“Who will hurt me?”
He smirks, as if he can tell he flustered me. “Taril.”
“Oh, uh, no. I don’t think Taril will hurt me.”
“Are you going to jump off my ship again?”
“Technically, I never actually jumped off.”
He levels a look at me. “If he says something that you like or don’t like, are you going to try to leave?”
Straightening my shoulders, I look him in the eye and feel the truth in my entire body as I speak it. “No, I’m not going to leave.”
He nods in acceptance. “Then yes, you can go talk to him.”
My body feels lighter with his permission. I didn’t realize how much him trusting me to take care of myself would affect me, but it does, enough that the desire to tease him comes back again. Stepping away abruptly, leaving him waiting for a response, I stride toward the set of stairs nearest us.
“You can stand outside the door if it makes you feel better,” I call over my shoulder.
He chuckles, and I feel a sense of satisfaction wash over me.
“Don’t tempt me, princess.”
CHAPTER FORTY
Taril sits on the cot, a plate of food in front of him, when I open the door to his room in the brig. He looks up at me with a small smile and a weak wave, and I return both.
“Do you mind if I come in?” I ask, waiting in the doorway for his answer.
“Sure,” he says, and dusts his hands off over the plate before sliding it to the side. Before I step through the doorway, I spot the chair Weston slept in all that time ago. I drag it into the room and close the door behind me.
If he comes down and waits outside the door, he won’t have anywhere to sit.
I plop into the chair and cross my ankles in front of me.
“How are you doing?”
If I look as uncomfortable as I feel, he doesn’t seem to notice. Sig said Taril has caused no problems, but I know how it feels to be captured, the things that Dane has said recently, and I know it is possible he isn’t taking it well. The abrupt change from being a Voyager for so long, accompanied by being unworthy of the waters, isn’t an easy combination to handle, especially alone.
“I’m alright. Honestly, this is better than I ever imagined, even being locked down here. I was half expecting to be beaten within a thread of my life.”
I shake my head. “It’s not like that here. It isn’t the picture Dane painted for all of us.”
His brows raise. “So none of what Dane said is true?”
“No, it isn’t.”
His shoulders sink. “Wow. I don’t know, I just…started to have doubts.”
Taril was doubting Dane? How did no one notice? I think back to my very few interactions with him, and I never picked up on anything.
Probably because you werewithDane.
Taril never would have wanted me to know if he was doubting him, especially if it looked like he would try to leave the Voyagers. But did it happen before or after I left?
“That’s part of why I came down,” I say. “I know you don’t know me very well, but despite how close I was with Dane before, I wanted to make sure you knew that none of it was true. It isn’t at all what he told us, and I know that now.”
He nods slowly, picking at the fabric of the blanket. “I assumed as much when no one hurt me, and they fed me. Jorn stopped by earlier and talked to me, and that helped piece some things together.”
