Page 53 of By the Flames of Her Fury

“What?” I jumped toward the door, thoughts spinning. What if it was Mortep? What if my brother had finally come searching? Or what if it was⁠—

Starke grabbed my wrist. “They could be here to hurt you, Vera. You can’t go running off and⁠—”

The doors flew open.

Lightning flashed in the background, highlighting a tall figure, his white shirt drenched and muscles straining. Water dripped from his eyelashes, rolling down his cheeks and off his strong jaw.

My lips parted, and everything disappeared. There was only us.

Only him.

“Swift,” I breathed out.

Those green and gray eyes searched mine, peering into my soul. “Songbird.”

Time stopped. Every part of me remembered him at once—his voice in the dark, his aching touch, his warmth through cell walls. It hit me like a tidal wave, stealing the breath from my lungs.

Starke pulled my wrist to urge me toward him. Everett’s gaze snapped to my arm, and his features tightened.

“Get your hands off of her,” he growled, a rough, menacing sound that heated my core.

I pulled out of Starke’s grasp. Hurt flashed across his features before he stepped forward, angling his body in front of mine. Everett glanced between the two of us. His face shifted into a stoic, unreadable mask.

I wanted to reach for him, but I kept my hand clenched at my side. “Everett, how—how did you⁠—”

“You know this man?” Starke barked at me.

Did I know this man?

Foreheads pressed to stone. Nails scraping the wall, throat raw from screaming his name. Hands cradling my face. Fast breaths, lips lingering on tears, his heartbeat beneath my palm. A rough beard sliding a path of heat along my neck, my name whispered low in my ear.

“Yes,” I said, clearing my throat. “I know him. He won’t hurt us. Captain Starke, meet Everett Swift. Swift, this is my—this is my captain.”

The two men continued to glare at one another. “Why didn’t your ship answer our salute?” Starke demanded.

“Our horn was broken when we passed through the Shattered Spine.”

Starke humphed. “Where did you⁠—”

“Why are you here?” I finally blurted, heart hammering like a drum.

Everett’s eyebrows pinched together. “Why do you think I’m here, Vera?”

Fates, even his voice did things to me. That low, husky sound that comforted so many nightmares, that stirred hundreds of butterflies in my gut. The boat dipped beneath us, and it felt like I was watching from outside my body. Floating high above, with nothing but those eyes keeping me anchored.

I left for a reason. To chase Mortep, yes, but also to give Everett a chance to move on. He may be my anchor, but all I would ever do was drown him. What had been done to me, what I’d lived through…I didn’t think it would ever leave me. It would drive me further and further toward darkness until I was buried in it, and I refused to bring Everett with me. Why couldn’t he see that?

In those few short months we’d been together after Scarven died, I hadn’t made him happy. I hadn’t given him what he needed. I was a shell of the girl in the cell, a hollow husk of the woman he fought so hard for. He, my brother, my mother…everyone else moved on. Together. But I was stuck.

“You shouldn’t be here,” I whispered.

Everett held my stare, unwavering, as if challenging me. Tension built and crackled with the sound of distant thunder, and my fingers twitched at my side.

“I think you should leave,” Starke said. He took a step toward Everett and put a rough hand on his shoulder. “She doesn’t want you here. It’s best if you return to your ship.”

Everett jerked away with a glare that chilled the room. “I think you should let her speak for herself, Captain.”

When Everett looked at me again, my chest constricted. All I saw were those eyes staring back at me from the hole in the cell. “Do you want me to leave, Songbird?”