Page 41 of Virelai’s Hoard (The Dagger & Tide Trilogy #1)

The cabin itself was big, spacious, and filled with ghosts.

Ghosts, and Eryx. Patch perched on their shoulder, and Riley nearly crumbled with relief as she saw the both of them.

They paid her no mind. Both their attention was on a man sitting at a desk.

His clothes were spun from fine cloth threaded with gold, and precious stones and metals hung from his neck, from his wrists.

Any piece of that would fetch a fine price.

When his eyes flitted to Riley, so did the rest of the room’s.

The ghosts did a double-take between her and Eryx.

Fingers raised to rudely point between her and the one other living person in the ghost ship’s cabin.

Then they–even more rudely–gaped. The ghost sitting at the desk–their captain?

–widened his eyes. They were a familiar warm brown, which threw Riley for another loop. Why did they feel familiar?

“There’s two of them–”

“-two?”

“How are we supposed to–”

“-are they–”

The murmur of the ghost pirates rose in a ripple of excitement and confusion. The captain’s voice rose over the others. “Jamie?” he asked simply.

The others quieted. They looked at Jamie with clear curiosity.

Jamie just lifted his hands in a helpless gesture.

“Looks like she slipped right under our noses. I did think it was weird I found her alone in the corridor. She looked about ready to collapse! Poor thing.” He laughed to himself.

“But no, turns out I completely missed Eryx. But she was juicy. Great potential here.” He held up the fingers of one hand, listing them off one by one while Riley stared, more confused than ever.

“Trust issues, avoidant behavior, opportunism, reckless impulsivity, fear of vulnerability. She’s checking out a lot of boxes there. Oh! Delusions of grandeur, too.”

Confusion slowly morphed to wide-eyed shock and an indignant feeling burning in her chest. “Fuck you, too,” she blurted at the ghost. What right did he have to look at her most traumatic memories and judge her in front of a room full of people? She clenched her fists at her sides.

The other pirates chuckled softly. The captain’s eyes crinkled as he shook his head at her. “He’s not insulting you, Riley,” he said, his voice deep and smooth. His accent seemed familiar, too. Less ancient than the Jamie’s. “They’re all compliments. You fit right in with the rest of us washouts.”

Riley scowled. “I don’t fit in anywhere.”

Sheets of paper rustled, the scrapbook magically back in Jamie’s hands. “But you want to, don’t you?”

Riley bristled, turning on him. “Stop that! You have no right to–to–” Peer in her head, look at her memories, gaze past all the lies she’d ever told herself? She didn’t know how to follow it up, the feelings too big to fit into her mouth. She only knew that she was pissed .

“Riley,” Eryx said gently. They sidled up to her, touched her shoulder. She glared at them too, shrugged them off, but it didn’t phase them. “It’s fine. They, uh, they did the same to me, too. I had a whole crowd looking on.” Their face crumpled. “If that makes you feel better.”

It did. It did make her feel better. She deflated. “What’s going on here?”

The captain rose from his seat and walked around to the front of his desk.

He leaned against it as he looked at them.

“I’m Alaric, the captain of this ship.” He introduced himself with an incline of his head.

“This is highly unusual. Unheard of, really. But I guess we’ll have to improvise.

” He rubbed the back of his head, and the uncertainty on his face didn’t look very captain- y to Riley.

“Normally we all gather here to give the sacrificed a choice.”

Eryx tilted their head. “A choice?”

“An opportunity,” Jamie piped up.

Several of the onlooking pirates grinned.

Alaric tilted his head in acknowledgment, then his arms spread.

“Your own crew betrayed you. They found an old-ass tablet with creepy demands, got stuck at sea for a few days and just decided to toss you out like you were nothing, yeah?” He looked at them.

The ghosts around nodded thoughtfully, in sympathy, several clenched jaws among them.

Riley and Eryx shared an uncertain look, and neither of them said anything.

Mistaking their uneasy silence for agreement, Alaric nodded to himself. “Well, here’s your chance to get back at them.” A strange energy rustled through the crowd. He met Riley’s gaze. “For once, you get to have all the power. For once, you get to make them pay. How would you like that?”

Riley shifted on her feet, pressing her lips together.

Suddenly, she felt out of place. She wasn’t the sacrifice here.

She was never supposed to be here. What would happen if these ghosts found out?

Would they toss her out to the sea? Somewhere worse?

She remembered the green tendrils latching onto Thorian’s ankle and dragging him over the railing.

Had that been them? Would she meet his same fate?

She met Eryx’s gaze once more, and they looked as baffled as Riley felt.

Unlike Eryx, Riley knew one thing for sure. If these ghosts thought they were offering something valuable, then they would certainly want something in return. Nothing came for free, and she was sure being dead didn’t change that. Not judging by the gold dripping from their captain’s limbs.

“What’s the catch?” she asked. “What do we have to give in return for the,” she licked her lips, “favor?”

Eryx’s lips parted as if to protest, then they thought better of it.

Alaric grinned. “Oh, nothing much. Just your life.”

Eryx gulped. Riley’s mouth went dry. “That sounds like a lot .”

Alaric shrugged. “It’s not so bad. You get to do this–” he gestured at the two of them, “every few decades, and the rest of the time you travel the seas, haunt a few ships, make friends with the wildlife. There’s even several islands to explore, if you were to miss the land, but all of us here are sailors at heart.

Not to mention, you only need your imagination to make things interesting. ”

As if to explain, Alaric swiped his hand, and suddenly they weren’t standing in a cabin on a pirate ship anymore. But in a cavern, mouth wide open on the sea, the waves lazily lapping at the rocks. A sharp wind whipped at Riley’s cheeks. In a blink, they were back in the cabin.

Riley’s mouth was open, and she snapped it closed. She reached a hand to push Eryx’s mouth closed too.

“As you can see, the deal comes with perks. Not every afterlife is this…” His mouth worked, looking for a suitable word. “Generous, let’s say.”

“I was unsure at first too,” Jamie said brightly.

“But I haven’t regretted my choice at all.

Fuck those bastards. Watching their ship sink was the highlight of my life.

Helping you sink your former ship? An immense pleasure.

” A hunger rose in his gaze then, dark and unlike anything Riley had ever seen. Its chill was sharper than the wind’s.

“You can get creative with it too!” someone from the crowd said, to loud acknowledgment of the others.

“Yeah! You could call up a kraken to do it for you! They’re really proud creatures, and love to put on a show. And the screams are–” The ghost’s body gave a shudder of pure delight.

Alaric looked at them thoughtfully. “Since it’s two of you, I’m afraid you’ll have to reach an agreement about this choice, one way or another.”

“And if we refuse?” Eryx asked. “What happens then?”

A low murmur went through the ghosts. Riley supposed that question was unusual. She thought of Nera, and how she would’ve jumped on the deal if it had been presented to her right after. No matter the consequences. Part of her would still jump on it now .

“You move on,” Alaric said. This time, his expression was hard to parse.

“Move on? What does that mean?” Riley asked.

The ghost pirates exchanged uneasy glances amongst themselves. “We don’t know,” one of them said.

“No one’s turned down the deal before,” Alaric explained.

Eryx touched her hand, drawing Riley’s attention to them. “Can we talk?” they asked her. Then, glancing at Alaric, they added, “Alone?”

As she stared at Patch, still perching on their shoulder, still looking at her as if he didn’t care she followed him into a literal nightmare, Riley nodded mildly.

“You can use the mirror room,” Alaric said. “We won’t eavesdrop. Pirate’s honor.”

He grinned at that, and Riley scowled. They were definitely going to eavesdrop. Eryx tugged her away, but Riley stood her ground. “Wait,” she said, withdrawing her hand from theirs. “Is the treasure real? The Heart of the Abyss?”

With a mysterious smile, Alaric nodded.

“Does it do what they say it does? Does it grant wishes?”

Alaric cocked his head. “Does it matter? If you take the deal, you become one of its guardians. If you don’t, then you’ll likely be dead.”

“Like, dead dead,” Jamie explained helpfully.

“Either way,” Alaric continued. “You won’t be getting anywhere near it.”

That sounded like a challenge if Riley had ever heard one.

Lips pressed tight together and mind racing, she followed Eryx back into the mirror room.

“We shouldn’t take the deal,” Eryx blurted as soon as they were alone, giving Riley their back as they braced themselves. “I don’t like this place. They’re–they’re not right.”

“They’re ghosts,” Riley deadpanned. “Of course they’re not right.”

Eryx glanced over their shoulder. “It’s not that. It’s the hunger. I’ve never felt anything so hungry for destruction. I don’t think any of them ever moved on from their betrayals.”

Despite herself, Riley shivered. She’d felt that too.

“They say it’s either this or we die.” But words were meaningless.

Something about Alaric said a different story from the one he’d tried to sell them, but she didn’t have the pieces to put it together.

What if the alternative was worse than death?

Finally, Eryx turned to face her. Their arms fell by their sides, and they visibly straightened their back, lifted their chin. “Can you trust me on this? Please?”

For a moment, Riley was speechless. No one had ever appealed to her like that.

And Eryx was asking for a lot . But she looked at them, and at Patch sitting on their shoulder, resolute and so sure of himself.

The rat’s whiskers twitched as he sniffed the air in her direction.

Riley just stared at her companion for a while, then she gave Eryx a slow nod.

Between Eryx and a crowd of dead, vengeful pirates, she knew whose side she’d rather take. Between certain death and probable death, the choice was obvious. If what came after was worse, they would figure it out then. Together. Her eyes lingered on Eryx. They were in this together.

Maybe Patch was right. Maybe something had changed, after all.

She tried not to think about Alaric’s words when they walked back in the room, about his certainty there were far worse afterlives than this one, how denying the ghosts their hunger for revenge might set them off.

“They’re still my crew,” Eryx said softly. “I don’t want them to die. I’m not doing this.”

Eyes widened, mouths hung open. Alaric controlled his shock better, though a twitch of his lips made Riley think he was pleased. Which was odd . Riley schooled her features before the captain’s eyes settled on her.

“And you?” he asked.

Riley swallowed. Then she shook her head slowly, more sure of her choice by the moment. She couldn’t explain it other than a feeling. Dead people weren’t much different from living ones, and Riley knew how to read people. Something didn’t add up here.

“Impossible,” someone murmured from the crowd.

“Did they hear anything we said?”

“What’s wrong with them?”

“They’re fucking mad.”

Alaric held his hand up, and the murmurs stopped.

He approached Riley and Eryx, his expression not betraying anything.

He turned to Riley, and she forced herself to stand still as his hand rose and he pressed his fingers to her forehead.

Something heavy slipped into her pocket.

Everything went quiet. Everything went dark.

Only his voice echoed.

“Tell Sable I’m sorry. Tell her to move on.”