Page 133 of Tempest

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THE LANTERN LIGHT of the two anchored ships rippled over the black waters of Drowning Key. Cat curled against the window, tucked into the corner of the gallery, watching the orange flickers through thick glass. She was reminded of Brycam City, its many buildings lit up from within, windows burning against a night sky with no stars. But she had only been in the city for a few days, the memory fleeting, swallowed up by her journey to the Meridian coast. To the Credence.

And then the Lyrian Sea.

She turned her head, cheek pressed against the cooling glass. It felt good, her skin still hot from the glowing rays of sunset. Or so she told herself. Deep down she knew it was not her skin burning, but something deeper.

Was your night torture, Lady Rose?

Valerian’s voice snaked around her, rasping and rough in her memory.

The burn in her skin became an open flame, threatening to devour. Cat wished for snow, for ice, for the plunging waters of a Meridian lake—something cold enough to quench the heat within her. On Rosby, she could at least submerge herself in the bath tucked away in the kitchen. But on this ship, there was no escape. And somehow the night seemed hotter than the day, shadows burning across the cabin.

A thump at the door made her jump, and Cat leapt up from the corner, her nerves on end. She opened her mouth to speak, some small part of her hoping for a low voice to answer on the other side.

The hinges creaked instead and the cabin door swung free, revealing Anamina Rualcon and her gunmetal smile.

“Oh, hello, Ana,” Cat said, trying not to sound put out.

What did you expect? she chided herself, unable to find a suitable answer.

There was a mischievous curl to Ana’s grin. “Were you hoping for someone else, Kitten?”

“I beg your pardon?” Cat sputtered, wishing for a fan. Not to cool herself down, but to give herself something to hide behind.

The pirate was undeterred, sweeping further into the cabin. “Your husband, perhaps,” she offered with an innocent look. “Or the officer in the brig. I’m not one for Meridian dogs, but he seems closer to a wolf. Wouldn’t mind making him howl.”

Sweat prickled at the nape of Cat’s neck and she swept her hair away, trying to let some air get to her skin. She ignored the woman’s crude implications and shook her head.

“No, I would hardly leap to see my husband knocking at the door,” she muttered, hoping to shift the subject.

Ana gave a nod, more serious. “I can see why.” She hooked her thumbs into her gun belts. As usual, she was armed. “He does not seem kind to you.”

Shrugging, Cat tried to twist her hair into a suitable bun, but her curls were incorrigible. The humidity and close air of the cabin had her at wit’s end. How Ana managed, Cat could not fathom, and she did her best not to envy the pirate’s waterfall of black hair, cascading in gleaming waves over one shoulder.

“Most husbands are not,” Cat said, shrugging it off.

Candlelight gleamed on Ana’s teeth. “Then they aren’t proper husbands, are they?”

Cat only sighed and gave up the battle with her hair, letting the chestnut locks do as they willed.

“I wish that were so,” she replied, hands on her hips. “Well, how can I help you?”

“I’m bored,” Ana said plainly as she paced. Once or twice she bent to investigate Cat’s neat piles of books and maps, now organized after a fashion.

“Oh.” Cat blinked at her in surprise. “I don’t have a deck of cards, but if you would procure some—”

She sputtered when Ana seized her by the hand.

“Come along,” the woman said, grinning like a child sneaking out of bed. “Everyone else is already on shore.”

Cat’s surprise deepened. “On shore?”

“Yes, Drowning Key,” Ana explained, shuffling her along. Before Cat could even think to protest, she found herself walking across the main deck, the night air pressing against her face.

Not that she would have protested. Despite whatever misgivings she was supposed to have, Cat could not help but feel a tremor of excitement as she trailed behind Ana. She immediately glanced skywards at the arcing constellations that spattered the heavens like the painted ceiling of the grandest cathedral. It truly was breathtaking, swirls of deeper blue and purple hazing the black.

Their boots echoed across the deck as they walked, and one of the crew left on watch waved them on with a snaggle-toothed grin.