They talked plans over breakfast, aligning on the next steps. The pirate queen didn’t fight Eira’s intentions with her uncle—save for Crow being the one to captainWinter’s Bane. Even though the woman was one of the few Eira would trust to take the little vessel, she couldn’t argue too intensely when her focus needed to be solely on theStormfrost. And, to that end, itmade more sense for them to keep someone as trusted as Crow near. Then their conversation shifted to Ulvarth, and reclaiming Meru.
The sun was above the horizon, though still golden with gentle early light, when Eira emerged. Adela was a step behind and they parted ways. Eira started for belowdecks, stopping short when she saw Cullen coming up, hands laden with his pack.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Eira tilted her head. Had Olivin mentioned her plans about sending Fritz back to Solaris when he’d returned before her last night? Had Cullen heard?
Was he leaving her?
The thought hit her with a force stronger than her magic being ripped from her, leaving her just as breathless. Of course he would leave. He might not have taken the opportunity when they were in Qwint, too much was left unsettled then. This would be the perfect time for him to return to the lands he knew—his home.
Frankly, he would do more for them back in Solaris. His note had gone ahead of him, so they knew he was alive. But the man himself? He could turn the Court in their favor. The protégé of the Empress triumphantly returned. Eira could already see the gold and white pennons of the Solaris troops, Cullen at their head by Romulin’s side, coming to reclaim Solaris’s glory.
She swallowed thickly, hating how perfect it all seemed. And how, all at once, they were leaving her. One by one. Olivin no longer trusted her. Cullen would leave her because of course he would, and?—
“I thought Fritz could use some supplies for the road.”
“Right.” Eira nodded, trying to keep the panic she was warring with concealed and seemingly succeeding. “Olivin told you?”
“What?”
“That I’d be sending Fritz off… Olivin must’ve told you when he returned,” Eira reasoned. Yet Cullen continued to blink, looking as confused as ever.
“Eira…” He took two more steps up, standing just below her. Though, with his height, he could nearly meet her eyes even being one step down. “Don’t mistake this arrangement. I am respectful of Olivin because I am respectful ofyou. If someone is dear to you, then they will be dear to me. But it is merely respect; I wouldn’t call us ‘friends’ by any measure.” The corners of his lips curled up ever so slightly. Smugly. “So don’t think for even a second that the moment he might not be dear to you that I won’t be done with him.”
“Then…you’re not leaving?” The question was as fragile as the hope which fluttered along over her heart. As desires she was just now realizing she’d been ignoring.
“Not unless you wish for me to.” The way he held her gaze felt like an embrace and her entire body tingled with a warmth that not even the cold of theStormfrostcould puncture. “By your side, on this ship, with this crew, is where I want to be—where I am meant to be.”
“You love theStormfrost?” She searched his expression for the hint of a lie. He had made it clear he would be loyal to her. But to separate theStormfrostfrom her as somewhere he wanted to be in its own right was new. “Because it is dear to me?”
“In part,” he didn’t deny it. But his eyes drifted across the deck, out to sea. “I find that this life suits me better than I might have ever thought. Granted, if you left it, I doubt I’d stay. But, there’s something to this whole piracy thing.” His attention returned to her with the smallest quirk of his lips. As if to agree with him, the salt-spray filled wind tousled his hair.
“I doubt I’ll be leaving ever.” In that, she was confident.
“Then, I will be with you through every storm and gale. Over the edge of the horizon and beyond where the seas run out. I willfollow you until the ink runs dry on every map and we are well beyond the edge into the vast unknown.”
Eira simply stared at him, vaguely aware that her lips had parted with surprise. That she was struggling to formulate words. Cullen merely held her gaze and his smile. There was something between the words, yet unsaid, but felt so sharply that he might as well have shouted:
I love you, Eira.
“Now, I should bring this to your uncle so he can finish getting himself ready to depart.” Cullen brushed past her, as if he was somehow oblivious to what he’d just done to her.
“Wait.” Eira turned and met his eyes once more. “How did you know I was sending him off if Olivin didn’t tell you?”
“Because it makes the most sense. You’re too clever not to do what’s best.” Cullen shrugged. “Which is why I figured you would want him readied to leave.”
“So you took it upon yourself?”
“I thought it was faster than you making the order. One less thing for you to worry about. So focus on saying goodbye this morning and planning whatever we’re off to next.” Cullen smiled as if he somehow hadn’t predicted her every movement. As if he didn’t already know what Eira had in mind for their next several movements.
She watched him leave, the sea breezes caressing him like a lover, picking up his hair—dark brown, nothing special. Everything about him had always beenso conventional. Almost to the point of being boring. But somehow the man that had once seemed “boring” now looked reliable. Dependable, even. Someone she could turn to.
Eira rubbed the center of her chest and started belowdecks. There was pain still there from a night shared before a ball. A heartache that warned her against falling back into the arms of a man who didn’t deserve her.
But he had been changing…and perhaps she was starting to meet the man he was always meant to be. For now, she needed to smooth things over with the other man in her life.
It was late afternoon whenWinter’s Banewas ready to make the trip to Solaris. Eira stood at the edge of the starboard side of theStormfrost, staring down at the vessel she thought she’d take to Meru to claim her vengeance against Ulvarth. But it wasn’t meant for her in the end. It was meant for the man next to her.
Fritz’s hands were empty. He had passed everything along to the pirates that were readying the vessel to go out to sea. Now all that was left was for him to join them.
