Page 87 of The Serpent's Bride
And prepared herself for a luxury cruise from which one of them would not return.
What a bizarre situation she’d found herself in.
It wasn’t that Nadi didn’t know the Nostroms owned a yacht.
It was just another thing toseeit.
This was the kind of luxury that she both abhorred and yet…found herself a little jealous of, if she were being honest. Everything was shiny, polished, or painted fresh.
The ship was about a hundred feet of chrome and lacquered wood. It looked as though it could be rigged up for sails, and shethought she’d much prefer that over the rumble and chugging of an engine. There was something that seemed endlessly peaceful aboutsailing,though she’d never been. Cushioned benches lined the deck, and she saw several places to hide from the sun—a must for the vampires who owned it.
The ocean was her joy. She’d grown up in the underground lakes and cisterns of Runne, but the ocean was always calling to her. The few times her family had gone to the sea, she could feel the lure of its openness. Something in it called to the part of her that had fins and a tail.
What was out there? Who was out there? Were there other continents? Other people, other fae like her? Her family all were two-legged creatures. She was the only aquatic fae in her clan. It wasn’t uncommon for that to happen, as all her people were born gifted in different ways.
After her family had died, Nadi had debated taking to those open waters. Picking a direction and just…going to the horizon. Either she would find a new home or she’d find the void. But the need for vengeance had kept her in Runne.
The need for death had kept her alive.
Raziel walked ahead of her, still not even glancing back at her as he walked aboard the large steel and wooden structure, her bag slung over his shoulder. A single, circular steam stack rose up from the center of it, a white cloud rising up from it to signify that the engine was already burning and ready to go.
The minimal crew was already hard at work. Everyone bowed their heads to Raziel as he passed. He didn’t acknowledge a single one of them as he walked inside. One of the deckhands took her bag to go put it with Raziel’s things, she assumed.
She wondered how loyal the crew was. How easily they could be paid off to look the other way. Or how much they even saw in the first place. Not that she had the money to pay them off at the moment—but it’d be good to note for the future.
Ivan stopped next to her. “The master suite is downstairs in the back. But I’d give him some space.”
Nodding, she sighed. “Is it noon yet? Not too early for a drink?”
Ivan snorted. “You’re married to Raz. You drink at any hour.” He followed after his boss, likely not wanting to leave him alone with a possible assassin on board.
If they only knew.
Heading to the bar that was at the back of the boat on the deck, Nadi ordered a whiskey sour before sitting on a bench in the sun and watching the city begin to shrink as the boat pushed off from the docks.
It was at that point she realized…she’d never been on a boat before.
Well, okay, never on amovingboat before. There was that one hit she’d done on a canal boat. But it’d been moored up when she’d put the bullet in the woman’s head. That didn’t count. Nadi hadn’t ever been on a boat at sea.
It felt strange. The movement was unnatural but swayed with the waves at the same time. She couldn’t help but lean over the railing to watch the water as it crested in their wake. The wind whipped her hair in her face. The smell of the salt air and the warmth of the sun was justwonderful.
Everything was chaos. Everything was likely about to fall apart around her. Odds were good she’d be dead before long.
But this wasincredible.
The metropolis began to shrink as they sailed away. She watched it change, watched it grow…small. Its smoke, its dirt, and its grime shrank and grew insignificant in its steel and shining glory. All sharp lines and hypermodern sensibilities. Was that how the humans saw it? Did they only see it from far away? The “big picture”? Was that why they loved their crowded structures so much?
Or was it because they made them feel safe? Powerful? In control of the Wild? There was beauty in it, she had to admit. The lines the structures made, each one seeming to compete against the others, yet somehow creating a piece of art in the inorganic, yet unplanned structure of the whole. It was an organism in its own right, wasn’t it? An un-living, living thing?
A corpse filled with crawling things. Only these insects were the architects of the corpse, digging up and melting down and rearranging the body parts to suit their needs.
Moons, when did I get so moody?She didn’t know how long she stayed there. But somebody came by and refilled her drink twice, and she wasn’t trying to plow through them, if that was any indication.
It was probably time to face the music. She had to talk to Razieleventually.Even if she still had no idea what to say to him. But the fact remained…she couldn’t avoid him forever. They were on a boat.
Downing the last of her third drink, she stood and realized…ah. Yeah. She’d had three drinks. Great. Well, that’d make the conversation go a little easier. Or worse. Harder? Harder. That was the word.
Shit.She was a little drunk.
