"I need you to pretend you are my prisoner," I whisper low into her ear. She looks at me as if I've asked her to do the impossible as I drag her up the ramp and onto the deck of the Clestrayian vessel, surprising the crew who were not expecting me to bring another with me.
I don’t look down at her, but the little snake futilely fights to pull her arm from my hold, causing me to squeeze my hand tighter around her upper arm.
“Let me go!” she yells, and I can’t tell if she’s playing along or truly trying to escape me.
"We'll be returning to Clestraya as soon as you're ready," I tell the crew. They’re staring dumbstruck at me, as if they’ve never seen a woman before. "No one is permitted in my rooms unless it's been cleared by me, understood?"
The crew nods and mumbles agreeably in response, eyeing the girl in my grasp. Though I barely acknowledge them as I direct Arina into my cabin. It’s a small space, but I’ve spent a fair amount of time here, and I’ve tried to make it a place of comfort.
And, even after the day she’s had, she looks fucking perfect in here.
She shouldn’t fuckingbehere. I don’t know why I brought her. I should have left her in the tunnels. That’s what she wanted, but I could not bring myself to part from her. And not knowing if she was safe would have distracted me from the next part of my mission.
"Do I need to chain you up, or will you promise to stay?" I ask, knowing she has no intention of making things easy for me.
When she doesn't respond, I sigh and pull her toward the bed.
"What the hell?" she asks as I pull out a cuff and clamp it to her left ankle.
"It's just until we make it through the wards. I cannot have you anywhere near the crew. They are not my men, and I do not trust them to keep you safe."
She rolls her eyes, and the sudden desire to kiss the attitude right out of her sneaks up on me. I ball my hands in fists, clenching until the feeling passes.
"Ever the faithful servant, aren't you?" she says, the words so sharp they may have cut a weaker male.
I cannot resist snatching her by the throat and lifting her above the mattress. She works to keep her eyes from mine, but I only move in closer.
"You will stay here, in my care, until I have decided what to do with you. You will not take any action that may be detrimentalto the rebellion, and you will not intentionally put yourself in harm's way while I am responsible for you. Is that understood?"
She hesitates, but then gives me a slight nod.
It satisfies me enough to gently release my grip. She falls onto the bed, sucking in air as she settles with soft bounces on the mattress before crawling as far as the chain will allow, never breaking eye contact.
A knock at the door causes her to flinch, but she doesn't look away.
"Sir! Captain's askin' for ya!" a crew member calls from the other side.
"Coming!" I shout back, refusing to be the first to end the trance we're holding each other in.
"We are about to be in the middle of the ocean. There is no escaping me here. Should you jump into the water, I pray you drown before the Huri find you or I recover you myself," I threaten and she blinks, finally turning her head.
I click the lock into place and the wood plank I slide over the door scrapes loudly when I drop it. That ought to keep her in.
Above deck it's like a different world. The Smog is almost more suffocating at sea than it had been on land, swallowing up the sky and reflecting back up from the depths of the ocean. Surrounding us from all sides.
It's even worse in the dark of night. Where stars should be there is black, empty, nothingness.
Where the light from the moon should shine in the waves there are only inky dark holes.
The crew runs around, securing the ship as it's tossed about in the swirling ocean water.
I need a fucking breath. She makes me more disoriented than the fucking dark magic. I hate having to treat her like she doesn't mean anything to me, but it will be better for both of us in the long term.
The more she dislikes me, the better.
The captain of the ship, a crew the queen of Clestraya gifted to me, allowing me to bring them from the other continent specifically to haul me back and forth between lands after agreeing to the terms of our treaty, waves me over to the bow.
I reach him and look out to the waves, wishing I could turn the vessel around and solve Lukasia's problems on my own.
