With massive amounts of trade coming from the island, specifically in relation to herbs and the ever-famous Dream Root, they had an upper hand in negotiation. The king agreed to leave the island and its inhabitants alone for the sake of keeping his pompous court fat and happy, and ever since the day that treaty had been instilled, there hadn’t been a moment of hardship in Veilmar.
But my crew and I were not from Veilmar; we were tourists, outsiders to the protections that lingered. While they claimed those exploring their lands were safe, I knew better. If you belonged toSerevalen, there was nothing the king wouldn’t do to gather what he sought, even if it meant going against an agreed alliance.
“Fuck, Leilani!” I shouted, driving my boot against the door in hopes that the shop owner would open their establishment just long enough for me to grab her.
I can’t be without her.
Panic building, the sudden harmonic pitch of her timbre caught me off guard, nearly forcing me to my knees. “Ace!”
“Gods, are you okay?”
“Yes. I’m okay,” she replied through the dense wood. “They won’t let me leave, though. Say it goes against?—”
“Fuck whatever it goes against, Lei, open the godsdamned door.”
“Alastair, I don’t?—”
“Open thefuckingdoor!” My yell billowed over the chaos ensuing around me. “Marellan’s fleet is approaching, and you are well acquainted with what that means forus.We need toleave. Now.”
Mumbled conversation followed, not another retort tossed back at me. My patience slipped at the lack of response, but right as I went to lift my leg to kick the godsdamned door from its hinges, the lock snapped out of place. Oak slab swinging open, an elderly woman shoved Leilani toward me without a word, slamming the door shut immediately after.
“Well, she was rather pleasant,” I grumbled as I traced my fingers along the sharp line of Leilani’s jaw. “Are you okay?”
“First, she was extremely kind;youwere the one being an asshole.” Flattening her palm against my chest, she shoved me back a step. “And yes, I’m fine, but if we are leaving,youare coming with. Don’t try and pull some bullshit?—”
“Captain!”
The shout tore through the crowd, carrying with it an immediate sense of familiarity. I could see him now, the man responsible for our paths through the sea. The one who had guided us away from far too many close calls, too many near-deaths, too many storms.
Callahan.
Which meant that Rigel had sent…
“What thefuckare you doing?!” I screamed, stepping away from Leilani.
Brown eyes wide, he ran a finger through his auburn locks. “Rigel ordered Otis and me to come for you. Ships bearing the royal crest are approaching, and we need to get the hell out of here before this escalates.”
Panting beside him, Otis placed his hands on his knees, blonde hair slipping from the braid he’d tied it back in. “We… There’s also another ship… docked, Captain… The?—”
“Don’t fucking tell me,” Leilani snarled through clenched teeth, her shoulders raising with building ire. “If that piece of shit is here, that means?—”
With the dip of my chin, I held Callahan’s stare. “Get Leilani back on the ship.”
Head snapping toward me, her honey skin ignited with fury. “You arenotshoving me back on the fucking ship without you, Alastair Seridean. Not when I am perfectly capable of standing by your side!”
“Cap, we can’t possibly?—”
“That’s a fucking order. As your captain, I amcommandingyou to get her on that godsdamned ship. If you wish to challenge my position, I am more than happy to gut you and string you up on the lines as an offering to Elaros. Donottest my good graces.”
Porcelain skin paling, Callahan nodded. “Yes, Captain.”
“Yes,nothing!” Leilani screamed, her knuckles driving into the center of my sternum with enough force to bruise. “You will not sit here and dehumanize me! You will not treat me like those men on those ships when I was a slave! You will not doubt my strengths! I am your fuckingsecond,Alastair, and it’s about?—”
Wrapping my fingers around her throat, I ripped her toward me. “Youare my heart before you are my second. If you stay with me, there is the risk of distraction, the risk of you getting harmed, and I cannot, Iwill notallow that to happen when I have the ability to prevent it.” My forehead met hers, and I held those breathtakingly captivating mochairises. “So, what you are going to do is go back to that ship and take on my role until I come back. As my second, that isyourresponsibility, and as yourcaptain,it is mine to not only keep you safe, but to find Rohen.”
Her nostrils flared, chest rising and falling with erratic breaths, but then that anger transformed into her truth—fear.“He almost… He almost killed you once already, Ace, and Ican’t…I fuckingcan’t?—”
Before she could finish, my lips found hers. Snaking my fingers through her hair, I pressed her into me with every ounce of love I harbored for her. Each kiss was an extended promise, a vow that I would return to her, that nothing and no one would rob us of each other. It symbolized not only my passion for loving her, but my unrelenting determination to stay beside her—to not allow Elaros to steal me, for she was the utter definition oflife.
