Her stomach flipped. She had heard rumors about the creatures that lurked beyond the veil that separated the Great North. Demons that roamed freely in the land of mortals. Vampyres—beings more dead than alive. Werewolves and witches. She always thought they were more fiction than fact. But now, she was starting to see how ignorant she truly was.
Erinna made a show of looking at Kane from head to foot. “That explains a lot about you,” she quipped, donning a smirk of her own. So what if he was a half-demon? That explained why it was so easy for him to crawl beneath her skin.
“You’re right. Explains my devilishly good looks.” Kane winked. Erinna groaned.
“So how does it work?” She was ready to change the subject back to something more useful than his playful vanity.
“You’re going to hate the answer.”
“Let me guess, you just call on the arcanum and let it do its thing?” She was starting to understand why the academy loathed this type of magic.
“Pretty much. It’s like an instinct. Something I’ve always been able to do.”
Erinna turned her attention to the sky, took in a long breath, and laughed. She was already swimming in chaos, reaching for answers. What was one more surprise to add to her list.
“That’s…not usually the response when someone discovers my infernal heritage.”
“Don’t worry, I’m not laughing at you. I’m simply too tired to be scared.”
“Scared?”
Erinna cocked her head to the side. “I should be. Right? Surrounded by pirates, striking deals with their half-demoncaptain.” She wiped her palm against her shirt, as if trying to wipe the dirt of their deal away.
Kane softened. “You have no reason to fear me.”
Erinna raised a brow. “Unless I get in your way.”
Kane winked in response.
She pulled her gaze forward, but her mind remained fixed on her half-demon companion. She heard tales about demons that still dwelled in the Great North, but brushed them off as mere legend. So much for that. “Where in the north are you from?” she asked.
“A story for another time, Erinna,” said Kane, clear he didn’t want to expand on the subject of his background.
Fair. It simply wouldn’t do to get to know each other.
The mast was splintered, sanded, and slightly charred, but Erinna beamed at it with pride. If her hunch was right, this attempt would end in success. She was so close to answers, or at least as much as Kane could tell her.
Kane, on the other hand, did not seem thrilled with the state of his ship. “I told you to fix things, not fracture them.”
“It’ll fix itself. I promise.”
“You better hope it does.”
Fear finally started to crawl under her skin. Erinna had been so confident before, but now, with the prospect of failure...she swallowed hard.
It had to work.
Erinna stepped to her handiwork and gestured for Kane to do the same. “This might work better with your…umm...” She scanned the deck in search of anyone who could overhear them.
Kane rolled his eyes. “Everyone here knows. It’s not a condition.”
Heat rose to her cheeks. “S…sorry. I just mean, that maybe using arcanum differently than a normal Talent might help.”
Kane gave her a blank stare in response. “From my perspective,Talentis the weird magic. MyGraceis the normal one.” There was that word again. Grace.
“I just mean, something more organic may be the key here. This is your ship. It might respond better to you.”
“Respond better to me? You’re starting to sound like Brax.”
