At that, Zane slackened, hardly believing Sentra’s willingness to admit it. “I know,” he said and angled his head. “But why are you telling me? You don’t care about me.”

But a dangerous smirk found her mouth. “No, Steelheart. No one cares about you.” Zane flinched as her finger came up to poke his coat. “Tigris discovered that your weakness is your anger. It’s how he was able to get your mother and crew to turn over your birthright.”

Zane clenched his jaw. “So?”

“So, you and I are the same. I’m horrid and mean and vengeful,” she said. “And my spirit repels people. Perhaps you’d like to feed this crew to me and my father? Perhaps you’d like to donate this magnificent ship to our fleet and help me rule another crew at my father’s side?” She pursed her large lips. “Your mother is a cunning ashworm with her deals. But I know you can make deals too.”

“How do you know that?”

“How did you escape the octosiren?”

Zane’s jaw slid back and forth.

Sentra’s unusual eyes kept her from being truly beautiful, but she was confident, and for the first time, Zane saw it as something to be admired. Something he might use to hurt those who had wronged him—starting with his mother. And then Tigris.

“It is a sad day on the Winter snowseas when a mother turns on her own child.” Sentra dropped her hand and levelled her onyx eyes on him again. “My father says we cannot trust someone willing to turn on their own offspring. It means they will turn on anyone if the price is right. And I’m inclined to agree.”

“I could kill the octosiren,” Zane considered. “I could win back the favour of my crew. Take them out from under my mother’s rule.”

But Sentra let out an unfeminine grunt. “Your mother fed you to that octosiren in the first place. If you can’t admit that to yourself, Steelheart, maybe you deserve to die in that beautiful monster’s jaws.”

With that, the enemy pirate turned and sauntered over the sunlit deck, her layers of skirts fanning out with the sea wind. Zane clenched his molars.

Only Sentra would consider the grotesque octosiren to be a beautiful thing.

“I’ll be back in ten days plus one to hear your answer.” She glanced back in warning. “Don’t go anywhere, Steelheart.”

Zane’s face changed. That had felt like a threat.

But Sentra paused to stare up at the skies. “And those birds…” she grimaced. Zane glanced up, noticing how many white creatures circled above their ship. Some had landed on the rails—he hadn’t noticed while he had been napping. Sentra’s black eyes dropped back down to him curiously. “They’re watching you,” she stated.