Kieran froze in the middle of scooping eggs onto his plate.Is he…avoiding me?
Seeming to notice her twin’s panic, Briar cleared her throat.“Should I go grab Sebastian from upstairs?”
That’s not a bad idea.Then, at least if he’s avoiding me, Briar can act as a buffer.
Kieran gave her a quick nod while everyone else agreed, consumed more by serving themselves than anything else.Briar nodded back to Kieran before she headed up the stairs.
The whole time she was gone, Kieran felt hyperaware of the seconds ticking by, as if he were on trial and not just sitting there adding hot sauce to his eggs.Shortly after, Briar returned.Kieran immediately met her gaze, his eyes wide, trying to silently communicate his panic.
Briar cleared her throat.“He’s not hungry.Told me to save a chocolate croissant for later.”
Kieran’s stomach dropped.Heisavoiding me.
“Too much to drink?”Santiago asked, unaware of the way Kieran’s expression had crumpled as if he’d been slapped across the face.Santiago shot Delilah a hard look, eyebrows cocked accusatorially.
Delilah just laughed.“Sorry, Santi.I’ll replace your wines next time we land for supplies.”
Santiago crossed his arms and humphed.“You’d better.I quite liked what you stole.”
Kieran barely picked at his food for the rest of breakfast, his head swimming.Meanwhile, Ariel and Santiago had a map spread out in front of them, chatting about which route to take back up north to find the Iceweave Coven, since there seemed to be multiple options.Delilah chimed in once or twice, as did Briar, but Kieran kept his mouth shut.He just pushed his eggs around, feeling a bit like he might vomit.
“What exactly do we know about the Iceweave Coven?”Briar broke in, her voice loud enough to snap Kieran out of his thoughts.“Because I’ve never heard of them.”
“I have,” Delilah said.She gestured to an illustration of the Slicetooth Mountains at the top of the map.“Some of them wouldpass through Kitfield when I was a kid, and they were the talk of the village.They always dressed so extravagantly, it was hardnotto talk about them.”
Kieran nodded.Worrying about Sebastian can wait for a bit.“The Pelumbras have some association with them, just because they live relatively close to the estate.They invited us to their winter solstice celebration every year, but the only ones who went were my older cousins, in their twenties.Apparently, it’s quite a wild party.Very…hedonistic.Magical potions that trigger hallucinations, skyclad ceremonies, dances that end only when everyone collapses—that sort of thing.My cousins always spent months putting together their most lavish outfits for it.”
“I’m surprised the Witches’ Council is okay with that,” Briar said.
“Oh, it’s not.”Kieran spun his fork around to point at the map.“That’s why the coven lives on the border between Celdwyn and Mehana, to the north.Since their land straddles the two countries and the boundary isn’t very well established, neither nation can claim them.They’re basically their own city-state, where our laws don’t apply.”
Briar considered that.“Color me intrigued.Though, if the fashion is such a big part of it, will they even let us in?My entire wardrobe is black pants and button-down shirts.”Her eyes flicked to Kieran.“At least you’ll be okay.”
Kieran glanced down at his clothes.“For your information, this is by far my most muted sweater vest.”
“Exactly my point.”
“Perhaps we can land and pick something up,” Ariel suggested.“It’s going to take us twelve days or so to fly that far north—perhaps longer if I decide to take a different route to avoid the mercenaries.We’ll have to get fuel at least once, maybe more.I could try to fit in a stop somewhere you could get something more appropriate for the celebration.”
Kieran nodded his agreement.“Good call.Best to give Sebastian a chance to, ah…deal with his curse with something other than seabirds as well.”
“Right—good point.”Ariel made a few marks on the map with a small pencil, nodding.“I’ll get the ship set for this path.In the meantime, it would be great if you witchy folks could do a sweep of the ship for anything those mercenaries left behind to make sure there’s nothing they could have dropped that could track us.I doubt they would, but after that last ambush, I’m a little paranoid.”
“I’ll take a walk around and see if I can smell anything,” Delilah agreed.She lowered her voice: “No offense to Sebastian, but it’ll be a lot easier if he stays upstairs.That curse could cover up pretty much anything.”
“I’ll let him know,” Kieran said.He took a small bite of eggs; swallowing it felt like a feat as his stomach roiled with anxiety.“I need to talk to him anyway.”
Everyone at the table exchanged knowing eye contact.Kieran sighed.These people are impossible.
“In fact,” he said, standing up, “I should do that now.Thank you for breakfast.”
Santiago and Delilah nodded, and Delilah passed him a chocolate croissant.“Take that for Sebastian.”
Kieran nodded, squaring his shoulders.Across the table, Briar caught his eye and mouthed,Good luck.
Kieran nodded his thanks and headed upstairs.
Raising his fist to knock on Sebastian’s door was beginning to feel like a challenge on par with scaling the Slicetooths.
