Page 40 of Virelai’s Hoard (The Dagger & Tide Trilogy #1)

And since when did trust factor into any of Riley’s decisions?

She only had to coast by until they got to the treasure, until she made them trust her enough so they wouldn’t realize what she was up to until it was too late.

That had been the plan from the start. It hadn’t changed. Nothing had changed.

Patch would come around. If they ever found a way out of this nightmare.

“Just…” Riley hung her head, rubbing at her eyes. “Come back. Please.”

A movement in her periphery made her head snap up. But the room was all the same as before. No Patch to be seen. Or Eryx. She hoped they were okay.

Another movement, and Riley’s head tilted at the mirror. It was the reflection. It had changed.

Riley looked with growing confusion at the girl–the kid on the other side.

Young and slight, brown curls bouncing to just past her shoulders as she crouched by a half-opened door, head tilted quizzically in a listening gesture.

It must’ve been an office of some sorts.

Maybe she was a servant, or the daughter of one.

Suddenly, the kid scrambled away from the door and the mirror followed her as she hid behind a corner.

Riley watched with interest as the girl peeked past, and the mirror showed what she saw.

The feet of two men walking out of the office, one’s hands gesticulating wildly, the other’s set and resolute.

Riley startled. She knew those boots. The pleading man’s boots. She knew what he was saying, though the mirror didn’t relay any sounds.

That man was her father.

That tiny wisp of a girl, Riley realized with horror, was herself.

This was the exact moment when everything had gone to shit in her life. Her father was selling her to pay off his gambling debts.

Riley scrambled to her feet and walked to the back of the mirror. Her hands tightened into fists to stop the shaking.

“I don’t want to see this!” she shouted at the empty room. She gave the back of the mirror her own back. Just in case it decided to fuck even more with her head and become double-sided out of the blue.

“That’s a shame, though. It’s the second most interesting part of the whole thing! We fight over who gets to oversee this. The others must’ve thought very little of you since I found you first. Huh.”

Riley stilled. She stopped breathing. Only her heart pounded in her ears.

She had not imagined that .

The voice was clear, chipper, and it came from behind her. From where she’d just been standing. Slowly, she turned around and peeked from behind the mirror. There was no one there.

She swallowed and walked in front of the mirror again.

Maybe someone was trapped in there? Had the mirror itself talked?

She averted her gaze when she noticed the scene playing out–her tears as the stranger’s fingers clawed into her shoulders, her father refusing to even look at her as he left her there.

Rule number two , a voice she thought she’d banished rang into her mind. Don’t let them see your feelings, unless you can use them as a weapon.

The disembodied voice tutted. “That’s cold, selling you out like that.”

Riley startled, spinning in its direction. Still no one she could see. She watched the air with increasing focus, as if she could make whoever this was materialize by sheer will.

“By your own father. My, my.” The voice sounded delighted rather than pitying. “You were what?” A shuffling noise followed. “Seven?” A scraping noise. “I’d say that’s already one point towards likely to seek revenge . So thrilling!”

Riley finally found her own voice. “What the fuck is this? Show yourself!”

“Oh! Sorry! Here!”

The air in front of her shifted, and a body materialized.

It was a man–a pirate–holding a scrapbook and a quill and intently watching the events unfolding inside the mirror.

He was jotting down notes . A glance told her they’d made it to the part where she gave the house’s servants the slip, the very same day.

The beginning of her life on the streets.

She tore her gaze away and glared at the figure in front of her.

The man was young, maybe around her own age, but he lacked the intrinsic solidity of living people, the air around him shivering subtly.

Riley had a feeling that if she reached out, her hand would go right through him. She didn’t test her theory.

“This is all really interesting,” he said, eyes flitting to her for the briefest moment.

“At this stage, it’s usually all boring family life, but you’ve been a menace .

” He whistled, grinning. “Lucky those kids found you when they did, huh? I can’t imagine you’d have survived long on the streets all on your own. Look at you, you were so tiny .”

Riley glowered at him. “Sure. Lucky .” Was this the culmination of her punishments?

Her whole life on display for a fucking ghost to gawk at, in real fucking motion.

“Will you stop that?” she snapped as the pirate scribbled some more in his scrapbook.

She flung an arm at the mirror. “What is this? Who are you ?”

Finally, the pirate lowered the scrapbook and the quill and turned to face her.

The events unfolding inside the mirror froze.

On Nera. Paying off a merchant Riley had tried to steal a sweet tart from, so he’d let her go.

After that, Riley had followed her around like a fucking puppy.

Listening to her rules. Obeying them. She could still hear Nera’s voice inside her head with startling clarity.

Rule number one: don’t ever, ever, tell the truth.

Rule number two: don’t let them see your feelings, unless you can use them as a weapon.

Rule number three: lie to me and no one will find your corpse.

Riley had choked on her sweet tart at the last one, and Nera had smiled sweetly at her. And damn her, she’d been charmed.

With a grit of her teeth, Riley gave the mirror her back, but it was too late. Nera’ face, young and smug and pretty, burned itself on the back of her eyelids. She’d tried so hard to forget it.

Oblivious, the man took his cap off and bowed to her. “Jamie is the name. Apologies. Centuries of doing this have a habit of making you forget your manners, you’ll find out.”

The certainty of that statement sent a chill through her. Centuries? You’ll find out? “What do you mean, I’ll find out? Am I dead?” She didn’t ask whether he was dead. That part was obvious enough.

Jamie’s eyes widened. Then he shook his head, an unsettling laugh bubbling up from his throat. “Oh, no, no, no, no. Not yet, at least.”

Instead of asking questions she did not want the answers to, Riley momentarily pushed her panic aside. “Look, have you seen a young pirate around? About this tall, accompanied by a rat, they have a shell hung around their neck? Their name is Eryx.”

All traces of amusement vanished from Jamie’s face.

It was replaced by complete, unabashed wonder.

“You’re pulling my leg,” he said drily. When Riley’s expression didn’t change, he blinked at her, and his mouth parted.

“There’s two of you? How did no one tell me that?

!” After his moment of stupor, Jamie narrowed his eyes at her, then at the mirror, then at the page he was scribbling on.

“If this is one of your tricks, I’m not sure what you think you’ll gain by it, but…

” He shrugged. “Fine. Wait here, I’ll be right back. ”

Jamie turned on his heels and walked straight through the wall.

Riley watched, eyes wide, her envy only tampered by the knowledge that one had to be dead to be able to do that. As much as invisibility and walking through walls would come very handy, she wasn’t ready to die anytime soon.

Please don’t let it be today.

Before she even had the time to complain that there was nowhere else she could go, the ghost was back.

He looked more disheveled, and more excited .

“ Two sacrifices!” The pirate circled her, quill and scrapbook gone from his hands, the mirror no longer the subject of his interest. “That has never happened before. Your crew must’ve really hated you.

The tablet was clear that we only required one of you.

” He tilted his head then and poked at her arm.

She jumped. Her skin tingled where the ghost’s finger went through it. Riley took a step back, slapping at the air to be left alone. Then an unpleasant shudder went through her.

“So?” He looked at her expectantly. “What did you two do to make them hate you so much?” When Riley’s lips parted to protest, he held a hand up.

“Wait! Don’t tell me!” He glanced at the mirror at her back.

“Guess we can pretend we’re done here. I got the gist of it, anyway.

Sold into indentured service by your father, betrayed by your street gang leader, never let anyone close ever again, et cetera et cetera. Is that right?”

Wordless, Riley just nodded. She supposed that was the gist of it.

The ghost clapped his hands. “Fantastic! Follow me. You and Eryx can tell us what happened together! Oh, I can already imagine the look on the others’ faces. This is the most exciting sacrifice we’ve had in… forever!”

The wall to the left side of the room opened. A secret door. Jamie walked through it and gesticulated enthusiastically for Riley to follow him. Baffled, Riley did.

They didn’t have to walk far. As she crossed the threshold, Riley’s hand came up to shield her eyes from the onslaught of sunlight that spilled into the room.

She hadn’t seen the suns in days, and her head spun with the impossibility of it.

Her body was still convinced she was deep underground, and yet the now-familiar lull of a ship on water returned beneath her feet.

They were standing inside of a cabin, but instead of portholes in the hull there were proper, wide windows allowing the sunlight in. No torches needed in here.