Loche
He sensed her starting to lunge, and Loche flew forward to grip Iviry’s wrist as she tried to jump off the ship onto the stone that just kept growing ahead of them, the black walls towering toward the blue sky and surrounding Loche’s ship.
“Let me go!” Iviry went for him when he wouldn’t release her, her hand driving into his chest so hard he lost his breath for a moment, but Loche didn’t let up. “I said, let me go!”
Dragging her against his body, locking his arms around her heaving chest, Loche hissed into her ear, “Lookaround you!”
The people on this ship and the ones beside them all had their eyes on them.
Watching.
Judging.
Evaluating.
Worrying about how they’d handle this attack, thefear in the air so palpable it appeared to merge with the wind, the hushed words of worry that reached his ears chilling him to the bone as the ships ahead of them sailed faster, leaving this one and the two closest behind awaiting his or Iviry’s orders.
When Iviry continued to struggle, her legs kicking to get free, Loche cursed to himself, then whispered through his teeth, “We need to go! Iviry… we fucking can’t. We need to keep moving.”
“Get the fuck out of here!” Raine’s eyes were wild as he jerked his head toward them, his red hair barely visible between the closing walls of rocks. “Get. The. Fuck. Out.”
Loche squared his shoulders as he gave the Fae warrior a sharp nod, and he tried to pretend he didn’t notice the sob shaking Iviry’s body, finally relaxing some of her tense muscles and molding her back against his chest.
“Sail!” Loche only needed to give Zaddock one look for his right-hand man to start echoing the order, his masked soldiers amplifying it as the three ships followed the armada ahead.
Loche moved him and Iviry around, primarily so that she wouldn’t have to watch as the wall of stone closed on their friends, but also for himself, because…
Lessia’s little sister was still on that ship.
Closing his eyes for a second, Loche tried to tell himself it had been the right decision. There was a reason they’d gone after the ship he and Iviry had occupied, and he was pretty sure it was to take Iviry and him down.
They couldn’t afford that. No, even if Havlands decided in the future that he and Iviry weren’t the rightfit for leading the realm, there was no turning back now. War would come, and they were the only ones who could try to keep their people alive.
Loche’s ears perked as he kept his eyes closed, and it was impossible to miss the conversations happening around them.
“They just left them!”
“They’re going to die! Those were the enemy Fae!”
“Did you see what they could do with the stone?”
“And they killed those rebels last night, so we’re even fewer to stand against them!”
“Is there anywhere we’ll be safe?”
“They can’t even seem to agree when it’s life or death! How are they going to lead Havlands?”
“A fucking wedding! That’s what they’re focusing on. It’s like Rioner all over again.”
Loche did everything he could to prevent his body from reacting. The people’s responses weren’t new to him. It had been the same when he won the election a few years back. For months—even years, if he was truthful—people had whispered their doubts about his leadership. And there hadn’t even been the threat of war looming over them then.
Iviry’s hair tickled his cheek as he leaned his chin on her shoulder, drawing deep breaths and allowing her scent to calm his racing heart.
“We need to do something,” Loche whispered as the tension around them mounted, the fear shifting into the fury he’d anticipated. “It’s about to get dangerous.”
“I know.” Iviry’s response was barely a whisper.
Her broken voice rattled him to his core, and he couldn’t release his arms around her; instead, he held the beautiful female closer, as if that would protect her, as ifit might do anything against the fucking nightmare they’d both awoken to.
