“During my exhaustive search for you, I found some old acquaintances of Edric Sharp. One fellow knew another fellow and so on. I followed the trail. The man who designed your compass died years ago, but I had an interesting conversation with his son. The lad didn’t take up his father’s skill, but he remembered some of the unusual techniques.”

My heart hammered so hard I thought it might burst from my chest. “Did you tell him about my compass?”

“No, I would never risk that. But he mentioned that all his father’s instruments required two things. One, a physical key.” His gaze shifted to my throat.

My hand leaped to the jade stone I wore there, my fingers tracing the serrated cuts on the surface. Shaped like a thumb and half as narrow, it resembled a key. I always thought it could be the key, but it didn’t fit anywhere on the compass.

“No keyhole, remember?” I dropped my hand, taking my hopes with it.

“The notch will reveal itself if given the correct combination of movements. That’s the second requirement. Every instrument was built with a key and a list of verbal instructions. Something to hide on your body and something to hide in your mind. The lad’s words.”

When my father had given me the instrument, he’d said, Start and end north.

The devil knew how many times I tried that combination of movements over the years, rotating the compass over and over. Nothing had happened.

“Did he teach you any songs?” Priest asked.

Yes. A lot of songs. Most of them chants that narrated the maritime tasks of sailors. I couldn’t possibly remember them all. If the answer was in one of those, how could my father have expected me to know which verse held a secret meaning?

He wouldn’t have.

What if this was just another of Priest’s manipulations? With my body buzzing from orgasm and the flavor of his lips upon my tongue, what better way to distract me from torture than to tease me with hope about my compass?

I’d come down here to learn the truth, and he didn’t want me to leave. Leaving meant I would return with another man.

He was smart enough to steal my compass and earn passage aboard my ship. Cunning enough to hold it hostage as a guaranteed ticket to remain on board. Persuasive enough to send me out of here less satisfied, less certain, every damn time.

He was always ten steps ahead of me.

I couldn’t dismiss the information he’d shared about the compass, but there was naught I could do about it until I held it in my possession again.

“I’ll be back with Reynolds.” I didn’t spare him or his blistered hands another glance as I climbed the ladder and pushed open the hatch.