Page 11 of Inked in Emeralds (Inkbound #3)

L unch was eaten on the go; Crumpet’s tartlets, a couple of apples Billy swore weren’t the wormy kind, and a shared loaf of brown bread.

The weather was mild, and the scent of flowers filled the air until the breeze shifted, carrying the faint stench of burning fur and flesh, a reminder of how close to death we had come.

Even then, nobody brought up Billy’s chilling prediction about our chances.

Instead, we chatted like new friends getting to know one another.

She pointed out claw marks high on a tree trunk—“winged bastards roost there sometimes.” Duncan told a ridiculous story about teaching palace guards to march in unison, complete with impressions that actually coaxed a laugh from Billy.

Hook shared no stories, and I found myself…less vocal than usual, consumed by thoughts of my missing magic, missing Fetch, missing Molly. Wondering what we would face down this new road.

By late afternoon, the forest had thinned, and my legs were growing heavy.

I glanced up and frowned. Another hour until sunset, tops. I turned to Billy, my thoughts shifting back to the flying monkeys.

“Skunk’s Bunks is just ahead,” Billy said, reading my mind. “Hoping to sleep there for the night.”

“Skunk’s Bunks?” Hook asked, his gravelly voice sending a tingle down my spine.

“An inn…of sorts.” She didn’t bother to turn around.

Duncan chuckled. “Let's hope it's nicer than it sounds.”

“I promise you, it’s not. But it beats sleeping out here.”

“You sure we’ll make it in time? How far is it?”

She rubbed at her chin for a long moment as she glanced around, looking for what, I didn’t know.

“Half mile…maybe less?”

“We can’t be working off of maybes,” Hook said. “If we start setting up camp too late, we could find ourselves?—”

He cut off as Billy let out a snarl and broke into a full-on sprint, charging right off the road.

“That motherfucker! No he did not just do that.”

I stared after her, blood humming. “What the…Should we be running, too?”

She didn’t answer, instead coming to a skidding stop next to a massive, half-dead maple tree.

Maybe she decided we should set up camp for the night, after all?

That idea died a swift death as she brought her foot up halfway to her waist, then slammed it back down once, and then again onto what looked like a flat piece of wood laying in the middle of the grass.

“Open up, Skunk! The sun hasn’t even set yet, you lily-livered bastard.”

She thrust her leg down a final time, nearly toppling backward when a trapdoor opened where she’d been stomping.

“What d’ya want, Billy?” a rusty voice from below called.

“You know damn well what we want; a place to sleep, and a hot meal. Now move out of the way and let us down, you old fool.”

“We’re pretty full as is.” A bald, liver-spotted head poked up from the trapdoor and a pair of rheumy eyes flickered around. “Four?” He scratched his chin with a dirty fingernail that made me think his scent would live up to his nickname. “Not sure I can do it. It’d be cutting it close…”

I crept closer to the opening. I might be weak as a lamb compared to the others right now, but this I could help with. “We have coin,” I assured him, throwing out my arm in front of Hook, who was stalking closer and guaranteed not to ask so nicely.

Skunk let out a sniff. “How much?”

Billy waved a dismissive hand, cutting me off before I could say more.

“You let us in, or this mean fella here will blast you in the face with his murder magic and we come down and take over the whole joint. Up to you—in fact, I’m kinda hoping you pick the latter—but either way, you better hurry.

” She pointed to the horizon, where the fat, orange sun had already begun to fall off the edge of the horizon.

“Blech. That’s why I miss seein’ Paddy. Your mudder used up all the charm on making him, she did.” Skunk scowled, then waved us in, disappearing from view. “Don’t forget to close it behind youse, you fucking harpy,” he called, his voice echoing up a chute from far below.

Okay, so at least Paddy O’Donnelly existed here in Oz. The tight feeling in my chest loosened a little as Billy stepped down into the hole and set her foot on the first rung of the ladder.

She looked up at me, face tight. “If we’re going to work as a team, you need to stop with that whole catching more flies with honey shite. It’s vinegar or nothing around these parts. And don’t you forget it.”

She disappeared from view as the ladder turned into a chute and disappeared into the shadowy depths before I could reply.

“Go ahead.” Duncan was scanning the sky for potential threats as he waved me on. “We’re right behind you.”

I climbed down, doing my best to ignore the rush of anxiety that was setting in. No matter what it was like down there, I wasn’t exactly excited at the prospect of spending the whole night locked underground like a mole-person, hiding from an army of superhuman monkeys.

“Twenty silver,” Billy said, sparing a quick glance at me as I strode up next to her. “Don’t give that codger a whisper more.”

The room was enormous, easily as big as the great room in Munsch Kin Land with twenty-foot-high ceilings supported by wooden columns.

It didn’t smell of skunk, so much as poorly ventilated tobacco mixed with two parts perspiration, one part desperation.

A long bar stretched across the back wall, and clusters of tables were spread throughout, with rowdy pockets of patrons drinking at all, eating at some, and gambling at others.

A roar bounced off the walls as one man shoved a pair of dice aside to scoop up a pile of money at the center of the table.

“I can give you two rooms,” Skunk said, drawing my attention again.

“Which is two more than you deserve. 23 and 25.” He grunted as he slid a pair of keys across the counter, keeping his hand over them until I fished out the coins and set them down.

“Now excuse me while I go lock up tight like I shoulda done a couple minutes ago instead of letting you in.”

Two rooms?

As much as part of me would’ve liked if Hook and I could pick up where we left off at the stream, I knew it would only make things worse between us—and between him and Duncan…

Not to mention, staying with either of the men meant there was a fair chance they’d hear me in the midst of a dream.

“Boys in one room, girls in the other?” I blurted, cheeks flaming.

Hook scowled, but Ducan nabbed one of the keys off the counter with a wink. “Sure thing.”

“We’re going to stow our stuff away and then come back down for a bite to eat. Try not to kill each other in the meantime.” Billy snatched the second key and disappeared down a hallway to the right of the counter, leaving us behind in a swirl of pipe-smoke.

I could feel Hook’s molten gaze on me, but I kept my head low as I scurried after her. “Wait up, I’m right behind you!”

Our room looked like it had been decorated by a far-sighted junk dealer with a grudge.

Two narrow beds squatted on either side of a warped dresser that bowed in the middle.

A kerosene lamp hissed on a wall hook, throwing off more smoke than light.

By Hollow standards, this place was middling at worst, and I shrugged.

“Good enough for me.”

“Same.” Billy dropped her satchel on the nearest bed and gave the lumpy mattress a whack. “Skunk must’ve come into money. Last time I stayed here, it was cots only.”

“Moving up in the world.” I tossed my own pack onto the second bed, and the rickety frame creaked ominously.

While Billy rummaged for a clean shirt, I took a quick inventory of the rest of our amenities: one cracked wash-basin, a spiderweb the size of a small child draped in the corner, and a three-legged stool tucked beside the dresser.

A low groan had me turning back to face my new-old friend. She was bent into a pretzel at the waist, rolling one shoulder, face twisted into a scowl.

I thought back to right around the monkey fight, when she’d been pressing a hand to her tailbone. “Your back giving you trouble?”

She snorted. “Never doesn’t. Old injury. It’s fine.”

The finality in her voice told me to drop it, so I did.

For the moment.

We unpacked in silence. Aside from my bag which I left as it was, with my inventions, the magical clock and jeweler's loupe inside, I had two changes of clothes, a bit of food, and not much else.

Billy had little more. A shirt and pants, her bow and a spare string, a tiny tin of some sort of salve, and that plain iron locket on a leather thong, which she set gently on the dresser.

She tugged off her camouflage scarf and her springy curls burst out in all directions. It was so at odds with her serious expression that I did a double-take.

“What?” she snapped, her brows caving into a frown as she lifted a hand to her hair. “Crazy, right? I usually keep it shorter, but I’ve been busy and?—”

“Sorry, no, it’s fine! Really cute on you, actually,” I added, taken aback by the idea that she would give a rat’s crack what her hair looked like.

Good reminder that, at the end of the day, no matter how tough a person seemed on the outside, they still had feelings and insecurities.

“Makes me think of my bestie, Moll.” My throat went tight, and I cleared it before continuing.

“She’s always messing with my hair, trying to get me to make it pretty. She’s good with all that stuff.”

“Guessing you haven’t seen her in a while?” Billy quipped, eyeing my hair with a dubious squint.

A snort-laugh exploded from my lips as I lifted a hand to my own hair, just now remembering my recent make-under into Moll’s brother and want-to-be-pirate, Harmon.

“We had to make some changes on the fly, and she didn’t have a lot to work with.”

“I get it. I’ve hacked this mop with a hunting knife more times than I can count. How come this Moll isn’t with you and your crew? Jealous all the boys picked you, is she?”

I’d been hoping she hadn’t sniffed out the reason Duncan and Hook were at odds, but she didn’t miss a trick.

“No. We needed to…part ways for a while.” I lowered myself to the threadbare blanket that was about as welcoming as sandpaper.

I’d seen Moll less than two days ago—my time, anyway. But it felt like months, and the thought that I might never?—

“Once we’re done with everything we need to do, I’ll see her again,” I added in a rush. “She’s the sister I never had. Despite your prediction, I have a lot of reasons to live, and Moll is one of them.”

Billy’s eyes probed my face, in search of truth. “She is like family to you, then?”

My eyes stung but I forced the rush of hot tears back with a blink. “More than any family I’ve ever had.”

If anyone knew about the bond between family, it was Billy O’Donnelly. Again, I found myself wanting to ask about her siblings—Paddy, Andrew, Scotty and Jacob...

“Okay, then,” she said, interrupting my thought. “Let’s do our best to make sure you see her again, shall we? At least for long enough to fix that gods-awful hairdo.”

I grinned, ready with a smartass reply when something at her feet caught my eye and had the words dying on my lips. The corner of a leatherbound book sticking out of a gap in her satchel, with the page edges dusted in green.

I got so lightheaded, I had to put both hands on the mattress to keep from keeling sideways.

Not possible.

But I already knew in my gut that it was more than possible.

It was a stone-cold fact. Billy O’Donnelly of this world was in possession of a third fairytale book just like the one I had.

Just like the one Hook had. Only instead of golden edges like mine, or black like Hook’s, hers were dusted in emerald green.

Destiny had not come to fuck around this time. She was renting a room and staying awhile.

Before I could form words, Billy shook out her clean shirt and eyed me expectantly. “We better go eat before Skunk sells out of the only edible thing in this shithole—mire-boar stew.”

“Yep,” I said, voice a bit too shrill. “Sounds good. I’m starving.”

“Just eat around the hooves, if you can help it.”

I tipped my head. “Can do.”

She stared at me expectantly, and I stared back.

“What?”

She gestured toward the door, shaking her head. “Can you go on down now, so I can change without you getting a peak at my titties?”

“Oh! Yeah, of course.” I stood and grabbed my bag before backing toward the door. “See you down there. In a few. No rush. Come whenever…” I wheeled around and yanked at the knob, willing myself to stop babbling. “Bye!”

I’d barely gotten three steps down the hall when the locks tumbled behind me.

Shit.

I should’ve said I wasn’t hungry at all.

Now, if I wanted a chance to do some snooping, I was going to have to make an excuse to come back to the room before she did.

As exhausted as I was, begging off due to exhaustion wouldn’t even be a lie, which was good.

My stomach for subterfuge was getting weaker by the day.

I took the stairs two at a time, and headed down the corridor, following the new smell of rich, peppery broth mingling with the rest of the scents.

But food was the last thing on my mind, hooves or no. As I stepped into the roar of the tavern, only one thought rang in my head;

Billy O’Donnelly had secrets. And I needed to find out what they were before I could share mine. Which meant I had to get my hands on that book, and I had to do it tonight.