“That is correct. Faeytes cannot cast with copper on their skin.” Her voice is pure ice. “In that, we are alike.”
Something about that statement doesn’t ring true. “Did your victim deserve their fate?”
Her lips part. “He deserved a lot worse.”
The iron clinks in my hand, and she lowers her gaze. I’m still watching her when she frowns. “You unlocked it.”
“The chain only.” I toss the links into the corner, waiting for her to ask. But she doesn’t. I step back as she gets to her feet and gesture to the cuff. “The copper stays on, I’m afraid.”
“What if I run?”
“We’re in the middle of the Asterian Sea.” I fold my arms. “You won’t be running very far, I assure you.”
The smallest wrinkle appears in her brow. She’s surprisingly tall—less than a head below me. The cloak wrapped around her shoulders was made for someone far shorter, ending mid-calf and showing her lack of shoes. “I could fly.”
“You could try, I suppose.” I step back to give her space. “None of us would be able to catch you.”
Her mouth opens, and closes again. “What do you want?”
“Many things.” I turn my back on her. “For now, you’ll join us on deck, where I can keep an eye on you. And I wouldn’t suggest flying, unless you can maintain it for several days.”
I flick my fingers in her direction as I turn for the door. “Follow me.”
Only silence follows me. “I am not a dog to be called.”
I come to a stop at the frigid tone. Without looking back, I pull the door open. “No. But you are an unknown faeyte on my ship, a self-confessed murderer, and youwillfollow my instructions, or I will chain you back up here until we arrive back in Asteria.”
“And then?” The padding sound of bare feet on wood sounds behind me. Her voice sounds again, closer. “When we return to Asteria?”
I glance over my shoulder. Selene lifts her chin, waiting for a response. “You’ll be brought before the king, most likely. He’s been searching for a faeyte for several years. You seem to have the luck—or otherwise—to be the first we’ve come across.”
A pause. “There is no king—”
“There is now.” I cut her off, my words terse. “Like I said. Asteria is not the place you remember.”
I step through the door, her quiet response following me. “Clearly.”
Chapter nine
Selene
Tangy, salty air brushes over my face as I follow Callan Edgeborn through the doorway and up onto the open deck of the ship. He weaves around the piles of boxes, not looking back as I keep pace with him even as I assess my surroundings. “How long have we been at sea?”
“Fourteen hours, give or take.” He ducks around a teetering stack of boxes that look on the verge of collapsing completely. “We left around an hour after dawn.”
The darkened sky is disorientating after hours in the lightless cargo bay, but the air is a welcome refreshment against my stale skin. My hand scratches absently at my arm beneath the cloak. “How long is the journey?”
He glances back at me, eyebrows raising. “You’ve done it before, haven’t you?”
“I—” My words cut off. “I can’t remember.”
He hums lightly. There’s a curious energy to his movements, a vibrancy like the crackle of lightning. As if he’s casting, but I see no maegis. I eye him warily. “What maegis do you have?”
“It’s considered rude to ask about a Caelumnai’s maegis, you know,” he says with what sounds like amusement beneath the words. “What makes you think I’m Caelumnai at all?”
I almost pause. He’s right. His unusual eyes don’t match the three classes I’m aware of, but it bleeds from him nonetheless. “Your…energy.”
“Well, I can’t help that. Try not to sound so prim about it.” But he doesn’t answer me. We pass through yet another tower before we’re blocked by a rail with wooden spokes that reach to my waist. “This way.”
