Page 29 of Devour the Dark

“Beyond that, we’ll stay out of your way. This is your ship while on board.”

With a nod, she hands me the key to my room and takes her leave.

I turn a tight circle, taking in the rest of the room. A few hooks are on the wall beside a small writing desk and an end table on one side of the bed with a clock and a lamp.

It’s cozy and inviting. How Roc managed to pay for this, I will never know.

Slipping the key into my pants pocket, I leave the room and run right into Roc. The ship’s halls are narrow even by my standards, and his shoulders nearly touch either side.

“Your Majesty,” he says down to me.

“Stop.”

“Only when I want.” He smiles at me, eyes glinting as if he’s suggesting something else entirely.

“You seem better.”

“Vane’s blood. It stabilizes me.”

“Is that a long-term solution?”

“Not in the slightest.”

“Oh. Well…”

Why am I so awkward around him?

He makes me nervous. He makes me want to run off the gangplank and sink into the dark water of the ocean and scream into the void.

Desiring Roc is not easy. And yet, it’s the most primal thing I’ve ever felt. My attraction to him is like a seed planted long ago, fully in bloom now. A wild, sprawling thing with roots down deep.

“Well, I’m glad you’re feeling better.” I turn and start away.

“Where are you going?” he calls after me.

“To the upper deck.”

“You’re going the wrong way.”

I come to a stop at the end of the hall and find a golden placard attached to the wall reading DINING with an arrow turning right.

I turn back.

Roc is leaning against the wall, his legs crossed at the ankle, arms crossed over his chest like a trickster god from a dark fairytale.

My heart kicks up.

He points in the opposite direction. “This way.”

I switch directions, breezing past him, but he snatches me by the arm, pulling me to a stop.

In a blink, he has me pressed against the opposite wall, the line of his body against mine.

Our difference in height has the tattoo on his neck, the open mouth of a crocodile, right at my line of sight.

My swallow is loud between us, my heart thumping in my ears.

Since he and James arrived on Everland, we’ve only been together that once. But it hasn’t stopped me from replaying it over and over in my head while heat burns between my legs and desire rises up my belly. I desire them both in different ways, for different reasons, but I wasn’t sure if there would be more.

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