Page 44 of Enchantment of Silver and Sea
For the briefest of moments, I felt something that I think was peace.
There was no past, with memories that wouldn’t leave me alone.
There was no present, with confusing feelings about Kieran.
There was no future, where maybe these people I was becoming so attached to didn’t survive the next few hours. Where maybe I didn’t survive, if Cato or Brielle or literally anyone else figured out the truth of where I was. What I had done.
There was just me and the ocean.
“Wow!” Cecil exclaimed, absently stroking his beard. “You must have been just minutes away from melting.”
“I’m glad you can see the humor in it,” I said dryly, sipping from my water bottle.
The sun was low in the sky and a slight chill was forming in the air, but my skin was practically pulsing with heat. I stretched my legs out in the sand in the shadow of the canopy. I could swear that I was watching my skin get pinker with each passing moment.
“I really am sorry, Maila,” Nya said from where she stood beside Cecil, a hand on her hip. “We’re all so used to being out in the sun every day, we didn’t even think about how it would affect you.”
“It’s okay, I should’ve known better.”
It was true. I’d read plenty on sunburns. I’d even watched Zander cope with one several years ago, after his first day patrolling the city streets from sunrise to sunset. But I guess it was one thing to have knowledge, another to actually put it to use.
Kieran passed by us with an armful of spears. He was distributing weapons to the group.
And he was still shirtless. The muscles of his back rippled as he wore a path in the sand between the pile of weapons and the waiting semi-circle of Strangers.
“Why doesn’t Kieran burn?” I lamented. “He’s almost as pale as I am.”
Nya snorted. “Kieran’s only half human, remember? Who knows what kind of crazy sun-resistant genetics are floating around in there.”
After a moment, she and Cecil stepped out from under the canopy and took up spots with the rest of the group.
“That must hurt,” a voice behind me exclaimed.
I turned to see Xiomara stepping around me to grab a hunk of jerky from one of the supply bags. The steady misting of saltwater on the breeze had turned her already-curly hair into a voluminous mass.
A force to be reckoned with. Which I had a feeling was not so different from the rest of her.
“It’s going to hurt a lot worse later,” I sighed. I poked my arm and watched the white imprint of my fingertip fade back to pink.
“True,” she agreed with a wince.
I racked my brain, trying to think of something I could say. Literally anything at all. Where was Brielle when you needed her?
Right, she was back in Cyllene. Not being a liar and a traitor to her entire city.
Xiomara stepped closer, snapping me out of my thoughts. She crouched down so we were at eye level with one another, hugging her bronzed knees against her chest. “Look, I don’t want there to be any tension between us,” she began. “I’m sure you know about my history with Kieran, but I just want you to know I’m cool with whatever’s going on between the two of you.”
I could feel the surprise register on my face. “That’s kind of a relief to hear,” I said. “I feel like we got off on the wrong foot somehow? Even though there’s nothing going on between me and Kieran.”
It was the truth, wasn’t it? Sure, he liked to mess with me. We flirted with each other, and Nya cracked jokes about how one or both of us were grossing her out. But it was harmless.
Granted, I was pretty sure I didn’t want it to be harmless anymore. But she didn’t need to know that.
“Right,” Xiomara drawled, her voice somewhere between true agreement and sarcasm. “Well, I just thought you should know I’m used to this sort of thing. It’s part of the package with Kieran. Maybe even like a rite of passage, you know?” Here she laughed, a throaty sound that even I had to admit was sexy. “He’s always moving from one woman to the next, so you can’t get too attached.”
A knot formed in my stomach.
“I mean, I remember when we first started sleeping together.” She shrugged her shoulders and bared her teeth in a mock cringe. “There were a lot of women back at camp who had a tough timewith it. But Kieran and I have known each other forever. He and Cecil are very close. So it was just natural that our friendship would turn into something more.” She leaned in again, adding conspiratorially, “I remember the girl he was with before me tried to confront me one night at camp, and it wassouncomfortable. I told her, look, you just can’t beat a history like ours, you know? Friends turned lovers?”
