Page 39 of A Wrecking of Salt and Fire

“Ander, you say you aren’t here to hurt me.” She arched her head up, trying to appear bigger than her lithe frame peering up at him from below. “That I’ve ended up on this ship because you’re trying to save me from some currently nameless enemy. I need you to tell me. If I’m going to try and trust you—which I don’t know if I could trust you at this point—then you need to be honest. About everything.”

Katrin stood firm in her place. The little white cat stopped circling her legs, instead hopping up onto a nearby barrel, sitting back on her haunches as her yellow eyes flipped back and forth between the two of them.

“Ahh, yes…honesty. Not one of my finer characteristics. But I can assure you, Starling, I have never lied to you.” Ander took a step closer to her, and she retreated one.

“Again, that is not an answer. I mean it, Ander, why am I here?” Katrin scrunched her brows together, her normally plush lips thinned into a fine line.

His eyebrows cocked up, a sly grin rolling across that shimmering olive-tanned skin of his. “Fine. If you beat me in a fight I will tell you.”

Katrin’s mouth dropped open. “Excuse me!”

“You heard what I said, Starling. You. Beat. Me. I. Tell. You. Everything.”

She shifted between her feet, her hand grazing against the pommel of the stolen sword. She was a good fighter. The best on Alentus besides maybe Kohl and Ajax, but in the past few months she withered away into nothing more than a hollow shell.

“That’s what you wanted right? A fight? Why you stole my favorite sword from the armory?”

Of course it was. “I haven’t a clue what you’re talking about.”

The small white cat stretched out on the barrel, giving a small meow as if to laugh at the thought.

“The sword hooked into your belt, with the engraving of Odysseus passing the sirens.” Ander pointed to her hip.

From the book Ander left her. The book from the woman named Chloe. She wondered if it was his favorite sword because it was also a gift from her.

“Oh…that sword.” Katrin shrugged her shoulders, her face in a grimace.

“Yes, that sword.”

“Fine, so if I beat you then you tell me why you brought me here?” Katrin was still wary. She did not think she could win in a swordfight, maybe a spar, but even that could be risky. When she took him down the first day aboard The Nostos, he all but sat back and let her.

“I’ll tell you whatever you want to know. I’ll even use my left hand.” He bowed toward her, drawing the sword from the sheath on his back.

“Don’t you dare go easy on me.” Lies. More and more lies. She wished he would go easy on her. Katrin bowed back.

She flipped the sword in her hand, adjusting to its weight, holding the grip firm. Her feet were planted at an angle, knees softly bent as she held up a front guard.

Ander advanced, striking his sword low by her hip. Katrin flipped her sword down, the sound of metal clanging as they met. She drew her sword around in an arc, breaking the connection and pivoting to her left. They continued back and forth striking blade to blade as Ander advanced, Katrin having to stay light on her feet as she fell farther and farther back toward the rail of the ship. Sweat began to form along her brow and upper lip. He would give even Kohl and the Commander a run for their money. His movements were delicate and precise as he began to overpower her.

A loud hiss caused Ander’s gaze to falter. Katrin made a pass back, catching him off guard. She used the slight trip in his step to lunge, knocking the sword from his hand. He stood unarmed, not reaching for one of the many daggers or the second sword across his back.

She stood across from him, chest heaving, both hands gripping her sword.

“This is the second time I’ve bested you,” Katrin said between breaths.

“You mean the second time I let you best me.”

Someone chuckled from behind them.

“You know that’s not true, Captain. The princess has talent. As for that bargain of yours, I do believe you owe her an explanation as to why she joins us on The Nostos,” a quiet and melodic voice swept in on the breeze.

Katrin whipped her head toward the person speaking those words. No one was there to overhear them make the bargain. No one except Mykonos.

A woman a little younger than her stood there. Her stature was smaller than Katrin’s, but her presence was captivating. Long hair stripped of all color fluttered down her back, yet the eyebrows arched above her violet upturned eyes were a deep onyx. Her skin was milky white and seemed to shimmer in the sunlight. She wore a gauzy white dress held together at the waist by a leather embossed belt with flowers that matched the color of her eyes.

She reminded Katrin of the traders she used to see at port from Anatole, before Nexos cut off access to their straits. She was stunning.

Was this the Chloe that gifted Ander such beautiful things? Katrin could not help it as a pang of jealousy rolled through her as the woman reached out her delicate hand, placing it on his bicep.

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