Page 122 of A Yulean Sister’s Guide to Getting Kidnapped

“Getting her back is the plan,” I said. “There’s no way there’s more people on that ship then there is of us.” It was too small, and I couldn’t wait to make a plan. I had no clue what their plan was with her, but if they were on a ship, it was obvious they planned to move. This wasn’t how I normally operated. I always liked to go in with a strategy, but waiting even a minute could mean the ship would leave, and it would take us much longer to sail off than it would this thing.

I was up on the deck quickly, lifting myself right over the edge of the small vessel.

It took my brain a moment to understand what I was seeing. Sage was there, tied up, being held by Coltar.

My best friend who died four years ago.

At least I thought.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“Long time no see,” he said to me and Bramwell, who looked just as shocked. “You don’t look too happy about our little reunion.”

My heart pounded out of my chest, the sound of water rushing through my ears.

“You’re alive?”

“Seems pretty obvious, yeah?”

“B-but how. We found you.”

He shook his head. “You found our dear Octavio.”

Then, in front of my eyes, Coltar shifted, getting taller, and blonde.

Turning himself into Octavio.

“Or maybe you like me like this better.”

And again he shifted, this time into the man who hired me for this job. I was fucking stunned.

“But why?”

His face turned to an ugly sneer. “Because you took everything from me!”

I knew he felt like that, but I hoped after a couple months he’d moved on. It had seemed like it. “I didn’t take anything from you, I didn’t make the decision.”

“You could have! We were the only ones who knew. And you knew it was my right.”

“It was Tungesten’s decision.”

“That old man didn’t know shit,” he said, turning back into himself. “He cared more about morals than he did treasure.”

“That’s how it should be.”

“And you’re just like him.” He squeezed Sage’s arm painfully, based on her flinch.

I moved to bolt forward, grabbing my rapier from my side, but Coltar moved too, brandishing a dagger that he pressed against her neck.

“Not so fast,” he said. Sage hissed, and I froze, locked in place. “A very easy way to get the necklace I want is to take it right off her pretty head, don’t you think?”

“Don’t hurt her,” I said, teeth gritted.

Coltar latched onto my care. “You two?” he said, gesturing between us with the blade.

“Oh, what a fucking laugh,” he started cackling manically. “Truly, I’m almost brought to tears. This would never work, not in a million fucking years.”

I stared at my old friend. It was his face and his flesh, but this was not who he was. I don’t know what happened to him, if it was years of living as someone else, or all the resentment he held for me so long that corroded him, but this was someone I didn’t know.