Page 1 of Starchaser
PART ONE
FURY
I feel his presence beforeI see him. His steady heartbeat never falters as he steps out of the shadows, the hood of his black cloak drawn to cover his face.
“You came,” Will says, his voice dark and deep. His hood conceals his emerald eyes, but I imagine they sparkle with amusement as he draws a wicked-looking knife from his belt. “I’d begun to think you wouldn’t honor our agreement.”
His leather boots squelch in the mud as he makes his way down the deserted cobblestone street. He comes to a halt in a gilded puddle of lantern light, ten feet from where I stand, flurries of snow dusting his shoulders.
“And miss my chance to meet thegreatWilliam Castor?” Captain Shade’s muffled voice comes from directly behind me. He presses the muzzle of a flintlock pistol to my cheek, and I cringeat the bite of the cold metal on my skin. “Let’s not waste time, shall we?”
Will tilts his head, a subtle command. Two men in full suits of bloodred armor emerge onto the street, hauling a battered woman between them, her cropped ginger hair matted in clumps. Blood steadily drips from the crudely bandaged stump that would have been her right leg only a few hours ago. I’ve seen Margaret amputate a limb before—I can tell the leg wasn’t removed by a surgeon. If she doesn’t get proper medical treatment soon, there’s a chance she won’t make it through the night.
“You certainly know how to treat a lady,” Shade says, an edge to his light, conversational tone.
“She’s alive.” Will runs his gloved fingertips over the edge of his blade. “That was our agreement.”
“Aye.” Shade laughs as he presses the muzzle of the pistol beneath my chin. “Miss Oberon goes free, and in exchange, you return my quartermaster, Diana—safe from harm.”
Click. He pulls the hammer of the flintlock back, smoothly wrapping an arm around my midsection, his hand splayed possessively over my abdomen. It’s a predatory threat that would make my skin crawl—ifIwasn’t the one to suggest it.
I know Captain Shade isn’t evil. His true name is Titus Anteres, the crown prince of the Eerie—the same prince who joined a secret rebellion against his own parents. But we agreed that we’d need to convince the royal Bloodknights that I was heldprisoneraboard his ship, and so Titus’s calculated hand placement is all part of that charade. I try to catch Will’s eye, to reassure him that this plan will work, but he glares at Shade’s hand, his jaw set.
I resist the urge to roll my eyes at him.
We agreed to all this just yesterday. I woke—having spent two weeks unconscious aboard Shade’s ship, theStarchaser—and Will wasted no time in telling me the king’s plan to appoint me as one of his Bloodknights, to make it clear to his subjects where my loyalties lie. But the king doesn’t know the truth—that becoming a Bloodknight will allow me to infiltrate the royal household and get to the true depths of their evil plans for humans and Myths. And gaining access to Castle Grim will bring me one step closer to undoing the curses binding me and Will.
Once Will whisks me off to the castle, I will use my abilities to sense whether Titus is right: that his fiancée, the princess of Hellion, is possessed by Morana. Then, if what Titus believes is true, we can force the Sylk queen to take her corporeal form, use her blood to cure not only mine and Will’s Underling curses, but also to free my brother, Owen, from Morana’s service.
In exchange for my cooperation, Titus has agreed to give me his medallion—an heirloom that once belonged to the heir of Hildegarde, which he assures me will grant me and my family passage to the only place on this earth truly safe for humans from both the tyrannical rule of Nightweavers and Morana’s Underling forces—the Red Island.
But before I leave the Eerie once and for all, I plan to take down Titus’s father, the king—to make him pay for what he’s done to me, to my family, and to my people.
A cure.
Freedom.
Revenge.
I catch Will’s gaze at last.
And love?
Icanhave it all—I just need to hold up my end of the bargain.
Shade leans forward, his mask brushing the side of my head. “I requested the safe return of Diana to raise the morale of my crew. However, if she were to bleed out before I could bring her safely home…” He clucks his tongue. “Well, my crew would be just as pleased to know I’d robbed the king ofhis prize.”
He pulls me in tighter, as if to make his point. His warm breath ghosts over the shell of my ear, and the scent of salty air that clings to his skin transports me to yesterday. To the moment when he revealed he was both pirate and prince. The moment I ran from him—horrified that a pirate I long admired was living a double life, and actually the next in line to a tyrannical dynasty of Nightweavers. I dived into the sea, my sanctuary, but Shade followed me into the water without hesitation, where he pressed his lips to mine.
Once Will pulled me from the sea and back aboard theStarchaser, Titus hardly spoke to me at all. And this evening he was silent again, even as we rowed to shore together. Now, as Shade, he strokes my cheek with the pistol; it sends both a shiver down my spine and a thread of guilt winding its way around my heart.
Did Titus tell Will he kissed me? Can I even call it a kiss?
And did he see what I saw under the waves, that woman made of brilliant gold dust?
Shade’s voice snaps me back to reality. “Perhaps I’ll allow Miss Oberon to live.” I can almost hear the wicked smile in his voice. “Though, I suppose my crew might prefer that she lack the means to wield a knife, don’t you?”
Shade takes a step back, dragging me with him. The Bloodknights nearly drop Diana, but Will holds up a hand, an unspokencommand for them to wait. Slowly, he takes a few paces back as well, holding his knife out to his right, where the sharp edge of the blade rests on the skin of Diana’s throat.
