“You were on my ship,” Mrs. Hudson said again. “I just saw you there. You were spying on me. What did you do, then? Clearly you disrupted something. Where is Vince?” She looked around. “And where in the world am I?”
Albert approached them. He glanced warily at Matt and kept his distance. “Don’t worry,” Albert said in his usual pompous tone. “The captain will come. For both of us.”
Belamie looked Albert up and down. “Captain? Captain Who? And who are you?”
“I’m Albert. I’m one of Captain Vincent’s loyal crew.”
Now Belamie looked at Albert like he was nuts. “What on earth are you talking about? This is all madness. I need to get back to the Vermillion.” She reached for something at her chest, the compass, Matt realized. “What . . . where?” she said, looking down at her chest.
Matt instinctively reached for his own compass, and the movement alerted her attention. Belamie’s eyes narrowed. Before Matt could make another move, she pounced and grabbed him by the hair.
“You little thief!” She clawed at the compass, trying to pull it off him, much like Corey had done before. But his mom was much stronger than Corey, and certainly a more skilled fighter. She yanked back his head by the hair and lifted the compass to take it off. Matt was able to twist himself so she couldn’t, but in doing so, the chain tightened around his neck. Belamie twisted the chain further so it bit into his skin and cut off his airways.
“So you weren’t spying on me, were you? You were stealing!”
Matt saw stars spark in the corners of his eyes. Oddly, all he could think was that it was absolutely not normal that for the second time in less than a month his own mother, or more like his premother, was threatening to kill him, and if he survived this moment and ever returned to a normal life, he might need some serious therapy.
“Stop! Belamie! What are you doing?” Matt heard Gaga shriek.
“No one steals from Captain Bonnaire!”
Both Haha and Uncle Chuck pulled Belamie off Matt, forcing her to release the compass, though not before it ripped into Matt’s skin. He fell back, gasping for air. Jia knelt down to help him up while Uncle Chuck and Haha struggled with Belamie. It quickly became clear that this wasn’t a fair fight, not by a long shot. Uncle Chuck, though a head taller and probably a solid hundred pounds heavier, was too old and slow, and Haha, much like Mr. Hudson, did not have a mean bone in his body. Belamie, meanwhile, was strong, quick, and agile, and though Matt had never thought of his mom as mean, she certainly didn’t hold back in a fight. She easily maneuvered out of both of their grasps, twisted Uncle Chuck’s arm, took his legs out from under him, and slammed him to the ground. She drew her sword and pointed it right at his heart, then drew a dagger and pointed it at Haha.
Gaga screamed and jumped in front of her husband.
“Gloria, no!” Haha said as he pushed her out of the way.
“Please don’t kill them!” Gaga cried. “I just got them back!”
Belamie looked at Matt. “Give me back my compass. Now.”
Matt shook his head, holding tight to his compass.
“Give it to me, or I’ll kill them all.”
“Matt, just give it to her,” Gaga said.
“I can’t. She doesn’t understand.”
Belamie pressed the tip of her sword into Uncle Chuck’s chest. “You have ten seconds. Ten, nine, eight . . .”
“Give her the compass!” Gaga yelled.
“If I give her the compass she’ll leave us!” And he couldn’t let her leave. Even if she didn’t know him, even if she thought he was nothing but a thief, he could not lose his mother after everyone else.
“. . . seven, six, five . . .”
Matt’s mind raced. What could possibly convince his mom that they were on the same side? She didn’t remember him, at least not as her son. She only recognized him as a spy she’d caught on her ship. She saw him as a threat, especially as he had the Obsidian Compass, the one thing she prized above all others.
“. . . four, three . . .”
“Mateo!” Gaga screamed.
Matt reached for the compass. He had to give it up. He couldn’t be responsible for the death of the rest of his family, and he certainly didn’t want his mother to murder them. But just as he was about to pull it off, Jia stopped him and shouted, “We know where the Aeternum is!”
Belamie stopped counting, though she kept her blades pointed at Uncle Chuck and Gaga and Haha, who all seemed to have stopped breathing.
“What did you say?” Belamie asked.
Jia kept her hand on the compass. “The Aeternum,” she said. “We know where it is.” Matt frowned at Jia, but she kept her gaze on his mom. What was she doing? They didn’t want her to know that Vincent had the Aeternum, did they?
Belamie stared at Jia. Jia stared right back. She didn’t so much as flinch. Belamie turned to Matt. “You. Your name is Mateo?” She appraised him with a furrowed brow. Matt was thinking, hoping, that maybe she was remembering him. Maybe she had some inkling of who he was and their connection.
“Yes,” he said, hope rising. “My name is Mateo.”
“And are you associated with a man called Marius Quine?”
His hope fell. Now he understood. She did not recognize him as her son at all, or anyone personally connected to her. At this particular point in her timeline she only knew the name Mateo as it related to her search for the Aeternum, because of that line from the poem in Quine’s letter.
Bring Mateo to me . . .
Matt wasn’t sure what to say now. She wasn’t interested in him as her son, only in how he could bring her the Aeternum. Perhaps he could use that
