“Sea urchin. It’s a delicacy in some courts.” Kairos’s eyes glinted as I bit on my lip. “You ate street meat in Skalgard but you’re squeamish about this?”
I eyed the lump sliding down the knife. I raised it to my mouth and slurped. I braced for the worst, but the taste was mild. Barely salty. Soft like foam, dissolving almost instantly.
“Oh. That’s good!”
“Told you.”
I licked my lips. “Where did you find them?”
“Tide pools.” Kairos cracked another shell and carved out more urchin. “When my mother and I fled to Sanguir, she met a warrior, Rhodion—Elwen’s father. He’d bring me and Elwen to the coast. He taught me how to forage these.”
He popped the meat into his mouth. Then he picked up a translucent orb the size of a plum. It glowed pink, like a heart wrapped in gelatin.
“Moonbell jelly. They only surface during solstice.” He turned it gently in his fingers. “We put them in dessert wines to make them glow.”
“That’s what makes the wine shimmer?” I leaned closer, fascinated.
“Has to be cooked first, though. Raw, it gives you hallucinations.” His mouth quirked. “Burns out after a few hours, but some people eat them on purpose. Claims it helps them commune with Ocalis.”
I blinked. “The dragon?”
“Sea dragon.” He set the jelly down carefully. “His bones are buried in the southern seabed. The stories say that’s what makes the tides swell. Some still think the ocean carries his breath.”
“How did he die?”
“Other dragons killed him.”
So dragons kill each other. The one who spoke to me, is he like Ocalis?I almost told him about what I’d seen while drowning. The broken world and the golden-eyed man, but I shoved the impulse down. I just wanted a moment of peace.
“Why would they do that?”
“Jealousy.” Kairos cracked open another urchin. “Theyfeasted on his heart for nine nights, then threw what was left into the ocean.”
“Lovely.”
“Fae stories usually end in blood.”
I picked at a piece of shell, tossing it into the fire. “Tell me a better story. Something that doesn’t involve cannibalism.”
“There’s one about a tree that grew from a girl’s ribcage.”
“That’s not better!”
“It has a happy ending.”
I sighed, leaning into his side. His arm came around me, pulling me against him, and I soaked in his warmth.
“Fine. Go ahead.”
“She died protecting her village.” His voice rumbled through my back. “They burned her body, but the ash wouldn’t scatter. It clung to this rune stone. By morning, a sapling had grown. When it bloomed, the leaves were red. Same color as her hair.” His fingers sketched patterns on my arm. “They say it still stands in the Mirenwilde. That it protects travelers who’ve lost their way.”
My skin lit up under his touch. “Horrifying but beautiful.”
“Your turn.”
“Alright, but no laughing.”
Kairos’s thigh grazed mine, and a jolt hit my heart. His hand was unbearably soft and it was difficult to think.
