“You sound like you want me to take it.” I sank into the chair beside the window. “What is it?” I asked softly.

He was unreadable, silent for a long moment before he finally answered. “We need to talk.”

But I wasn’t sure I was ready for what he might say. “We don’t have to.”

“Yes, we do.”

“West—”

“We should talk about it before you decide.”

“I told you. I’ve already decided,” I said again.

“You might change your mind when you hear what I have to say.”

My pulse beat under my skin rapidly, my mind racing. I wasn’t sure why I suddenly felt afraid of him. Since the moment Saint told me West wasn’t who I thought he was, I’d been holding my breath. Waiting to see where the break would be between us. Maybe this was it.

“There’s more to my position with Saint than I told you. I’m sure you’ve figured that out by now.” He slid his hands into his pockets, pressing his lips together before he continued. “I was crewing as a Waterside stray on a ship. The helmsman was the one I told you about. He wasn’t a good man.”

I still remembered the way West’s face looked when he told me the helmsman had beat him in the hull of the ship.

“Our route put us in Ceros for two days every three weeks, and one night, when we made port, I went to Waterside to see Willa. When I got there, I knew something was wrong, but she wouldn’t tell me anything. I had to ask around before I found out someone who worked at the tavern was coming around while I was gone and stealing from her and my mother. Every time I left port, he would show up. He knew there was no one to stop him, and Willa didn’t tell me because she was afraid of what I would do.”

I’d seen that look on Willa’s face before, the fear of West taking matters into his own hands. That’s what she was trying to avoid when she sold her dagger to the gambit in Dern. She was trying to keep West out of it.