Page 132 of Ruthless Scoundrel
“Don’t fight each other,” she says in Illyan, and I translate to Fynish. “Save the fight for Ashai.”
Reina mashes her lips together and dips her head in resignation.
“I will send updates every week by bird,” Cora says. “You’ll have a day to recover with us, and then you will need to be on the road home. The journey to Fynren will take you two weeks by land with a pair of horses, perhaps a little less if you hurry, but—” She cuts herself short and shakes her head.
“But what?” I ask. “If there’s going to be trouble, I want to know, your sight be damned.”
Cora’s eyes sparkle with amusement as she looks at me. “You will distract each other.”
“Oh,” Reina peeps a second after I register what Cora means.
I squeeze her fingers gently and smirk at her. “I’ll try not to distract you too much.”
Reina rolls her eyes. “Please, we all know I can keep my focus.”
I hum in amusement and lean closer to her as I whisper, “Keep telling yourself lies and I’ll have to punish you.”
“This room is much too small for whispers, Jasper,” Alejandra says, then takes a thick swig of her wine.
Reina’s cheeks flush with blood, but Cora and I laugh. My mother looks on, a little confused, but happy that we’re not fighting.
Alejandra claps once and then pours another round of wine for everyone at the table. “Right, now that we’re all caught up on that, let me tell you the amazing tale of how I came to your rescue.”
Chapter forty
Reina
Alejandra tells the story of how Cora met her at the port town where we were dropped off. They spent the weeks while we were traveling on foot looking for the mind-controlled selkies that were patrolling the waters, then capturing them and undoing the magic. Jasper’s mother was one of the lucky few who’ve had a week to recover and eat well. She’s the one who guided Alejandra to the island and helped them navigate the mist.
Cora explains that she and Jasper’s mother, Ahliyah, have known one another for a very long time. That she delivered the warning to the selkies of Opal Isle that Vansen was going to take them. Ahliyah, in her “young pride” as she says, refused to believe that they could be captured. Their relationship was still new, and she didn’t trust Ki’ah Ohn.
Cora returned to her every week for a year to build the relationship and warn her. She knew even then that I would need Jasper to overcome Ashai. When the time to move on andmake a new home had passed and the Opal Isle selkies could not avoid their fate, Cora told her their only chance of survival was for her son to hide and evade capture. She knew he would be drawn to me as long as he lived.
Ohksano’amai…
By the time the stories are done, and the wine is gone, we’re all exhausted. It’s another several hours to Cora’s home, and with the hold overcrowded with refugees, Alejandra allows us to sleep in her bed—under the condition that we’re respectful of how often she gets to clean her sheets. That comment has Jasper laughing and me turning every shade of red imaginable. As if I’d allow him to do anything untoward when his mother, Cora, and Alejandra would be sleeping in the same room on fold-out cots.
When the first light of the sun pours in through the window, I find that we’re pulling into the shallows of a small island. Cora leads us up to the deck with a wide smile. The island is not much bigger than the first plot Jasper and I landed on after the shipwreck, but it is infinitely more wondrous.
A massive fruiting tree sprouts up from the center of the island, and built into the branches in winding layers is a home. Drawstring buckets move water up to the top level and deposit their contents into a long chute that runs into the main building of the house. White smoke pours and trickles from different rooms of the home. Rope bridges and swinging planks lead from section to section of the massive abode, painted in brilliant shades of every color imaginable. The base of the tree is obscured by other, smaller trees and foliage, but I have a feeling there’s much more to the house down there.
“Absolutely incredible,” I say.
Cora chuckles contently. “It is something.”
Alejandra snaps her crew into order as they drop anchor and prepare the dinghies to run ashore. Jasper and I move down into the hold to help move the injured. The eksteinvas eye us warilywith their strange, crystal faces as we usher them up the steps and into the smaller ships.
When all the captives are finally free on the island, it’s our turn to depart. I look at Alejandra with fondness and gratitude swelling in my heart. I reach out with my foot to tap hers. “We’ll see you tomorrow, but thank you for everything you’ve done. We’re in your debt.”
She bumps my gnarled bridal shoe with her boot. “I’ll be calling on that favor soon enough.”
“And we will answer,” Jasper says, tapping his foot against hers as well.
We load into the boat and bid our saviors farewell, but not for long. Alejandra will be taking us back to Hammon in the morning, but we get to see Cora’s beautiful home first.
My heart races the closer we get to the island. I want to tour the entire house, every room, branch, and bough. Everything! But more importantly than that, I’m ready to meet the rest of Jasper’s family.
A man and a young woman in flowing clothes are waiting on the beach. Cora waves to them brightly and shouts something in Illyan. The man comes wandering into the crystal-clear shallows with a determined, needy look on his face, one I’ve seen on Jasper a few times. When he reaches the boat, Cora leaps out of it into his arms.
