“It was a good map. It had a sea monster.”
“He puts sea monsters on all his maps,” Lachlan said as he sat beside me. “Ever since he started making them. Sea monsters, and compass roses with a gemstone of some kind. Maybe a––”
“A diamond,” I finished for him, my voice shaky. I’d told him I wanted maps, all those years ago. He’d listened, even if he hadn’t talked to me. Listened and remembered.
Damnit, I really shouldn’t have poisoned him.
The guys spent the next few hours taking care of me. Alexios steered and filled me in on what had happened since Skadi took me. Dustin found some trousers for me in the hold, to go with Alexios’s boots and Goran’s shirt. Once I was dressed, he bailed the slightly leaky hull and caught me up on their past few days. Half of Goran’s warriors had stayed at Stellina’s, with the rest camped out in Starvale in case they were needed.
“We’ve stayed near that town before. Nice folk, mostly older. Farmers and fishermen, of course.”
Kellin was nowhere to be seen, but Lachlan caught tuna and brought them to the boat for us to eat, singing selkie love songs in his gorgeous voice to cover the sound of Goran being sick. After the first hour, Goran only puked every so often, but very sweetly did it as far from me as he could.
After a while, I grabbed Dustin and took him into the tiny cabin for a private conversation. “You can’t tell Goran about this,” I said first off. “He’s overprotective, and he’ll try to stop me. And you can’t let Kellin or Lachlan know what I’m up to, though it’s fine to tell them what I need them to do.”
“I swear it on my honor. I serveyou,my lady,” Dustin said firmly. “The Warlord cut off my token. I’m your man.”
“Good.” Then I whispered instructions for him and for him to give the selkies, his expression growing more and more serious as I sketched out variations of the plan I’d made since Mirren.
“A fire god, my lady. You’re going to go straight to him? I know you can do it, if anyone can.” He whispered, “But you don’t have your fancy knife, your pendant, or your poisons, even. How do you plan to survive?”
“The same way I have so far. By being too mean and fast to die. But the most important thing is to get those Omegas out, even if I can’t. Now listen.” I covered everything from the best case to the very worst that might happen. He looked like he might throw up by the end, but he only nodded and agreed tomake it happen. “If you do this, your name will be in the history books someday.”
His eyes grew wide. “Glory and fame are nought but a game; Take my life if you need, I pledge it to your name.”
I grinned. “Have you been working on that one for a while? It’s almost good.”
“I have many more, my lady,” he said earnestly. “Yesterday, I found the perfect rhyme for your silver eyes. It’s your slender thi?—”
“Rada!” Goran called out, saving me, and I half-shoved Dustin out onto the deck before the poetry began again.
Kellin had returned with a boat. It was almost the same size as the one I was on, though it was beyond weathered. “By Her holy hangnails, Kellin. You actually found a boat?”
He swam close and shifted, holding onto the boat as he accepted a cup of fresh water from Alexios. “I know this area well. I’ve even stayed on a few of the islands within a day’s swim. There’s an abandoned fisherman’s hut on the nearest one.”
“I could kiss you,” I said before I could think better of it.
He flinched like I’d hurt him. “Thank you for the thought,” he replied, pulling away.
Ouch.I deserved it.
I motioned Lachlan closer and whispered in his ear, “Watch over him for me? I don’t have time to make it right. Dustin has the plan. Ask him for it.”
“My brother has a forgiving heart. You’ll find a way to heal it after you’ve finished your mission.” He pressed a kiss to my lips and slid his pelt back on.
Kellin started to slide his pelt around his shoulders and follow, but I called out, “Wait!” He hesitated, though he was already shimmering with the change. “You have to take good care of yourself, Kellin.”
“Why?”
I reached over the water and grabbed his arm, then hooked my other arm around his neck, barely avoiding falling in the water. “Because I owe you an apology we don’t have time for now. And don’t forget, you owe me hundreds of orgasms.”
“I don’t forget anything,” he replied, staring as if he were trying to memorize my face.
“You don’t, do you? You’re all about the details.” I hesitated, hoping I was right. “You made maps. With sea monsters and diamonds. For me?”
He nodded.
“How much of the world have you mapped?”
