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I glanced around only to find my view of my lover blocked by Velichkov as he manoeuvred himself into the remaining scintilla of space at the back of the boat. “Mat-”
“Will be fine without you for ten minutes, Your Pretentiousness,” Starling said, and then sighed as she took in my horrified expression. “And you’ll be fine without him.”
“I don’t think you know what you’re talking about,” I protested, nearly whining. “Ineedhim.”
“Thats what he always says. You’re both so fucking codependent.”
I stared blankly at her. Why was she saying it like it was a bad thing?
“I’ll drop these three off and come right back for you,” Velichkov told Mat and Parvan, and I craned my neck to see them nod at him and take a step back. Wolf, his tongue lolling out of the side of his mouth like swimming across such treacherous, fast-moving water was the highlight of his day, leapt in and began paddling madly.
I didn’t like how Mathias’ face began to slowly shrink as the river carried us away, because leaving himwasn’t a thing I liked doing.
At all.
“He’s right there,” murmured Starling, and to my surprise, lay a reassuring hand on my thigh. I looked down at it, considering, and then nudged her wrist with my own hand to move it between my legs. Only she snatched her arm away before it got anywherecloseto interesting.
“You’re an asshole.”
The words were spoken with the same weary irritation as Velichkov always injected into his words, and the heir himself shook his head exasperatedly from where he was sitting across from us, heaving on the oars. I made sure he noticed me staring at the way his muscles bulged beneath his shirt with each stroke, pleased we’d ditched the heavy fur coats as soon as we’d reached warmer climates.
“If you wish to toss him in the river, Starling,” he huffed out as he rowed, “I’ll help you do it.”
“But it’sdirty,” I said, reluctantly drawing my eyes from the hunk of tasty Temarian to the swirling water that surrounded us. It was too cloudy – or deep – to see the bottom. “And cold, and dangerous, and if you let me drown, you’ll have to explain it to Nathanael.”
I saw Velichkov visibly wince. “On the other hand...”
“Mathias will get over it,” Starling declared. “Or we’ll just find himanotherattention whore with a loud mouth and pretty hair, and he won’t know the difference.”
“He will,” I argued petulantly, thankful for the distraction the inane conversation was providing from the way the boat was ominously creaking with each stroke, and how the water in the base seemed even deeper around my boots than before. “You think you can sum me up in one measly sentence, Estrella? You failed to mention my cleverness-”
“I really didn’t,” she muttered.
“-my gorgeous figure, and my huge,hugecock that makes Nat go absolutely fucking wild.”
Velichkov blanched, looking gratifyingly nauseous, but unable to let go of the oars to cover his ears or smack me like he clearly wanted to.Neededto, from the way his fingers were clenched tightly around the wooden handles.
“You forget,” Starling commented casually, “that I’ve seen-”
“Finish that sentence and the first thing I’ll do when I’m king is arrange for every single Quarehian with a venereal disease to present to you for athoroughmedical examination,” I said in the most pleasant voice I could muster. “And when you dare complain, I’ll expand the invitation to those suffering from gangrene and tapeworms.”
She fell silent.
Only Mat was capable of winning against me when I was sulking like this, his stubbornness sometimes outlasting even my love for causing destruction, although brattishness versus sadism always made for a delicious combination. His reckless, headstrong nature could occasionally get the better of mine when he truly wasn’t in the mood to submit, and that was pretty much anytime weweren’tin the bedroom.
I suppose what that added up to was me being secretly grateful that Mathias wasn’t on the boat after all, because he’d have eviscerated me with that ruthless tongue of his and left Velichkov and Starling the ones looking smug.
Was I out of line? Was I not respecting boundaries, being inappropriate, and making myself into an extremely annoying prick?
Yes to all of the above. But while I was teasing them – and they me – we weren’t thinking about what awaited us at the end of our journey. How terrifying our odds were and how there was a good chance we’d all find ourselves imprisoned or dead, considering we were returning to the south without the support of an army.
And if I was going to die, it would be how I’d lived: hedonistic, troublesome, and without any filter.
“Ebasi,” snarled Dima, and I twisted around at the unexpected Temarian swear word to find him staring up at Velichkov. It took me a moment to realise he was reading the man’s thoughts, and while the prince’s face was impassive, not giving anything away even as he began to row harder and faster, Dima’s loose tongue conveyed everything in his head. “We’re sinking. We’re barely going to make it ourselves, and Nathanael is still-”
“On the other side of the fucking river,” I finished hollowly, for despite all the cartographers’ snobbery about this nottechnicallybeing classified as a river, it certainly felt like one: wide and deep and wild. Wolf was on the south bank now, but even the strong limbs of an animal hadn’t been able to prevent him from being borne a fair way downstream on the crossing, and Velichkov was having difficulty keeping the nose of our doomed boat pointing towards the shore.
“Ren! Star, Val!”
