a moment for me to place the look on West’s face. It was disbelief. “What the hell were you thinking?”
I didn’t have an answer to that. Not one he could understand. “I have to do this, West.”
“We agreed,” he breathed. “We agreed that we’d cut ties with him.”
“I know.” I swallowed.
He turned to the window, staring out at the sea in the distance.
“It’s in Yuri’s Constellation. I can find it.”
“What if you can’t?”
“I can. I know I can.” I tried to sound sure. “I’ll take one of her crews and—” The words cut off when he turned to look at me.
West’s silent rage filled the room around us. “I’m not leaving Bastian without you.”
“I’m not asking you to stay.” I twisted my fingers into the underdress. “Take the Marigold back to Ceros and I’ll meet you.”
He took the jacket from where it was hung on the back of the chair and slipped his arms into the sleeves. “When you made that deal, you made it for both of us.”
I’d been afraid he would say that. It’s exactly what I would have said if West had done the same thing. But the crew would never agree. He’d be outvoted before he even finished telling them what I’d done. “West, I’m sorry.”
He went still, searching my eyes. “Tell me all of this has nothing to do with what I told you last night.”
“What?”
He sucked in his bottom lip. “I think you agreed to this deal because you’re not sure you want to come back to the Narrows.”
“The Narrows is my home, West. I’m telling you the truth. This is about me and Saint. Nothing else.”
He muttered something under his breath as he buttoned his collar.
“What? What are you thinking?”
“I don’t think you want to know what I’m thinking,” he said lowly.
“I do.”
He hesitated, letting a long silence stretch out between us before he finally answered, “I’m thinking that I was right.”
“Right about what?”
A bit of red bloomed beneath his skin. “When you asked me to take you onto this crew, I told you that if you had to choose between us and Saint, that you would choose him.”
My mouth dropped open, a small sound escaping my throat. “That’s not what’s happening, West.”
“Isn’t it?” His eyes were cold when they lifted to meet mine.
I recoiled, the words cutting deep.
“I’m not choosing him over you,” I said again, louder. Angrier. “If it was Willa, you’d do the same thing.”
“Saint’s not Willa,” he shot back. He was rigid, still slightly turned away from me. “He left you, Fable. When you went to him in Ceros, he didn’t want you.”
“I know,” I said weakly.
“Then why are you doing this?”
I could hardly get the words out. Looking at West in that moment, it felt as if they’d lost their meaning. “I just can’t let anything happen to him.”
West stared at me, his gaze growing colder. “Look me in the eye and tell me that we are your crew. That the Marigold is your home.”
“It is,” I said, the conviction in my voice making pain erupt in my chest. I didn’t blink, willing him to believe it.
He picked up the frock from the end of the bed and handed it to me. “Then let’s go.”
TWENTY-ONE
Lamplight still glinted on the docks, reflecting in the glass of shop windows on the hill. West stayed close to me, his long strides hitting the wood planks beside mine. He’d said almost nothing since we left Azimuth House, but the air between us rang with his silence. He was angry. Furious, even.
I couldn’t blame him. He’d left the Narrows to come find me, and I’d trapped him in Holland’s net.
Clove had been enraged when I told him, too. Mostly because he was the one who’d have to deal with my father. He followed us through the narrow streets, his precious chest of coin still pinned beneath his arm. I hadn’t seen it leave his hands since Holland gave it to him.
My stomach was in knots as we stood at the entrance to the harbor and my heart jumped into my throat when the Marigold came into view.
She was beautiful, her honey-hued wood aglow in the morning light. The sea was clear and blue behind her, and the new sails were as white as fresh cream, rolled up neatly on the masts. More than once, I’d wondered if I’d ever see her again.
That same feeling I had each time I saw her at the barrier islands—deep relief—came over me, making my bottom lip tremble.