Page 87 of A Reckless Indulgence

Tidus stole it.

“Don’t be sad, kid.” Tidus lifts the map to the flame and lets it catch. “All your hard work paid off. She was right where you said she’d be.”

Cav grits his teeth to fight his panic. “Where is she? What did you do to her?”

“Easy…” Tidus clicks his tongue. “So impatient for someone who took their sweet time getting here.” He carries the candle to a work table along the wall without any hurry in his movements.

“Look,” Cav tries, “I don’t know what you want, but whatever it is, I’ll get it. I just need to see her —”

Tidus lifts two pinched fingers in the air. “What’s this?”

Even when Cav squints, he can’t make out what Tidus is holding. Only when Tidus lowers it near the candle does the light catch on it. It’s a small object, milky white reflecting the flame in its glossy sheen.

“A — pearl?” Cav guesses. “What does that have to do —”

“Good,” Tidus hums. “Now, what does it do?”

Cav scoffs helplessly. What the fuck does that mean? He tries to think of an answer, any answer, but his mind is blank.

Tidus crouches to set the candle on the floor. He’s closer to the open boat bays than Cav realized. Docking loops line the platform, and sodden ropes trail off of them into the dark patch of water.

One of the ropes looks fresh. It’s knotted around a metal loop, but it stretches toward the ceiling and disappears into the dark, like it’s hoisting something off the ground.

Tidus nudges the candle beneath the rope.

Cav’s claws dig into his palms. “I don’t know what you’re asking. Where is Lyx? Where —”

Unhurried, Tidus tilts the candle. Flames lap around the knot.

Cav’s eyes jerk toward the rafters, but he can’t make out anything. No movement. No motion. Nothing but an overwhelming dark that saturates everything.

His stomach roils. “What do you want?”

“The answer.”

“I don’t know!” Cav shouts. Blood pulses through him. His body itches to move, to knock Tidus into the water, to do something. His weight shifts onto the balls of his feet —

Tidus yanks a pistol from the back of his waistband. “Stay right fucking there.”

Cav’s body jerks to a halt. His calves spasm, but his feet root in place like he’s nailed to the floor. He doesn’t want to stop. He wants to move, he wants to —

Light glows beneath Tidus’s shirt. For a merciful moment, Cav thinks the fire has sparked onto his clothing, but the flame is still eating away at the rope. One of the strands snaps, springing apart and jolting something near the ceiling.

Cav strains to make it out. When the shape sinks lower, he sees Lyx trapped in a fishing net. It digs into her legs, pulling tight around her body to keep her arms trapped. She struggles to move, eyes wide and screams muffled by the rag bound around her head. It pulls tight across her neck and gills. Attached to her feet is a bag filled with rocks swaying threateningly over the ten-foot drop.

Fear sinks its teeth into Cav. When the candle burns through the rope, Lyx will plummet into the water. Her body will transform and tangle in the netting while her gills are smothered by the wet rag. The rocks will drag her to the bottom of the sea and keep her there.

She’ll drown.

“Got your attention now, huh?” Tidus smirks, but it’s short-lived. Impatience fills his eyes again. “Heathen has a stash of these pearls on the Indulgence.” He leans down to blow on the fire lapping at the rope. “They must be for something.”

“I don’t know!” Cav’s breath notches in his chest. He has to save Lyx, but it’s like he can’t move. He can’t answer Tidus’s impossible questions. He can’t do anything. “I don’t know what the pearls are for!”

Tidus lifts the candle. “Time’s ticking.”

“I don’t!” Cav’s heart lodges in his throat until it’s suffocating. There has to be a way to save her. To stop this. He scrambles for anything. “But I know where Heathen’s taking them!”

Tidus’s pupils spread like ink. “Tell me.”