Page 68 of Ship of Shadows
My name rolled off his tongue in that delicious accent I loved so much, and I wanted to capture that sound in my memory. “But that wasn’t reality,” I said. “We couldn’t just hide out in a cave forever.”
“I was going to try. I was going to keep you in that world for as long as I could, keep everyone else out so it was just you and me and our stories.” His voice dropped low as his lips brushed against my ear. “And our bodies.”
A shiver ran through me.
“And no harm could come to us as long as I protected that world we’d created together.”
“That’s why it was never going to work out between us.” Branches stretched over us, beautiful gold and red leaves dotting them. “Because you never truly let me in. You didn’t trust in us.” My voice shook, and Bastian stiffened. “You didn’t trust that we could overcome whatever came our way. You thought the only way we could survive was to ignore the problems around us instead of treating me like a partner who could help you solve them.”
“Love,” Bastian started, and a few others turned to look at us from their horses.
I lowered my voice. “I don’t know why you took our boys, but maybe if you’d come to me first, told me about whatever predicament you’d gotten yourself in that required that big of a sacrifice, I could’ve helped you.”
“You couldn’t.” His voice was flat now.
I was so tired of this. One minute he was the teasing, charming, seductive Bastian that I knew, and the next he was the cold-hearted pirate lord. It was like constant whiplash.
“You don’t know that,” I argued.
“I do. Everyone in my crew knew it. That’s why I kept you from them. Why I distanced myself from them when we were together. Because I had to fucking protect you at all costs.”
“Protect me from what?” I snapped and turned to look at him.
His jaw locked, face once again a mask of stone. “People are staring. Wouldn’t want to draw attention to me.”
The road wound out from the thick forest, and in the distance, Liliath’s castle towered upward. Whereas my castle was bright and white, Liliath’s was stone and wood, sitting atop a grassy hill, dripping with vines and flowers, bursting with green and color. A sparkling blue moat wound around the outside of Liliath’s home. From here I could see the potted plants on every balcony, flowers I would never be able to name jutting up in bunches.
“Let’s just focus on getting through this wedding,” Bastian said, voice tight. “We’ll get the pixie dust and get the bloody hells out of Elwen.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Everyone filled the ball room later that night, the women wearing lavish dresses that sparkled, shimmered, and swished, the men wearing their finest trousers and button-down tunics, covered by tailored jackets.
Vines with purple flowers hung down the walls and stretched overhead, making it feel like we were in an enchanted forest and not Liliath’s ballroom. A tree sprouted up in the middle of the room, stretching all the way to the vaulted ceiling, its branches spreading out wide, leaves dangling over the crowd of people. Glimmers of light sparkled from the tree and its massive branches, emitting a soft glow in the room.
A band sat on a raised stage, playing a lively tune that people danced to, everyone twirling and spinning around the thick base of the tree. I stood by a table filled with stuffed pears, flaky pastries, spiced meats, and savory tarts that made my mouth water. I nabbed a tart, munching on it and watching everyone enjoy this lovely evening.
The wedding had been beautiful, Liliath and Penn swearing their loyalty to each other, vines wrapping around their wrists and binding them in a sacred earth ceremony as an earth priestess presided over them.
I’d had to work hard not to look over at Bastian. Not to think about how once upon a time, I’d dreamed of my own wedding ceremony. With him.
I snorted at my foolishness and finished swallowing my tart, then took a gulp out of my goblet of wine. I hadn’t seen Bastian since the ceremony ended. He wore a brimmed hat to cover his face so that no one would recognize him, but the hat made him a bit conspicuous since it wasn’t exactly in fashion for males. I stopped myself from searching for him.
Leoni approached, her light blue dress flaring out at her thick waist, bodice tight and pushing her breasts up. She frowned, tugging up at the dress as it continued to slide down.
Going shopping had put her in a better mood. We hadn’t addressed the tension between us, but she’d at least been acting more like her normal self since we arrived to Elwen.
“I look damn good,” she said as she came to a stand by me. “Even if this dress is very impractical for fighting.”
I laughed. “It’s a dress, Oni. You’re not supposed to fight in it. It’s for much more enjoyable occasions.”
“Says who?” She grabbed an olive and popped it in her mouth. “Fighting is enjoyable.”
“So is dancing. You’ve caught the eye of many a suitor tonight.” I raised my glass toward a few men ogling her, well, mainly her breasts.
“They can ogle all they want.” She wiggled her fingers at them. “But I have a job to do.”
I peered at her. As long as I’d known Leoni, she’d been single minded in her focus on becoming part of the royal guard. Despite everyone saying she wouldn’t be right for the position, that she was too short, too plump, too slow, she worked hard to prove them wrong.
