Page 97

My pendant thrums against my breastbone, and I force myself to speak. “Like what?”

“I come from a hunting family. I can spot unusual patterns right in front of me,” she says. “Sometimes I wonder if something about you is supernatural.”

That word doesn’t sound right in her mouth. It’s distasteful to her. She spits it out.

“N–nothing about me is supernatural,” I stammer, then bolster my nerves. I traded all of my magic away. I won’t let anyone take more from me. “You led me into two of those circumstances, and I got lucky.”

She snorts a short, forceful exhalation.

“We haven’t announced anything about the attack yet, so we’ll keep this a secret until after the wedding. We’ll have time to hunt the ones who turned then.” Her mouth twitches, and she turns my chin to the side, studying my neck. “I’ll tell the maids to dress you in something with a high neckline, and you should be fine for our dinner tonight.”

“We don’t have dinner plans for another two days,” I remind her. I’ve memorized our entire schedule down to the hour.

“We were going to break the news about your demise tonight.” She drops her hands and settles back into the chair behind her desk, shuffling through her papers. “Now we’re going to have to improvise.”

I wait for her to say something else. “Is that all?”

“What else would you like me to say?” she asks, stone-faced.

I’ve never held her heart the way she held mine, but surely she can’t be this uncaring. Members of our crew died while hunting the kraken, and then even more were taken at the tavern.

My sailor would’ve wanted to talk about it. I touch my fingers to her desk and notice the claw tip emerging from my nail bed.

“Nothing.” I clasp my hands behind my back as I retract it. “I’ll see you later this evening.”

Maybe it’s safer if she’s cold to me until our wedding ceremony. She won’t notice these changes if she’s not looking too closely.

“I saw your face when Professor Tommelise was attacked in the tavern,” she says as I’m about to exit. “You were upset.”

“Weren’t you? They were a member of your crew.”

“No, and I won’t have my bride weeping over that charlatan either.” She gathers a stack of envelopes, pulls out the letters inside, and throws them at my feet. “I reached out to several librarians around the realm, and no one had ever heard of them. So I have to wonder why you went along with their lies when they first arrived.”

“I must have had them mixed up with someone else. I could’ve sworn I’d heard their name before.”

Her brow lowers. “Were you two plotting against me?”

“Blame me,” Zephyr whispers, giving me a jump scare.

I can’t.

“My honor means nothing here. You don’t need to defend it.”

“No, but I suppose I got caught up in their charm and fell for what they told me,” I say, my face heating.

“Their charm,” she mutters. “Then you weren’t working with them to gain something from my family?”

My claw sharpens against my palm. I was working with them to win her heart.

She had mine. I gave it to her, and she would’ve plunged a knife right through it.

“You were all I wanted when I pulled you from the sea.”

Her mouth goes slack.

I turn on my heel to leave, and she stands, locking her elbows out as she grips the edge of her desk.

“I’ve spent the past day sailing home thinking I left you to turn into an undead creature,” she says. “I’m sorry. Can we start again and focus on the wedding?”