Page 61 of By the Flames of Her Fury

Not that I was an expert, but I had never seen anything like what happened yesterday. That whirlpool came out of nowhere. I could’ve sworn I saw something else lurking in the waters. Something darker. Something alive.

The three of us walked through the doors to the cabin’s quarters, where Captain Starke and Kieran were already arguing.

“...all due respect, this is my ship,” Captain Starke said, finger jammed into Kieran’s chest. “And I won’t be taking orders from a foreigner I’ve never met before.”

Kieran’s jaw flexed beneath brown scruff that had grown over the days of travel. He kept his voice level, although I could tell it took restraint. “It does not matter where I come from,” he rumbled. “I can tell when someone is being dishonest.”

“Let’s calm down for a second,” Tessa said, putting her hands up in a placating motion. “What’s going on?”

“Have neither of you observed that we haven’t moved all night?” Kieran asked.

“I’ve been a little preoccupied,” I muttered.

“The captain here said he would sail us back to Saltmourne, but we’ve been circling the same waters, hour after hour. Suspicious, no?” Kieran shot a pointed look at Captain Starke.

Starke scowled. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Kieran’s eyes flashed. “I’m an observant man, Captain Starke. What of the scouts up in the crow’s nest? The messengers sneaking into your cabin every few hours? You have had people up all through the night, scouring the area and reporting back to you.” Kieran took a step closer to Starke, and his frame towered over him. He lowered his voice as he said, “It makes one wonder what you’re up to.”

Starke didn’t respond, but I didn’t miss the look he shot Vera, who was surprisingly silent. Kieran had a point; it was curious why they were also here, in the middle of the ocean where the chancellor had said the most dangerous sightings had occurred. Most sailors had been advised to avoid the area, yet here Starke and Vera just so happened to be.

“It makes one wonder what you’re up to.”

Kieran said the ship had been circling the waters all night. What if they were looking for something? Like the source behind all these incidents Chancellor Bay spoke of. He didn’t know if it was natural or supernatural, or perhaps orchestrated by an opposing territory. What if Starke knew something about it?

My analytical brain whirred. It felt like pieces were trying to lock together, but I didn’t have the full picture. That may explain why Starke was here, but what about Vera? Why would she have gotten caught up in this? There was only one thing I knew she cared about.

And then it hit me. “You’re chasing Mortep, aren’t you?” I faced Vera. “That’s why your ship is here.” Her fiery eyes flared at the mention of him, and I stepped closer, pulse racing. “Have you found him?”

She looked away and shook her head. “No.”

“But you’re looking,” I pushed. When her gaze flickered back to me, I knew I was right. Half-theories formed, raising more questions than answers. Chancellor Bay said the anomalies only started recently, within the last few weeks. The timing was too suspect to be coincidental.

“Does any of this have to do with him?” I asked. “The whirlpool, the shipwrecks, the—the thing I saw in the water?”

That piqued her interest. “What did you see?”

“I have no idea. But if any of this is somehow connected to Mortep…” I lowered my voice. “You would tell me, wouldn’t you, Songbird?”

She held my stare. The room heated with the taste of her vengeance, and I remembered what it was like to feel that same anger. I despised Malek Mortep with every fiber of my being—not just for what he did to me, but for the way he hurt her.

Yet the one thing stronger than my need for revenge was freeing Vera. The relief at finally getting her back last year outweighed my hatred. It gave me hope for a new life, a clean slate. I wanted it to be the same for her. I wanted to be enough to quell her rage so we could move on.

But I wasn’t. I knew she would track Mortep until one or both of them was dead, even if it meant leaving behind everyone that loved her.

I refused to be left behind again. I would go wherever she went, chase any monster she chased, hunt him across any kingdom she did. I would stoke the fire of my vengeance by the flames of her fury until we found him. Together.

I took another step. “I’m coming with you.”

The column of her throat moved as she swallowed. I tracked the motion, remembering what it felt like to trace it with my lips for the first time. How it felt to finally touch her after three years of talking through a wall. My skin heated, and my fingers clenched at my side with the urge to run along her waist, her hips, the curve of her back.

I wondered if she felt it, too. If her breaths were heavier with the memory of us. If her chest felt tight, if the air felt too hot, if she burned with the effort it took not to reach out and grab me.

But as the spell over us broke, she let out a breath and swayed back on her heels. “No, Everett. I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

I narrowed my eyes. She had always been so stubborn. “It wasn’t a request.”

Beside us, Starke cleared his throat. “I think you’re forgetting this is my ship.”