Page 24 of Seaborn and the Seven Seas

His eyes lit up, then his grip loosened as his attention moved back to my waist, fingers working at the lacing.

I slid my trembling hand to my secret pocket, my heart pounding. The hilt was cold and familiar against my palm. I closed my fingers around it.

He never saw it coming.

I drove the blade into his throat, rage consuming my soul. “I hope you rot in hell.”

He made a sound that wasn’t quite a word as his eyes went wild.

I pulled the blade free and drove it in again. “For Jina.” His hands found my wrists, weakening, the shell poison spreading fast. Another strike. “For the dark room.” Another. “For treating us like we’re only worth our labor.”

His hands fell away.

“I told you I would do worse.” I leaned close enough that he could hear me. “I keep my promises.”

He swayed above me, eyes still wide, then toppled sideways off the bed and hit the floor loud as a sack of potatoes. I jolted up, the dagger still in my hand.

I stood over him. His chest rose once, then didn’t rise again. The wounds at his throat had begun to change—the edges darkening, spreading outward beneath the skin in branching lines like frost creeping across glass.

I waited until the black lines stopped moving across his face. Then I wiped the blade on the bedsheet, tucked it back into the secret pocket, and crossed to the door.

My hand found the handle. I stood there a moment, fingers wrapped around the cold metal, and my legs simply stopped holding me. I slid down until I hit the floor, knees drawn up, one hand over my mouth to keep the sound in. Then I fell apart and sobbed.

Yes, he deserved it. But a life was a life, and my hands were the ones that had ended him. I had never been violent being. Now I had been forced to become one. I had thought about killing Agusto and Russo more times than I could count but thinking and doing were different things.

Th act of killing was a monster incarnate that had settled into my bones and changed me.

When the shaking eased, I wiped my face and stared at my hands.

How was I supposed to face Ranis? I had killed his captain. I doubted he’d mourn the man. I had seen enough in Ranis’s eyes to know what he thought of Russo. And worse, the moment Russo’s crew found out I’d killed their captain, Jina and I were finished.

We had to run, but no amount of a head start would be enough. But we couldn’t stay. And we couldn’t ask Ranis to help us carry the weight of what I’d just done.

I looked back at Russo on the floor. Why couldn’t you just have been a decent man?

I had to think. And I had to think fast. How to get Jina and me out of here? I could run downstairs. Tell them a man entered and someone killed the captain. They would believe my story, right? Who would think a woman could kill a man his size?

Then as everyone climbed the stairs, I’d grabbed Jina and run. And if luck was on our side, Ranis would help and come with us. All sounded like a good plan until I opened the door. A man blocked my exit.

He filled the doorframe—tall, broad through the shoulders, one hand resting loose on the hilt of his sword. Dark coat. That ridiculous hat pulled low over his face. Hair pushed back from his face, shoulder-length, giving way to hard lines and features that had no business being that well-made.

The man who had bid up the price without buying. The one who had watched me with those steady, assessing eyes and given nothing away.

Those kissable lips curved into a smirk.

My heart pounded. Not from fear. From something I refused to name.

Chapter Nine

The man with a dark coat was looking at me the same way he had at the cave. The sunlight through the window caught his face and I wished it hadn’t. It was easier not to look at him when I couldn’t see him clearly.

“Where do you think you’re going?” His voice was low and unhurried.

“Away from here.” I kept my chin up. “Unless you plan to stop me, in which case I should warn you, the last man who tried is on the floor behind me.”

I held his gaze and said nothing more, as if admitting to killing a man in a tavern was something I did every day.

His gaze moved over me to Russo, then back to me. A corner of his mouth twitched. No surprise. Not alarm. Almost like approval crossed his face.