The Passengers (Book #2)

ℑ 𝔚𝔬𝔲𝔩𝔡 𝔊𝔬 ℌ𝔢𝔞𝔡𝔣𝔦𝔯𝔰𝔱 𝔦𝔫𝔱𝔬 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔒𝔠𝔢𝔞𝔫

I make a sharp left, running as fast as I can away from Damon. My legs strain, and I hold both hands in front of me, pushing open the door to the staircase.

That last moment I spent with Damon loops in my mind. The look in his eyes when he asked me what I had done, the knife lodging in his leg. What did he mean, though? What did I do?"

I run the short distance from the stairs to my room and burst through the door. "Sophie!"

She stands up from where she was mending a dress. "Miss, what happened? Yer in a state."

I grab her arm and pull. "We need to go somewhere that's not here."

She resists. "But the mendin' . . ."

"Sophie, please. We need to leave now. This is the first place he'll look. I'm in danger."

She drops her needle.

"Do you know of a place, an out-of-the-way place that no one goes?" I try to picture what I know about the Titanic layout. "Anything close by? A storage room, a pantry, even?"

"Aye. There's a maid's pantry. It's only used durin' the day."

"Perfect."

I grab Sophie's hand, and we run. Luckily, we don't have far to go and none of the passengers are in the hallway to see us.

Sophie pushes through the door to the maid's pantry. I locked it from the inside.

"Miss, yer scarin' me. What happened?"

I grab Sophie by the shoulders. "Can I trust you?"

Sophie looks like I just kicked her. "How could ya ask me that? Ya know me better than most."

"That's the thing. I don't."

Sophie's eyes widen. "You do, Miss Sooji. I have been workin' with yer family fer a long time."

"No, you haven't."

She gasp. "I don't know what's got ya all fired up, but I think we should go see yer sunt. Ya don't sound well."

I look her square in the eye. "I just need to know if I can trust you."

"A course ya can!" she practically yells.

I assess her. "Good. Because I need your help. You know this ship better than I do. You know the back passages."

Sophie narrows her eyes suspiciously. "Miss, I do know the back passages. But I am not takin' ya anywhere until ya start tellin' me yer in danger." She puts her hands on her hips.

"Damon . . . Stefan Salvatore is trying to kill me."

She opens her mouth and closes it again. For a few seconds she's quiet.

"You don't believe me, do you?"

Sophie presses her lip together. "I'm not sayin' that. I'm just sayin' that it sounds a little odd, is all."

How can I possibly explain this to her with no time? Or convince her of who she really us? It breaks my heart that she doesn't even remember the fiancé she died trying to be with. I push my fingers into my temples. "You say we've known each other for a long time, right?"

She nods.

"Have I ever lied to you or sounded alarm for no reason?"

Her brows push together. "Well . . . no."

"Good. Then you have no reason to mistrust me now," I say. "Just give me a minute to think, Sophie. And then I promise I'll try to explain."

She crosses her arms. "I suppose a minute couldn't hurt."

I rub my forehead. Think, Suzy. What are you missing here? Damon says that he couldn't die before he passed the spell off to someone else. Does that mean if he does die, the spell falls apart. I bite my lip. No, I'm hardly going to murder the person trying to murder me. And the chance of the Lineages or Joohyuk figuring out how to wake me up is pretty slim if they haven't done it by now. There's always the hope that they figure out who he is, but he wasn't even on our radar.

I pace. Okay, what else did Damon say? He got angry at me a few times. The first was when I said the Titanic sank. Actually, all the times he got mad at me, I was talking about the ship sinking or about the past. What if he wasn't getting angry that I was questioning the realness of his spell? I mean, he knows it's a spell. What if he was actually worried that my words could affect the spell?

I stop pacing. He said "What did you do?" after he felt the cold air. He told me to stop saying what I was saying or I would go headfirst into the ocean. I look up at Sophie. "Did you notice the temperature drop in the past hour?"

"I did. Why?"

"Has it ever been cold on this ship before, any other day you can remember?" 

She considers my question. "A little cooler in the evenings, but never cold. The weather is consistently pleasant."

"What if the cold air isn't random?"

"Pardon?"

"What if I changed something?"

"I'm not followin'."

What if I challenge this place more? Could it tear the fabric of the spell? Maybe even break it? "Sophie, we need to go outside, somewhere that's secluded. I want to tell you a few things and see if . . . Actually, no. Where's my aunt?"

"In the lounge."

"Perfect," I say, and grab the lock on the door. I pause. "Before we go, can you promise me something?"

"What?"

"Can you promise me you won't let anyone, especially the Stefan Salvatores on this ship, drag me off against my will, no matter how reasonable they seem?"

Her eyes widen. "What an incredible thing ta say. Like I would allow anyone ta drag ya off fer any reason."

"No matter how conflicted you feel."

She waves her hand at me, like I'm getting more ridiculous by the minute.

Good.