Disgust unraveled the corners of his eyes and mouth. The scent of hot metal poured from him, hitting me in a wave of sharp surprise. “Who told you that?”
I frowned softly. “You did.”
He looked as though I’d punched him in the gut. “You mean Thaan did. Through me. Those aren’t my words, Leihani. That’s not what I believe.”
“It doesn’t matter,” I said, suddenly wanting to drop it. How had we stumbled into this conversation? I had no intentions of discussing my measure of self-worth with him. Stepping around his tall frame, my foot stretched for a rocky platform below, but he caught my hand, pulling me back up.
He tilted to the side until he was firmly in view, calling my gaze to his. “Do you really think I’d leave you, in a country that speaks a language you don’t know, in a land you’ve never been, with pirates searching for you? What kind of man do you think I am?”
Ah. So, it was his stupid pride that I’d wounded—not the idea of me endangering myself. I hadn’t realized until now that the thought might leave me disappointed. On theDarkness's Hourglass, for a few days at least, I’d imagined that he’d felt differently.
Mihauna,he’d pulled me in close. My blood warmed at his proximity, the brush of his chest against my arm, the stroke of his breath over my cheek. Swallowing my disappointment, I leaned away from him. “What if we found the Rivean emissary? What if we could find help through their office?”
Kye had the courtesy to consider it. Fixated on the sharp, red edges of the cliffs, he paused in thought. Then shook hishead softly. “The emissary sits along the southeast border. It might take a month to get there on foot; we might as well just strike for the mountains themselves. But I'm not sure it matters. Communications between their office and Calder have gone dead. They’re rumored to be compromised, even if we aren’t officially at war.”
Staring numbly at the ground as well, I gave a stiff nod. I’d figured as much. “So, we’ll follow the channel on foot until we reach Vranna.”
He quirked his jaw. “I don’t know much aboutBrána Do Podsvetia.But I know it’s a no-sailing zone. Ships don’t use it. They go the long way instead, through open water. And because merchants can’t sail through, there aren’t any towns. We could,in theory, just follow the shoreline. If we stayed out of the water.”
Well, I couldn't completely promise to that. I needed salt on my skin, though I wasn't about to explain why to him. Tapping my bare toes on the stone, I mulled the idea over. “Ships won’t pass through, meaning there would be little chance of Kriska finding us?”
Kye scratched his neck. “They might come this way. It’s always possible they’re just as stupid as we are.”
“So we’ll walk to Vranna, purchase mounts, ride to the mountains, and cross into Calder. Get you back to your duties as commander.”
“And get you back to Thaan.”
I nodded. "And get me back to Thaan."
Metal heat tinged the air. Kye’s jaw hardened. His eyes flashed.
We’d avoided the subject of Thaan. I knew why I shied from the topic. Conversations about Thaan would only lead to notions of why he needed me. I didn’t need Kye probing so dangerouslyclose to my identity as a Naiad—he was already too close for comfort.
I didn’t know why he avoided the subject. But I knew that, like me, Kye thought about it.
I knew Thaan lingered on Kye’s mind when I brought fish back to our camp and had to repeat his name to get his attention. When he stretched his shoulder, eyes crinkled with annoyance at the limited mobility of his arm—and something deeper. Something dark and twisting that ate at him. Flames lit in his eyes when he thought I wasn't watching, as familiar as the white-hot burn in my chest whenever I let my own thoughts drift to my vows.
I could only guess how Kye felt towards Thaan, a man who had stolen his memory.
But I knew the taste of poison.
5
Maren
Kye watched as I measured the sky and landscape with the curve of my open hand, leading east then south. I called to the moisture in the air, following an invisible tug to freshwater. Pond, lake, stream—it didn’t matter. Anything brackish and active, without the salty tinge of the ocean at our sides.
Even as the view of the shoreline dwindled, we halted whenever a cloud passed overhead and cast us in shadow. As though we both expected to find a tall ship looming behind our backs, blotting out the sun. Sometimes, the sight of the sea peeled Kye’s lips from his teeth, the sharp metallic scent of a forge drifting in the wind.
I watched, coaxing the worry that flickered inside me whenever he gazed at the open water, looking for ships we both knew he wouldn’t find. I recognized the slow burn of loathing—the creeping venom that festered deep in my own veins. Studying him, I wondered if it was possible he hated Kriska as much as he hated Thaan. As much as I hated them.
Kye boiled water in a single tin cup we’d found. Building our fire, foraging for driftwood, breaking down camp the followingmorning. I waited for him to become thoroughly distracted, then slipped into the ponds and creeks to hunt for fish, hiding my transition in the corners of dark alcoves.
The moon came and went, a little thicker each time. Five days slid by.
“What are you doing?” he asked curiously, watching as I buried fish bones into the soil of a cave we’d slept in. A habit from my youth.
“Hiding our presence here,”I responded, though it was only half true.
