Rook looked between the two of us.“Okay, clearly there’ssomethinggoing on between you two.Which…fine.Whatever.But I still need to know why the blasted Crown is chasing us.”
Darion sighed.“They’re hunting Cas.And now I’m sure they’re hunting me, too.”
Nowthey were hunting him?
Rook shook his head and ran his hand through his scraggly beard.“You really are in deep, aren’t you, Cas?Royal Guards?Sentinels?And who in all the hells was that hanging off my ship?”
“I never expected to bring all this to you,” I said to Rook.“I had no idea I was being tracked so closely.”I turned back to Darion.“HowamI being tracked so closely?”
“The Crown has figured out how to amplify Veilsense.Sentinels can now sense innate Embers.”
I shuddered.Sentinels could track me for just being myself?“And how long have you known this?”I snapped.
“Since yesterday,” Darion said.
“Wait,” Rook interjected.“They can track us?Are they tracking us right now?”
“Not this far out at sea,” Darion said.“When we go to shore, yes.But I can show Cas how to suppress his Embers.”
“That assumes they aren’t already pursuing us,” Rook said.“And Grey Spit is clearly off the table.The Royal Guard will be all over that dock.”
“They aren’t following us.Or at least, they aren’t close,” I said.As we had sailed away, the thrumming of the Sentinels had faded and hadn’t come back.
“And how would you know that?”Rook asked with a critical look.
“I…I have a sense for these things.”
Rook scoffed.“Well, that’s a relief,” he said, his words dripping in sarcasm.“Even if we escape, this ship is burned for smuggling without a complete refit.The last thing I need ismoreattention from the Crown.”
“I’ll make it up to you,” I said.
“Damn right you will,” Rook said.
“So where can we land besides Grey Spit?”I asked.
“We have options,” Rook said.“But first we need to be sure we aren’t being tracked.Soyou”—Rook pointed at me, then at Darion—“and you need to figure your shite out.”
With Jask piloting the ship and Rook acting as lookout, Darion and I were suddenly alone for the first time since we’d entered the prison wagon.
It felt strange being this close to Darion, and I was filled with an odd mix of longing, sadness, and past memories, all tainted by his deception.
“I don’t expect you to forgive me,” he said.“But I hope at some point, you can at least understand.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I’d planned to.But it’s hard.It’s the part of myself I hate the most.And then you told me that Orlik had killed—” Darion choked on his words, and tears leaked out.“Gods, I’m so sorry, Cas!”
Seeing Darion break down sent a jolt of anguish through me, but I fought it back and kept my expression neutral.
“When I saw you in the cell talking to that…that monster…” I tried to keep my composure, but the memory was so painful, and it filled me with an ugly anger.“Watching you talk to him like he was anormal person…He waslaughing.You have no idea what that did to me.”
“Seeing you in the darkness, witnessing that, was one of the worst moments of my life,” Darion said, despair on his face.
“So…is Orlik Emberborn?”I asked.
“No,” Darion said.“He hates Emberborn.Only my mother was.And he still doesn’t know that I am.It sickens me every time I have to talk to him.Every time I have to pretend.”
“So you’re…what?Like, a spy?”I asked.
