CHAPTER 7

Hidden away within the great cabin on a Cedarfall ship, Duncan moaned beneath my caress, reacting as though my soft touch caused him pain.

His skin had drained of colour since I left him to unleash his magic. Its pale hue exposed a webbing of blue and red veins lingering just beneath the surface. It’d been a few hours since the attack had ceased, and still there had been little improvement in Duncan’s health. But at least he was awake. That was something, I supposed. Although it took an immense effort for him to hold his eyes open for longer than a few seconds.

Despite the chill that clung to him, Duncan’s body was coated in a thick film of sweat. Each time he gathered enough energy to open his mouth and speak to me, his jaw trembled and his teeth clattered. Exhaustion clung to every inch of Duncan’s appearance, making it painful to look at him.

Duncan had tested his new powers to the limit. Powers that should never have belonged to him. And it’d weakened him greatly. It took both Kayne and me to haul Duncan from the outer boundaries of the castle to the smaller vessels that waited upon Lockinge’s shore. I still felt the imprint of his slack, idle body across my side.

“You must stop doing that,” Duncan whispered, attempting to push himself from the slouch he had slipped into within the chair. “You’ll have no fingers left at this rate.”

I pulled my fingernail from between my teeth. If Duncan hadn’t made the comment, I wouldn’t have even noticed I was chewing my nails at all.

Needing to give my hands something to occupy themselves with, I drew the damp cloth out of the bowl. I wrung the water out and then reached to hold it to Duncan’s feverish forehead. “Duncan. It is not the time to worry about me. You are being unreasonable, and to make matters worse, you are in no state fit enough to refuse me.”

Although his body was still weak, his demanding nature burned brighter than the midsummer sun. “I would hardly refer to it as being unreasonable. My duty is to keep you safe, so tell me why I can’t worry about you?”

I wished to remind Duncan he wasn’t my personal guard. But as the words dredged across my tongue, I held them back behind gritted teeth.

There was only one person who had that mantle, and I couldn’t risk losing myself to the memory of him.

“Says the man who can’t even sit up straight,” I replied. “Duncan, please. I will be fine.”

“I know you will, because I’m coming with you, Robin.” Duncan shrugged off my attempt to trail the damp cloth across his sticky forehead for the fourth time.

“And what are you hoping to achieve with your stubbornness?” I asked, winning the fight with little effort as Duncan flopped back upon the captain’s red velvet chair in the centre of the room. “You have taken yourself to the limit. Practically reached the edge and thrown yourself over it. Duncan, if you don’t allow yourself to rest, then you will be no good to me, or anyone, for that matter.”

He peeked open an eye and looked directly at me. Haloed by the shadows that hung with pride beneath his stare, the green of his eyes seemed equally dark. Never-ending.

“Just give me a minute, and I will be ok. I’ve been through far worse than this, trust me,” Duncan said, glancing around the cabin with a single, raised brow. “Do you think the captain has something strong to drink? The right liquor, if sharp enough, could raise the dead… just imagine what it could do for me.”

“I hardly think alcohol is your saviour,” I retorted.

The truth was, I didn’t know what would help him heal. Duncan was a rarity. A human with access to magic that should never have been his to use. There was no knowing how his body would react to the power, and from the state of him, it didn’t look promising.

I glanced around the mahogany-decorated room. The walls had been hand-carved into one complete picture of a woodland, with trees, plants and small birds balanced on thin branches. The room itself was a work of art. Heavy crimson curtains did well to block out the light from the large bay windows that gave a view of the ocean beyond. Everything about the cabin was handsome, besides its scent. I’d taken to breathing in and out through my mouth. Anything to avoid the eye-watering aroma of salt and dried fish that seeped through the wooden body of the ship.

Duncan wasn’t the only one who would benefit from a drink. If it didn’t fix his ailments, perhaps it would solve mine. Even if the burn of alcohol allowed my mind to wander away from the winged humans for only a moment, it would be worth it.

If I wasn’t worrying about Duncan, I was dreading the meeting that would soon begin. A meeting with the winged humans who’d almost sunk all the Cedarfall ships. People who now waited on their own vessels for us to arrive. It was hard to discern if my urge to vomit was from the gentle sway of the moored ship or what lingered far across the waters.

I’d never found the concept of answers so frightening. Selfishly, I didn’t think I could cope with unveiling more secrets that each linked back to Aldrick and Duwar. It only solidified just how serious he was as a threat to both realms. If beings from another uncharted place joined the effort to stop him, Aldrick’s scourge was more of a widespread threat than I first believed.

“Never mind the drink,” Duncan said, drawing me back from my thoughts. He reached out a shaking hand and took my wrist. “I have other suggestions that may be a better remedy for me.”

“What you need is a healer,” I said, rolling my eyes at the mischief that oozed from him.

“What I need,” Duncan winced as he attempted to pull me to him. “Is standing right before me. You, Robin.”

I allowed him to guide me until I sat on his lap. Duncan was weak, his effort feather-light, but I desired to feel his reassuring touch, so I bowed to his wish. Duncan flinched as I sat upon his outstretched thighs. He didn’t complain with words, but the shake of his leg and the way his teeth bit down into his lower lip suggested that it was a struggle for him.

“Be careful,” I warned, wrapping my arms around his neck and resting them on his shoulders. “This isn’t the type of resting I had in mind for you.”

Duncan’s hand wound itself around my waist and anchored me to him. As fingers drummed on my side, my anxiety slipped away. This was something we had learned in the weeks past. Using one another’s touch to distract us from the world and its realities.

“Then we finally agree on something,” Duncan replied. “I thought it was impossible.”

“I know what you are trying to imply, and you are not getting anywhere with it,” I said softly. Worried that if I spoke too loudly, it would shatter this moment altogether.

Just us, me and him in a room, pretending that the world outside it didn’t matter.

“Let me indulge myself, if only for a moment,” Duncan exhaled, resting his head back on the gold-painted wooden frame of the chair. His eyes were closed now, and he was smiling. Grinning to himself like a cat who had uncovered the lake of cream all for himself.

“Speak then, or forever hold your peace.”

Duncan’s fingers gripped tighter into me. My heart leapt wildly in my throat.

“There are so many things I wish to say. None that would be suitable in such a place. What I wish to do and what I will do are two separate matters.”

I lowered myself to his cheek and pressed my lips to it. His skin twitched upon impact, and his smile widened. The kiss was brief, and yet exactly what I needed.

“That’s all you are getting,” I whispered, lips brushing the damp skin of his cheek.

“More,” Duncan demanded. “I deserve it.”

Lowering myself to his face again, I aimed my lips at the corner of his mouth, where the scar met his smile and gave the impression that it was never-ending. This kiss was as gentle as the first but lasted a heartbeat longer.

“Better?” I asked.

“Ask me after another,” Duncan replied, gravelly voice rumbling with a chuckle.

“Do you enjoy demanding things from me?” I asked, smiling too as I moved back to his face again.

Duncan seemed to find some strength as he held tighter onto my back. I had no hope of escaping him, not that I cared to.

He raised his neck from the chair and opened both eyes. Our faces were only inches apart. “Believe me, darling, what I want from you is far more than closed-mouth kisses. Until I locate the energy to do what I desire, another kiss here will suffice.”

He pressed a finger to his lips as though telling me to be quiet.

My mouth pressed to his for a final time, lips urging one another’s apart as our connection quickly dissolved from its softness to desperation.

I groaned into Duncan’s open mouth. His tongue lapped against mine, fuelled by the noise I made. My fingers coiled within the locks of dark hair, tracing across his scalp that conjured a shiver to spread across his exposed arms. He had hold of me, too, ensuring the kiss wouldn’t end before he wished for it to. One hand grasped onto my side, and the other gripped the back of my neck with force. In that moment, he wasn’t the weak man who’d pushed himself to the limits of his power.

Our kiss might never have come to a natural end if not for the knock at the door.

Reluctantly, I pulled away to a string of displeased groans from Duncan.

“It had to be too good to be true,” Duncan growled, his grip on my side still preventing me from standing. “Let them in, and there is no going back. Tell them to fuck off, and we can continue where we bluntly left off.”

Upon the door that led out to steps down from the main deck of the ship was a circular porthole of frosted glass. I recognised the shadowed outline beyond. They were tall. Wild curls of hair. Twin points of ears.

“Once this meeting is over with, there will be plenty of time during our journey to Wychwood where we can pick up where we left off.” I patted his knee and stood. Duncan’s hand traced the curve of my ass as he dropped his arm, reluctantly.

“I don’t feel comfortable letting you go to them without me,” Duncan attempted again, circling back to our original discussion. “Those people have proven themselves volatile. I don’t trust them with the most important person in my life.”

A warmth spread across my chest as his words settled upon me. I had my back turned to him as I faced the door that sounded with another knock, this time more impatient than the last.

“You can come in,” I called out.

“Robin. Don’t ignore me…” Duncan started.

I glanced over to him as the door screeched open, allowing the rush of salt wind to fill the room.

“If, and only if, by the time we leave you can stand without aid, then you may join me.”

Duncan’s lips narrowed into a thin line. It was the last thing I saw as I turned my attention to Althea Cedarfall, who led the party of three into the room.

“So, he didn’t perish after all,” Althea cooed, sparing Duncan a quick glance. As she did, there was nothing caring about her expression. However, when she looked back my way, her face lit from within as her freckle-covered lips turned upward.

“You would have liked that, I’m sure.” I stiffened at Duncan’s reply, but Althea showed no sign she heard as she continued.

“We have a matter of minutes before Rafaela sends a vessel to collect us. Are you prepared?”

Rafaela, the name of the warrior who had offered her strange hammer to me.

I opened my mouth to reply before Seraphine cut in. “Still think it’s wise we tell them to drag their sorry arses to us. We shouldn’t be at their beck and call, unless they are paying of course.”

“Old habits die hard.” Althea rolled her eyes, not even trying to hide her disagreement.

“I can’t expect our people to welcome the humans aboard after what they’ve done.” My hair had grown considerably over the past weeks, so that when I shook my head, dark strands of black fell before my eyes. It was becoming second nature to run my fingers upward through my hair to lay it away from my face. “It would be best that we discuss matters on their own ground. We may not trust them, but we know their enemy is our enemy. That must count for something.”

“All the more reason for them to come here. Let them face us!” Seraphine added, leaning against the doorway to the cabin with her arms and legs crossed. “They should feel uncomfortable surrounded by the people they tried to slaughter! Three have died because of them. Forgive me, but breaking bread is not as exciting a thought to me as it is to you.”

“I didn’t realise that an Asp cares about anyone but their employer,” Althea added.

“My contract is not yet up,” Seraphine added, looking to me. “Until then, I care.”

“Three have died?” I repeated, allowing the number to settle over me.

Seraphine’s grimace was enough of a confirmation.

“At least,” Kayne said from where he sulked at the door. “It may take some time to make sense of the census, but so far, three are unaccounted for.”

I stepped forward, offering a hand toward the scroll that was gripped in Kayne’s fist. “Who?”

Jesibel? Was it her? From the chaos after leaving the Below I’d still not had the chance to find her.

Kayne didn’t hesitate to hold it out to me. “Before you ask, no, she is not on my list.”

My heart sank into the pit of my stomach just like the Cedarfall ship that Rafaela and her fellow assailants had destroyed.

“Are you sure?” I asked, unable to take my eyes off the roll of parchment now in my own hands. Dark ink scribbled across the yellowed parchment. Names, so many names, hand-scribed in wonky lines. It all blurred as my eyes traced over the mess of ink.

“Checked it over more than once,” Kayne replied. “Jesibel is not a name that has been given.”

Kayne’s efforts had been vital to our plan from the moment it was forged after our escape from Aldrick. Seraphine had no trouble trusting in him, like Duncan, either. It seemed only Althea and I still had difficulty in that department – although for Duncan’s sake I fought to keep my distrust to a simmer.

“I promised her,” I muttered, swallowing the lump that suddenly invaded my throat. “I said I would come back and I did. But if she is not here, then I failed.”

Althea stepped to my side and placed a hand on my shoulder. Her touch made the scar upon my chest twitch.

“This is beyond all of our control,” she said. “Like everything that is happening around us, we can only face forward and deal with it together.”

Despite her attempt to reassure me, Althea’s words didn’t have the desired effect. Instead, I clung to the painful feeling that failing stabbed me with. Duncan noticed, laying a gentle hand on me for comfort.

“Those from the prison who cared enough to speak with me said something about Aldrick visiting the prison days ago.” I was aware Kayne was speaking, but his words only tickled my consciousness. “They said he took a large group of captives with him. They never returned.”

Could she have been one of them? Out of all those fey, how had Jesibel been among those he chose?

“And this is the first we’ve heard about it?” Duncan spoke up, leaning forward in his chair. “Seraphine, our eyes and ears. It doesn’t seem like you to have something so important go unnoticed?”

I snapped my attention to the assassin. “If Seraphine knew, she would’ve said.”

“That’s right.” Seraphine held my stare. Her jaw tensed; her eyes burned with determination. She no longer leant against the doorframe but stood tall and narrow. Her entire body was tense as she faced me down. “Is that an accusation hidden behind your words, Duncan?”

“I don’t know, is it?” He glowered in return.

“ My informants tell me the moment Aldrick so much as pisses. This, if you can find it in yourself to believe, is news to me.”

I searched the assassin’s face for a lie, but if she had one, she concealed it well. It made little sense that Seraphine would hide something from me. I was her sponsor, and that meant more than any bond to the Asps. With the price I paid for her aid, I knew she wouldn’t lie.

“I believe you,” I said, fingers strangling around the crumping parchment.

Her lips thinned into a line, but the lines across her forehead softened. “I’m glad you have sense, my king.”

“I don’t know what to believe anymore,” Duncan added behind us.

“Finally,” Althea added. “Something we agree on. There are currently winged humans waiting, not a stretch away from us. Now is not the time for distrust. As a group, we need to stand as one if we want so much as the chance to see this to the end.”

Althea made sure she glanced at each one of us as she spoke.

“Althea is right. We stand firm together, unbreakable in the face of change.”

“Said like a bona fide royal,” Seraphine replied. “Your kind has a knack for motivational speeches, as I remember.”

“Remind me, what court was your home before you defected to the Asp nest?” Althea asked, chin raised.

“Not yours, sweetheart,” Seraphine replied, blowing a kiss that turned Althea’s cheeks red with fury. “Elmdew, although the court of Spring is not exactly a home for me. It hasn’t been for a long while. I turned my back on that place many moons ago.”

“Which explains why you struggle with authority,” Duncan added, closing his eyes. He didn’t see her scowl, but smiled anyway.

“Seraphine, your insight has been pivotal to getting us here. I don’t doubt you were not aware of Aldrick’s last movements, but do you think your Asps can locate any hint of where he may have taken the fey? Just because Jesibel is not with us now doesn’t mean I wish to stop searching for her. I made a promise. I take that seriously. Kayne, I ask that you investigate with the fey we saved; if anyone might know who was taken, it would be them.”

Both the Asp and the Hunter nodded.

“What is to say he took them anywhere?” Althea added. “He needs their blood, not their flesh. He may have drained his supply and taken it with him to conduct his monstrous mutations.”

The thought alone had the power to unravel me. I refused to believe it was an option.

“I will send word back to Lockinge and to those who are staying behind,” Seraphine said, shooting me a wary glance. “If there are bodies to find, they will locate them. Don’t worry.”

The ground swayed beneath me. I opened my mouth to speak, but it filled with a rush of sick that slipped over onto the floor. I folded over, hunched over my knees. Althea jumped back. Duncan called my name. But all I could picture was Jesi, a stranger who I had fixated on helping… dead.

“I’m fine,” I gasped, as my allies tried to help me. Clearing my mouth, I spat the last dregs of bile and hardened my resolve. “Jesi’s death is not an option I’m willing to accept. Jesi is alive, as are the others he took from the prison. If he has left Lockinge, he will need a lasting supply of blood to keep his power. He needs her alive.” So do I.

“Then we will find them all,” Althea said, eyes wide with determination. “Your promise to Jesi will be met. I guarantee it.”

I couldn’t explain aloud just how profound an effect Jesibel had had on me. She’d represented the Icethorn Court’s people. Alone, lost and then stolen, whilst fleeing a broken court left in the wake of my family’s death. It was up to me to put it right. Her face had been at the forefront of this rescue mission, and the burning hope I coveted in my soul had been doused completely by the realisation that she was still lost to me.

Seraphine shifted, sensing movement at the door before anyone else. “Time to go.”

We all turned to the captain of this ship. Flanor was an older man with sun-spotted cheeks and meaty hands that looked as tough as the bottom of a boot. The Cedarfall captain had bright sun-yellow hair and a rugged beard that likely harboured stories from years at sea.

“A small boat cuts across the sea,” Flanor said, throat thick with age. In his hand, he gripped a brass spyglass. “You asked to be informed the moment we saw them coming, and I have. The crew is growing restless at their arrival.”

“We will be up shortly,” Althea replied curtly, already pacing toward the doorway in which Seraphine prepared to leave.

Flanor bowed his head to Althea, offering her the spyglass as she swept to his side. “For giving up your cabin, Flanor, I will see that my mother thanks you generously.”

His rosy cheeks swelled at that. “It’s my pleasure, truly.”

Duncan had slipped into sleep, his eyes fluttering. I was thankful he was not awake to argue his point again. It was easier this way – at least, that is what I told myself. Each step away from his tired body only clenched at my gut.

“Robin,” Kayne said as I moved for the door.

“Yes?”

“I’m going to stay back with him,” Kayne gestured toward Duncan, who had begun softly snoring. “It doesn’t seem right to leave him alone among–”

“You don’t need to say it.” And he didn’t. Kayne was the only one who still carried his sword on his hip. The handle was never out of reach. Duncan and Kayne were Hunters. Regardless of what had been done, I knew Kayne still felt that his presence among us was threatened.

He didn’t trust us, and truthfully, I don’t think the fey trusted him either. But I was trying, for Duncan.

“Perhaps you’ll be more successful in getting him to rest than me,” I said, offering a smile that was not returned.

Kayne’s lip curled over his teeth, only slightly. I blinked, and his stoic expression returned. “You may think you need to tell me how to care for him, but you don’t. I have been by his side far longer than you. Remember that.”

I swallowed my words as Kayne stalked away from me. Looking around the cabin, I wondered if anyone else had heard. Althea had already drifted up to the main deck with Flanor, and if Seraphine had overheard, she showed no sign.

It took everything in my power not to look at Kayne as I walked away. As I reached the door, Seraphine blocked me. “Haven’t you forgotten something?”

Seraphine tipped her head toward the grand desk that waited back in the cabin’s heart. “If you are to meet with the humans, do so as you truly are.”

There was an underbelly of discomfort when she spoke. As my eyes fell upon the item she spoke about, a bitter touch of ice spread over my spine.

The Icethorn crown sat within the open-lidded box. Elinor had made sure it was sent with the ships to collect us. Physically, it was worthless to our cause. But as a symbol, it meant everything. I last had it in the Cedarfall Court, so it must have been provided by Queen Lyra.

I had brought it with me to see Duncan, allowing it to become an afterthought the moment my eyes had settled upon him. Now, it was the brightest thing in the room.

“Feels like part of a costume,” I admitted. “A rather pivotal accessory though, I can’t deny.”

“Dare I ask why?” she asked, pursing her lips.

“Because I don’t deserve it.” I turned my back on the crown and moved to leave, only to be stopped by Seraphine’s firm hand upon my arm. “But clearly Elinor knows that wearing it will only solidify my authority around so many who may still not trust me.”

“Oh, swallow your self-pity, Robin, and put the damn thing on,” Seraphine scolded. “I am the last person who cares about titles and crowns, but what you have achieved is not something to be dismissed. And what you are going to continue to do suggests, even to me, that you are a king.”

I held her stare until she dropped my arm.

“I’ve paid you to say this to me,” I reminder her.

“Oh,” she replied with a laugh. “I may do many things for payment, but lying is never one of them. Even you couldn’t offer me something for the use of that skill.”

“That’s a comforting thought,” I replied, slipping the silver-toothed metal upon my head. The crown fit perfectly. The cold kiss of metal flattened my blue-black hair down to my scalp and rested just above my ears.

“Glad to have been of service.” Seraphine slapped my shoulder and looked me up and down with an expression I’d not seen on her before. I didn’t have time to place it before she was moving.