“Are you at least breathing between the drink and the laughing?” I pulled a handkerchief from my pocket, not sure what to do.
She finally regained some of her composure and took the handkerchief to wipe her face. “You’re too easy.”
“Or you’re mean.” I sank back into the seat next to her, which was probably a terrible idea.
“Just a tiny bit. But I think you deserve it,” she said playfully.
“What did I do?”
“You know.” She gave me a very pointed look.Evidently, we were on positive terms after the night before. And then I was thinking ofher. The brush of my lips over hers…
“Share with the class,” Kol said, snapping my thoughts away from the image and giving me a much-needed reprieve, but now I needed to make something up.
“She’s mad I took such good care of her while she was drunk when she should be thankful. I guess embarrassment is showing through.” I winked at Calytrix.
She flashed the rude gesture back but was clearly at a loss for how to reply.
“See, she’s even more cross now I’ve outed her.”
“Awe! Caly, you didn’t tell me he took care of you.” Nova turned toward her.
Calytrix rolled her eyes. “He merely tucked me into bed. It wasn’t anything.”
“And made sure you didn’t fall out the window! Which you tried pretty hard to do,”I added teasingly.
Kol whistled. “Sounds like a true gentle fae.”
Calytrix rolled her eyes. “He was.” She looked directly at me, the ‘I wish he wasn’t’ implied. To me, anyway.
“Well, I for one will not be drinking like that again for at least a decade,” Alaric said with regret, turning his face up to the breeze of a palm leaf wafted by a male he was practically salivating over.
I wondered if Nova had taken notice of that fact, but she seemed blissfully ignorant.
Calytrix groaned in agreement.
For several miles, the privileged among us dozed their hangovers away. We guarded them, though against a scantily clad crew of pretty males and the odd crocodile, three dragons and a ryder was perhaps overkill. The river was quiet for the most part, only the occasional boat passing as this stretch of river was mostly used by pleasure seekers. It was narrow and winding, and there were more suitable routes for trade barges. But it got us to the next port, where we would hopefully head back out to sea and finally begin heading back to the First.
It was lazy and easy. Only Nyx could not rest. He spent the entire trip watching, alternating directions and urging Kol or I to take the other. It was over-cautiousness, and I knew it was because we were so exposed. But no one knew we were here, and our boat was not exactly speedy. If anyone were looking for us, they would pay no attention to a pleasure cruise.
The sun was high in the sky when we began to see more traffic as the river network converged on the upcoming port of Havelock. I’d been here a couple of times with special cargo that had to be escorted all the way to or from the inner depths of the Kingdom. Havelock, from my memory was a busy but harmless river port.
We cruised along with other boats, on higher alert than before, but our charges were still relaxed, which maintained our appearance of a leisure cruise. It would not do to have us all sitting up, tense and glancing about.
We would soon dock, and then we could find an inn, and I could finally stretch out on a bed where I wasn’t as tense as I’d ever been trying not to touch the thing most forbidden to me. I needed a nap before we decided what was next.
Nyx came over in a hurry, excusing the attendants around us for some privacy, and spoke under his breath. “We have a problem.”
Zaria came with him, sitting next to Nova and Calytrix, gesturing for us all to scoot in. “There is a boat following us, and it has the symbol on its banner that we’ve been investigating all this time.”
Kol and I sucked in a breath at the same time while Calytrix and Nova seemed confused.
“You think it’s the priests?”
Nyx nodded sharply.
“Priests?” Calytrix asked. “Why are they a problem? I know their worship of the Goddess is a bit asinine, but aren’t they harmless?”
Nyx scrubbed a hand over his face. “I don’t know where to even begin, and it may be nothing.” He looked at Alaric. “Are you caught up on the current happenings in the war?”
