Page 99 of This Vicious Dream

“I did. If you could call it that.” I was raised in ballrooms, and this wasn’tthatkind of dancing. “Mostly, I stumbled around, tripping over my feet while the others laughed at me. But it didn’t matter. I was…free, in a way I had never been before.” I smile, despite the ache in my chest.

“And weeks later, you were taken. Trapped in your body for three years.”

“Yes.”

Calysian’s eyes turn flat. “I’m going to make them pay for every second of life they stole from you.”

My stomach flutters, but he’s already angling Fox toward a hitching post, dismounting as he gives his horse a stern warning.

I follow, my mouth dry. It’s not the first time Calysian has sworn vengeance for me. But it…does something to me to see his rage.

We leave the horses, and I wander the dock, asking the same questions I asked in Nyrridor. I’m about to give up when a strong hand grabs my arm, whirling me around.

I sense Calysian moving before I see him, his stride long, his expression filled with cold fury as he stalks toward us.

“Madinia.” The voice is gruff. My eyes meet pale blue, and the breath rushes from my lungs.

He’s older, his shoulders more rounded. He’s gained some weight in his gut, and his arms have lost some of their definition—likely because he’s no longer hauling ropes and walking back and forth across the deck for hours at a time.

But there’s no doubt this is Haldrik. He still has the same kind smile, that same chip in his front tooth.

His hand shakes as he raises it to my face, his smile wobbly. “Itisyou.”

Calysian looms at my side, and I grab his hand before he can do anything stupid. “Calysian, this is Haldrik. He was one of Daharak’s pirates.” I stare at him. “I don’t understand. How did you end up here?”

“I wanted a fresh start. After the war…well I don’t need to tellyouwhat that did to me.”

Twice, Haldrik shared a hot drink with me after I screamed myself awake from a nightmare.

He glances around, angling us toward a small tavern close to the dock. Calysian’s brows are low, but he allows it, although he plants himself in the seat next to mine.

“I’m still confused,” I murmur.

“You didn’t notice I was gone,” Haldrik gives me a gentle smile, but his eyes flicker with something I can’t place.

I shift awkwardly in my wooden chair, breathing out a sigh of relief when the barmaid approaches.

No, I hadn’t noticed he was gone. Haldrik was a quiet man, and other than those two nights in the galley, I hadn’t spent much time with him.

“I asked Kavrik to cover for me,” he says. “He agreed to sign in for me before the ship disembarked in Ambrelis. I took some work on a fishing boat and ended up here for a few months. I’m thinking about returning to Eprotha in the spring.”

Ambrelis was the last city we docked at before Kyldare found us that last time.

Daharak would have noticed Haldrik was gone. But she’d never said anything. Her pirates were under contract, and yet she hadn’t dispatched anyone to look for him.

She could be a hard woman, but she was also a fair one. And clearly she’d decided Haldrik deserved his new life.

“Have you heard anything?”

Haldrik frowns. “What do you mean?”

My stomach swims. How do I tell him what happened? How do I explain that they might all be dead because of me?

Beneath the table, Calysian takes my hand, stroking my wrist soothingly with his thumb. “The ship was attacked by the Sylvarin queen’s right hand,” he says. “A man named Kyldare. He boarded with his soldiers and took Madinia. We don’t know where Daharak and her crew are now.”

Haldrik places his elbows on the table, dropping his head into his hand. Silence reigns.

“No one has seen them?” he finally asks, lifting his head.

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