“She hasn’t,” he replied, “but if she’s luring them somehow, as you said—” He stopped abruptly as Roya appeared from below.
She wore a pair of tight, black leather pants, a dark gray cotton shirt tucked into a belt, her leather boots, and a cloak pinned at her throat. Her hair was braided up in a fancy style that should have taken much longer to achieve, and she almost glowed with health, her cheeks pink. Omega magic at work? Possibly. I made a mental note to research it later.
Thorn muttered something that sounded likeshe sure looks freshly fucked, and called out a greeting.
Her cheeks got pinker when she reached me and Thorn. She wasn’t short for a woman, but Thorn was tall, and I was taller. We towered over her, and there was something darkly pleasing about seeing her standing between us, her sapphire eyes turned up, her pink lips pressed into a small pout… I shook away the thought and discreetly adjusted myself.
“Which island are we at?”
The captain took that moment to lumber past. “Old Queen Nesta’s one.” He grinned through half-rotten teeth and spat a dark stream of tobacco-stained saliva over the rail. “Called Havira. The one we meant to go to, only after Mirren. That storm blew us farther than it should’ve. Dark magic at work, there. The leviathan’s work.”
Thorn’s face stilled while Roya’s eyebrows quirked up in interest. I tried to keep mine impassive. I was sure that a leviathan hadn’t been the reason the storm threw us so far of course, but I was also well-read enough to know that such things did exist. Or had, at some point.
The captain kept talking, mostly to himself. “We’ll not stay long, not with Gullen poking around, trying to tax us for using his precious water supplies, since we don’t have his cargo for him yet. Ha! I’ll pay him in piss, not whiskey.”
“Gullen?” Thorn asked. “The regent?”
The captain squinted at Thorn. “Aye, that ‘un. You know of him? Rulin’ in place of the queen, even though young Altair is more’n ready for the crown. Word is Altair’s been kept prisoner somehow for years, though some say it’s his mind that’s gone. He was healthy as a lad, though. I saw him when I used to do runs out here for the old queen.”
Thorn made a series of hand gestures to Roya, and she ran back down to our room, emerging a few moments later carrying all their possessions.
They were planning to debark. I fought to keep the victory from my voice. “Are you staying here?” Roya nodded, her eyes on Thorn. I leaned down and let my lips brush her ear. “Good. We have unfinished business,kralovna. I look forward to taking care of that, and you, many more times.”
She wouldn’t look directly into my face, and her downcast eyes filled me with a strange satisfaction. She hadn’t said as much, but I had a suspicion I had provided her first experience of pleasure the night before. I put one finger to my mouth, licking the end, imagining I could still taste her on it. Roya let out a startled cough, her scent blooming across the deck, orange blossom mixed with sea salt.
“Get your things, boy,” Thorn growled. “And leave my student alone. You’ll stay with us, I assume.” His voice ended on a questioning note, and I glanced at his eyes, which glinted under his hood. I could see him better now than I ever had, the scar that stretched around his face like a vicious question mark, as well as the fire of determination in his stare. I answered him with a look.
Of course I was staying with them. She was my Omega, even if she had been his longer.
“You say you did runs here, for the old queen?” Roya asked, distracting the captain. “What sort of runs?”
Thorn leaned close so the captain wouldn’t hear. “Roya and I must stay here, at least for now. The Guild’s war chest is infinite for a member who’s Anathema. This captain will be loyal until my coin runs out, or until he gets drunk and babbles about us. He knows about me, and about Roya’s Omega nature. She perfumed the whole bloody ship last night, in the middle of a hurricane.” Ah. I felt my face heat. “I’m not sure the crew would be safe from her now.”
“The crew?” What did he mean, safe fromher?
“Yes. They’ll try something, even if they are Betas. Their instincts are muted, but still there. I watched it happen in training. After they’ve been exposed for a long while, stronger Betas lose all sense. Some tried to break into her rooms at night; others attempted less direct methods. She took care of some of them. But she has no idea how many others I had to... redirect.”
I swallowed, understanding. They had been redirected to a different plane of existence. Good. Anyone who thought of hurting my Omega should die.
Thorn went on. “It would be better still for me to be away from her entirely. But she wouldn’t be safe in Mirren without me once the captain tells everyone about her. Not many in the Guild can make it this far. And we’ll see them coming, which is a stark advantage.”
He was right. Wulfram had spies in Mirren, and the Guild’s secondary base of operations was on the border between Mirren and Starlak. They would all be looking for Roya.
“She’ll be safer here,” I whispered back. “You both will. This is the island Queen Vali’s mother came from.” It was also the island where some of the world’s most effective poisons were cultivated, if my studies proved true. Thorn merely nodded, pretending to listen to the captain’s bragging.
“…whiskey, for rum sugar, salt meat for dried fruit. Medicinals, if you know what I mean.”
Thorn’s lips flattened. “I had heard Havira was a good source for quite a few specialized herbs.”
The captain’s smile grew crafty. “Course you’d know about herbs and the regent and that. Not surprised, what with you bein’ Guild and all.”
Thorn pulled him away and pressed what must have been coins into the man’s hands, whispering something that made the captain swallow hard, even as he tucked the coins away in a pocket.
“Change of plans, lads!” His voice trembled slightly as he lumbered over to the ladder, whistling for sailors to let down a small rowboat. “Weigh anchor. We’ll reprovision on the far side of the island, then head to Mirren. These three are goin’ on alone.” He motioned to his crew to load our belongings in the rowboat. “I never saw ya’s, if the Guild comes askin’. In fact, I think I’ll head east of Mirren, up near Pict, if you folks want to get in this ‘ere dinghy. Anyone asks, I’ll say ya drowned in the storm, aye? Fell overboard.”
Thorn flicked another gold coin at the man, and murmured, “I’ll be listening,” as he gestured for Roya to follow him down the ladder. I went last and rowed with Thorn for a shoreline that seemed strangely well populated.
“Roya, whatever happens, you must not be separated from us,” Thorn told her, as the figures coming into view became sharper. And the weapons they held looked sharp indeed, glinting in the afternoon light. “The Guild has no hold here. The island was a matriarchal monarchy for many centuries, and may be still… but Regent Gullen is an unknown.”
