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“Don’t worry.” Gia winked at me. “I’m sure he’ll never entirely lose that dark and brooding thing he has going on. He just can’t help himself.”
“Gia,” Nik said in a warning tone, but Hayes emerged from the cabin at that moment, interrupting the twins’ reunion.
“Oh good, you’re all still here,” he said. “Amara will need to sleep for a while, so we have time to talk. I don’t suppose you’ve been here long enough to prepare any interesting food?” he asked Gia and Renley hopefully.
Renley chuckled. “That we can help you with. Sick of ship fare, are you?”
The two led the way into the main room of the cabin, and everyone was directed to find seats around the table. I sat, running my hand along the wood and remembering the last time I had been here. This was the location of my first mesmerization, although I hadn’t known it at the time, and I had expected the presence of Grey to linger. But somehow, with the room crammed full of familiar bodies and bits of conversation floating back and forth, it was hard to picture him at all.
We were a chair short, and Gia looked at her brother.
“Delphine can sit on your lap, can’t she?” she asked innocently.
“Gia,” Renley said in warning tones, pulling his wife onto his lap instead. “Your poor brother will be wishing you back in the nomad lands soon.”
Gia just laughed, putting an arm around his neck and placing a fleeting kiss on his lips. “He’s had a lifetime of putting up with me, so he’s used to it.”
Nik did have a look of long suffering on his face, but I also noticed he was carefully avoiding looking in my direction. I was glad because I could feel the flush on my cheeks. Gia and Renley were so comfortable and natural with each other, and it made my heart ache. Would Nik and I ever get to that point? Our relationship had been all heat and intensity with little room for the sort of relaxed familiarity I saw between his sister and her husband.
“If you’ve just come from the nomad lands, how did you end up here?” Nik asked Gia.
“We spent a year in Calista and the nomad lands,” she said, “first recruiting for Calista, and then doing some negotiation for Father. So we were gone longer than I expected.”
“Father trusted you to do negotiations for Tartora?” Nik asked skeptically.
She threw him an impatient look. “You’re the one who has issues with Father, Nik. He knows I still want the best for Tartora—I just don’t want to be tied down. It’s not like it was a major trade treaty. Some things are best handled outside of the official channels.”
I raised my eyebrows, but she didn’t explain further, and I wasn’t going to ask. Nik didn’t ask either, his brows contracting as he looked at the table. Beneath its surface, where no one could see, I slipped my hand into his. He glanced at me and smiled slightly. His sister might not know his thinking about his father had changed, but I did.
“Calista isn’t the most recent place we’ve been, though,” Renley interjected. “We heard there was trouble in Tartora and hurried back to Tarona. That’s when we heard you’d been found—and then lost again.”
Gia rolled her eyes, as if she thought it very irresponsible of everyone involved. I had to stifle a smile since she gave the impression of being someone who would lose anything that wasn’t attached to her.
Hayes leaned forward. “Do they truly believe we’re lost? Didn’t they get the information we sent about Grey?”
“Maybe you’d better let me tell the story,” Renley said to Gia before turning to Hayes. “The guards you sent arrived promptly in the capital, and King Marius knows where you’ve been all winter. That’s why we’ve been here waiting for you since the moment the last storm passed.”
Hayes sat back slightly, but he didn’t look that relieved. “So you worked out we were stuck there for the winter. But does that mean the king also assumed Grey and all the Constantines were stuck with us?”
I drew in a breath as I realized Grey might have been free to infiltrate the court all this time with no one on the watch for him.
“No, thankfully not.” Despite Renley’s words, his face remained grave. “His ship foundered close to shore just past the southernmost point of the desert. Some herders saw it and helped the passengers and crew reach land. Most of them scattered immediately, but a couple were injured and ended up being taken to local healers. The name of their leader and their place of origin made it back to some law keepers who knew Anka had been searching for Grey last year.”
“You’ve caught Grey, then?” I asked hopefully.
“No.” Renley’s response made everyone in the room tense up again.
“I can understand his initial escape if there were only a few herders on hand,” Hayes said. “But it’s been months since then. How could they not have found him?”
“Finding him would require looking,” Gia said flatly.
Luna propped her chin on her hand. “Let me guess, they’re all holed up in the capital, afraid to come out in case they run into Grey?”
I frowned as something occurred to me. “Were you officially sent to meet us? Are you even supposed to be here?”
Gia and Renley exchanged a look, Gia chuckling. “Busted! You’re quick, Delphine. I can see why Nik likes you.”
Nik’s hand tightened around mine beneath the table while Hayes sighed, rubbing his brows with his fingers as if he was developing a headache. “So you heard where we were and decided to run off on your own. As if we didn’t have enough to deal with already with Grey on the loose.”
