I wanted to hit him. “Why is my name on the deed?”
West sighed, exasperated. “I don’t want it in my name if…” He didn’t finish.
“If what?” I leveled my eyes at him.
“If something happens to me and the ship is in my name, ownership would fall to the Trade Council until the crew could pay to have the ownership transferred. If you own it, that won’t happen.”
Tears burned behind my eyes until the sight of him wavered. “So you’re just going to go work for Holland. Do whatever she tells you.”
“I’ll do what I have to do.” He gave me the words I’d made him promise the night before.
“That’s not what I meant. You know that’s not what I meant.”
He had no reply to that.
“How could you do this?” I said hoarsely.
I started walking, but West’s heavy footsteps echoed behind me. He caught my arm, pulling me back. “I’m not going back to the Narrows without you.”
I could see that he wasn’t going to concede. And he couldn’t now, anyway. He’d signed the contract. But West was already haunted. His soul was dark. And I didn’t want to know who he would be if he spent two more years doing someone else’s dirty work.
I could feel it. If I lost to Holland at the Trade Council meeting, I would lose West.
“You won’t have to. Neither will I,” I said, a tear falling down my cheek.
“What?”
“I signed one, too.”
“Why? How?”
“For Saint.” I stared at him. “Now we all get what we want. You, me. Holland.” I almost laughed at how ridiculous it all was.
West let out a heavy breath, looking past me. His mind was reeling. Looking for a way out.
“You can’t keep trying to take control of everything. You can’t save everyone, West.”
But he didn’t know how to stay out of it.
I shook my head, starting down the hill without him.
Now it wasn’t just my fate in Henrik’s hands. It was West’s, too.
THIRTY-SIX
Leith Tavern sat at the end of Linden Street, bustling with people coming and going from the merchant’s house before the closing bell rang out over the village.
West kept watch while I looked through the window, searching for a head of dark, shorn hair. The worst thing that could happen was Holland finding out we were meeting with one of the Roths. If she did, we’d all find ourselves sunk in the harbor, blood or no blood.
If the Roths made good on the deal, it would destroy Holland’s operation in Bastian. It wasn’t only the Narrows-based traders who stood to benefit. Holland controlled more than the gem trade with her wealth, leaning on the guilds for whatever she needed because she was the only one with the power to return those kinds of favors. But she was also likely the main source of revenue for the Roths, and they stood to lose if she fell from her throne.
I could only hope that what they could gain would outweigh what they could lose.
“He’ll show,” West said, watching the way I fidgeted with the button on my jacket.
“I know,” I said coldly. But I wasn’t sure of anything, especially after what Saint had said about there being a fifty-fifty chance. His words gave me the same sinking feeling I had when sailing straight into a storm. I didn’t know if we were coming out the other side.
“Fable.” West waited for me to tear my eyes from the window and look at him.
But all I could think about was his name on Holland’s contract. How I hadn’t even seen it coming. West hadn’t just kept me in the dark. He’d played me. “Don’t,” I said, going back to the window.
The tables and booths inside were filled with people. I pressed my hand to the glass, searching for Ezra again.
West tugged on the sleeve of my jacket, his gaze pinned to the end of the alley, where four or five figures stood in the shadows.
“It’s him,” West said lowly.
I followed the wall of the tavern until I could make him out. Ezra watched me from beneath the hood of his jacket, his scarred hands the only bit of him visible. When I stopped before him, the others stepped out of the dark, lining up at his sides. Three other young men and one girl, none of their faces ones I recognized. The young boy Henrik had called Tru was with them, too. He was dressed in a fine jacket with a gold watch chain tucked into its pocket.