I’m falling for her, she’s fallen for me, and the whole thing is so desperate and stupid that we’re both reduced to fits of laughter that ring out across the Minnow’s deck. We’re two trapped girls with nothing but each other on a ship of people who’d be better off with us dead, and somehow on top of that we’ve managed to do the one thing we shouldn’t be able to do.

Three months ago, Swift dragged me on this ship and I punched her in the face. And now I’m so tied to her that my heart aches at the thought of having to leave this boat. Home used to be Reckoner pens, Mom’s lab, Dad and Tom in the kitchen. But the Minnow’s taught me a truth that’s been hiding in plain sight my entire life.

Home is what you kill for.

And I killed for Swift.

But even though I want to, even though there’s an energy crackling between us right now that’s almost impossible to deny, I know we can’t do anything about this. I know how that would look. No matter how you swing it, I’m still a prisoner on this ship, and Swift is still one of my jailers. We go this far, no farther.

She catches my eye and grimaces. “Equal footing, huh?” she says, as if she’s read my mind.

I nod, knowing it crushes her, knowing it crushes me. We’re oceans away from a world where Swift doesn’t have power over me, power I can’t ignore, power I can’t afford to expose myself to. And until we stand on the same level, absolutely nothing can happen between us.

And it sucks, because all I want to do is kiss her. It’s infuriating how perfect it would be to kiss her right now, perched on a cannon on a pirate ship under the stars. That sounds like something off the pages of an adventure novel. But my life isn’t one of those stories. My story is a hurricane, and here with Swift is just the eye.

And so I stare up at the constellations she outlined and listen to the engines churning below us, the waves sliding off our bow, and somewhere under that, the gentle sound of her breathing, and let that be enough.

30

30

Santa Elena holds court the next evening.