Page 39 of Caging Darling (The Lost Girl #3)

CHAPTER 39

“ W hat do you mean, you killed Vulcan?” The Nomad sits behind his desk, palms splayed and pressing against one another as he props his elbows on his desk. Peter’s away on a task for the Nomad, though I can’t help but wonder if the Nomad simply wanted to irritate Peter by delaying our reunion.

Astor begins counting off on what fingers he has left with the tip of his hook. “His heart no longer pumps, his lungs no longer swell, his soul has passed on from the land of the living…”

The Nomad’s face shutters, and he lets out an exasperated sigh. “You see how this could potentially be problematic for me.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about the price on your head should he die mysteriously,” says Astor. “There were several witnesses left alive who can attest to the fact it was I who killed him.”

“And that you were within my employ.”

“Technically, the story is that I’m your slave who turned against you.”

“Technically,” says the Nomad, fisting his hands together, “bystanders don’t tend to remember such technicalities accurately after witnessing a massacre.”

“I’d hardly call it a massacre,” says Astor. “I only killed those who were coming after me first.”

The Nomad flits one of his hands. “It matters not. Rumors will circulate that Vulcan is dead and my name will be tossed in among the midst. It matters little what is true, only what money-hungry bounty hunters believe to be true.”

“If it makes you feel any better, I’m sure the bank will be thorough in their investigation.”

“Yes, it will be of great comfort to me when my head is presented to the bank and the bounty hunter who severed it is disappointed to learn he won’t be paid for his work based on a technicality.”

Astor smirks. “Glad I could help.”

I rub at my upper arms, trying to warm myself. I haven’t been able to warm up since waiting in the alleyway for Astor to come back.

Phoenix and Venus stand next to me. Venus is still shaking, clinging to her friend to hold her up. Phoenix’s chin is high. I asked on the way back to the Gathers if they’d like to be taken to the port, but Phoenix had informed me all that awaited them there was working the docks and that she had no intention of that life for either of them.

When I’d warned her that I couldn’t offer them protection from the Nomad and what he might choose to do with them, Venus had hiccupped and wept. Phoenix had simply told me she would take care of it.

“And to top it off, I see you brought guests,” the Nomad says, staring at Phoenix and Venus, looking clearly annoyed. Still, his eyes spark at their beauty, seeing a business opportunity, no doubt, if not an opportunity for his own pleasure.

“We’re here to bargain for employment,” says Phoenix, voice warbling slightly, though she keeps her spine tall.

The Nomad’s brow lifts. “You are aware that prostitution is not permitted in the Gathers. I find it distracts the crew.”

It’s a taunt. Everyone in the room knows that, but Phoenix remains firm. “We’d be sailors.”

“Are you trained?”

“No, but I have an exchange that would be worth your while.”

“Is that so?”

“I know the location of the faerie you’re looking for. Tink, I believe her name is.”

My heart jumps in panic. I grab at Phoenix’s arm, but she shrugs me off.

“You can’t,” I plead, but Phoenix isn’t even looking at me.

The Nomad’s lips curl into a smile. “Should your information prove true, I’m willing to strike you a bargain.”

Phoenix shakes her head. “Not a fae bargain.”

“You’d trust my word?” asks the Nomad.

“I trust that I have what you want. And that making Venus and I sailors in your crew is hardly enough of a price to pay to register to you.”

The Nomad can’t seem to help himself. He leans back in his chair, cascading his fingers together with his palms. “I could take your information, then sell you and your friend to the highest bidder. Without a fae bargain, you have no insurance.”

Phoenix remains firm, saying nothing. Instead, she waits.

The Nomad raises a brow. So does Astor next to me.

“Please,” I whisper to Phoenix, but she looks straight ahead, spine rigid.

“Very well,” says the Nomad. “Where is Tink?”

“Hiding out in Shrinedale,” she says. “She’s staying at Whittaker Manor.”

My ears perk at that, and Astor and I exchange a confused look. I’ve met Whittaker a few times when he visited my father on business trips. He isn’t the type I’d expect to keep a faerie in his employ, which has my heart racing for both Tink’s safety and Michael’s.

“And how am I to know this information is accurate?” asks the Nomad.

“Men like Vulcan have few they trust, though that doesn’t stop them from having the urge to confess their secrets. His muses?—”

“We weren’t just his whores,” snaps Venus, speaking up for the first time. She’s standing straight, her palms fisted by her sides, the crazed look in her eyes the most focused I’ve seen them since Vulcan’s death. “We were his companions, his confidants. Men like Vulcan don’t know how to make friends. People thought he bought us simply for our bodies, but he was much too lonely for just that. You can trust what Phoenix has to say. He told me the same thing.” There’s no competitiveness in her tone. Just solidarity.

Phoenix nods.

“I suppose if your information proves faulty, I can always kill you,” says the Nomad.

Phoenix and Venus glance at each other, though neither appears worried.

It hits me then how much Vulcan must have entrusted his anxieties to them without actually trusting them. He’d possessed the inherent urge to confess, to share his mind with others, while all the while putting out postmortem bounties on them in case they ever betrayed him.

I suppose in the end, the desire for intimacy rules above all else, even paranoia.

“I suppose we’re headed to Shrinedale, then,” he says, glancing at me with a challenge in his eyes. Like he knows I also knew this information and was holding onto it as long as possible. “The two of you better get me Tink before Vulcan’s bounty ends with the death of any of us.”

I purse my lips in answer.

“Very well,” says the Nomad. He rings the bell on his desk and a servant hastily enters the room. “Take these two to the lower deck. Give them quarters. Oh, and have someone bring dinner to their rooms. And a change of clothes,” he says, eyeing their scant garb with something bordering on distaste.

Sensing I’ve also been dismissed, I break away from Astor’s side and race out of the cabin after the two muses. When I catch up to them in the hallway, I reach for Phoenix’s shoulder. She flinches under my touch as she spins toward me. Guilt raps at the door of my skull. I should know better than to touch from behind someone who’s been what she’s been through.

But I’m too irate to let the guilt in.

“What?” she asks. Venus stands next to her, her tall frame towering over me. She doesn’t look nearly as feeble as she did minutes ago, and something about that irritates me even more.

“You just sold another woman into the hands of a trafficker,” I hiss. “How could you?” Phoenix stares at me, blinking, looking like she’s been slapped in the face. “We could have left you behind in the manor, unprotected from the bounty hunters, who probably already have the warrant now that the sun’s up. After all you’ve been through, I don’t understand. How could you trade in another woman for the same fate you just escaped?”

Phoenix scoffs. “Please. I didn’t do anything you weren’t already going to do.”

I jut my chin backward, and she laughs wryly, saying, “You think I didn’t see that bargain on the back of your neck when you came to the manor? Oh, sure. You tried to cover it with cosmetics, but I know a poorly hidden bargain when I see one. They make these faint ridges in the paint, no matter how well it’s applied. Trust me, you’re not the only one of Vulcan’s guests to have one. I knew as soon as your lover attacked Vulcan what was happening. Why you had asked about whether Vulcan had any faeries who you were looking for. How dare you look at me and accuse me of trading Tink in.” She points toward the back of my neck. “You’re the one who made a bargain to turn her over, aren’t you? You tricked me into handing over her whereabouts, made me trust you with that story of yours about being held captive. So yes. I gave the Nomad her whereabouts. But only because I already knew you were going to do the same as soon as I left the room, and I have Venus to think about, too. So don’t you dare accuse me of betraying someone like me.”

I feel as if I’ve been slapped in the face. I even take a step back. The words swim in my head, and I try to grasp them, anything that will help defend myself.

“I’m sorry,” is all I come up with.

Phoenix looks surprised by this, and her face actually softens.

That doesn’t stop her and Venus from turning the corner and disappearing.

“Regretting making me go back in to get her?” Astor appears next to me, arms crossed as he watches the corner where the two muses just disappeared.

I shake my head. “No, she’s right. I thought nothing about handing Tink over to the Nomad when I first made the bargain. I don’t even think I considered to be bothered by it.”

“To be fair, you were under the impression Tink wanted you dead, were you not?”

I hug myself. “I still should have considered the consequences. What I’d be subjecting her to.” My stomach rolls over, and I feel queasy. “I was so eager to hand her over. I didn’t even stop to think about what the Nomad would do to her. What the cost would be. And it wasn’t even for a good reason. Phoenix—she did it for Venus, to help make a new life for her. I just wanted Peter’s curse gone so I wouldn’t have to question whether he actually loved me.” I laugh at myself, the sound scraping against the air.

Astor raises his brow. “Last I recalled, you were ready to die from not fulfilling the bargain before handing over Tink.”

“That’s because we got to be friends. Because she took Michael on.” I glance up at Astor. “She was still a person before any of those things.”

“Like you were a person, even before I met you? Like you were a person, before I knew what a challenge it would be to get you to laugh, how satisfying it would be to actually accomplish such a feat? Like you were a person before I knew how witty you could be when given the chance to be alone with your thoughts? Like you were a person when I tore you in half and bartered away what wasn’t mine to give?”

I nod, not daring to look at him. Instead, I focus on the glimmering faerie dust lantern on the wall. Count the smudges on the glass.

“Like that.”

“Perhaps Tink will forgive you. With time.” The last word tilts upward just slightly. Almost, but just shy of a question.

“Perhaps,” I say, my throat cracking. “With time, I mean.”

Astor stares at his hook, shining in the lantern light. “Would you trust me enough to follow me?”

I laugh. “How far are you hoping I’ll go?”

When I turn to look at him, there’s an indecipherable glimmer in his eyes. He jerks his head to the side and beckons me to follow.

I do.

We wind through the corridors of the ship, down into the belly. I assume this is where most of the crew sleeps. My heart pounds within my chest. Is Astor taking me to his quarters?

My mind flits back to his quarters on the Iaso . To dining with him. To sharing about our pasts. Our fears. Our desires.

To Astor kneeling on the ground before me, slipping my ring onto my finger. There, just like you wanted.

We stop outside a door, and though Astor gestures to it, he starts back down the hallway the way we came.

“You’re leaving?” I ask, confused.

He turns back around and walks backward down the hallway, watching me, one hand in his pocket, his hook tugging at the rim of his beltline. “You’ll see, Darling.”

A voice pipes up from inside. “Wendy? Is that you out there?”

The door flings inward.

Standing there, beaming at me, is Charlie.