Page 57 of Ship of Shadows
Kara glared at Driscoll. “Can you not mention sex hair and my brother in the same sentence?”
I massaged my temples. “I agree. Are we done now?”
“Spirits below.” Leoni put a hand to her heart. “I didn’t believe Driscoll, but he was right. Something happened between you two.”
My hand tightened around my cup.
“How could you?” Hurt flashed in Leoni’s eyes. “After what he did to our home?”
Shame crept its way up my throat, which grew thick with it. She was right, and I couldn’t deny how wrong it had been.
“Bloody hell,” Kara muttered while Mia just stared at Bastian, jaw locked.
I closed my eyes, wishing I was literally any other place in the world right now.
“Listen,” I said, “yes, something happened between us on the beach, but it was just that one time. I don’t need an intervention. I know it was wrong. Bastian knows it was wrong. Which is why nothing happened between us last night.”
An image intruded my thoughts: Bastian’s hand stroking up and down his cock, the way his face was flushed, his breathing heavy. The way moisture beaded at the tip. And all the while he’d been thinking about me.
“I told him she was bad for him from the beginning.” Kara swiveled her head toward me. “What were you two thinking, pursuing this? Were you going to get married? Have children? Was Bastian going to be king of the water court?”
“They would make some cute babies,” Driscoll said, and everyone turned to stare at him. “I’m just saying. Her cheekbones? His jaw?” He kissed his fingers. “Perfection.”
Mia’s nose wrinkled. “How would that work? Just out of curiosity?”
Driscoll raised a brow. “Making babies?”
Mia flushed. “No, the magic part of it. Would your children have your powers?”
I rubbed my temples, not wanting to talk about imaginary children with Bastian. Something I’d dreamt about at one point in my life. “The powers are there, but they’re diluted. That’s whyif an elemental chooses to have children with a human, their children cannot live in the courts.”
Some elementals did fall in love with humans and chose to live in the human lands, though they often hid their powers, afraid of being persecuted or hunted for them. It wasn’t an easy life.
“That feels wrong,” Mia said quietly.
It did. It always had.
“What about if two elementals from different courts have children?” Mia asked.
“In that case,” Leoni said, “the children are born with the powers of the mother. We don’t know why it happens, exactly, but it’s the mother’s genes that pass on. So the father must move to the mother’s court if he wants to be with his children.”
“Can we not talk about this anymore?” I didn’t want to admit how many nights I’d thought of what our children might look like, what Bastian would be like as a father.
“I agree,” Kara said, tugging at one of her many earrings. “We’re getting off topic. I wanted to talk more about what idiots the princess and my brother are.”
I slammed my cup down, liquid sloshing from it. “We agreed absolutely nothing is going to happen between us. Happy?”
Leoni stared straight ahead, her cheeks red. She was furious with me. I understood, because I was furious with myself.
Mia stood. “I need to go have a little chat with my brother.”
Kara rolled up the sleeves of her tunic to reveal her many tattoos. “I’m coming too.”
A vein throbbed over Mia’s temple as she stomped away. She was usually the mild-mannered twin, but tonight she had murder on her mind.
They both stomped toward Bastian, shoving through other crew members. They reached him, making angry gestures asBastian strode away and toward his cabin. They followed, the door slamming behind all of them.
Leoni swatted me. “I am so mad at you right now.”
