She leapt gracefully to the deck, sauntering around the bound Picaroon, her arms held out to her sides as if luxuriating in the wind’s caress.
The Captain swaggered across the deck, scratching his beard as he glared at the captive. “Brother. You’ll be relieved to know your little protégé survived. Only, Dagon didn’t take her. The night god did. I don’t suppose she’ll need you as her knight in shining armor, now.”
The bound man’s eyes lingered on Fiona, but he didn’t say a word.
“Set him free,” said the Captain.
A pale, lanky man wearing a leather satchel strode over. “Are you sure, Captain?”
“He’s my brother.” The Captain’s voice was like gravel. “He’ll always be loyal to me. Fiona? She remains unproven. She’s not really one of Dagon’s.” A man with dark skin and dreadlocks freed the captive as the Captain approached Fiona, grasping her shoulders.
The Captain approached her, grasping her shoulders. “Fiona is bound to a different god. Our gods are allied, so maybe she’ll be loyal to us. But I spied on her when she left our ship that night. The sea is my scrying glass, you know.”
“And where did she go?” asked the lanky one.
“To see a fire demon. One of Emerazel’s followers. In fact, she was quite friendly with him.”
Lanky circled Fiona. “She consorts with the light gods. What if she betrays Dagon?”
The Captain smiled. “I have a simple enough solution for that. I know how the little bat can prove her loyalty.”
Only the slight tilt of Fiona’s head suggested that she had any interest in this conversation.
“We’re going to make a trip to Dogtown,” he continued. “We’re going to find the fire demon, and Fiona is going to use her new powers to destroy him.”
Fiona’s smile was cold and lethal.
A strange sort of relief washed over Tobias. He had only one day to live, and now he knew how he was going to die. He had to do nothing, only wait for Fiona to find him. His executioner would come, beautiful and terrifying.
49
Celia
The fire burned warm in Mariana’s room. The whole house reeked of that woman’s hairspray, and it was a wonder the entire place didn’t go up in flames every time someone lit a match. Celia glanced out at the cloudy night sky. It was nearly impossible to see anything in Dogtown when the skies were dark.
It was unbearable living in the same house as Oswald when they barely spoke, when that kiss had knocked her world upside down while he, as far as she knew, didn’t even care. Maybe he’d just been messing with her head after she’d pulled her stupid seduction move in training. She needed to stop thinking about him. She was pretty sure he came from a family of criminals, and it was absurd to think they’d make a good match.
She turned to her friends, who warmed their hands before the flames. “Tobias hasn’t been around as much lately.”
“It must mess with his head,” said Alan. “Knowing he could end up in eternal flames if he doesn’t figure something out. I want to help him, but I have no clue how.”
Celia joined them in front of the fireplace. “I think Estelle knows more than she’s letting on. Oswald and I spied on her. She gets some kind of visions from that cauldron of hers. We saw her ask about Tobias’s curse and get an answer.”
Mariana stared into the flames. “So what did she see?”
Celia shrugged. “That, I don’t know. I told Tobias to ask her. But I feel like we need a powerful philosopher to help us. Someone who’s been learning about all this stuff for years. Someone like…”
“Jack?” asked Alan. “Too bad the Fury ate him. Taste of his own medicine, I guess.”
“He’d be lucky if the Fury ate him,” muttered Mariana.
“Better than being left with the Purgators.”Alan wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and she leaned into him.
Interesting, Celia mused. Apparently they’d been spending a lot of time together. She took a deep breath, warily surveying her friend. “You still haven’t told me what exactly happened to you there.”
Mariana jiggled her leg nervously. “You sure you want to know?”
She nodded.
Mariana bit her lip. “They kept me in a box most of the time. A small box with holes in it, so they could stick needles through. They wanted me to give up names of other witches. Sometimes they’d take me out and hold my head under water so it felt like I was drowning. Other times, they’d take me in front of a fire and tell me they’d burn me. They said it wasn’t torture unless it left permanent marks.” She swallowed hard. “They made me watch Connor burn. After that, I was in the box again. This time, it was with venomous spiders. Black widows. They bit me, poisoning my blood, burning me from the inside out with their venom until I thought I was going to die from the pain. That’s when Fiona found me.”