“Trying to look like a proper pirate?” I can’t help but smirk.
He grabs one of the ropes and smiles back. “Just trying to fit the mood. I’ll be a gladiator soon enough. The arena I know even better than the sea.”
“You seem to know the sea like the back of your hand.”
“I do, but the arena … The arena I know down to the very marrow of my bones.” His voice is a deep fever, and a wildness sparks in his eyes.
“Do you really think I can do it?” I ask. “Fight with you in these games?”
“You took down an airship. A few monsters from the Below won’t be a problem.”
“I won’t be able to use my thorns, though,” I remind him.
“Right.” Dayton sits on a crate beside me. “There will be bows though, and we’ll go over your sword work. I’ll be there the whole time.”
This is okay, talking to Dayton about our mission. This I can handle. “Aren’t you nervous? You’ll be competing in front of your people, most of whom haven’t seen you in a long time.”
His smile only broadens. “Kairyn is an idiot. He’s trying to twist the Sun Colosseum into his own dark playground. But he can’t hold domain over a place he hasn’t shed blood. I fought in the games my whole life. Most royals do one or two big fights to show their worth, but my family couldn’t get me out of there.”
“Why’s that?”
“In the arena, I felt alive. There wasn’t any worrying about the future. You make a decision, or you die. The crowd may be screaming, but for me, it’s the one place where everything is quiet. Kairyn can hold his games, but he can’t control what happens on the sand. And he doesn’t know something very important about me.”
Dayton’s hair is a wild storm as he speaks, blue eyes flashing with memory and mirth. “What doesn’t he know?” I ask.
“I’ve never lost a game in that arena. I’m the only one in the entire Vale who can claim that.” He reaches across and grabs my hand. “I don’t plan to start losing now. We’ll win the three matches and get your bow. Then you’ll blow apart the sky.”
His words set my heart to a gallop, but instead of getting caught up in it, I pull away. “Wouldn’t you be more powerful in the arena with your curse broken?”
Dayton stiffens. Then he smiles, but it’s not his usual one. It’s slower, more lopsided, cruel. “Maybe I would have already broken it if you hadn’t interrupted us earlier.”
“Oh, you’re just—” I interrupt myself and stand, fists clenched.
“I’m just what, Rosalina?”
“I’m leaving.”
Dayton leaps up, grabbing my arm. “No, say what you want to say.”
“Fine. I think we should be careful with what we tell Wrenley about our plans. Especially if she’s still working under Kairyn at the palace when we return.”
His grip tightens. “I knew you didn’t like her.”
I shove him in his perfectly muscular chest. “I never said that. I’mtrying,Dayton.”
“So am I. You’re the one making it hard for me.”
I reel and dig my hands into my hair. “I’mmaking it hard? I spent the night with her. I’ve tried to be her friend. God, Dayton, how amImaking this hard for you?”
He doesn’t answer. His chest heaves, half his face cast in shadows from the clouds.
“Dayton?”
He moves toward me.
Some instinctual part of me takes a step back, unnerved by the wildness in his gaze. “I could have broken my curse with her before we went to Castletree, you know,” he growls. “I could have done it a thousand times over by now.”
My back presses against the mast, but Dayton doesn’t stop advancing. “A year ago, can you imagine how lucky I would have felt to find a beautiful mate who wants nothing more than to adore me?”
