Page 58 of Soulgazer

Flexing his hand once, Faolan walks forward into the dyinglight, shirt clinging to his torso as if he is the one who swam with a ghost. His eyes dart across my skin as he nears me, taking note of every scrape and cut. When he reaches the blanket, he drops into a crouch and offers his hands: one gloved and one bare.

Nine lovely rings rest above his knuckles, beaten of gold or studded with gems shaped beautifully by a master’s skill.

None of them are made of bone.

“Where is my grandmother’s ring?”

Faolan releases an unsteady breath. “What?”

“Her ring.” I search his empty expression, looking for recognition or the hint of a lie. “Golden-white, carved of bone. I think it had a blue jewel in the center?”

He stares, openmouthed, and my own insides draw uncomfortably tight.

“You said she gave it to you. Faolan, Isawher—”

“I know!” Faolan’s voice is the crack of a whip, and I react to it the same: legs shot to my chest, face turned away. Instantly, he recoils, lips parting as he shoves a hand through his hair. “Feck. I’m sorry.” He reaches that same hand toward me, then stops when I press back against the railing. “I’m so sorry, Saoirse.”

I shake my head, neck rolling across the wooden bars. “Explain, please.”

Faolan looks as though he wishes time were a creature he could charm into turning back. But he doesn’t reach for me again.

“I did have her ring. Wore it for years until someone stole it during a bet.”

I blink. Try to comprehend. “Someone stole your ring.”

“Aye.” Faolan wipes the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve. “Remember when I told you how I won these in a card game?” His hand drops to one of the wolf-hilt daggers strapped to his waist. “That ring ended up in the same betting pool.”

“But youwonthe game.”

He shoots me a half-apologetic smile that twists into a grimace. “Doesn’t mean much, playing a crowd like that. The pile grew so bloody big that night, heaped with coin, jewels, and the like, it took days to realize the ring had gone missing at all. And I’d always hated the damn thing, so…”

My arms tremble as I fail to push to my feet. “You can’t be serious. You’re a pirate—no, not just a pirate, theWolf. How did someone manage to steal your ring?!”

Nessa glances at Lorcan and Brona, then clears her throat and hauls the striker up from my side. “Right. Clear out, you lot. Mam and Da are fighting.”

Her words are lighthearted, and on any other day the others would laugh. But as Faolan slumps against the railing beside me, all his usual bluster gone, I’m left shaking with a fury I’m too exhausted to hide. The others scatter fast.

“Who has it?”

“One of three especially clever wayfarers—code for pirate, if the company’s polite.” Faolan kicks at the railing once, squinting at the waves. A muscle spasms at his neck. “There wasn’t a damn thing magical about it, you know. I carted that ring around for years, asking the master jewelers on Unbound Earth and Painted Claw to break down its elements and test it for ability. That ring’s nothing special.”

I bury my face in my hands, bitterly wanting to laugh. “That ring is what’s meant to guide us to the island, Faolan.That’sthe piece you’ve been looking for all this time.”

“Well, shite.”

My laugh escapes at last, obliterating a path through my skull. “Shite.”

“Never thought I’d hear you curse without blushing.”

Pain removes the last of my veils. “You usually leave with a perfect, clever word before you can hear anything I say.”

He falls quiet. I drop my head back against the railing, eyes trained on the oiled wood mast disappearing into a darkening sky above. “How long before Kiara expects us to find the isle?”

Faolan snorts, the sound hollow. “A month now, give or take a few days.” He hesitates, then slides down to sit beside me, careful that our bodies don’t brush. For once, I regret it. I’d have liked to hit him earlier, when he blamed me for removing the gills.

As if he can read my mind, though, Faolan twists a ruby-crusted ring around his third finger and releases a shaking sigh. “I really am sorry, Saoirse. You almost drowned, and it was a stupid wager—you learned nothing more than we could’ve figured out on our own.”

I flinch. “Do you think so?”