by Anna Burke
Instead, they’d both been deceived.
The note that had accompanied the box lay smoothed across the polished desk, though creases from when she’d crumpled the hemp paper in her fist remained. She longed to burn it, shred it, eat it, anything to destroy what had been written, but she’d need the evidence to make her case.
The words had etched themselves into her retinas.
Dearest Josephine,
Find enclosed a token of my respect. If you are half the woman your daughter is, I find defeat easier to bear. Know I will take great pleasure in taking her apart.
More soon.
Yours,
Ching Shih
She would drain the ocean.
Her hand did not shake as she pulled a pad of paper from a drawer and scrawled a message of her own for later transmission to Leticia Gonzalez, admiral of Aries Station.
Leticia,
We’ve been betrayed. Ching Shih is alive, and she has my daughter. If this is not proof that mercy is weakness, I do not know what is. I should not have spared Stillwater. Once a traitor, always a traitor, and now Harper pays for my mistakes. They sent me her finger—
Her hand seized on the pen and ripped the paper. No matter. Nothing mattered except Harper.
We’ve been lenient. We’ve pandered where we should have conquered or destroyed. Drifter, pirate—anyone who isn’t us is a threat. I know we’d planned to wait before we finished things, but the time for patience is past.
She crossed the last line out. Too diplomatic.
Leticia, I will sink them all. Are you with me?
Yours,
Josephine
Acknowledgments
This book, for lack of a better phrase, kicked my ass. I would not have finished it without the continued support I received from you, dear readers. Thank you for loving Rose and her crew, and for waiting patiently for this next installment.
Big thanks, too, to the team at Bywater Books, who turn Word docs into books through some sort of sorcery, and to my cover designer, Ann McMan, who dresses up my stories and saves them from the embarrassment of wandering naked through the wilderness.
Rey and Shauntel rescued this book from itself more times than I care to admit, and occasionally rescued me from myself after receiving escalating “everything is awful and the book must die” messages. May every writer have such writer friends.
In the chaos and uncertainty that was 2020, my Patreon Patrons brought me not a ray of sunshine, but a whole damn star. This book is for you. I cannot express my gratitude deeply enough, both for your support and for the community we’ve built together.
And last but never least, Tiffany, thank you for being you.
About the Author
Anna Burke enjoys all things nautical and generally prefers animals to people. When she isn’t writing, she can usually be found walking in the woods with her dogs or drinking too much tea, which she prefers hot and strong—just like her protagonists. She is the award-winning author of Compass Rose, Thorn, Nottingham, Spindrift, and Night Tide.
Follow Anna Burke here:
Twitter | @annaburkeauthor
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Patreon | patreon.com/annaburkeauthor/
Bywater Books
Copyright © 2021 Anna Burke
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eBook ISBN: 978-1-61294-202-5
Bywater Books First Edition: July 27, 2021
Cover design: TreeHouse Studio
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, or, in the case of historical persons, are used fictitiously.
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