I can feel him,she replies.He’s right there. Focus on your connection.
But my chest is just as messy as the rest of me. Odd feelings that don’t belong to me keep flitting through and fading before I can even identify them.
He’s there,she insists.
And then Jack stumbles sideways with a, “Hey, what the—”
“You idiot,” Torin’s voice grumbles.
He’s definitely here somewhere. He’s just... invisible.
I don’t get a chance to try to pinpoint his location, though, as there’s a hammering of footsteps, followed by Bones and Dagger barreling into the room.
A low-pitched growl vibrates through the air, followed by a guttural snarl. Everyone freezes, turning to look at me.
Which is the moment I realise that my throat and chest are vibrating with the horrible, animalistic sound.
Oh Mother Ocean, I’m growling.
They’re naked. Don’t let them see what’s ours.
So, not only is Noush back, but she’s also decided she’s territorial.
“Sorry, sweetheart,” Kit says, grabbing the pile of blankets and tossing them around the room.
So it seems like Noush’s latest communication wasn’t just with me, which means they all got to hear just how crazy she is.
How fantastic.
I fight to stifle the sound, but it keeps on coming out of me until all the men are covered up and my cheeks are burning.
“Cap, we have a situation,” Bones says, barely sparing a glance at me.
“All the wards have been shattered,” Dagger adds. “There was a massive wave of power that hit every one of them at once. Disintegrated all of them.”
“That’s not all. Your, er, beacon here is blasting right up as far as your eye can see. Kilter reckons it can be seen for miles around.”
“Damn.” Kit steps forward, glancing at Aster. “Think you can get the wards back up and running before anyone notices?”
“There’s more,” Bones blurts, shifting from foot to foot nervously. “Lights spotted on the horizon. Looks like a whole fleet of ships is headed this way.”
“They know we’re here.”
“That’s not possible,” Kit sputters. He glances over his shoulder to meet Finch’s eye, giving a slight headshake.
“Right. Clothes on, everyone. We need to find out what’s going on and be ready to move if needed,” Finch says. “Sound the alarm. Wake everyone who’s slept through the appearance of this.” One tentacle gestures to the beaming shaft of light that’s still blasting through the centre of the room.
The room’s then a flurry of movement as we scramble for clothing. I ram my feet into my boots and shove my dress over my head. I’m disgusting and could really do with a bath or shower since, despite the effort Torin went to cleaning me up, I still sweated a lot and my hair feels like a matted mess on top of my head.
“Are you all right?” Aster asks me quietly as he yanks his trousers up. All the candles have blown out by this point and the room looks like a destructive wind has come through and wrecked the place.
“That was a lot more powerful than I was expecting,” he continues, shooting an anxious look at the shaft of blinding light before he has to turn his face away.
“It worked though,” I tell him, squeezing his hand. “For me, at least. And I couldn’t be more grateful, even if there were a few unexpected hitches in the plan.” Reaching up on my toes, I press a kiss to his cheek, tasting the remnants of salt there. “Thank you.”
A flutter of pleasure zips through my chest before fading just as quickly as it appeared. I rub at my chest, zeroing in on the blush forming across Aster’s cheeks.
“We need to get a move on,” Torin rumbles. His voice is right behind me, and I suck in a sharp breath, peering over my shoulder to find him.
