Namesake (Fable, #2)

by Adrienne Young

I could feel the gemstone before I could see it. The deep reverberation of it woke in the center of my chest, my lips parting as I walked toward the case and leaned over the glass.

I watched him carefully. “What were you to my mother?” A twinkle lit in his eyes as he surveyed me. “Ah. That depends on who you ask.” His voice lowered conspiratorially. “A helmsman. A savior.” He paused. “A villain. Which version of the story do you want to hear?”

“Isolde didn’t just take her fate into her own hands when she left Bastian. She took mine too. Letting her onto my crew is the worst mistake I’ve ever made.”

Why holland has been going after him?

“Isolde is the reason Holland has had a bounty on my head all these years. She’s the reason I lost any chance I had at trading in the Unnamed Sea and the reason I haven’t been back since.” “What are you saying?” “I’m saying that when I helped Holland’s daughter escape Bastian, I fell out of her good graces.”

Ahhhh there it is

The slide of a hand moved over my hip, hooking my waist, and my fingers immediately went for the knife inside my skirts. The cava splashed from my glass as I whirled and I pressed the tip of the knife into the crisp white shirt before me, pulled over a broad chest. But a scent I knew poured into my lungs as I inhaled and looked up into green eyes, the glass shaking furiously in my hand. West.

“Fable!” Zola’s deep voice echoed over the sound of the chatter. I caught sight of Clove against the far wall, Zola at his side as they both pushed through the crowd toward us. But it was the sharp, skittering sound of glass shattering that made my pulse stop in its tracks, and I froze, West’s hand slipping from mine.

The deep, breathy resonance of her voice shook the room around us when she said it. “Isolde?”

West slipped the knife from his belt, holding it at his side with a look of eerie calm.

“A mother never heals from the loss of a child. It’s a wound that festers,” Holland said simply. “One that not even your death will soothe.”

Zola wasn’t just a problem for Saint or West. He was a problem the Narrows needed solved. Saint planted Clove on the Luna to get him into Holland’s hands. He’d convinced Zola he could be rid of her threats once and for all. But how had he done it?

Her pale blue eyes lifted to meet mine and she let me go. “Welcome home, Fable.” Home.

To feel as if I were hidden in his shadow.

he leaned into me, inhaling deeply, as if he was pulling the warmth of me inside of him.

I don’t need to know, some part of me whispered. But the lie in the words echoed behind them. Because eventually, we would have to unearth those buried bones, along with whatever else West was hiding from me.

But the surface of Holland gave away nothing.

There was an exchange to be made here. I just wasn’t sure what it was.

She picked up a berry, holding it before her. “Saint.” The sound of my heart pounded in my ears, my fingers gripping the handle of the cup tightly. Clove leaned both elbows onto the table. “What do you want with Saint?” “The same thing I wanted from Zola. Restitution. My daughter died on his ship and he’ll be held responsible. He’s expected at the Trade Council meeting in Sagsay Holm. I want you to make sure he doesn’t make it.”

It dawned on me then that Saint’s involvement in the bounty wasn’t the only thing Clove had kept secret. He’d also kept hidden the fact that Saint was my father.

But i feel like Isoldeand Saint being together is well known, wests sister knew isolde was fables mother as soon as fable revealed saint was her father... Doesnt feel like for holland who knows so much that it would be such a big leap

“She was always restless. I don’t think there was anything in this world that could calm the sea inside of her.” But I knew that wasn’t true. The Isolde I’d known had been steady, made of deep waters. Maybe Holland was telling the truth about her, but that was before Saint. That was before me.

“It would have changed everything. Taken the trade by storm. But a few days later, Isolde was gone. So was the midnight.”

“There’s only one problem. This empire has no heir.”

Saints and hollands legacies together would becrazy

But there were some things about my mother I knew were true. Things I trusted. If she destroyed the only chance Holland had at pushing into the Narrows, she had a reason.

The look of relief on his face was more obvious than I knew he wanted it to be.

Since the moment Saint told me West wasn’t who I thought he was, I’d been holding my breath. Waiting to see where the break would be between us. Maybe this was it.

West was the reason people feared Saint. He was the shadow Saint cast on everything around him.

Ok thats a bit of an overstep

“Because you and I have cursed ourselves, Fable. We will always have something to lose. I knew it that day in Tempest Snare when I kissed you. I knew it in Dern when I told you that I loved you.”

“Every time we dropped anchor at Jeval after that day, I had this constricting pain in my chest.” He reached up, tucking a hand into his open jacket as if it were there now. “Like I was holding my breath, afraid you wouldn’t be on the docks. That you’d be gone. And when I woke up in Dern and you weren’t there, it came back. I couldn’t find you.” His voice wavered, splintering the words. He looked so heavy. So tired.

He stared at me, his eyes dropping to my mouth. But he didn’t move. “Are you going to kiss me?” I whispered. “I wasn’t sure if you still wanted me to.”

His words whispered back to life in my mind as I touched his face and his arms tightened around me. But I didn’t feel afraid of him the way I thought I would. I felt safe. I didn’t know if I could love someone like my father, but I did. With a love that was deep and pleading. With a love that was terrifying. And I didn’t know what that made me.

But I couldn’t shake the feeling that the reason my mother hadn’t told me about Holland was because she didn’t want to be found. That maybe, Isolde had been afraid of her.

Saint was a bastard, but he was mine. He belonged to me. And even more unbelievable, I really did love him.

That made her quiet. There was a sudden stillness in her, pulling the shadows from the room into her eyes.

There was a sudden stillness in her, pulling the shadows from the room into her eyes.

“If I find the midnight for you, you leave Saint alone.”

“I think perhaps Saint is more to you than I realized. I think he was more to Isolde than I realized.”

I climbed onto the end of the bed, watching his chest rise and fall. His brows pulled together, his eyes still closed, and he sucked in a sharp breath with a jolt. His eyes fluttered open and I watched them focus frantically. He dragged his bleary gaze over the room until he spotted me. When he did, he let the breath go.

the conviction in my voice making pain erupt in my chest. I didn’t blink, willing him to believe it.

“You can’t be serious,” Paj rasped. “Is there a bastard from here to the Narrows you’re not related to?”

“Do you have any idea what we’ve done to get here? To find you?” Willa spat. This time, she was talking to me.

“I’m not taking the Marigold anywhere unless you’re on it,” he said, and it looked as if he hated the words. This is what he was talking about when he said we were cursed. West was willing to defy the crew if it meant he didn’t have to leave me in the Unnamed Sea. He was already paying the price for that day in Tempest Snare and that night in his cabin, when he told me he loved me. We’d both be paying as long as we lived.

“But they haven’t found anything,”

Maybe its at fable's namesake

Any gem sage with a lick of sense would avoid a merchant like Holland.

AKA your mpm

Clove leaned back, looking at me. “What?” He shrugged, a wry smile playing at his lips. “Just thinkin’.” I cocked my head to the side, glaring. “Thinking what?” “That you’re just like him,” he said, taking another sip of tea. I didn’t have to ask who he meant. He was talking about Saint.

“Wait. You’re a Roth?” My voice rose.

I nearly died cutting you from your deranged family!” “If you’re scared, you can wait at the tavern.” Auster shoved him backward. “It’s not me I’m afraid for,” Paj answered, and it was so honest and plain that it seemed to make the street noise stop around us. Paj’s face softened, his mouth turning down at the corners.

“Tell him Auster’s here to see him.” The boy’s eyes went wide as he stumbled backward. “Auster?” The way he said the name sounded as if it came with a story.

“Of course we can. The question is, why the hell would we?” Henrik laughed.

Fake midnight gem?

“Only a Narrows-born urchin would be this stupid.” “Only Saltbloods would be this soft,” I shot back.

He snorted, shaking his head. “That man would sink his fleet for you, Fable. He’d walk away from everything.” A lump curled painfully in my throat. “No, he wouldn’t.” Clove pulled the cap back on his head, casting his face in shadow. “Isolde isn’t the only name we aren’t allowed to say.” He kissed the top of my head.

They held the power to crush me. Because the most fragile hope I’d ever held was that somewhere in the flesh and bone of him, Saint had loved me.