Page 119

Panic begins to claw through me.

This can’t be happening again.

“I’m fine,” I manage to say, though the words are a whisper.

Abe! I yell in my head. The beast is talking!

I’ll be right there, he says, and he races over to my side in seconds flat.

“What is happening?” Larimar asks, looking between the both of us, her voice rising.

Abe glances at her. “Nothing, dear. Just a bit of doctor-patient confidentiality. Would you mind giving us a moment? You understand.”

I nod at her to go on, and she does, reluctantly walking along the deck toward the helm while she keeps throwing concerned glances at me over her shoulder.

What happened? Abe asks, putting his hand on my shoulder. Look at me. What happened?

I meet his eyes. I heard the voice. Of it.

What did it say?

It said yes.

To what?

I was thinking about how grateful I was to listen to Larimar. Now that she’s immortal, I don’t have to worry so much about her getting hurt or killed during a battle.

A good point, he says with a nod. And it said yes to that?

I nod.

Nothing else?

No.

He frowns, the cogs behind his eyes turning. Can you talk to it? Ask it something.

What?

Make a bargain with it. Choose something that would benefit you. Find out how you can be the one in control. This might be your shot, Aragon.

What if by talking to it, I’m only inviting it in?

Then invite it in. This is what we have been talking about. This is the controlled environment.

Shouldn’t I be in chains first?

Don’t you think that would start things on the wrong foot, going on the defensive like that?

I frown at him. Are you on the monster’s side or mine?

He gives me a small, knowing smile. I knew the monster before I knew you. You are one and the same. The fact that it said yes, agreeing with you when you said that it was good that Larimar is immortal now, means that it wants to be on your side. It knows it can’t really harm her now.

That’s not exactly true. The beast could bite off her head or tear out her heart. But I don’t even want to think about it, lest I give it any ideas.

Talk to it, Abe coaxes.

I look around. Everyone is paying attention to the sea as the Nightwind sails on in hot pursuit of the Dutch ship. The only one looking at us is Larimar.