As if on cue, another paper messenger bird flapped toward the quay. This time, every set of eyes was fixed upon it. It landed neatly in Headmaster Wolfe’s outstretched palm.
Even before she opened it, I knew it wasn’t from Jax.
The headmaster read it in silence, then crumpled it in her ink-stained fingers.
Dread roiled in my stomach.
“Looks like I won’t have to explain anything after all.” She raised her voice so that the rest of those gathered could hear. “Dewspell Academy is being blockaded until we agree to turn over Godmother Dar’Vester. Which, obviously, we will not be doing. Back inside, everyone. There will be no fireworks today.”
She spared a glance at me, her purple hair bobbing. “Make sure your pirate behaves himself. We aren’t looking to start a war with Endergeist.”
Though I nodded and intoned an automatic “yes, headmaster,” I was growing certain that Jax’s presence wouldn’t matter.
I’d started a war the day I cursed Endergeist’s princess. I just hadn’t known it yet.
And that was the first time I understood:
I was a villain. And I wasn’t cut out to be a fairy godmother of the realm.
Chapter twenty-eight
Jax
Myheartbouncedaroundin my ribcage like waves off the hull of the rowboat that carried me to the quay. I didn’t care what that fae sorcerer said. I didn’t trust the supposed depths of this bay.
Besides that, I wasn’t about to dockTemerityhere where it could be further hemmed in by Endergeist’s navy—not to mention all the merchant ships now penned in with us. At least where she sat, squarely in the middle of the water, it gave the illusion that this bay was mine to command.
IfDogwas restored to fighting shape and my gamble with the Aegleans paid off, this baywouldbe mine…in a couple of weeks.
But in the meantime? I had a sorceress wife to see.
The bright sun reflecting off the water didn’t stop me from spotting her in the shadows. I knew she’d be there, trying to keep her fair skin from burning in the sunlight but refusing to go inside.
My Sofie. My savior and my bane.
For just a moment, as she stepped out from under the eaves of a harbormaster’s cottage, squinting towards me, I had the strangest whim to give all of this up. My title, my Bard, my quest for supremacy on the open seas. All those adventures I’d told myself were ahead of me.
I looked at Sofie then, and I thought,What kind of fun would they be without her?
Her expression was troubled as I strode down the dock. I was being stubborn, too, refusing to show any hesitation. And then, as I reached the steps that led to the harbormaster’s lookout, she began to move towards me. Hesitantly, at first.
I blinked, and she was in my arms, her own thrown around my neck and holding tight as her slippers dangled in the air.
It felt good to hold her. Too good. For we had unfinished business between us. I carried her to the side of the stair, setting her on one of the logs framing the steps with rope strung between them. It almost left us eye to eye.
“Sofie—”
“Jax, I—”
We spoke over each other, then both said nothing. I scratched at my bearded chin. “Ladies first,” I said, breaking the increasingly awkward silence.
“I’m sorry I destroyed the Queen of the Sea,” she said, then lifted her chin, “for academic reasons.”
I snorted. “And for what else?”
Her mouth twisted, legs kicking against the log she sat upon like an angry child. “For doubting you.” Her nostrils flared. “But areyousorry for doubtingme?”
“I never doubted you, Sofie,” I said, the start of a smile lifting one corner of my lips. “I knew you’d find a way no matter what.”
