15. Jasper

Chapter fifteen

Jasper

R eina is definitely scheming. I saw the way she eyed the black smoke, a telltale sign of some kind of smith. She paid special attention to every turn we made, and I'm fairly certain by the clenching of her jaw that she was counting steps.

No matter. There will be no escape for her.

I hold open the door and lead her inside the White Sail. The tavern is illuminated by cloudy afternoon light streaming in from open windows. There are no glass panes, and so all the sounds from outside come in with the breeze.

It's the middle of the day, so the tavern is sparsely populated and the captain is easy to spot by the massive hat hanging off her chair. She has chin-length brown hair streaked with silver, the top half of which is pulled back to a short ponytail to keep it out of her angular face. She has a sharp nose and a severe frown on her pink lips. There's a tankard of something foamy beside her, and she scans a pile of ledgers with a pinched brow. She scribbles some detail on a sheaf of parchment, then flips the page.

"Captain Alejandra?" I ask, approaching her.

"No," the woman says with sharp authority.

Perhaps the hat isn't hers…

Despite her demeanor, I need to find the captain, and she looks important enough to know where Alejandra might be. The woman doesn't look up, or say anything further, so I clear my throat. "Do you know where I might—"

"No, I'm busy," she cuts me off again, waving me away with the back of her hand without looking up from her papers. "Come back later."

I glance at Reina. She gives me a wrinkled-nose sneer that says, "What, you think your prisoner is going to help?"

Wonderful. Nothing to do but wait, then.

I lead Reina to the bar since the next item on the agenda requires someone willing to talk to me.

The bar is a simple construction, not even painted, but lacquered so that the humid air doesn't warp it. I steer Reina down onto a stool and stand behind her, resting my hands on her shoulders to keep her from bolting out the door.

The barman, a tanned fellow with a clean shave and cropped black hair, approaches us. "What'll it be?" he asks in Wolish.

"We need a room for however many nights the Sea Snake is anchored," I say in Fynish, letting the princess in on the conversation since I know how much it irks her to be left out.

"They're leavin' first thing in the morning. A room'll be two silver, but if you want a meal, it'll be three."

I reach into one of my many pockets and find the stolen treasure I'm looking for. The glint of gold and rubies makes Reina gasp as I hold out her tiara from the wedding night at the palace. She glares up at me but knows better than to say anything about it.

"We were shipwrecked, and all I was able to hold onto were the things this little wretch pilfered on her journeys—she's my bounty, you see. I'm taking her back to Illya for punishment. What can this get us?" I ask, handing it over to the barman.

The man looks the tiara over with a shrewd eye. "Real gold and gems. Where'd you pick this up, little thief?"

"From your pig-sister's dowry," Reina snaps at him, and I nearly lose my composure in a fit of laughter.

I squeeze her shoulder to keep from smiling. "Such a vile mouth on this one. Careful not to get close, she'll spit in your eye, too."

She purses her lips, I'm sure preparing to do just that. I clamp my hand over her mouth and bend down so only she can hear. "Save it for the bedroom, sunshine."

Heat blazes across her face and a spark of violence lights her eyes just before her blunt canines sink into the meat of my palm. I bare my teeth at her in a smile. "You can save that for the bedroom, too."

"I'm not sure I can take this," the barman says, offering the tiara back. "Stolen finery like this might be missed by its owner. I don't want to be the one caught holding it when they come knocking."

Reina doesn't release my hand, so I have to lift the other one to take back the tiara. "I understand, sir. Would you take it if it were melted down for components?"

The barman seesaws his head, then nods. "A bed and dinner for one night'll be one of the rubies."

Reina gasps, freeing me, and I plant my bitten hand back on her shoulder.

"That's outrageous," she roars. "Each of those rubies are worth twenty gold pieces or more!"

"Smithy's down the road a bit," he says with a shrug as he walks away. "Take it or leave it."

She whispers up at me, "Do not melt my tiara."

"You don't even like it," I tease, hiding it away in a pouch.

"That's not true." She crosses her arms with a clank of metal, a pout puffing her lower lip in the most adorable way. It makes me want to suck that lip between my teeth and bite her right back.

I lean in again, getting close enough to smell her floral hair. "I saw you trying to rip it out that night. You hate it."

She glares indignantly, then snaps her teeth at me. I can't help but smile wider at her behavior. She's the cutest little brat and I want to make her sorry for it in the dirtiest way.

Fuck.

My Heat might not be over yet.

I need to get some air, get away from her for a moment.

"Can I tie her up here for a bit while I get things taken care of?" I ask the barman.

I doubt she'll try to escape in broad daylight. Plus, how will she get her manacles off? She wouldn't try to get away from me without her magic. That would be suicide.

The barman waves his hand casually with an affirmative grunt. "Room three upstairs is open. It'll be yours for the night."

I leer down at Reina. "Perfect."

She sticks out her tongue and sneers again before I pull her off the barstool. When we get to the stairs, she goes limp and makes me push her up to the second-floor landing. I suppose this is what I get.

A key is sticking out of the third door's knob, which I pocket before heading inside. It's not the best room I've ever stayed in, but far from the worst. The bed is a dual mattress of coconut husk and something else I can't scent, but the sheets on it are clean. The window—which has glass panes—has pulled shades for privacy, and there's a desk with a magus lamp in the other corner near the chamber pot.

I guide Reina inside and close the door behind us.

"I don't want you to leave me here," she says as soon as we're alone.

"You just want to see if you can pilfer the necessary tools to escape your bonds at the blacksmith," I say as I set protections around the door with a smear of my blood and magic.

"What if someone else takes me?"

The suggestion has my blood pumping hotter. I would annihilate anyone who even thought of laying a hand on her.

No. That's foolish. I can't let my Heat overpower my senses.

"I have the key," I finally say once my pulse is under control. "I'll lock you in and I'm setting wards on the door. You'll be fine."

"But what if I'm not? How will you get me back? How will you find me?" she asks with genuine worry in her voice.

"I just will," I say, continuing the runic protection wards.

"What if someone hurts me?" she whispers.

I turn to face her. She looks scared. I know she's spent time at court learning to lie, but she's not lying now. Her eyes don't leave mine as I stalk closer. I stop mere inches from her and lean down, despite the worry that she might once again spit on me.

"You want to know how I'll find you?"

She takes a wavering breath and nods.

I pull in a deep lungful of her floral scent. "Because I have smelled your fear, your anger, and your joy. I have tasted your pleasure and your terror. You're ingrained deep in my psyche. There's nowhere on Gaien that I couldn't find you."

She licks her lips, her cheeks stained scarlet. "What if they kill me?"

Magic surges through my veins and lights up my eyes. "I will hunt down everyone whose scent I smell on you, then chase Nol'Ther across the sky to reclaim you from her embrace."

"Jasper," she whispers my name like a prayer as she lays her hands on my chest.

I want to kiss her. Gods, I want to hold her and promise her safety. I want to liberate her from this quest and make her mine always.

Ohksana'amai.

No. She's clouding my judgement.

Reina is my bait. She will help me save my people.

And right now, I need to get away from her in order to do that.

Still, she would be easy prey with her magic locked up if someone got past my wards and the locked door. I can't leave her vulnerable like that, and so I won't.

I pull the key for the manacle from my back pouch and unlock her left wrist. Her face glows with heat as I walk her back toward the bed.

"What are you doing?" she asks, her body pressing closer to mine. It's nearly overwhelming to consider what I could do in this moment, and so I refuse to let even a tendril of lust take hold in my thoughts.

I undo the button on my pistol strap, then clamp the other end of the manacle down on the top rail of the headboard.

Reina's eyes snap down to where she's detained, and the softness disappears from her voice as she shouts my name. She pulls on her restraint once, then glares up at me. That violent spark is back in her eyes as she raises her other hand to hit me. I grab her wrist and hold her still. She pants heavily, her gaze darting between my face and our hands as I place the butt of the pistol into her open palm.

"If anyone comes into this room that isn't me, you shoot them," I say, holding her hand on the deadly weapon.

"What makes you think I won't shoot you right now?" she asks defiantly.

I get even closer just to feel the burn of her fury, then whisper, "Because the trigger lock is still engaged."

I plant a kiss on her warm cheek and pull away all at once.

"Jasper! How do I use it?" she yells after me.

I open the door and grin back at her. "Press in the little pin above your thumb, then aim and pull the trigger."

She turns the weapon sideways to inspect it.

"Remember, never point the gun at anything you aren't ready to kill," I say, then quickly close the door.

"Jasper!" she screams.

Or maybe it was "bastard." Hard to tell from the other side of the door. I smirk and lock it, watching my opal magic surge into the key and light up the frame.

She's safe now. No one will ever have her but me.