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“Yes, I’m aware,” she says. “But you learn a lot when you’ve been at sea. It’s an inhospitable place if you’re unsure how to adapt. We’ve had members of our own Brethren who have jeopardized the entire crew. We’ve dealt with them accordingly, but we don’t like to make those same mistakes twice.”

“There are only three ways to kill us,” I say, my voice thick.

“Yes. I know. Decapitation, fire, and being stabbed in the heart with a witch’s blade,” she says. “When we had a troublemaker, we took off his head, then the rest of his body parts.” She grins. “Slowly.”

Hmmm. Perhaps that’s why she reminds me of Larimar.

Then she sighs and, to my surprise, reaches out and touches my cheek, running a finger along it. Her nail feels especially sharp.

“I think you’re a good man,” she says, her eyes searching my face. “Handsome, for sure, but don’t let my husband hear that.”

“Maren,” Ramsay says testily from behind her.

She grins. “He knows where he stands.” Then her expression sobers, and I feel a little lost staring into her eyes. “But can we trust you? That is the question. You’ve been turned, but you were at one point a witch. Do you have a witch’s blade you aim to use on us? Is that your purpose? To be a Vampyre slayer? Or perhaps there is no need when you can turn into a flying bat at will.”

I swallow hard. “I can’t turn at will.”

“Well, that’s even worse. If you can’t control it, then we’re all at risk. What if you decide to burn the ship down, with the rest of us on it, just as you did to your followers in the church?”

I don’t have anything to say to that. All I have is my word, and honestly, I’m not even sure if it’s all that trustworthy. It’s the beast inside me that decides things in the end.

“Aragon is reformed,” Abe says. “You will have to trust a doctor’s opinion.”

“Yes,” she says tepidly, eyes flashing briefly over my shoulder. “We’ve heard all about your monastery.”

“But how?” I ask. “How do you know about what happened at the village? About what I did?”

What else do you know?

“Word travels fast,” she says. “As Ramsay explains, there are a lot of ports, and we have a lot of help in getting information.”

Fuck, they are ridiculously vague for a bunch of pirates.

“It’s magic, isn’t it?” Abe says. “You use magic, the same that powers this ship when there is no wind.”

Maren’s face remains impassive, but I think Abe is right.

“A seeing crystal,” I say to her slowly. “That’s how. You have one.”

What else did you see?

She exhales and straightens up. “I suppose you would find out sooner or later. Yes, we have one. We also have?—”

“Maren,” Ramsay says sharply. She’s said too much, perhaps.

She nods at him with apprehension and looks back to me.

“I’m not the captain,” she says. “I don’t make all the decisions here, but I have as much stature and power as my husband and anyone else aboard this vessel.” She sighs again and gathers her hair in her hands, placing it behind her shoulders. “I think we must defer to Nill,” she says to Ramsay.

“Who is Nill?” Abe asks, his voice going high.

But I barely hear them.

My eyes are glued to Maren’s neck.

On the three faint lines along either side.

Former gills.