My lips peeled from my teeth, anger trickling into the basin of my body.
“You snake,” I whispered.
Kye’s mouth twitched. “You are to be detained by His Majesty’s Royal Navy and placed in the prisoner stockade of theAspireto await a trial and verdict, either by His Majesty or one of his appointed judges.” His grip tightened on my arm, and in a single thrust he threw me to the line of sailors. I hit the warm sand face-first, spitting it out of my mouth as I rolled to face him.
He stared me down, unbothered by the hatred in my eyes. “Seize her,” he said as though he were commanding the navy sailors to tidy a mess from the floor, already turning to leave.
The row of men drew their swords as they descended upon me. A gray-eyed sailor twisted my arms together, binding my wrists with tight rope. I stood bent forward, my hair a snarl of wind and sand and curls, and when they wrenched me upright, I flung away, shouting across the beach at Kye. “I’mnota witch!”
A hand resting on the side of the dinghy, he met my stare. “If you can lead sailors to the place where you hid Naheso’s body, or the bodies of the missing sailors, your sentence may be lessened. Are you able to do so?”
Fire leapt into my chest, the taste of poison sweet and raw in my throat as I narrowed my eyes at him. Anger shook me from the inside out, spilling out through my pores and radiating down every tendon, every stretch of muscle and sinew. Thunder clashed in my head as my pulse shattered my eardrums.
“Youhid his body,” I spat. “You lying, deceitful, coward of a man—” I was cut off as they lurched forward, forcing my feet into the waves.
Inside the dinghy, a small man in round spectacles glanced out from over the edge of an unrolled scroll.
Kye smirked as they hauled me past him, my arm brushing the back of his hand. I flinched away, my stomach roiling at the thought of his touch, but he gripped my chin, forcing my eyes into his as his smile widened.
“Itoldyou that you were coming with me.”
20
The sailors marched me below deck, through the berth where they slept, down the galley kitchen, and toward an open hatch where a wooden ladder faded into darkness. Kye sat on the edge, his feet dangling into the cargo hold below. He stripped off his jacket, his shirt crisp and clean underneath.
He slapped his thigh at me in an invitation to sit on his lap. I glared at him, my muscles as hard as stone.
The tall man from the beach loomed behind me, watching with cold boredom.
“Come on, island witch,” Kye said, the corner of his mouth curling into a dark smile. “I’m not aiming to bite hard.”
“Caution, Nikolaos,” the man said. His voice sent shivers down my spine; I hated that he stood where I couldn’t see him. “Wise not to tempt a succubus.”
“Aw, it’s nothing a little snuggle won’t help, Thaan.” Kye winked at me. “Time’s wasting. Have you never been on a ship before? We have a schedule to keep.”
Still, I didn’t move. My arms and legs had deadened with the weight of silent rage, my face so hot it felt as though it had beenset aflame. The gray-eyed sailor pushed me forward, my feet sliding across smooth wood until the floor ran out over the open hatch, and I fell into Kye’s lap.
“That’s more like it,” he said, teeth white even in the dim light. He scooped one arm under my knees, the other wrapping around my side, and pulled me close as he dropped into the dark hold. I twirled out of his grasp as soon as his feet touched the floor, but he grabbed my wrist and shoved me forward, following me inside an iron cell.
Hands still bound behind me, he pressed me into a set of bars with his chest against my back, the only warmth in the entire room. “We’ll dance later, witch,” he said, cutting my rope with his knife. His hands wrapped around mine, holding me still, his breath tumbling off my temple.
I felt his thumb slide over the curve of my wrist.
I hissed, wrenching my hands from him, impatient for him to simply leave. Iron hinges squealed as he shut the cell door, chuckling to himself. He reached overhead, snatching the hanging sleeve of his jacket from the deck above, and threw it at me. It hit the bars and crumpled to the floor.
He couldn’t see me, but I glared at him in the dark.
“We’ll arrive in Calder in three days,” he said, the long shadows from the light above casting his cheeks and neck in an eerie illumination. “Make yourself comfortable.”
My father’s face loomed in my mind. What had he said when they'd informed him they planned to arrest me? Had they even told him?
Kye had been the only one who knew where I was. He’d been the only one who hadseenNaheso’s body.
And he’d convinced me to run to Neris.
Go to your island. Don’t come back.
In the span of a single day, I’d let him take everything from me. My home, my island.
