Page 6 of Inked in Emeralds (Inkbound #3)

Witnessing sacrifice, death, and tragedy…it took a huge toll, body, mind, and spirit. None of us would be good to anyone if we didn’t take care of ourselves and refuel. Tonight, after the music quieted, the lights dimmed, and we all went to our rooms, we each had to grapple with some heavy stuff.

Duncan had left a land in flux on the tail of a coup to come for me, only to find I wasn’t here alone.

It had been two days since Hook and I had left everyone we cared about behind. Three since we’d lost Trick-Eyed Tom. That wasn’t even considering the complex emotions that came along with the deaths of Pan and Tink. Hook had it even worse, as he was now saddled with all three of their memories.

Yes, tonight, when our heads hit the pillow, they would be heavy. I’d learned this lesson with Molly, both in Little Alabaster, and again in Neverland, and it had stuck with me.

It was best to grab whatever fistfuls of joy we could, because you never knew when the next opportunity would come.

Or if it would come…

I kept my voice at a level only for the men next to me. “First thing tomorrow, we need to start figuring out exactly what we’re here to do. Agreed?”

Duncan nodded.

I turned to Hook, who drained his glass and set it down. “Agreed.”

“Perfect. On that note, if anyone goes up to get another drink, grab me one too.” I stood, wobbling momentarily before righting myself and letting out a hiccup. “I’m going to the powder room and then the dessert table.”

I could feel both sets of eyes on me as I crossed the dance floor, so I made a special effort not to swerve or stumble.

The last time I’d worn a dress and shoes with a heel was when I’d gone to the Alabaster Palace Jubilee to get Molly and found her standing over Heinrich with her glass stiletto buried in his chest. Since then, I’d been in britches and the red shitkickers Duncan had given me.

Now, with a belly full of thistle-grog and a buzzy head, I was feeling every centimeter of the three-inch heels I was wearing.

One foot in front of the other.

I made it without falling on my face and even managed to use the bathroom without stabbing myself with the dagger I had strapped to my thigh in the process.

“You’re killing it tonight, Harm. Almira should watch her back.”

Another loud hiccup bubbled from my lips as I stepped through the bathroom door, straight into a brick wall.

“ Oof ! What the?—?”

A strong hand steadied me, and I craned my neck to stare up into Hook’s scowling face.

“I apologize. I didn’t mean to scare you,” he muttered, relaxing his grip and taking a step back.

“Well, you probably shouldn’t walk around making that face all the time, then.” The sudden urge to boop his nose was too strong to fight, so I did it. “Boop.”

He couldn’t have looked more shocked than if I kicked him right in the dick, and for some reason that sent me into peals of laughter that had me bent at the waist, nearly hyperventilating.

“You should s-s-see your face right now!” I managed to straighten and pointed at him, still near hysterical.

He rolled his eyes toward the ceiling and let out a sigh. “Gods save me from a lightweight. What kind of pirate are you?”

“I’m the kind that isn’t a pirate at all, remember?

” I shot back, wiping away the tears streaming down my face with a sniff.

“Phew, that felt good, though. Things have been so tense lately, and I think I needed a release.” The words hung between us, and I tried to fix them in a bumbling rush.

“Not that kind of release. I just meant, like, I needed…” I trailed off, cheeks flaming, feeling like an idiot.

“Harmony…what happened on the Jolly Roger the other night—” he broke off and scrubbed a hand over his face. “That was a mistake.”

Oof again. Only this second blow was way worse than the first. I could feel the blood draining from my cheeks and I stared hard at the floor. “Yeah. Yup. I agree. Big mistake.” I bit the inside of my cheek until the coppery taste of blood filled my mouth.

“Don’t do that,” he shot back, reaching for my arm again, which I wrenched away. “Fine, I won’t touch you but at least hear me out.”

I kept my eyes pinned to his shoulder, crossing my arms over my chest.

“I want you like I’ve never wanted another woman. I’ve spent a lifetime dreaming of touching you that way…of seeing your face when?—”

“Stop it,” I snapped, wishing the floor would swallow me whole. “You’re only making it worse.”

“Exactly.” He reached for my chin and tipped my head up, forcing me to meet his gaze. “That’s what I do, Princess. I bring the suffering. Where I go trouble follows, and I refuse to take you down with me. No matter what I want.”

Pain and regret swirled in the endless night of his eyes, and the anger gripping me drained away, leaving only despair in its wake.

A hurricane of suffering.

“You don’t have to be the dreaded Captain Hook anymore. People can change.” My voice was barely a whisper. “You did what you set out to do…you defeated Pan and Tinkerbell. Now you can finally let yourself just be James.”

“It’s too late for that.” He shook his head slowly. “My sins are too many to be forgiven, and I’ve accepted that. But I know you never will.”

He was right about that, even if I wouldn’t admit it out loud.

“I vow to see this to the end with you, Princess. My sword is yours. But you need to worry about saving your kingdom and your people, and you can’t do that if you’re busy trying to save me.”

I wanted so badly to argue. To punch him right in the gut and tell him what a stupid, wrongheaded ass he was being. But I couldn’t, because as much as it gutted me to hear it, he was right.

I’d spent countless sleepless nights with him haunting my dreams. And since we’d met for real, it had been nothing but an emotional whirlwind. The highest of highs and the lowest of lows. His kisses, his touch, his pain, his guilt—James Tyler Hook stood at the forefront of my mind…

Exactly where fulfilling my destiny should be.

Confused, exhausted tears pricked my eyelids, and I blinked them back. “If that’s what you want, then?—”

“Ah! There you two are!” Mrs. Codswallow stood a short way down the corridor and beckoned us toward her. “We have the most amazing jugglers about to do one last performance. You mustn’t miss it!”

Hook held my gaze and, for a second, I was afraid he was going to put her off and try to continue this excruciating conversation, but he must’ve sensed my desperation to be done with it because he turned to the older woman with a tight smile.

“Lead the way.”

I kept my eyes on the floor, as careful as I had been on the way to the bathroom. Although the happy little drunk in me was dead, the effects of the local booze were strong, and I didn’t need to add insult to injury by face planting in front of the guy who just dumped me.

Another loud hiccup ripped from my mouth, and I swallowed a groan.

Lovely.

“What was that sound?” Hook demanded, stopping in his tracks just as we stepped back into the great room.

Cripes on a cracker, could this man give me a break?

“I hiccupped, okay? Geez, can’t a girl?—”

Another low rumble sounded, and the chatter all around fell into silence.

I searched frantically for the source, the hair on my arms standing on end.

A second later, the lights flickered and the crystal chandelier that hung from the fifty-foot-high ceiling began to shift and morph.

The blush-colored glass turned molten and swirled until it formed a massive, translucent sphere.

I stared in slack-jawed shock as it floated, down, down—as if it weren’t made of glass at all, but of some weightless, otherworldly material I’d never seen before.

It wasn’t until it drifted ten feet closer that I realized there was something…or someone inside of it. Every nerve-ending blared in warning as I closed my fingers over the handle of my whip.

“Steady,” Hook muttered. Somehow, he’d wound up just behind me. I tensed as he lifted a hand, freeing his sword from its scabbard even as Duncan unsheathed the dagger at his hip.

Cries erupted around the room as the people of Munsch Kin Land cowered, not a weapon in sight.

My skin went ice-cold and clammy as I returned my attention to the woman behind the glass.

Because this was not the Gayelette I knew.

This was some wretched creature who barely resembled the flower seller or the fortune teller I’d met in the previous worlds.

This Gayelette was a shade of her former self.

Her arms were forcibly wrapped around her torso and fastened behind her with some sort of jacket that made it impossible to move.

Gray hair hung in tangled snarls around her wrinkled face that had lost all hint of color, leaving it lifeless and ashy.

In fact, the only thing about her that had any life at all was her eyes, and they were wild with something close to madness.

I barely recognized her.

“We can’t risk waiting to find out what it is,” Hook muttered. “I’m taking the shot.” He lifted his hand toward the orb.

“No!” I grabbed his arm and gripped it tightly. “We can’t! Gayelette is inside.”

The sphere stopped and hovered five feet off the ground as the townspeople picked up their heads and inched close enough to see while still giving the orb a wide berth.

I probably should have done the same. Instead, I found my legs propelling me forward. Hook and Duncan spoke at the same time.

“Careful.”

"Watch..." Hook murmured from just behind me.

I stopped a few yards from the glass sphere and stared into Gayelette's eyes, hoping the horror didn't show on my face.

"What’s happened to you?" I whispered in a hoarse voice.