Page 37 of Crossbones
they walk in the shape of man,
violence wrapped around broken pieces
Edges sharpened, but fragile still
Hands reach in the dark,
Clawing—
Tangled in something raw and ruinous.
They keep going, because
Monsters do not hide—
They escape
CASPIAN
The warehouse district is a rough area of De’Vero if you don’t know how to navigate it. At night its lack of street lighting makes it pitch black in some of the alleys, and the homeless population is more active, making crime higher than anywhere else in the city. Despite all of that, it’s the best place to go if you don’t want people to know what you’re doing or if you have something to hide. So that’s where I find myself the following night as I enter the warehouse I own—well, Fox owns—and see Van and Flynt waiting for me.
The minute Van sees me, he’s first to grasp my forearm and pound my back in a rough embrace.
“Captain, we thought you were dead!”
He pulls back, eyes wide with relief. Flynt is right behind him, looking equally happy to see me.
“Come on, you know I’m harder to kill than that,” I grin. “Glad you all made it back in one piece.”
“Yeah—about that, the crew isn’t happy. A lot of them stayed in Verdun—” Van says.
“Some say you abandoned us to go search for the treasure yourself,” Flynt adds.
I scoff. “Without a crew? That’s just silly.”
Van shrugs. “You know how the men can get—what happened? Rumor is Blackwell was going to ransom a De’Vero noble—was that you?”
I nod and Flynt whistles low. “Fuck—how’d you get out of that one?”
“Well, funny you should mention it—” I put my hands on both of their shoulders. “Are you ready to pick up where we left off?”
“You can’t be serious,” Flynt states.
“Deadly,” I chuckle.
“With what ship?What crew?”
“TheTempest.” Both men laugh, but quickly quiet when they see I’m not joining in.
“I’m sorry, I thought you just said James Blackwell’s ship,” Flynt scoffs.
“The very same.”
Van’s face has gone white and Flynt’s smile grows stale and falls off his face when he sees I’m serious.
“This is insane,” Van states. “First you wanted to go after a lost city that most likely doesn’t exist, and now you want to go and try to find that city with the most dangerous pirate out there? The pirate who just had you captured and probably would have killed you? Are youmad?”
“How are you even going to find him?” Flynt asks when Van’s voice cuts off in disbelief.
