When Stars Become Shadows by Emmie Hamilton

Author:Emmie Hamilton [Hamilton, Emmie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781736699492
Amazon: B0B4HC2L92
Barnesnoble: B0B4HC2L92
Goodreads: 61338562
Publisher: Innulum Press
Published: 2022-07-02T05:00:00+00:00

Part Two

There is splintering in remembering.

Ashes blanketed the ground. The smell of burnt, decayed wood steeped the air through the hazy smoke still rising from the embers. I kicked my way through the debris, shoving away years of memories, of happiness, of love. Gone, in an instant. And for what? What grievous offense did my father commit that could have resulted in this?

Other than the precious seashell, there were only a few scattered coins barely visible across the uneven surface. Scraps that wouldn’t last me a day on my own. This was a calculated attack. Everyone knew it; neighbors that once would give me treats when I was a child now had their backs toward me, as if they were afraid to look or step foot on our land because then they would be hunted, too.

Standing in the graveyard of my home, I wracked my brain as I let the ghosts of my past seep their way into my body, wondering what a girl—a woman, now that my eighteenth birthday had passed—could do to survive.

Someone was after my family, that much was certain, and as soon as they found out I was still alive, they’d try to find me too. Just like the man who wanted to steal my sister and I, just like the countless creeps who leered at us as we walked to and from school, just like the men and women my father murdered for looking at us in a way he didn’t approve of.

This had to be retaliation for a deal gone wrong. I knew he was part of a drug operation, was a mule for cassov and whatever else needed transporting between ports, but…this? He was one of many of his kind and nothing on this grand scale had happened to anyone else. Not unless they fell in with the wrong boss and made a promise they couldn’t keep. And if that was the case, I needed to remain under the radar for as long as possible, at least until I figured out why anyone would be after my family.

There was only one place where a person could hide, if they knew the right people. Only one place where nothing, not even your identity mattered—only what service you could provide. The Tullyhouse in Skarsrowe. It was a tavern that serviced clients of a particular nature, usually sailormen who were known to be too rough for the girls at the brothel next door. I’d gone there once with my father and his first mate when they needed to glean information I was not privy to. The bartender there made decent coin, and that was what I needed if I wanted to barter my own information out of anyone. Or to go into hiding, which was my more immediate concern.

I hired a carriage with the only money I had and once I got to The Tullyhouse, Julian Murphy took one look at me as if I were something he could stick his meaty hands into and keep to himself, to slowly devour me as if I were a special kind of dessert on a menu for one.

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