How much safer could I be with a wanted pirate?” She immediately regretted her words as Inez shifted uncomfortably in her periphery. Inez was also wanted and, unlike the pirate, could feel empathy and guilt.
Kane pushed off the wall and strolled closer, loose stone crunching beneath his boots.
“Believe me, Yarrow, I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t need to be. You think I enjoy babysitting?”
“Babysitting?” she repeated, her voice rising. “I’m not some helpless cabin boy. I can take care of myself.”
“Sure, you can.” Kane’s tone dripped with mockery. “And, yet you would have died back there in the arms of that guard without my help.”
The truth of his words quelled her rising fury. “You’re right.” Erinna pinched the bridge of her nose, mustering sincerity. “Thank you.”
For the first time, Kane looked surprised, as if he half expected another caustic retort.
“Your father made me promise to keep you safe.” Kane hesitated for a moment, the smirk fading away. “I…owed him a favor.”
“What kind of favor?”
“That’s not important.”
“It’s my life, Atwater. I deserve to know what’s threatening it.”
He scratched at his neck, looking at everything but her. “Look, I can’t tell you, all right? It’s complicated.”
“Complicated?” she scoffed. “That’s rich, coming from a man who’s made a career out of lying and scheming.”
His gaze snapped to hers, and something raw flickered in his eyes. Anger? Guilt? She couldn’t tell.
“You don’t know the half of it.” He gave her another unreadable look. Likely some sick amusement at her predicament.Or pity. Erinna soured at the thought.
Inez lifted herself off the floor, the shaking in her body subsided, and her breath finally fell into a slow, easy rhythm.
“It’s time to go.” Erinna turned and started down the corridor.
They were over halfway to the exit now, the one that would take them within reach of Yarrow Yard.
Inez’s voice was barely audible. “It will still be hard after this.” Erinna and Kane exchanged uneasy glances, but their concern shifted when she swayed lightly on her feet. Kane reached out to steady her, but she shook her head, waving him off.
With the construct locked behind them, and the inching feeling of safety as they neared the end, Erinna finally began to wonder.
What in all the hells was happening? To her. To everyone above. She pushed up her sleeve and touched the mark on her forearm as they continued.
“You said it was a curse. What kind?” Erinna kept her eyes fixed on the five-star constellation that decorated her skin, bracing herself for whatever cryptic answer was about to come her way.
“My guess is that it’s a bloodline curse. An old one.”
Erinna stumbled, catching herself against the wall to keep her upright. Her pulse beat loudly in her ears. “That’s not possible. I don’t know a curse-maker—” The words died in her throat as panic rose in her chest.
Why? Who? To what ends?She rifled through her memories, searching for some connection, for some possible enemy in her family’s past.
Curses were outlawed, and those who performed them were sentenced to death by pyre. It was the worst kind of witchcraft.
“It probably wasn’t for you. Most likely some ancestor that pissed off a witch.” Kane’s stare traveled from Erinna’s face downward, landing on the constellation. “A powerful one at that.”
So the family that she saw. They were somehow distant cousins—very,verydistant.
“How do you know?” Erinna pushed her sleeve down to her wrist. If she kept looking at the constellation, she was sure to lose her breakfast on the floor in distress. Every answer created more questions that fogged her mind like clouds from a raging storm.
Kane shrugged. “I’m only vaguely familiar with curses. Comes in handy for a pirate. If you want to know more, I suggest you find yourself a witch or a very,veryold mage.”
