A pang of jealousy shot through me at the thought of him with someone else, and his grin widened.
“So youcanget your magic back?” I rushed out when he opened his mouth.
His mouth closed again, and a wince wove across his features as if I’d hurt him.
You’re not asking the right questions.
“Ah,” I said. “You can’t tell me, can you?”
Darcke only blinked as he set me down.
A different type of warmth flooded me when he reached for his shirt and got into it, picking up the swords we’d earned—I was glad someone had brought mine and apparently cleaned it—and pressed mine into my hands before he took the lead up the stairs.
When he opened the door and let the orange light of dawn trickle in, I set my jaw.
If he couldn’t tell me, I would have to find someone who could.
Forty-Two
Kilia was right. Something was going on.
The harbor was bustling with activity beneath the early-morning sun, and as we sailed up beside Ivren’s ship, where he, Rakkel, Geord, and their iron-bound were disembarking, Ivren’s mother and my own, Adrion’s father, and Rakkel’s mother all stood on the dock.
Nerves fluttered in my gut, but I was glad to see that everyone seemed to have survived Gravsgard, although it looked like everyone on Ivren’s ship was as tired and beaten as we were.
“What is this?” Ottoh mumbled.
“I don’t know,” I replied. “But it can’t be good.”
“Shockingthat our mother isn’t here,” Vero drawled.
“Truly.” Ottoh ironically straightened his back. “She loves to put herself in danger.”
Darcke’s finger tickled my side, and my cheeks burned when my mother glared at us, disapproval already thinning her lips. “If only she knew,” Darcke whispered into my ear, and I forced a smile across my face while I stomped on his foot.
Ilse touched my arm. “How are you doing?”
I shrugged. “I’m not cold anymore.”
A silent laugh bounced between Darcke and me, and I nudged him away with my elbow. I hoped that whatever was happening now would be over quickly, though. I wouldn’t mind staying on this ship for one more night.Or forever.
Darcke shot me a strange look at the last thought, and I busied myself with getting onto the railing. When we passed Envis, I jumped off his ship and landed with a thud on her gilded deck.
“Hi,” I whispered as she buzzed to life.
Water sloshed up the hull as she shifted in welcome, and I laughed when Envis slammed open the door leading down to the modest two-person quarters beneath my feet.
“We can stay here too,” I said quietly as Darcke and Ottoh fastened his ship. “He’ll just have to get used to your lower ceilings.”
Envis lifted her bow and slammed it down again, sending a spray of water over the group on Darcke’s ship as she did it and earning us several shouts of protest and a dark glare from my wet second.
“I don’t know if that’s going to make him more amenable,” I said teasingly.
I kept my hand on the railing as I walked around the deck, making sure that Envis was all right and also buying myself time. As soon as my boots touched the planks of the dock, any lingering warmth within me would fade like the summer wind softly shivering through the sails.
On my second lap, my mother’s voice rose above the rest. “Are you ever going to get down, or do you intend to keep us waiting all day?”
“I’d make you wait all day for the rest of my own days if I could,” I muttered, making Envis tremble in her version of laughter. But as the other heirs turned my way, Ivren and Rakkel bearing identical pale worried expressions and even Geord’s face all harsh lines, I made my way off.
