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But then a voice ripped through the quiet, shattering my resolve – shattering everything.

‘Ria!’

A figure broke free from the crowd, racing across the deck. There was a flash of raven hair and brown skin and then my sister was there, shoving her way through the crew and barrelling into me. Her chest slammed against mine, long arms pulling me into a ferocious hug, so fierce and full of relief it made my eyes burn.

Aberdeen.

The breath knocked from my lungs, half from the force of her embrace and half from the shock that she was there at all. My arms encircled her and I hugged her back, my disbelief misting the air when I exhaled.

Aberdeen squeezed tighter before she pulled back, her brows pinched. ‘What the hell were you thinking?’ A storm rolled through the pale blue of her eyes as she shook me by the shoulders. ‘You should be dead a hundred times over by now. What is wrong with you?’

I blinked, unable to grasp what was happening. ‘What . . . what are you doing here?’ I stammered, when all other words seemed to fail. ‘How . . . ?’

Gods. It had been another life – another world – when I’d last seen my sister, never mind that I couldn’t remember the last time she’d hugged me. Yet here she was, standing before me with a voice that made everything seem all right, even when I knew it wasn’t.

‘Quick, we have to go,’ Aberdeen said, her words rushed as her eyes darted to the crew around us. They stood with their blades drawn, eyes narrow, but any good pirate could see she was no threat to me then.

‘What do you mean? What’s happened?’

‘I’m here to rescue you, Aurelia,’ she said, as though it was obvious. Her gaze darted from me to the crew. To Sebastien. She leant in, voice a frantic whisper in my ear. ‘The crew will hold them off for as long as they can. We have to go now.’

‘Aberdeen . . .’ What was I supposed to tell her – that she’d come for nothing?

‘She belongs here now.’

Behind us, Aron stood with his shoulders squared, cutlass in hand, ready to fight. I searched for the words to explain to Aberdeen that he was right. That I didn’t need to be rescued at all.

It might have been the moonlight, turning her blue gaze grey, but those eyes seemed to harden, like stone. ‘You don’t understand,’ she told me, cold fingers wrapping around my wrist. There was an edge of panic in her voice, one I’d never heard before. ‘We have to go . . . Felicie was taken, Father’s been arrested. I came to get you. We need to go, now.’

My stomach plummeted, all my fears crashing down around me with the weight of the sky. ‘Taken? Arrested? But – how? I don’t understand.’ This couldn’t be happening.

Aberdeen’s grip on my wrist turned vice-like, tightening until it hurt. ‘I was in the village, saw the soldiers come on horseback. They took them both – there was nothing I could do. I promise I’ll explain everything later, we just have to go.’

‘Go?’ I echoed. My knees trembled. Everything was falling apart. ‘Go where?’

‘To the capital,’ Aberdeen insisted, trying to drag me away. ‘Father never told you but your mother—’

‘I know.’ I cut her off, holding my ground. ‘I know everything.’ There was something heavy in my throat. Something suffocating. ‘They’re really gone?’

Aberdeen nodded, her eyes narrowing. Probably wondering how I knew. How I’d uncovered secrets in a place like this. ‘Word’s everywhere,’ she said. ‘Father was arrested for kidnapping your mother. They want to see him hanged.’

‘What?’ My knees almost buckled and it took everything I had to stay standing. Hanged. The word curled around my sickened stomach, tightening like a noose.

‘We have to go, Aurelia,’ Aberdeen insisted. ‘We have to save them.’

I nodded, finding it hard to breathe. Around us, the air buzzed with bared teeth and grating impatience. I had to go. I wasn’t ready. I glanced at Aron, at Sebastien, at Mors, then Aberdeen, all of them watching, waiting. How could one heart be torn in so many places at once?

Golde’s eyes gleamed, still fixed on the sailors who’d brought Aberdeen across the water, but Sebastien held her back, his lips pressed into a hard line.

I couldn’t speak, couldn’t choose. Because how could I? How could I live another life after the one I’d found here? How could I turn my back on my father?

Aberdeen’s gaze slid over my shoulder, taking in the ragged crew who stood protectively around me, restless as the coursing tides. I could only imagine what she saw . . . bloodlust, grime, pointed swords. She drew herself up, resolute in the face of the Heartless King.

‘Let my sister go,’ she said firmly, a shiver of steel in the moonlight. ‘Do one good deed – perhaps the gods will send you to a gentler hell.’

My mouth fell open at her boldness. Even without his cloak, Sebastien was no ordinary man. He was still swathed in legend and shadows and magic, yet my sister was staring at him like she had any right not to be afraid.

‘I’m not stopping her,’ Sebastien said, but I could hear the restraint in his voice.