kind of trouble. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that the reason my mother hadn’t told me about Holland was because she didn’t want to be found. That maybe, Isolde had been afraid of her.
“I didn’t know she had a daughter until I got a message from Zola. I didn’t believe him, but then…” She drew a breath. “Then I saw you.”
I looked again to the portrait of my mother, measuring myself against it. It was like looking in a mirror, except that there was something gentle about her. Something untouched. Her eyes seemed to follow me about the room, never leaving me.
“Did she tell you where she got your name?” Holland said, breaking me from the thought.
“No. She didn’t.”
“Fable’s Skerry,” she said, walking back to the desk. She moved a pile of books, revealing a map of the Bastian coast painted onto the desktop. She ran a finger along the jagged edge of the land, dragging it into the water to what looked like a tiny island. “This was her hiding place when she wanted to get away from me.” She laughed, but it was faintly bitter. “The lighthouse on Fable’s Skerry.”
“A lighthouse?”
She nodded. “She was no more than eight or nine when she started disappearing for entire days. Then she’d reappear out of nowhere as if nothing had happened. It took almost two years for us to figure out where she was going.”
My chest felt tight, making my heart skip. I didn’t like that this woman, a stranger, knew so much about my mother. I didn’t like that she knew more than I did.
“How did she die?” Holland said suddenly, and the look in her eye turned apprehensive. As if she’d had to summon up the courage to ask.
“Storm,” I said. “She drowned in Tempest Snare.”
Holland blinked, letting out the breath she’d been holding. “I see.” There was a long silence before she spoke again. “I lost track of Isolde for years after she left Zola’s crew. I didn’t hear that she’d died on the Lark until a year ago.”
“That’s why you want Saint?”
“It’s one reason,” she corrected.
I didn’t know what she knew about Saint and Isolde, but there’d been a stone in my stomach since that morning, when she’d said his name. If Holland wanted Saint dead, it was likely that she’d get what she wanted. And that thought made me feel as if I were sinking, no air in my lungs, watching the surface light pull farther away above me.
West had made it clear that Saint would have to fend for himself, but even if she didn’t kill him, Saint would die before he let her take his trade. It didn’t matter what had happened four years ago, or that night on the Lark. It didn’t matter what had happened the day he left me on Jeval. The moment he handed me that map of the Snare, or the morning I fleeced him with my mother’s necklace. Everything focused in clear, crisp colors.
Saint was a bastard, but he was mine. He belonged to me. And even more unbelievable, I really did love him.
“I changed my mind.” I spoke before I could think better of it.
Holland arched an eyebrow as she looked up at me. “Reconsidering my offer?”
I bit down on my lip, the vision of Saint at his desk resurfacing. The hazy, dim light. The glass of rye in his hand. The smell of pipe smoke as he looked over his ledgers. I took a step toward her. “I want to make a deal.”
She leaned closer, smirking. “I’m listening.”
“I wasn’t lying when I said that Isolde never told me about the midnight. But I know you’re still looking for it.” I glanced up to the maps. “And I know I can find it.”
That made her quiet. There was a sudden stillness in her, pulling the shadows from the room into her eyes. “I’ve had crews looking for that cache for years. What makes you think you can find it?”
“Dredging isn’t the only thing my mother taught me.”
She didn’t look the least bit surprised. “So, you are a gem sage. I was wondering about that.”
“You could have just asked.”
She half-laughed. “I suppose you’re right.” She stood from the chair, coming around the corner of the desk. “You said you want to make a deal. What do you want from me?”
“Your word.” I met her eyes. “If I find the midnight for you, you leave Saint alone.”
That seemed to catch her off guard. Her eyes narrowed. “Why? What