Page 79 of A Yulean Sister’s Guide to Getting Kidnapped

Chapter 27

Sage

Ilay in the already familiar bed, letting myself wrap my arms around one of his pillows. I was feeling much better after being… squeezed so hard. It was still a puzzling concept to wrap my head around, that it worked so well, but it was almost a shock, one that kept me grounded enough to come back to myself.

I’d tried so many things, since this had been an issue for some time, all with varying degrees of success. But that felt pretty instantaneous. I would need to find something to replicate the feeling. Obviously I couldn’t rely on Shadowhart to do that all the time. Eventually I would go home. I had to.

Though I couldn’t help feeling saddened by the thought. It was… nice to feel so needed here. I thought of the whole stack of garments I had piled up in my room, and the smile on everyone’s face when I returned them fixed. I’d given Bee back a pair of pants with giant holes in each knee that I patched with a purple floral pattern. I thought it added a bit of charm to the whole thing, and they agreed, stating how cool and custom they looked. They wore those pants all the time now.

I would miss that feeling of being wanted like this. Maybe I could do something like that in the castle, but everyone there had their own custom tailor, no need for me.

The door snapped open, Shadowhart’s form filling the space. He was a bit breathless, like he’d been running—or whatever the snake-like equivalent was. The first couple buttons of his shirt were left distractingly open. My eyes ran down the slip of brown skin that was exposed, showing off a bit of his collarbone, and some chest before closing to the next button. Have I ever found someone’s collarbones attractive before? Either way, I was thinking that now.

“Everything okay?” I asked.

He nodded, “For now. There needs to be more assessments, but there’s nothing to be done until we know more.”

“And… the ship isn’t going to sink?” I felt silly for asking that. He obviously wouldn’t be here with me if that were the case, but until I heard the words, my brain wouldn’t stop.

“No,” he said seriously. “There’s a single minor breech in the hull, and it was easily patched. Everything is okay.”

I relaxed. When I asked obvious questions like that, I was often brushed off, as if I was just being silly, but he took it seriously. Making me feel comfortable in an instant.

“Thank you,” I said, more for the way he acted than his actual response.

“Of course.”

He sank down next to me in his bed, pulling off his hat and setting it on his lap, looking down at it. I glanced at it with him. It was worn, but looked sturdy. The leather had some thin spots, mostly where someone would pick it up to take it off their head. Some of the stitching on the edges were coming apart.

“Where did you get that?” I asked.

“The hat?”

I nodded.

“The previous Captain Shadowhart.”

I scrunched my brow. “What do you mean?”

“The Violet Ghost has had a Captain Shadowhart for generations,” he said. “Passed from one pirate down to the next.”

“I see, and who decides that?”

“The predecessor.” He looked longing for a moment. “It wasn’t supposed to be me.”

“It wasn’t?”

He shook his head. His fingers rounded the outside of the hat as he spoke. “It was meant to be Coltar, at least we thought. He had trained closely with Tungesten, much longer than I ever did.” It took him a moment to finish. “But that’s not what happened. When Tungesten was found dead, and his will was read, he’d left it all to me.”

“That was the previous Captain Shadowhart?” I deduced.

He nodded.

“I think that means he saw something in you,” I said carefully. “He knew what a good leader you would be.”

“I think I’m alright most days,” he said, laughing a bit at his self-criticism.

“You’re great most days,” I told him. “Everyone on this ship has nothing but respect for you. And not that fake respect created through fear, either.”