Page 19 of Ship of Shadows
“My name is Driscoll, thank you. Ambassador of the earth court.”
“Great, thanks for the introduction. Now scurry along, Driscoll.”
I shook my head. No. It was just a fish. What had I been thinking? That my magic had failed? Or that Bastian could somehow breathe underwater? Use some kind of magic to get himself out of this? But no, Bastian was human—his entire crew was as far as I knew.
“I just need to make sure she’s okay, alright?” the voice said again.
“She’s not your responsibility.”
I snapped back to reality and turned to face Leoni and Driscoll, who would’ve been nose-to-nose if it weren’t for the fact that Leoni barely reached his chest as she tipped her head up, glaring at him.
I brushed past them. “Will you two stop your bickering? I appreciate your concern, but I’m fine.”
“Uh,” Driscoll said, “I hate to point out the obvious, but you don’t look fine. You look like you just got thrown off a horse, then it stomped all over you.”
“Why would you say that?” Leoni asked. “What is wrong with you?”
“I don’t know, okay?” Driscoll said. “My brain and mouth don’t always connect.”
She snorted. “Well, that’s apparent.”
I whirled around, and they almost ran right into me. “I’m fine. Really. If I don’t look well it’s because I got very little sleep last night, and I’m about to be crowned queen of a court that’s falling apart. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to take a walk. Both of you can head back to the castle, and I will see you for my coronation ceremony.”
With that, I spun on my heel and stalked to the beach, already knowing exactly where I wanted to go.
Chapter Nine
“Meet me at our place,” he’d said.
Little did he know that before it had been our place, it had been my and my brothers’ place. The wild northern shores. Where Mal and I would have long, deep conversations. Where Lochlan would go to escape the gaggle of women constantly vying for the attention of Arathia’s most eligible bachelor. I didn’t want to try and jump off a cliff again like I had two nights ago; all I wanted was peace and quiet.
The warm water washed up over my sandals, the ends of my blue chiffon wet and sticking to my ankles. I tugged at my long braid, wondering how in the bloody waters it felt like everything and nothing had changed all at the same time. This all was so eerily familiar: me going to the Cliffs of Death before my coronation, mourning the loss of my brothers and father, hating the pirate lord. Except... now a part of me grieved him, too, which also made me hate myself.
I’d done the right thing, so why did it still feel so wrong?
I stared at the cliffs. I didn’t understand how I’d missed it—all the signs of his impending treachery.
When he’d first admitted he was the pirate lord, I’d been ready to run away despite my strong feelings for him. But Bastian had told me some sad story about how he stole items from the shadow court and sold them on the black market so that he could buy freedom for himself and his crew from some tyrannical boss who lorded over them—whom I’d never learned the identity of. He’d made me feel so sorry for him, so convinced he had no choice in the matter, that he wasn’t the villain everyone in Arathia thought him to be.
I had been such a fool to believe him, to want to help him earn his freedom and be a better man.
Rain pattered down, and I looked up at the angry skies, clouds puckering. I arrived at the cove, the waves especially wild today with the wind and rain. They rose high, then barreled with a viciousness onto the little shore, battering against the cliffs. I stood to the side, avoiding their wrath, watching them with wonder as the Cliffs of Death towered high over me.
“Spirits below, this sand really gets everywhere, doesn’t it?” a voice said. “I mean, it’s in every crack in my body. Every. Crack. Just imagine.”
“I don’t want to imagine all the cracks in your body,” another voice said, this one female.
Damnit. I sighed and turned to see Leoni and Driscoll hiding around the bend of the cliffs that rose up. “I told you two to leave me be.”
They stepped out, both looking guilty.
Leoni planted her hands on her hips. “You’re not jumping!”
Driscoll’s brows drew together. “Jumping from where, exactly?”
“I’m just here to get some peace and quiet, which you both are determined to not let me have.”
“To be fair, it did seem like you were having a mental breakdown,” Driscoll said. “It was our duty to follow you.”
