Page 43 of Seaborn and the Seven Seas

Fraya threw up her hands and brushed past him up the stairs, leaving him staring after her like the conversation wasn’t finished.

Whatever they’d been arguing about, it had something to do with Jina and me.

Somehow, my mind snagged on Selene. A name now instead of a stranger. Theron’s friend, Fraya had called her, like that explained anything at all. I told myself it didn’t matter who she was to him. I told myself that twice, which probably meant it was a lie.

Why did I care? Why was I drawn to him when I barely knew him?

Chapter Fourteen

The ship anchored some distance from shore. The long and narrow wooden walkway stretched ahead of us, leading toward land.

“What happened to Barron’s body?” I asked as we disembarked, falling behind Jina and Ranis to speak to Fraya.

“Overboard.” Fraya hiked a thumb over her shoulder. “Before sunrise. We don’t do ceremony.”

I thought of his daughters. Whoever they were, wherever they were, they’d never know what happened to their father, or that he’d died trying to sell out a girl he’d toasted to hours earlier.

“That seems—” I didn’t know how to finish.

“It’s how it’s done.” Fraya waved a hand dismissively. “Out here, the sea takes what the sea takes. Nobody asks questions.”

“Where’s Jimin?” I asked.

“He stayed behind on the ship. Someone needs to oversee the crew while Theron and I are away. It had been Barron’s job. Now it’s his.”

Ahead, crew members maneuvered the crate onto a wagon waiting at the end of the dock, grunting under its weight, the chains clinking against the wood. I waited for the growl, the rattle, anything from escaping from the crate… nothing.

Silence.

Had they drugged the creature? Was it dead? It didn’t matter. I shouldn’t care. If it was anything like the oclego, or the thing I saw in the sky, they had to be vicious, would have killed us on the spot. I reminded myself.

Dozens of soldiers lined up at the end of the walkway in gleaming gold armor and a helmet that caught the sunlight. Even their sword hilts and the spears at their sides were golden. Some soldiers sat mounted on white horses, each draped in heavy cloth that fell past the saddle, embroidered with a gilded rose.

These soldiers were tall, taller than Theron, with pale skin that seemed to glisten, and ears that tapered to points beneath straight dark long hair. They were simply beautiful, all of them mesmerizing. The kind of beautiful you can’t look away from.

“Don’t stare,” Fraya murmured behind me. “It’s rude.”

“I can’t help myself,” Jina whispered.

“I’ve never seen the likes of them.” Ranis nearly tripped over his own feet, catching himself at the last second. “I’ve sailed the world on Russo’s ship, and I’ve never seen folk like these. Where are we?”

“They’re called Seelie.” Fraya kept her voice low. “We’re in their territory now. Welcome to Caelum—kingdom of the Purple Sea.”

“So this is the place.” Ranis’s eyes lit up. “I’ve always wanted to visit. They say Yeri, and the other gods walked here once.”

The soldiers on foot and on horses fell into formation around us without a word or an order from a general. They guided us toward the direction off the path and onto another road.

“Captain Theron,” one of them said. “The queen will speak to you at the throne room.”

Theron nodded and placed a hand on the crate. “What shall I do with this?”

“The queen leaves it up to your discretion.”

Theron offered a curt nod.

The town beyond the dock unfolded around us—streets paved in pale stone, buildings carved with the same care as the soldiers’ armor, balconies dripping with flowering vines. The people paused in doorways and windows to watch us pass, quiet and reserved, not a word spoken among them.

More soldiers lined the streets at every turn, and more still on the rooftops, bows in hand, their eyes moving between the ground and the sky in equal measure.