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“You know, he wanted me to run away,” I said, my voice hushed, so it didn’t disturb Liam. I glanced at Fin, just for a moment. “Before . . . ”
The corner of Fin’s mouth twitched. “Before I snuck into your castle and killed your husband?” He raised his eyebrows. “Could that be what you’re referring to?”
I let out a hollow laugh. “Yeah, before that.” Had it really only been a couple of weeks since that conversation with Garath?Everythinghad changed since then. “We all knew how much worse things would get with Alastor once Mother was gone and I was queen. Garath kept badgering me to let him kill Alastor, even knowing he was the only thing keeping Eduart from invading.”
I swallowed my rising grief. My overwhelming regret. I should have listened—then Garath might still have been alive.
“He wanted me to take Liam out of Corvo City,” I said remotely, lost in the memory. “To run away.”
“With him?” Fin asked, the words seeming to have been dragged out of him.
I knew why he was asking and glanced at him sidelong. Garath and I were close. Fin wouldn’t have been the first person to assume there was more than friendship and loyalty between us. Maybe there could have been, but that possibility had vanished the moment Fin exploded back into my life.
“Toyou,” I told Fin, holding his stare for a long moment before returning to gaze out into the storm.
Rain had broken free of the clouds in the open ocean farther out, blurring the view. The deluge would reach us soon. Or, I supposed, we would reach it.
“Except,” I said, “we didn’t know where you were—or if you were even alive.”
“Del . . . ” Fin raised a hand, reaching for my face.
I flinched involuntarily before he could touch me. It was an automatic response born of years of Alastor’s unique brand ofaffection.
Fin curled his fingers into a fist and lowered his hand.
I considered apologizing for my reaction, but at the moment, I didn’t have the energy to explain myself to Fin, not when everything in me was focusing on holding myself together.
Another conversation with Garath flitted through my mind, one that had included complicated schemes and talks of a baby. “Have you ever had someone in your life who you knew—youknew—would do anything for you?”
Out of the corner of my eye, I watched Fin bow his head, and I wondered who he was thinking of—his devoted sister, Autumn, or Beast, the cougar who had been utterly loyal to him? Or maybe he was thinking of Callon or Lyra or someone else, someone I didn’t know. I could have reached out and touched him, straining my exhausted empathy to find out, but he deserved his privacy.
Fin shifted to sit beside me, one knee raised and an arm wrapped around his leg to hold him steady against the rocking motion of the ship as it raced forward, cutting through the swells. “I know it’s not the same. I’m not him,” Fin said. “But Iamhere for you—for you and Liam, both. Whatever you need.”
I flashed him a weak smile. “You may come to regret those words.”
Fin shook his head. “Never,” he breathed.
His earnestness gave me pause, and the ache in my heart eased just a little.
The bow of the ship angled more southward, heading for Noctem, the realm bordering the kingdom on Corvo’s southern edge.
“Are you sure it’s safe to travel through Noctem?” I asked, anxiety for the future rising as the raw memories faded into the past. Garath had sacrificed his life so Liam and I might live. I refused to waste that gift.
“Someone there owes me a favor,” Fin said. “They’re well connected. We’ll be safe.”
I glanced over my shoulder, watching the ship’s crew move about. I would have had to be blind not to have noticed the suspicious glances they cast my way. “And here?” I looked at Fin. “Are we safehere, on this ship?”
Fin’s jaw clenched, telling me my concerns were not unfounded. “Stone and his crew won’t touch you,” he vowed. “They’ll get us to Morro City.”
I exhaled a sigh, fatigue settling into my bones. Acting on impulse, I tilted my head to the side, resting it on Fin’s shoulder.
He stiffened, his breath catching. A heartbeat later, he relaxed, his arm curling around my back. As we sailed away from everything I had ever known, the three of us huddled together—Fin, Liam, and me. My first true family.
27
Fin
While Ada and Lyra stayed with Liam, the three Corvo guards, and some of Stone’s men on the ship, Callon, Del, Hills, and I made our way into Morro City with Stone strangely vigilant at our side.
