“Sybille.”
“Fallon.”
“I’ve always dreamed of a three-way with the two of you.” Mattia says this so loudly, it gets the attention of a passing guard and a few sailors. He holds out his hands. Syb grabs ahold of one, then nods for me to take the other. “Antoni will be so fucking jealous.”
“What will I be so fucking jealous about?” The blue-eyed captain emerges from below deck in only a pair of slacks.
Like magnets, my eyes rove over his bare chest, widening at the sight of the row upon row of luminescent bands cinching his carved biceps. Does he strike bargains for sport? I count twenty on one arm and spy even more on the other.
Before he can catch me staring, I force my gaze to a neighboring bearded captain sorting through a box of tackle.
“Look at that timing, ladies. The cabin is all ours.”
Syb plucks my hand from my side and sticks it in Mattia’s palm. Before I can react, he reels us both onto the vessel.
Thirty-Nine
Antoni steps in between Mattia and myself, forcing his friend’s arm to bend and his fingers to release me. “No.”
“Antoni,” Syb hisses between clenched teeth. “Fine. A foursome!” she announces loudly, gripping my hand and tugging me into the cabin below deck.
Antoni’s mouth pinches harder but he follows.
The second we’re inside, Sybille smacks the door shut. “Gods, subtlety isn’t your forte.”
“What the fuck is going on?” Antoni growls.
“You just woke up, didn’t you?” Syb looks him over, lingering on his sculpted torso.
Antoni scrubs a hand down his face. “Start explaining.”
Syb opens her mouth, but I talk before she can. “Commander Dargento suggested I be tossed into Mareluce to prove I can tame serpents.”
I’ll tell Antoni exactly what I told Sybille, which isn’t the story I gave her parents. So many lies I’m perpetrating. All to protect those I love, but still . . . The ease with which they tumble from my lips floods me with guilt.
“King Marco needed to leave for Tarespagia, so he postponed my dip in the ocean until his return next week. I believe he or my grandfather decided to have me watched.”
“I still don’t understand why you’re here for a threesome with my first mate.” There’s no pliancy to Antoni’s voice.
“She’s getting to it . . .” Syb huffs. “Gods, you’re cranky this morning.”
I wet my lips with the tip of my tongue, my fingers sliding along the strap of my makeshift satchel. “I don’t want to be tossed into Mareluce, Antoni. I don’t want to test out Silvius’s theory, especially not in front of the king. Gods only know what he’d do to me if I did have an affinity, and the serpents only know whatthey’ddo to me if it turns out I didn’t.”
“So you’re looking to flee?”
“Yes.” That’s where the lies begin. “I told Syb’s parents I was meeting a man on the other side and that was the reason I was leaving, but I’m not meeting any man. I’m trying to get away before I’m either turned into a serpent chew-toy or into a new tool in the king’s armory.”
“And Prince Charming can’t bail you out?”
The Cauldron only knows how, I keep my calm. “He used up his ace after I fell into the canal ten years ago.”
For a long moment, no one says a thing.
Then Antoni breaks the silence. “So, your plan is to spend your life on the run?”
“No. My plan is to reach Tarespagia. My great-grandmother, Xema Rossi, lives there, and she’s a very influential woman, who I believe will protect me.”
“Youbelieve?” Antoni’s mocking tone makes my fingers scrunch Marcello’s letter.
