CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Nightmares

     The job came from a poor family who had saved up their wages for years to pay for it. They lived in the countryside of Kerch, but the mother traveled alone to Ketterdam to wait for the two most infamous ships to dock in one of the harbors.

She had been a sickly woman, her skin pulled taut over her bones, her face pale and malnourished. Estelle was grateful that she didn't have to see the state of the rest of them.

She hadn't talked much. The only real thing she had to offer was the money and a formal proposition that described everything the job entailed. Even though she hadn't looked like much, she had the look of revenge in her eyes, hungry for vengeance.

Many years ago, before she had a husband and children, the woman made a deal with an investor. She knew how to weave beautiful designs and the investor could help out with getting the word out and making more money.

He had lied. The investor stole the money the woman made and ran off, leaving the woman's prosperous family without any. Their provisions ran out, they had to sell their house and soon, they began a life of living in a wagon.

She wanted everything to be taken away from him.

She wanted what was rightfully hers.

So she hired Nikolai and Estelle. How they did it was entirely up to them, but she wanted the money that was hers. Anything else they found they could keep.

Now, an offer like this was...a rarity. She'd already paid them and then told them that they could take anything they wanted that wasn't hers when they got there. And she'd hired two pirates. Privateers, as Nikolai preferred.

Naturally, Nikolai saw no reason to delay the job. Estelle, however, still had questions.

"You don't want him dead?" she wondered. "Most people do."

"And those are the jobs you usually turn down," the woman replied seamlessly. "I don't care what you do with him, I just want my money. My children, my husband, they're starving. We won't last much longer without food or proper water."

Estelle stared into her eyes, leaning forward in the crowded bar. "Why didn't you go to the Merchant Council about this?"

"I did," she said, eyes blazing with resentment. "They didn't believe me. Said he earned the money by rightfully investing in businesses and I just had a bad season while he had multiple places he invested in. I simply got the bad end of the barrel."

"But this investor pulled the trigger," Nikolai jumped in. "I'm sure they believed it was Ghezen instead."

She nodded. "They did. Said it was his will to be done."

Nikolai scoffed. "Right. I'm sure." He inhaled and stood up, his chair scraping against the wooden floor. "Well, we must get going if we're to bring this guy's empire down."

At his outstretched hand, she handed him a small bag of jingling coins. Ravkan money.

Estelle frowned. "That's Ravkan. Where did you get that?" Kerch didn't use coins, they used bills.

"I traded my kruge for Ravkan coins. Figured you both would appreciate it," she shrugged.

Nikolai gave her a cheeky grin. "And appreciate it we will." He turned around and began weaving through the busy crowds to get to the door. Estelle quickly hurried after him.

Everything after that went well. They found the investor quickly and devised a plan to bring him down. It would take about a month of work to infiltrate and take down his empire from the inside.

Until one night. Then it went all wrong.

Estelle didn't even remember why they were in his office. His hair stuck to her forehead, stress sweat on his face glistening in the lantern light. He was trying to salvage what was crumbling in between his fingers. Estelle didn't remember what they'd done to bring him down. But she remembered everything that went down in that office.

He didn't look up when Nikolai and Estelle walked in. They stood in front of the door for a few moments, waiting, before Nikolai cleared his throat to get the investor's attention.

Quickly, his head snapped up and he sighed. "Sorry. I'm very busy. Did you make an appointment?"

"Yes, it's now," Nikolai told him. "Don't you remember?"

He exhaled, eyes wide. "Oh, Saints, I did. I'm sorry, I've just been buried from head to toe in work lately. I apologize." He set aside the papers that he was going over furiously just moments before and combed his hair in an attempt to look presentable. "What can I help you two with?"

Estelle and Nikolai exchanged a glance. This was it.

He nodded at her. I have your back, he'd told her just before they walked in. No matter what happens.

And there was only one way this could go. They threaten him, he caves in, the money goes back to the woman and they get the rest.

Estelle put on a smile and she sauntered toward the desk, file in hand. "Mr Jeekeh, we would like you to take a look at this and tell us what you see." She placed the file down on his desk and turned it around. She slid it across the wood towards him.

He eyed them, but flipped it open to scan the information given. With each new paper, his eyes widened and he frowned, confused.

"How did you get this?" he demanded, flipping through it all. "My records. They're—"

"Have you ever wondered if anyone decided to take a deep dive into your financial history?" Nikolai wondered, interrupting him. He joined Estelle in front of the desk and sat down on a chair, spreading out as if he owned the place. "And what they would find? They would find an increase in your sums four years ago, then you left the place that you were at before, deciding to use that stolen money to create a business."

His eyes bulged and a vein popped out of his forehead. "You can't prove anything."

Estelle chuckled, sitting in the chair next to Nikolai's. "We rather think we can. All of that right there, that's the proof."

"And that seems like plenty, doesn't it?" added Nikolai with a smirk.

The man in front of them grabbed the papers and ripped them up, placing them in the garbage can before pouring his coffee on it. "Not anymore." He pulled out a gun and pointed it at Nikolai. "You have nothing."

Nikolai grinned, unfazed. "Did you really think we'd come in here with just one copy? We have multiple copies of that information, ready to be sent out if we don't make it out of here alive. And do you want to know who it will be sent to?"

He eyed Nikolai. "Who?"

"The Merchant Council," Estelle answered. "A few others, as well, but the Merchant Council will throw you in Hellgate and never let you out." She looked over at Nikolai. "How much do you want to bet he won't last the first month?"

"First month?" he asked. "I'd say first week."

The man sputtered. "Excuse me, I'm right here!"

"That was the point," Estelle said. "Did you really think we forgot that you were in the room? The whole reason for that was to rile you up. And it worked."

He spewed, angry. "What do you want?"

"It's simple, really." Nikolai leaned forward in the chair. "We want you to give back what's owed to the people you stole from."

"You were hired?" he guessed.

"We were," confirmed Nikolai. "Now, we expect to find this place and all your money abandoned in an hour when we come back to collect it all. If you even try to take some, we will know." His face darkened as he continued to talk. "We will hunt you down if you do, and in front of your family, we'll cut off your hands as a reminder not to take what isn't owed to you."

Estelle rarely saw this side of him, but when she did, it was odd. It was like seeing through a lense to an alternate world where Nikolai was the cruel pirate who did anything for money.

But it was gone before she knew it. He stood up again, signaling to Estelle for them to leave. She followed suit, glancing back one more time. The gun was still in his hand, but it was at his side.

Then, something settled in his expression. Resolve, determination. A fight-or-flight response.

"If I'm going down, I'm taking you with me."

Estelle spun around fully, her brain registering his hand raising to point the gun at them again, a face devoid of remorse aiming it. But it wasn't pointed at her.

It was aimed towards Nikolai.

Her eyes widened. No.

She couldn't think of anything else to do. Estelle pushed Nikolai aside and starlight flew into the office. It was so bright that Estelle almost had to close her eyes, but she gritted her teeth and made it brighter, calling more of the light.

The man screamed at the burning feeling in his eyes. Had he fired the gun? Estelle couldn't see Nikolai. Was he okay?

Then another thought went off in her mind. This was nothing more than a painful light show. This man would recover and tell everyone of the Star Summoner who'd tried to kill him. The Darkling would be on her tail again.

She couldn't let that happen. She wouldn't.

A power she'd never felt before began to grow, turning into something sharp, deadly. The Cut. The Darkling had demonstrated it only once before, but he never explained how to use it.

She learned how to wield it herself once she was away from Ravka.

Estelle was going to end this man, and with him, the rumors and stories that would come with him.

But what was she thinking?

She was about to kill someone.

All to get away from the Darkling.

At the last minute, Estelle steered the Cut just to the right of the man and sent it before it could get him.

But something much worse happened.

The open door had been split in half. There was something behind it.

Someone.

A child, the man's child, his chest had been slashed, the Cut held back only slightly by the door. He gurgled, blood spilling out of his mouth. He couldn't have been more than five years old.

This was her fault. The broken body of a boy that she held in her arms, the burned-out eyes of the conman, it was all her.

When Nikolai tried to get her up, she refused. When Nikolai tried to get her to forgive herself, she refused. When Ana asked what happened, she refused. Only her and Nikolai knew what happened that night.

Even as he washed the blood from her skin, even as he hugged her through her nightmares for nights to come, even as she sailed away on her own ship without him, he didn't say a word about it. Maybe it was shock, maybe he didn't want to trigger anything.

Even through it all, she didn't forgive herself. She didn't forget. And the nightmares kept on coming. His broken body, surrounded by blood, like a rose whose petals had all fallen off.

Estelle awoke screaming again.

a/n— Um...yeah. I'm gonna do a double update because I'm not gonna be able to post next week, I'll be at a sleepaway camp! Love y'all <3