“Famished. What did you have in mind?”
“To start, I passed a cart full of berries on the way here that were as big as my palm. We can eat those on the way. Dinner should be in our rooms by the time we arrive.” He finished his answer in her ear. “And then I’ll have you, on your back, legs spread wide for dessert.”
She giggled. “Sounds like I’m the one who’ll benefit the most.”
“You’re just going to have to trust me. It’s definitely me.”
Minutes later, Selene dropped silver into the vendor’s palm, then tipped him extra with her warm smile and genuine thanks. She cradled the overflowing carton of red berries to her breast and asked, “How does your granddaughter fare? I heard she took ill with fever.”
It was at this point that Augustus lost interest and turned toward the bay. Out of habit, he counted the anchored ships. TheEntiastood out, of course, with a serpent as her figurehead. She was practically a damned monument at this point.
Perean’s naval ships dotted the horizon with silver sails. They were a quarter of their number now, thanks to Orestis Vidalatos’s reckless actions. The dead king never should have sent so many after Augustus’s family fleet.
Amongst the familiar merchant vessels, he counted at least three additional ships that hadn’t been anchored yesterday. Unmarked sails that were all the same beige color. The figureheads were Flaming Sphinxes, the preferred deity of Vrinis, and those were their ships. However, Augustus had never seen their ships without their blood-red and obsidian sails, which told him everything he needed to know. Those ships had been appropriated by someone else.
But who? And why?
The air shifted in the corner of his vision. High atop the weather-beaten gibbet, where once-dead pirates had been left to rot as a warning to others, something else had claimed the post.
Not a gull.
Not a crow.
A thing with shredded wings and eyes like pits in the world. Its tail curled and uncurled with a lazy, serpentine flick. It wore a crown of horns that curved backward like twisted bones.
Augustus narrowed his eyes, a prickle crawling up his neck.
A Vorash.
A beast said to be born from the Valley, somewhere between death and vengeance. Called to a soul that dies in agony and fed by rage.
A long-ago memory of something Cassia said filled his mind.“Only bad omens come on black wings.”
And Cassia had never been wrong.
“You are most welcome, Miss Selene.”
The Vorash took flight, black feathers shooting into the sky, battered wings beating the air like war-torn sails.
He should have felt relieved at its absence—it was an unsettling beast—except for one thing: omens didn’t just fly away.
They circled.
Augustus turned toward the interruption disguised as a kind voice, just in time to witness the smiling old man bow to Selene.
That sort of thing began a few months ago—the friendship and respect from the Perean people toward her. It surprised him at first, though it shouldn’t have. She spent so much time with Dimitrios here, and with a heart as open as hers, why wouldn’t the people learn her name? Return the kindness she showed them?
“Here,” Selene said, passing Augustus the fruit with a single raised brow. “Though they’re not quite as large as you claimed.”
“We already know I exaggerate everything.”
“Oh,I know.”
She winked playfully as they walked, and his heart tripped into his throat, erasing his usual banter. There was a time when he feared falling in love with this woman and what her loss would do to him. His father, Mettius, said once that he and Cassia loved each other for the days they wouldn’t be allowed. Augustus thought they were fools at the time to risk the pain of losing each other.
Things were different now, not to mention different for Augustus and Selene in particular.They had lifetimes ahead, but that didn’t take away how precious these limited days were or how fully he wanted to live them.
Especially if his mother’s prophecy came to fruition.
