I glowered softly at him. “The islanders think I am one too.”
“Are you?” he asked, unbothered by my hot stare.
I scoffed. “No.”
“Why does it matter?”
I exhaled, setting my plate of leaves on the floor, my appetite gone like the smoke in the air. Poking the inlets of my teeth withmy tongue, I looked at him expectantly, then flicked my eyes to the neighboring houses.
He followed my gaze in time to see several faces drop into bushes.
Smug, I licked my lips, allowing him to choose whatever impression that might make on him. “My father worries about me.”
“Have youtriedmaking friends?” he asked the way a parent might ask their child whether they're playing nice with their peers. I stared at him, trying to decide whether he enjoyed asking rhetorical questions or if he was openly mocking me.
He simply watched the neighboring houses, though I could feel him waiting for my answer.
How could I explain? The years of wary glances, of whispers behind my back. The accusations that, every time a sailor fell off a boat in the harbor,Iwas to blame. That myAnakehad been so desperate to be rid of me, she’d once tried to convince my father to sell me to pirates.
To my surprise, Kye didn’t look back at me. His eyes narrowed, his gaze fierce, waiting to stare down at anyone else who looked our way.
My chewing stopped. What did he expect glaring to do? “That doesn’t help.”
He didn’t move. “It might not help when you do it. People don’t care if you defend yourself. But when someone else defends you—” He stopped as he caught my stare.
I shook my head. “Maybe that’s true where you’re from. But here, it won’t work. They’ll just think I’ve seduced you.”
His lip curved into a dark smile, crescent scar paling as it stretched. “Have you?”
I blinked, taken by surprise. Was that an honest question?
Kye laughed, and I glared at him. Unbothered, he gazed down at his plate of fish, a dark smile on his lips that stirred a strange hunger in my chest.
It was an odd sensation, being so easily disarmed by a smile. Slippery—as though my feet might slide out from under me without warning unless I stepped sure and slow.
“I’m sure it’s hilarious to you,” I said, satisfied as his smile fell away.
Kye rotated his wooden plate. “Where I’m from, everyone wants to press their advantage. You either learn how to manage people or you let them control you.”
Biting back a sharp retort, I leaned against the house. “And where’s that?”
“Here and there, up north. All the way east to Ascento, all the way west to Merriam. I can’t stay anywhere too long. It’s too…” He rolled his neck and shoulders, as if warding an itch from his back.
“Did you come to Leihani on purpose, Kye?”
His movements slowed as he hesitated, considering his words with careful thought. “In a way. I’m always looking for something I can’t find at home.” His eyes slanted to the side as he took his first bite, dusting fishy crumbs from his fingers and onto the plate.
I’d simply wiped mine on my leg. Something inside me cringed. “What can’t you find at home?”
He tilted his head, chewing as he gazed at me. “What does being a witch have to do with me?”
His evasion of my question didn’t go unnoticed, but I latched onto his words, anyway. “I’mnota witch.”
He shrugged, as if to saysuit yourself, and I reeled in the impulse to reach up and smack him. But staring at me sideways, he cracked a smile that cooled my annoyance just as quickly as he’d fired it.
“Alright, lout.”
Kye raised a brow. “You make jokes?”
