Page 86 of Virelai's Hoard
When she spotted Calla again, she was walking away from Eryx, who slipped by quietly and, one by one, pushed in the water the planks of wood connecting the Moonshadow’s deck to the enemy ship. They left one plank up near the starboard.
Riley tilted her head as she noticed the turn of the battle. Where the Moonshadow’s crew had been overwhelmed and nearly beaten down, now they pushed back with renewed force, finding strength where before there had been none. It was the Stingers who were disorganized and near-panicking, looking at their backs only to find their officers with their necks slit. No one left to lead them. When their panicked gazes turned to the escape routes, they blanched at only finding the one plank, and Riley spotted several savage grins of satisfaction on the Moonshadow’s crew.
Then Calla turned up the heat.
Riley watched from above as their captain, a sword now in her hand, cut the cargo nets on the portside. At the same time, Sable and Thorian loosened the netting in both the front and back of the ship. Cargo, barrels and loose supplies spilled on the deck, creating–bottlenecks. Riley’s eyes widened. They were isolating the Stingers, cutting them off from each other. A slow, baffled smile spread across Riley’s lips, and when she saw a cluster of five Stingers trying to navigate the clutter, she met Kittredge’s eye and they flitted through the ropes that way. With a few flicks of their wrists, they cut through the netting over the pirates’heads, and in the next moment they were trapped in it–twisting and flopping like fish on land.
They had them. They fucking had them. Riley grinned at Kittredge, relief and something like pride flooding through her, and Kittredge grinned right back.
“Get off my ship,” she heard Calla state calmly, her voice quiet but carrying in the morning wind. The Moonshadow’s crew had their weapons brandished, but they stood back, allowing a clear path to the one escape plank. “This is a one-time offer. Tell your captain that if I see these sails again, there’s no place they can hide that I won’t find them. And they won’t like it when I do.”
The Stingers faltered, glancing between Calla and the escape route. When the first pirate made it through unscathed, the others didn’t wait to be told twice. In moments, the deck was rid of them. The last plank fell in the water as the pirate ship sailed away.
Cheers and relieved laughs made their way up to Riley, but a knot twisted in her stomach as she descended back on deck.
And for good reason.
“Captain,” Thorian called out, setting his sights on Riley. She flinched under his intense gaze. “At least let me throwheroverboard.” He cracked his knuckles, as if he couldn’t wait to get his hands on her.
Riley gulped, glancing from Thorian to Calla to the rest of the crew gathering around to watch. No one contested his use ofcaptain. Not even Venn. Sable glanced over from near the helm, wincing as Haddock prodded at her gunshot wound. Riley suspected the first mate wasn’t in a position to come to her aid this time. The only thing that saved Sable from a mutiny accusation must’ve been her strange bond with Calla, but Riley? Riley was nothing. She didn’t even have Patch on her side anymore. She hugged herself as she met the captain’s cold gaze.
A long moment passed. Riley’s heart thundered in her chest, sweat beading on her back. She had to lock all of her muscles tight so as not to squirm on her feet.
“Leave her,” Calla said, at long last. “She’s of no consequence to me.”
Riley let out a breath. She wasn’t sure how much of that breath was relief, and how much it was hurt. Indignation. No consequence? She was the one who freed Calla! None of these fuckers would be standing right now if Riley hadn’t freed her. They’d be charred bones on the bottom of the fucking sea. Her jaw locked tight as Calla turned away from her, at the disappointed look on Thorian’s face, as if he’d just been denied a treat. The words kept replaying in her head.No consequence.
“Am I?” Calla asked the crew, the blade she was holding clanging on the deck as it slipped from her fingers. “Your captain?”
“For now,” Gadrielle said, a grin taking the edge off the bite. The others nodded.
If Calla was hurt by the answer, she didn’t show it.
***
Winning the battle brought no celebrations. Too many bodies littered the deck for that. Grim silence settled over the crew as anyone still standing got to work–throwing dead bodies in the sea, mending ropes, making sense of the chaos everywhere. Their dead got a hushed, rushed funeral, with sailors growing rattled when it was Ignatius’ turn, as if no one expected his death to hit them the way it did. Riley herself had never thought she’d miss the cynical old gunner, but his absence was felt like the others, an empty space where before there wassomething.
Riley didn’t want to stop and reflect on how the days’ events impacted her, what any of it might mean. Why, instead of colddetachment, there was anger and frustration boiling under her skin, and under that still, something deeper. Something she might choke on if only she dared name it. She didn’t. She threw all the energy she had left into breaking her back with the others, dragging bodies around that were much too heavy for her, ignoring the way most of the crew seemed to steer clear of her. The captain had publicly shunned her. Were the other pirates going to do the same?
It didn’t matter. She’d be gone soon.
The only ripple of excitement came when Merrow ascended on deck, brass compass clutched in his fingers, and announced that, in a day, maybe less, they would reach the promised treasure.
The crew whispered about the gold, but only one thought flashed through Riley’s head. Only one thing could make all of this worth it. The Heart of the Abyss. Somehow, the thought tasted sour. But that was what she’d wanted this whole time, wasn’t it? One last con. It had never been about gold, or belonging, or about getting fair pay for hard work. It had been about pulling one over the Moonshadow’s crew and getting rich in the process. That was who she was. And what better way to con a ship full of pirates than to steal the most precious item of their treasure from right under their noses? She could wish for–for a self-sailing ship full of gold to take her safely back to Vareth, and that gold would fix her life, all of her issues. It wouldn’t bring Patch back on her side, or mend things with Calla, or fan the sparks of whatever it was she had with Sable. But Riley didn’t need all that. She’d just do what she’d always done and then be on her way. No one had ever been fast or cunning enough to catch her once she fled. And she was certainly not dumb enough to think she’d be welcome tostayafter all this.
Not that she wanted that.
Shedidn’twant that.
By the time night settled, Riley was left with nothing to do but battle her own thoughts, and that would not do. Her body was exhausted, but now that she had a moment to breathe, her hands started shaking again. Her skin became itchy, limbs twitched at every shadow, as if she expected Thorian to sneak up on her at any moment and throw her overboard. Calla likely wouldn’t mind, or notice. Riley was ofno consequenceto her.
I freed you. You still have your ship because of me.
Of course, Riley wasn’t deluded enough to think she deserved any sort of thanks. She hadn’t even dared meet the crew’s eyes after, and certainly not the captain’s. She knew she deserved worse than what she was getting for what she’d done. But that was the whole issue, wasn’t it? She deservedworse. Calla was giving her nothing. What sort of twisted justice was that?
Reeling from the turmoil inside of her chest, Riley sought solace in the only place she thought she might get it. By the time she reached the door, her whole body was shaking, and she stood in front of it for several long moments, drawing in deep breaths. She shouldn’t be here. She should be planning her move, her finalfuck youto this crew that had somehow tricked her into feeling like she belonged. But her arm raised, heavy as lead and beyond her control, and rasped at the wood.
The door opened before she could take it back.
