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I slowly drift my eyes up him, over the impressive, thick body of his, and even if he is the most stunning man I’ve ever seen in my life, I won’t show an inch of that thought on my face. “I’m not interested in telling you anything, Captain.”

He smirks again, and my blood warms. “Dirty mouth and a liar. Tut tut. Come up to the deck when you’re ready, and don’t eat too much. I don’t want puke on my deck.” He pushes off the table, walking away.

Freckles walks back, sighing as she looks between us. “You two don’t like each other, do you?”

“Your captain isn’t exactly likeable.” I pick up my plate. “Is he always trying so hard to be difficult?”

Freckles nods. “Yes, but I’ve known him since we were kids and…” She stops mid-sentence, looking over my shoulder. I follow her gaze, finding Chaos watching from the other side of the room. Even this far apart, I can feel his warning to Freckles. “I’ll show you where to clean up your plate.” Freckles is silent as we work on the dishes together, along with two other men who don’t say a word either. When they are all done, Freckles walks with me up the stairs, where light is pouring down from outside. She touches my shoulder. “I’ll come and get you to do some of that sewing we agreed on. It will be okay. Give them a chance…we aren’t villains.”

She might not be, but her captain? I’m not so sure. “How would you even know if you were the villain? Most evil people believe they are doing the right thing.”

“I’ve seen true evil, Miriam, and they know they aren’t doing the right thing. They just don’t care.” She softly smiles at me. “And my captain? He cares.”

I hope she is telling the truth, but either way, I’m not letting my guard down, and I’m definitely not showing any of them how my father and his best friend trained me to fight in secret and how I never gave up that training when he was dead. I just know pretending to be crap at fighting is going to hurt more than my pride.

Chapter

Seven

Ifall to the floor and wince, feeling like my knees are going to snap and break from the force. Tracker is fast, efficient, and makes it easy to look terrible at fighting by just standing still. He is roughly the same height as Chaos, but Tracker is slender and there might not be as many muscles on display, but I can see he is just as strong.

Right now? Tracker’s green eyes just look frustrated as he looks over my shoulder to the asshole who is watching and finding this all very amusing. Draven hasn’t offered to help or done anything but watch from his seat on the steps. The deck is busy, and I don’t know anything about ships, but everyone seems like they have something to do and aren’t openly watching this disaster. The smell of the sea hits me hard as I suck in a breath and climb to my feet. The sea smells different already, and the more miles we go, the more I think about Rowe and how he is. Lou will be caring for him, but he is a small, weak boy and I swore to never leave him alone.

“That was my fault. I didn’t see your foot, and I tripped over it,” I lie. It’s pretty easy when they both clearly don’t think much of me. Stupid men.

Tracker softens his features. “Don’t look so sad. We’re really only starting with the basics, and we can build on your…coordination.”

I shrug my shoulders. I’m a thief after all. My coordination is brilliant, but they don’t know that. This might be embarrassing, but it’s perfect for my new plan. I can jump off this ship when we get to Havenward and swim to the shore. Then I can run and hide, scaling the buildings to get away. I doubt they will use magic so openly, so I stand a good chance of escaping when I have the element of surprise. I rub my back like it hurts and bat my eyelashes at him. “I’m sorry. I just wanted to learn better than this.”

“You will.” Tracker reaches to touch my arm, and suddenly Draven is there, right in the middle of us, so close to me that I’m nearly pressed against him. I move a step back to make space.

Draven turns to Tracker. “She’s done. Make sure the ship is on track.”

“Yes, Captain.” Tracker nods his head to Draven, looking over at me next as he walks off. “Have a good day, Miriam Vale.”

When Tracker has walked a fair distance away, I frown at Draven’s back. “Haven’t you got anything else to do, Captain? Nothing more interesting than this?”

“It gets boring all these days on the ship. There hasn’t been entertainment for a long time. This is entertaining,” he counters, turning to face me. He smells good, I note, when he is this close. It’s unfair that he gets a pretty face and he smells nice.

We are close enough that his scent engulfs me, and I take another step away. “Fuck you.”

The space is nothing to him. One big step and he closes it between us. The sunlight shines around him as he leans into me. It makes his black hair almost look like glass and his skin glow. “You’ve really got to watch that mouth of yours or⁠—”

“Or what?” I interrupt.

His blue eyes sharpen. “Feistiness gets you so far; running your mouth gets you absolutely nowhere on my ship. Respect can get you a lot further.” He touches a lock of my hair, and I rip it from his touch. “You definitely didn’t become a whore, even though you’re pretty enough to be one, so let me figure out who you are.” He begins to walk around me and my heart races. “You were looked after, no responsibilities, no one to look after, no one that you would have left on that island, or they would be here with you. You wouldn’t have risked everything for the map if you had someone to lose. I’d guess no boyfriend or husband.” He waits for my answer, but I don’t give him one. “You grew up with stories, learning about how you’d get some magic from the gods if you got the map. Is that what your parents told you? Are they dead or alive?”

“You’re a prick.” My heart stings at the mention of my parents. I can barely think about their deaths without wanting to break into a thousand pieces. There isn’t a soul in this world that could put me back together if I broke like that. Without thinking, I grab my locket, all I have left of my parents.

“Dead then. My condolences.” He actually sounds like he means that. “Tell me next, how many⁠—”

“No, how about I do this guessing game with you?” I step into his space and make him stop walking around me. “You got this nice big ship, made yourself captain, been a dickhead all this time, and with your magic, no one has ever stood up to you. That pretty face of yours? I can guess you get away with a lot of shit no one else would. I must piss you right off because you need me alive and I’m not going to fall head over heels for your charming looks. Who knows if the map disappears if I die? It might. Therefore, I’m likely the first person in a long time to really call you out on your behavior? Oh, and needing the gold? For what? I mean, looking at your ship and all the food you eat, you don’t really need it.”

“You’ve got no idea what I fucking need.” Touchy, touchy.

“What, do you need to buy an island from the king to hide the fact that you’re all magic? Will that help with your guilty conscience? If I had magic, I’d help the people. Magic could stop the king, it could change things, and you could start a rebellion. You could help people! How many people suffer and die daily because they think the king’s the only one with magic and they fear him so much they don’t dare uprise against him? Here you are, a whole boatload of magic users of legends, and you don’t step up. You said you wanted respect? I have none for cowards.” I lift my chin. “I might be guilty of being poor, conniving, and risking everything for the map, but at least I risked everything and was brave. You, Captain, well, you’re not brave and you’ve never risked anything by the looks of you. You’ve sat on this boat while people scream and beg for hope.”

My breath hitches as he grips my neck with his entire massive hand. Not tight enough to hurt me, but it’s warning enough. His blue eyes are burning with rage. “The last thing this world needs is another foolish, desperate person asking the gods for help. Look what happened last time. I am not explaining anything to you. You have no idea what you’re talking about. You’re so clueless it’s painful.” I rip his hand away, and he lets me, stepping back and shaking his head. “Fuck. You’re going to drive me insane, Map.”