Page 113 of A Yulean Sister’s Guide to Getting Kidnapped

“Okay, I’ll⁠—”

“Alone,” she asserted.

“No one goes alone,” I reiterated my own rule.

“I won’t be alone,” she said. “I’m sure plenty of people from the ship will be there. I just need time.”

I wanted to do nothing more than argue, but what could I say? I’d made this bed, and had to lie in it.

“Fine, but I won’t go far. And stay there.”

With that assurance, I dropped her at the Traveler’s Inn and coiled outside like an idiot.

I slithered a few rows down until I found a small cafe still opened. I’m sure it wouldn’t be for long, but I could get something to drink and it was better than being posted up in front of the inn like a creep.

After ordering a pastry I planned to only pick at and a coffee, I sat at the window, watching the bustling town drift by me. I felt pathetic, but there wasn’t much I could do to fix it. At least not until she was ready to talk.

What if she was never ready?

I shut that voice in my head off. Thinking that way wouldn’t help anything.

Just as I was considering where I would move to next, a large figure in a waistcoat blew by the window, one I’d recognize anywhere.

I grabbed my cup, leaving the pastry, and bolted out the door.

“Bramwell,” I called.

Luckily my voice reached, and he came screeching to a halt, turning around. He ran to me, which I’d almost never seen him do.

“Adrian,” he said, out of breath.

“What happened?” At this rate I expected the ship to be underwater.

“I found it,” he said. “I know where the necklace came from.”

Chapter 39

Sage

“Another,” I said to the bartender, waving my glass. I was three glasses into whatever sweet mead they had on tap and feeling much, much better.

I wasn’t usually a big drinker, and I especially wasn’t one for something so strong, but tonight I deserved it. I deserved to stop… thinking. I just wanted a little while where I didn’t have to think at all. And the alcohol always quieted that little voice in the back of my brain that would send me spiraling.

“Ye want some water with that?” the bartender asked.

“I’m fine,” I said, taking my now full glass back.

“It wasn’t really a request,” he said, dropping another glass next to me. “Drink.”

I rolled my eyes. I didn’t need to listen to him, or anyone. I used to listen to Adrian, but he was lyinggggg to me.

Damn, okay, maybe I did need the water.

I took a few sips, going slow so I didn’t get nauseous. That would really kill my buzz.

Someone came up beside me to order a drink. I didn’t think much of it, until I did a double take and realized I recognized that head of blonde hair.

“Octavio?” I said.