Page 131 of Wicked Tides
I glanced up at that word, even if he had used it casually, and that slanted grin returned to his lips.
“What? Like the sound of that, do you?”
“I—I don’t know.” My mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water as I attempted to form words.
“It’s just a word,” he groaned as he continued to dress himself. “Like lass or sweetheart.”
I pulled on a pair of leather leggings and a tunic and coat, shielding myself against the cold now that Vidar wasn’t pressed against me.
“I know what it is,” I said, stepping past him to leave the cabin.
Vidar attempted to grab my arm and I slipped out of his grip, moving into the chill of the morning air. I folded my arms over myself, breathing in the fresh breeze and soaking in the sun. When Vidar emerged, he was in his captain’s coat instead of one of the thick, fur-lined ones everyone else was wearing. I looked him up and down and furrowed my brows.
“Didn’t mean to hurt your feelings,” he said. “I won’t say it again if it—”
“Do I look like someone so easily hurt?” I said flatly.
“Not at all.”
“Why are you wearing that?”
“I am going to talk to my crew. About leaving.”
“Leaving?”
He shrugged. “We were never going to stay here forever.”
Of course, he wasn’t. I felt foolish for being so surprised by the notion and shook my head.
“I’ll tell Meridan.”
Without giving him another chance to cut off my retreat, I left. I walked with the scent of him still in my lungs and the warmth of his touch fluttering across my skin.
Vidar fucking Bone Heart. The captain of the Burning Rose. Hunter of sirens and scourge of the sea. My mother’s murderer. Thewolf cub from the Mother’s Fang. The golden-haired bastard had done it. He’d found a chink in my armor. I had heard so many human stories about it feeling good to care for someone. It was supposed to be exciting. Warm. Instead, I was afraid and it left an absolutely wretched knot deep inside.
The crew of the Rose gathered in the longhouse where Vidar divvied out jobs for everyone to prepare for departure. He tasked many of the men with getting supplies and negotiating good prices with the villagers. Not that the village was asking for much after we’d returned their girls to them.
Meridan and I stood at the back of the building, watching while I strung a thin twine string through Vidar’s silentium pendant. Now that it wasn’t under his skin, he would need to wear it another way.
Seeing him in his captain’s garb, speaking to his men, had never captured my attention quite like that. Every single one of his remaining crewmen was watching him as if he were the only person in the room. They were loyal, even if there had been a hundred reasons for them to leave for a less dangerous life. Even if they had to watch him kill the traitors.
Glancing at Meridan, I imagined Voel and Kea being with us, but like so many others, they’d been claimed by the horrors of our ugly world too soon.
When the meeting was through, Vidar got caught up in talking with Gus and Mullins in the back corner as the rest of the crew dispersed to do their jobs. I narrowed my eyes at them, wondering what they had to talk about without the rest of the men present.
Once they finished, Vidar headed my way, but rather than stop, he passed me by and walked outside. I walked after him, confused.
“You didn’t say where we’re going,” I pointed out. “Should that not be the first thing you decide before setting sail.”
“My crew knows where we’re going. We knew before we anchored here.”
“Can I ask where that is?”
We wove between two cabins and he still wasn’t looking at me. Irritated, I hastened my step to walk beside him.
“Vidar, you—”
Quickly, he took a step toward me, herding me toward the wall of a cabin until my back was against it.
