The boat landed with a soft splash, the oars rolling inside. It looked like a little wooden toy that would easily smash to bits on the cliffs ahead.
I swallowed hard. I hadn’t done so well the last time I’d been on one of these, escaping the Den with Aiden, Maz, and Ruru. But I needed to see the mine for myself.
Before any of them had a chance to go first, I rushed forward, seized a dangling rope, and slid down to the rowboat.
I thanked the gods I’d thought to wear leather gloves over my tender palms, or the rope burn would’ve been unbearable.
I miscalculated the landing and ended up on my ass at the bottom of the rocking boat. A snicker came from above, and I glared up at the murky shadows gazing down at me.
I knew who would come flying down next before he even jumped.
Aiden landed with the silent grace of a cat, then seized my arm. “I didn’t include you for a reason, Kiera. Get back on the ship.”
I yanked my arm out of his grasp. “I’m not yours to command. This was my idea. I’m going.”
His face was merely a shadow beneath his hood, but I could almost feel his jaw grinding. “The tide is rolling out, which means this will not be a pleasant trip. If you get sick, every guard on watch will hear you.”
Gods damn it, was I never going to live that down?
“I can handle it,” I snapped. “Let’s just work together on this one thing, and then we can go back to hating each other.”
“You think I hate you?” he breathed, his gloved fists clenched. “I don’t even know you.”
I jerked back as if he’d slapped me. My cheeks burned.
Gods, that shouldn’t hurt. I didn’t want it to hurt. Because he was right. He didn’t know me. Just as I didn’t truly know him. I hadn’t thought he was capable of killing an innocent woman, or leaving me tied up in a room while he attempted to murder my father.
But then why did it feel as though he’d taken my knife and gutted me with it?
Aiden turned away and shoved the oars into their locks. Nikella, Yarina, and a few burly bone-rattlers slid into the boat. I scurried to the front, as far away from Aiden as I could get.
Yarina handed me a bucket. “I figure you’ll need this, princess,” she whispered.
“I’m not a princess,” I hissed back at her.
“Whatever you say, princess.”
“Silence,” growled one of the bone-rattlers as he started heaving on his oar.
Yarina smirked at me, tapping one of her scythes ominously. I rolled my eyes and shoved her bucket to the bottom of the boat. She had too much in common with her brother. And oddly, she made me miss his company all the more. But I doubted I’d be welcome in it anytime soon.
The boat coasted over the waves, flying upward, then plunging downward. My stomach rolled with it.
I’d purposely not eaten any of the mushy porridge the ship’s cook had passed around earlier. But that didn’t stop me from clamping my lips together.
The cliffs loomed higher and higher. I searched for guards on top, but couldn’t make any out.
Perhaps I’d been wrong to bring us here. Perhaps Renwell had already ordered everyone to abandon the mine.
“If we don’t find that entrance soon, we’ll be nothing but bones and kindling on those rocks,” Yarina muttered.
A wave crashed over the boat, and I gasped under the spray of cold water. Wrapping my numb fingers over the edge of the boat, I leaned forward. But it was useless. I couldn’t determine one cliff face from the next.
“There,” Nikella said, the thunder of the waves nearly drowning out her voice.
We all looked to where she pointed. An irregularity in the cliff face. Two seams that nearly blended together but for the shadow in between. Where the waves didn’t shatter but surged inward.
Aiden and the bone-rattler grunted as they pulled hard on the oars to direct us toward the inlet.
