Page 15

“Okay, no one else that you got to go back to?” she asks. “Family? Friends?”

I stare at her. “I like you, Freckles, but if you’re just spying for your captain, tell the bastard to ask me himself.”

“Whoa, no!” She shakes her head. “He doesn’t tell me to do anything. I’m more of an accessory on this ship, and I want us to be friends. I wasn’t going to repeat anything you tell me; I just wanted to know about your life. I’m sorry.”

“No, I shouldn’t have snapped, then.” I straighten the curtains on my lap. “Trusting people isn’t something I was ever taught. I was taught the opposite. If you never trust anyone, you can never be hurt by them.”

“But you also will never know what it’s like to feel safe with someone who simply cares. We weren’t born to be solitary creatures, Miriam.” She shrugs. “Okay, what about telling me why you went for the map? I think you’re extremely brave for risking your life.”

“In all fairness, I didn’t think I’d have to survive a giant rock falling from the sky. The reason I was there is a long story,” I admit. “I don’t think I’m quite ready to explain that one yet.”

“Okay, fair enough. Just tell me something about you. Anything. I want us to be friends and, you know, being friends kind of needs us to talk about random things to pass the time.” She leans back. “Otherwise, we can sit in silence for hours. I don’t mind.”

I think she actually doesn’t mind. I wonder how lonely she was before I got here…I wonder how lonely I was for a friend, too. Rowe was all I had—wait, have—and I never let anyone else in. “Alright, I like reading. Which is a rarity actually for a lot of is in the Stilts. No one knows how to read because we don’t go to school, and meetings of more than ten people, even children, is illegal with punishment of death. My dad was adamant that I learned to read. He said that people can’t expand their lives if they can’t open a book and read about the imaginations or real lives of someone else. He taught me to read after work, when he was exhausted and could barely stay awake. He never fell asleep on me though, and I was too young to understand that was love. I became obsessed with reading. It was like traveling, like living lives I couldn’t even dream of when my real life was stained with misery. I studied everything, read everything I could get my hands on.”

“You and Draven have something in common. He reads for pleasure, too.” She grins at me. “There are many books in Draven’s room. He won’t care if you read some when you’re sleeping in there now.”

“I’m not sleeping in there.” I shake my head. “I’m going to sleep downstairs in the crate that I came in. I don’t care about beds or comfort; Noctaris knows, I can sleep anywhere.”

“I’ll leave you to sort that one out with Draven,” she mutters. I feel like I’m losing a battle over the one bed before I’ve even tried to escape it. For the next few hours, Freckles just talks about so many random things that the time passes like a seagull flying across the sky with the fish. Fast and easy.

I’m yawning and my hands are hurting when a bell rings across the ship. “Oh, the sunset bell. It marks dinner nearly being ready and for the night shift crew to take over. It’s going to be strange when Ren kicks most of them off at the next dock.” She picks up the curtain I was working on, my fifth of the day, and puts it aside. “That’s enough. You did great. I mean, if you want to come hang out with me again, you don’t have to do sewing. We can just walk around the ship. I put a pile of fresh clothes in Draven’s bathroom for you earlier, and dinner will be ready in a bit from what I can smell.”

“It does smell really nice, but I’m full from the big breakfast,” I admit, climbing off the bed. It might be hours later, but I’ve not eaten like that in…well, ever. My stomach feels like it might pop.

“But you hardly ate anything…” She pauses and her eyes soften. I know that look. It’s pity and I hate it. She looks at the door and then looks at me nervously.

“He’s waiting for me outside, isn’t he?” I ask.

I don’t know how I know, but I do. Draven is out there. Something feels like it is tapping against my bones when he is near. I walk to the door and push it open, finding him leaning against the wall, his arms crossed, and he doesn’t look as angry as I left him before. “Good afternoon, hellcat. Ready to attack again?”

“First you only call me Map, now it’s Hellcat. My name is Miriam,” I snap. “Stop calling me other things.”

“Hellcat wasn’t a nickname. It was an insult. I got bit by one when I was a kid, and I fucking hated it. Map is because that’s exactly what you are to me, the map. Nothing more, nothing less. I put your dinner in the room for you. You’re going in there now because your attitude has irritated me enough for today.” He waves down the corridor to the main area. “And there you go again with that look in your eyes that screams violence. I’m half tempted to put a dagger in your hand and see what you’ll do with it.”

I drag my eyes down his firm chest to his crotch. “I’d shove it right there.”

His bellowing laugh gives me goose bumps. “I’d enjoy seeing you try.”

“Try me.” I innocently smile and hold out my hand. “Don’t worry, you’ll bleed out quick and die before you can miss your little friend.”

“There is nothing little about me, Map.” He steps up into my space. “And there you go with that attitude. Isolation for an evening will do you some good.”

So arrogant and so, so annoying. “I’m not yours to command or lock up.”

The corner of his lips rise. “You are my prisoner. If you run, I’m gonna get really fucking pissed off.”

“Come on, can’t you guys both be⁠—”

We both glare at her for a minute, and Freckles just stops talking. I don’t even need to tell her to stay out of it. I solve my own problems. Without another word, I walk around Draven to the corridor, careful not to touch him anywhere by accident, which only seems to amuse him.

I storm across to the empty table and sit down in the seat I tried to sit in earlier, the one he yanked out from under me. Draven clicks his tongue, and his eyes burn with the challenge. “I could tell you that I won’t get immense pleasure out of hearing you call me a bastard for this, but that would be lying.” He grabs me like I’m nothing more than a doll, picking me right out of the seat from the other side of the table, and he throws me over his shoulder.

No, he didn’t just do that. I’m in shock for all of one second, feeling hot everywhere his body touches mine, and then I scream. I kick his stomach and chest, hitting him in the back with my arms, but he doesn’t even flinch. Black ink wraps around my wrists, and it feels warm, like a band of fire, handcuffing my wrists together and my legs too until I can’t move.

“You fucking bastard,” I scream over and over, but he doesn’t respond. He carries me into his room and throws me onto his bed. I go to get up, but my hands are still cuffed with that magic, and they pull me right back towards the head of the bed. A straight line of inky black shadows links from my wrists to the bedposts. I bite on my tongue hard enough I almost taste blood. “How fucking dare you!”

Draven crosses his thick arms, making the muscles tighten against the fabric like they want to pop free. “I dare because you belong to me now, Map. I’ll see you later. I’d spend this time working on your charming personality.” He walks out, shutting the door as I shout every curse I can think of until I can’t anymore.