Page 34 of Virelai’s Hoard (The Dagger & Tide Trilogy #1)

Riley

Riley followed Sable as she led the way deep inside the ship’s guts. Unable to stop herself, she kept glancing at her back and frowning. Her heart thudded with every step she took.

Sable had stood up for her.

It was the one thought looping on repeat inside her head, alongside every footstep and every beat of her heart.

Sable. Stood up. For her. For Riley .

No matter how many times she rolled over the words–the memories, they still didn’t make sense. No one had stood up for her like that. Ever.

Not the woman who birthed her, who had barely taken a look at her before dumping her in a basket on someone else’s doorstep.

Not her father, who sold her off just a handful of years later, to pay off his gambling debts.

Not Nera, the street gang leader who took her in, trained her, then turned every kid against her and stabbed her in the back.

The stubs of her two mutilated fingers still tingled whenever Riley was around too many people, whenever she risked getting comfortable .

She rarely allowed herself to think about any of this, and when she did?

It was as a reminder. To never get close.

To get hers before someone else got theirs.

Always. Otherwise, the list of the people who had failed her was locked tight and shoved in a forgotten recess of her mind.

If she didn’t think about it, the past didn’t exist. The future didn’t exist, either, too fickle and unpredictable to possibly guess at.

Only the present was there, real and solid in her grasp, to do what she wanted with.

And right now, she really needed to understand.

Why?

Why would Sable do that? There was nothing in it for her.

Riley had been bracing herself for something entirely different, certain that the first mate would get pissed off about her not delivering on her end of their deal.

The reading lessons had still kept going even after Riley’s visits to the captain’s cabin had ended, and she’d thought that to be an implied threat.

A reminder that Sable was still waiting.

That she knew Riley was shuffling her feet about how much to reveal of what she knew. But she’d been wrong, hadn’t she?

Instead of cutting Riley out, or demanding results, or making her life difficult, Sable had put herself between Thorian and Riley. The first mate had risked her image and Calla’s wrath to save her from getting fucking whipped–to spare her from adding more scars to the wounds of her past.

“You’ve been awfully quiet,” Sable said. “This is unlike you.”

Riley blinked back into the present. They’d made it to their usual spot, a holding chamber stuffed with barrels and crates stacked to the ceiling. Her nostrils filled with the familiar scent of salt, spices, and damp wood.

Sable leaned against a wooden beam, arms crossed, waiting.

The flickering light of a nearby lantern played shadows on her face, on the scar marring her cheek.

It made her look guarded. Riley swallowed, mouth dry, the itch in her fingers nearly unbearable now, her heart so loud in her chest she was sure Sable must be able to hear it from where she stood.

All logic drowned by the chaos of her own feelings, Riley did something she’d never thought she’d do again. She let her mask drop. Willingly.

“We’re not chasing Virelai’s Hoard,” she said. Her voice felt so loud in the hold’s quiet that she almost flinched from it. “Or, maybe we are, but that’s not what the captain’s after.”

Sable’s eyebrows drew together. “What?”

Steadying her fingers, Riley reached down inside her boot and took the sketch out, handing it over. The only card up her sleeve. They would be on equal footing now, and Riley’s breath came fast at the realization. It felt like a betrayal. It felt like freedom.

Sable unfolded the sketch and her expression was nothing like Eryx’s had been.

Her eyes widened. All the blood drained from her face.

For a moment, she just stared at it. In the next, Sable hastily folded it back and shoved it in her pocket, pushing off the beam.

She paced back and forth between the barrels and the crates.

“Sable?” Riley asked. Her fingers twitched on the strap of her bag.

The first mate didn’t seem to hear her, and it was after some more pacing that Sable stopped and faced Riley. “Are you sure about this?”

Riley shrugged. “I slipped it from her desk.”

“Fuck,” Sable said under her breath.

Clearly, Sable knew what the Heart was. And this looked personal–like it meant something to her.

The first mate had never been one to hide her feelings, so loud and clear on her face she might as well have been shouting them.

Riley liked that about her. She never had to guess, or wonder, or worry about Sable not being who she said she was.

“Fuck!” That came out as a frustrated snarl.

Free. Unrestrained. Wild. Sable didn’t care to hide the ugliest parts of her, where Riley had done nothing but hide and trick and deceive. It made sense that she gravitated toward her.

“That bad, huh?” Riley leaned her hip against a crate, arms folding, the side of her mouth curling up.

Sable blew out a sharp breath. “Yeah. That bad.” She sat on the barrel they’d been using for their lessons, her knuckles going white as she gripped its edges. “She’s leading us to ruin, Riley, and I still don’t know why .”

There was something raw in her voice as she said that.

Sorrowful. Something that Riley had noticed sometimes whenever Sable made a big deal about butting heads with the captain.

Always arguing, always contradicting, always in public.

Riley had never caught Sable and Calla talking alone.

Odd, for a captain and her second in command.

A puzzle piece Riley didn’t even know she had clicked into place neatly. The words were out of her mouth before she could think to stop them. “You’re in love with her.”

Sable’s eyes snapped to hers, her lips parting. No words came out. The beat of silence was confirmation enough. Her lips twisted. “That’s none of your business, Riley.” Her eyes narrowed. “Or anyone’s.”

Riley held up her hands, grinning. “I’m not telling anyone.

” She tilted her head. “But I think it’s a little my business,” she said.

At the odd look flashing on Sable’s face, Riley rushed to add, “You asked me to stick my neck out and spy on her. I might’ve thought better of it if I knew it was a lover’s spat. ” She shrugged.

Sable tore her gaze away, staring intently somewhere to the side. “It’s not like that.” Her voice was tense, jaw tight. She looked… cornered.

Another piece clicked into place. “She doesn’t know.” Then, “Why?” Sable looked like the kind of person who had no issue going for what she wanted.

A defeated sigh. “I know better than to go after someone who doesn’t want me.”

There it was again. That raw honesty. Riley would’ve allowed the ground to swallow her whole before revealing something as personal as that.

Something Calla had told her suddenly echoed in her mind.

‘I can never be anything but alone.’

She and Calla were alike, in a way, weren’t they?

Silence stretched between them, too long to be comfortable. Riley shifted on her feet. “What’s with the Heart, anyway? You’re a pirate. Shouldn’t this be exciting for you?”

Sable scoffed. “A corpse doesn’t get wishes.”

Riley frowned, then she froze. Footsteps. Echoing off the corridor at her back. She tilted her head, listening. Heavy. Getting closer.

She pushed off the crate with a start, drawing a questioning look from Sable.

She ignored it, her eyes darting around the hold.

They locked onto a cluster of heavy-looking crates stacked to the ceiling, shielding the corner of the room from view.

Quick on her feet, Riley grabbed Sable’s arm and pulled her along.

They dashed out of view just as the door to the hold creaked open on its hinges.

Their backs pressed against the crates as the footsteps paused. Then resumed. Closer. Inside the hold. When Riley glanced up at Sable, she suddenly felt dumb. There was an amused quirk to her lips, eyebrows raised in a silent question. Riley could almost hear it.

‘Why the fuck are we hiding? I’m the first mate here.’ Or. ‘You know everyone on this ship already knows we’ve been sneaking away, right?’

A surge of sudden calm washed over Riley, and she smiled back.

Then realized she was still holding onto Sable’s wrist, and let go.

She braved a peek around the corner. And that sudden calm?

It vanished. A black bun, the ends of a long, salt-stained coat.

Thorian’s coat. Riley’s heart raced as she ducked out of sight, bumping into Sable.

She stayed pressed against her side. When Sable’s questioning look intensified, Riley mouthed Thorian’s name, not daring to even whisper.

Understanding dawned on her face. Riley didn’t feel dumb anymore.

But she felt something else when Sable’s arm shifted against hers and her fingers followed, slipping into hers.

A strong, reassuring grip. Steadying. Had she been shaking?

Riley looked down at their clasped hands, brown skin against black leather, and she wished she hadn’t been wearing her gloves.

She wanted to feel the heat of her skin, her calloused fingers, their gentle roughness.

She couldn’t with the shield of the leather between them.

The footsteps paused in the middle of the hold, shuffling sounds coming from somewhere near, but Riley didn’t care anymore.

Her breath came short, the thud thud thud of her heart strong in her ears.

But it had nothing to do with Thorian. Warmth curled in her stomach as she looked up at Sable and pulled her hand free.