27. Chapter Twenty-Seven

"You have a glow."

Kalia side-eyed Reshef as he came into view, leaning his elbow against the edge of the gunnel. "I"ve been standing in the sun for three days; of course, I have a glow."

Reshef shook his head, pivoting to plant both elbows on the gunnel as he looked out at the sea. "No, no, that"s not it. It"s a glow, not a tan." It was his turn to side-eye her, and she felt his gaze track from the crown of her head to the boots she had sulked over putting on that morning. "I know it"s not a haircut, though you desperately could use one."

Kalia scoffed, but Reshef kept going.

"It"s not new clothes, and gods know that dress has seen better days—"

"Did you walk over to insult me?" Kalia asked. Reshef had always been a bit of an asshole, but his frank honesty was what endeared her to him.

Reshef smirked, though he kept his stare firmly leveled on her as though she were a puzzle he meant to solve. His eyes briefly flicked over her shoulder before returning her to her. "Captain is at the helm today. He was at the helm yesterday, too." He narrowed his eyes, though Kalia kept her lips firmly closed. "And he keeps looking over here."

It was quiet for a moment, and Kalia locked her gaze on the sparkling sea before her. Blue as far as her eyes could see. The water lapped gently at the hull for the first time since they had returned from the si"lat"s lair. She and Rahmi were lucky that the sisters hadn"t returned from hunting, though Rahmi quickly grabbed the orb from the dead si"lat"s corpse as they passed through the passage when the low tide came in.

Reshef suddenly straightened, his eyes trailing between her and Rahmi. "Oh. Oh. My, my, my." He squared his shoulders to her, a wicked smile curling his lips. "You harlot."

"I don"t know what you mean," Kalia said, though a little too quickly. She could already see the mischievous sparkle in Reshef"s eye. And, she now knew, that sparkle meant there was nowhere for her to hide.

"I know exactly why you have a glow."

Kalia was desperate to get out of this conversation. "No, you don"t."

"You do look different, but it"s because you look thoroughly fucked. That"s the glow—"

"Gods, kill me now."

Shouts from the crew behind them sounded as a rope from the mainmast snapped, sending two men sliding across the deck. Rahmi ordered Alaric to the helm as he flew down the wooden steps, reaching to grab the rogue, twirling rope before pulling it back into place. The sleeves of his tunic had been rolled to the elbow, exposing the thick swirls of markings that lay there. Sweat sheened a layer that glistened on his brow, tiny droplets forming that dripped down his temple.

"That man even looks like he can fuck."

Kalia hadn"t realized Reshef had been watching her closely, that smirk curling even more profound with every passing moment. "Gods, Reshef—"

"I mean, if he can have you looking like that three days later—"

Kalia had undoubtedly heard enough. She turned to press a finger into his chest. "Listen up, you little shit. Keep it to yourself, or I"ll cut off your favorite appendage and serve it to Alaric in Doc"s revolting fish stew."

Reshef lifted his hands in surrender, though the smirk never lessened. "Noted, Kalia. My lips are sealed. Nothing save for the gods themselves will pull it out of me."

Kalia"s shoulders relaxed, the tenseness ebbing away. She leaned against the gunnel, once more staring out at the water. The sea had almost become a peaceful sight to her, the waves reminding her of the rolling dunes surrounding Sha"Hadra. "It didn"t mean anything, anyways." From how her heart thumped a traitorous beat in her chest, she knew she was only lying to herself.

And that cyclical debate she had been having with herself over the last three days kept her from pounding on his cabin door every night. Putting her hand between her thighs after she knew Shirin and Elodie had fallen asleep only gave her so much relief. Barely any, if she were being truthful.

But continuing to be wrapped up in him only complicated things further. Kalia had already stopped swapping the dried meat and fruit she had hiding in case the ship came within swimming distance of the continent. And that was alarming enough, considering Wright was still working an angle to get her to agree to destroy the Luminaria.

"Yeah, okay," Reshef muttered, bending down to whisper in her ear. "Tell that to your glow." He barely budged as she pushed him away, a choked laugh following on the heels of her shove. "I came to give you information. After much discussion, and by that I mean sucking Alaric"s cock one time in the storage berth—"

"Really?"

"—I found your man."

Kalia licked her lips, the taste of salt a shock against her already dry tongue. "And? What else?"

Reshef slyly glanced around, and Kalia assumed it was to ensure no one was near enough to overhear them. Satisfied, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a wrapped bundle of sliced cheese and two small apples, handing one to Kalia. If anyone were looking, it would appear that they were two friends enjoying lunch on the deck.

Friends. The word pulled at something behind Kalia"s navel. She didn"t know the last time she could consider someone a friend. She had so little experience with the concept that she wondered if that definition even included Reshef. But it was the only word that came close enough to her admiration for the man despite his tendency to pry.

And that tendency to pry, in this case, came in handy. Kalia wanted to know more about the Luminaria Rahmi was hunting and even more about why Wright wanted it destroyed. She wanted to go to the source to find the middle ground between the two.

"He"s being kept in the brig," Reshef said through the bite of his apple. He swallowed before continuing. "Sounds like he hasn"t been out in weeks. Doc has been feeding him leftover fish stew. Honestly, I can"t think of much worse than the fresh one, let alone—"

"I want to talk to him," Kalia cut him off. She took a bite of her apple as one of the crew came up behind them, grabbing the coil of rope that sat at her feet. Glancing over her shoulder, she spotted Rahmi climbing the rope ladder fixed to the mainmast.

Reshef whistled low under his breath, breaking off a piece of cheese from the block and popping it into his mouth. "That"s a man, I tell you what."

Kalia"s head reeled back as she chewed, then swallowed. "Do I need to remind you that you were also captured and forced aboard a cursed pirate ship? Or should I set Elodie on you again to help you remember?"

"Thanks for that, by the way. Since you taught her to punch, she"s been using me as target practice. And her hit isn"t gentle." Reshef sighed. "There"s something rather thrilling about being captured. It gets the blood flowing if you know what I mean. Has he tied you up yet? Alaric did it to me last week. It was fantastic—"

"We"re not talking about this," Kalia said, taking a second bite of the apple. "I think we should go down there now. Alaric is at the helm. Rahmi is otherwise engaged. We won"t be missed."

Reshef tossed his apple"s core into the sea, quickly losing it in the ship"s wake. He broke off a piece of cheese and handed it over to Kalia before breaking off a second. "If we"re caught talking to him, we will also be thrown down there."

Kalia quirked a brow. "Does that mean you aren"t going to come? I thought being on the ship was thrilling."

Reshef bristled, casting her a long look. "Of course, I"m coming. Don"t be ridiculous. Like I would leave my best friend to enter the brig alone."

Unlike the hundreds of times before, Kalia didn"t correct him when he said the term best friend. As though he knew he was wearing her down, Reshef sent the sea a nod of satisfaction, his devilish smirk softening into a small, warm smile.

Kalia had not returned to the brig since she was first brought onto the ship. She had forgotten the rotten stink that seemed to seep into the walls, the stale air that didn"t allow any movement, and the lack of light aside from the dimly lit lanterns that lined the hallway. Even the water slapping against the keel was muffled, though some of it managed to leak down the bulwark like small rivers.

Reshef crossed the threshold first, using the flint stone to spark a flame against the lantern bolted to the wall. Kalia followed in after him, glancing around the iron-clad cells until her gaze landed on the one man locked inside.

Karim blinked against the sudden deluge of light. And, though the lantern didn"t cast him in the best light, she knew he still looked sickly. His skin, once the same tone as hers, was pallid and ashen. His brown eyes sunk heavily into his sockets, creating large, dark circles that only contributed to his ill-appearance. His legs trembled as he stood up, but his wary gaze landed on the loaf of bread in Kalia"s hand. His eyes flashed back up to meet hers.

"It"s not moldy," Karim commented, nodding toward the bread. His voice cracked with every word as though he hadn"t needed to speak in a long while. "Must mean you want something."

Kalia moved to place the loaf into Karim"s hand as he stretched through the iron bars, but Reshef stopped her with a quick clasp of her wrist.

"Information," Reshef said. He tore off a piece of the bread and placed it in Karim"s palm in a gesture of good faith. "The more you tell us, the more you get."

Karim scowled at the bread, lifting it into his mouth a second later. A groan escaped between his parted lips. "It"s been weeks since I"ve had a fresh loaf of bread." He stuck his hand between the iron and let his wrist rest against the crossbar. "What do you want to know?"

Kalia cleared her throat as she stepped forward, letting her gaze slide over the bucket perched in the corner of the cell before gliding to the thin, hole-ridden blanket neatly folded on a crudely made wooden bench. "The Luminaria. Why did you want it?"

"I didn"t want it. I wanted the gold," Karim corrected her. He swept a greasy lock of hair from his face, where it melded with stomach-clenching ease to the rest of his dirty hair. "The captain of the ship I hired wanted it."

Next to her, Reshef was leaning a shoulder against the cell door. He clicked his tongue against his teeth, and Kalia could picture the roll of his eyes, which undoubtedly followed. "Semantics. Why were you hunting it?"

Karim wriggled his fingers in a gesture toward the loaf of bread, and, with a deep sigh, Kalia plopped another piece into his hand. "Captain Nasir Al-Mahdi was a mercenary hired by the king to retrieve the gemstone. Our paths crossed unwittingly when we hired him to take us there. My colleagues and I…we just wanted the treasure that was rumored to lay inside."

"Why did the king want it?" Reshef asked.

Karim gestured toward the loaf of bread again. He tossed the piece Kalia handed him into his mouth before answering. "Probably the same reason your captain wants it. To break a curse. To have access to immortality without the constraints of the gods." He shook his head. "It"s a waste, though. The Luminaria can only be activated by a djinn. One of my colleagues discovered that on the way to the caves. We never told Captain Al-Mahdi."

"Luckily for us," Reshef retorted as he tilted his head toward Kalia. He moved the black stone back and forth on the chain hung around his neck.

Karim stilled, lifting his eyes toward Kalia for the first time in minutes. "You"re a djinn?"

"That"s certainly what they say," Kalia muttered. She cleared her throat. "Where are your colleagues? You mentioned hiring the ship with them." She pre-emptively placed a piece of bread in Karim"s hand, knowing he wouldn"t bother answering without it.

"Dead. Ghouls."

Reshef"s brow shot toward his hairline, wrinkling the skin near his forehead. "Ghouls? You can"t expect us to believe—"

"They came out of the ground," Karim interjected. A vacant shadow passed over his eyes as though he had momentarily gone somewhere else.

Kalia took the opportunity to pierce through the first few layers of his mind, connecting that bridge with ease. He either wanted her to see or was too tired to fight back. She saw the ruby gemstone glittering on a pedestal surrounded by black water. She watched as the room flooded, how magic at the threshold kept it all inside the spare room, and how Karim managed to escape, only to see his colleagues be eaten alive by gray, rotting bodies.

She pulled out of his mind, and he collapsed against the iron bars, struggling to hold himself up.

"Your colleagues didn"t just die," Kalia amended, her lip curling in disgust as she stared down at him. The pity and empathy she had once felt for him vanished instantly, leaving repulsion in its wake. "You left them there to be eaten alive."

Reshef snapped his head to Kalia before snapping it back to Karim as though he were watching a very intense match. In his silence, footsteps pounded down the stairs in the distance. Someone was coming.

"I had my reasons for doing what I did," Karim retorted as he sank onto the wooden bench behind him. It groaned in protest at the sudden introduction of his weight. "Reasons you will never fully understand."

"I understand completely," Kalia shot back, inhaling a breath through her nose that she deeply regretted in the next moment. The sour scents of his unwashed body and the waste bucket were nearly too much. "You"re a coward. You stole the map back. You left your colleagues to die—"

"And what if I did?" Karim shouted, his hands splaying wide. A maniacal laugh burst out of him as the lantern"s flame began to flicker. It accentuated his wide, wild eyes. "I"m here, and they"re given over to Samael." He stumbled forward, clutching the iron bars so hard his knuckles whitened. "And I"ll still be here when you lead us back to the treasure. I"ll be wealthy. I"ll buy the whole fucking kingdom. I"ll purchase every whore in the city. I"ll—"

Reshef put a hand at her lower back, leading her toward the brig"s entrance. "Come on, Kalia. We don"t need to listen to him." He lifted his other hand to pinch the lantern"s wick, snuffing out the flame. It left Karim in the damp darkness, his shouts following them into the hallway. "What a raving lunatic."

"He"s been alone in the dark for too long," Kalia replied, taking a few steps ahead of Reshef to keep him from stepping on the heels of her boots. But she stopped just as she found the illuminated doorway at the top of the staircase, brilliantly white amidst the black that swallowed them. "Do you truly think it would take a djinn to unlock the Luminaria?"

Reshef scrubbed a hand down his face, scratching at the stubble growing on the underside of his chin. "Hard to say. If the king wants it…if the captain wants it…we might battle for who gets it in the end."

The narrow passage was pressing in on her. Kalia felt as though she wasn"t getting enough air into her lungs. She tried to swallow, but that only enhanced the feeling that she was smothered.

"Kalia?"

She tried to temper back the overwhelming sensation of dread that sat like a boulder in her gut. "Reshef. I need to ask you something. It"s very important."

He must have heard the seriousness in her tone because his shoulders straightened before he answered her. "Go on."

Kalia took another breath, one that was far too shallow and one that threatened to set her heartbeat off to an uncomfortable race. She bit her lower lip, wondering for a long minute how to get the words out. Finally, she settled on honesty. "Reshef, do you know what a djinn is?"

Reshef"s head flinched back, and what little she could see from his gaze grew distant. "What do you mean what is a djinn?" he asked in response, confusion sweeping over his features. "Aren"t you the…" He trailed off and understanding sunk heavy lines onto his face. "Oh, gods. You aren"t a djinn."

It wasn"t a question.

Kalia blew out the breath she hadn"t realized she was holding and wrapped her arms around her waist.

"Gods, Kalia, you aren"t a djinn!" Reshef whisper-shouted. He threaded his fingers together and placed his palms on the crown of his head. "He"s going to kill you for this. You can forget whatever relationship you and him have right now. The moment he finds out…"

Reshef didn"t need to say his name.

"I know," Kalia retorted. She could have sworn her chest was on the verge of caving in. "I don"t know what to do."

Reshef lifted his hand to his necklace, fingering the black stone tethered there. "We are going to figure this out, I swear it." Though he attempted to sound confident, Kalia still heard the apprehension underlining his tone. "We"ll figure this out together. We—we"ll figure this out. It"s what friends do for one another."

Kalia felt Reshef circle his arms around her shoulders, tugging her into a tight hug that pricked tears to the corners of her eyes. For the first time in a long time, Kalia believed someone had her back. A weight lifted from her shoulders and, despite the situation she had found herself in, she felt unexplainably light.