to the boy seated on a coil of fat rope near the main mast. He was chewing the sugartwist she’d bought him and playing shadowball with Eclipse.
“He’s right there.” Ash tossed her warbraids back off her shoulders. “And do me a favor, neh? I’m not a nursemaid. Don’t tell me what I should be doing.”
He turned to look at her then. Those pitch-black eyes like holes in his head. That bloodless pallor, painted over the pretty beneath. O, he’d been a looker when he was alive, sure and true. High cheekbones, long lashes, broad shoulders, and clever hands. Could’ve been a real lady-killer, if the lady hadn’t got there first.
“THINK HOW MIA WOULD FEEL IF SOMETHING WERE TO HAPPEN TO HIM.”
“I don’t need to think how Mia feels, Tricky. I know.”
“AND HOW DOES SHE FEEL, ASHLINN?” the deadboy asked.
“Smooth as silk,” Ash said, staring into that bottomless black. “Wet as summer dew, and sweet as strawberries.” Her voice grew low and sultry. “Hard as steel before she comes, and soft as clouds after. Drenched in my arms like spring fucking rain.”
He moved, though still not half as fast as he’d done in the houses of the dead. His hand found her throat a full second after she brought her sword to rest against his neck, its edge poised on the place Tric’s jugular should have pulsed. She had no idea how bad it’d hurt him. She’d been in that cabin when he got stabbed in his arm and belly by those Itreyan marines. Not bleeding. Not falling. She idly wondered how much of him she’d have to cut off to slow him down.
Her voice was a croak against his grip.
“Get your fucking … hands off m-me.”
“YOU’D DO WELL NOT TO PUSH ME, ASHLINN.”
“Poor choice of w-words given … our history…”
His grip tightened, saltlocks moving like snakes roused from sleep. The suns might be sinking, he might be drifting closer to what he’d been, but he was still slow out here. Goddess, he was strong, though. His fingers like cold iron on her skin. Ash pressed the blade harder against his neck. Jonnen was watching them now with dark, glittering eyes, intelligent and malevolent.
“Map,” she grinned. “R-Remember?”
He held her for a moment more, then released her, his shove sending her stumbling backward. She kept her blade raised, pawing at her throat and grinning.
“You always were a fucking maid.”
“THAT MAP ON YOUR BACK MIGHT FADE WHEN YOU DIE, ASHLINN,” Tric said, squaring up to her. “BUT THERE’S A GREAT DEAL OF HURT CAN BE DONE TO YOU WITHOUT KILLING YOU.”
“See, there you go.” She gifted the boy a wink. “A little bit of spit and fire, that’s what I like to see. But I’m fierier than you, Tricky. I’m quicker and I’m prettier and the girl we both adore ended up in my bed, not yours.” She drummed her fingers on her sword hilt. “I won. You lost. So stay away from her, aye?”
“ARE YOU REALLY THIS INSECURE?” he asked. “SO AFRAID SHE MIGHT LEAVE, YOU HAVE TO STAKE YOUR CLAIM TO HER AT THE POINT OF A SWORD?”
“I’ve got no claim,” Ashlinn snarled. “She’s not mine. She’s hers. But if you think for one second I’m not willing to bathe in blood to be the one standing by her side when all this is over, then you’re insane. Do you understand me?”
Ashlinn lowered her sword and stepped closer. Her head only came up to his chest. Her voice was a deadly whisper.
“You do whatever you need to do. Moons, Mothers, I don’t give a toss. But if I get a whiff of some other endgame, I get a hint this Anais nonsense is putting her at risk, we’ll find out sure and true if deadboys can die again.”
She took a step back, eyes never leaving his.
“I will rip all three suns out of heaven to keep her safe, you hear me?” Ashlinn vowed. “I will kill the fucking sky.”
She blew him a kiss.
Then she turned and stalked away.
* * *
The Falcons chose a smoky taverna on the edge of the docks and drank like the Black Mother was coming for them all on the morrow. Mia hunched low, hood pulled down to hide the slave brand on her right cheek, the vicious scar across her left. The part of town they were in was sharp as broken glass, but still, she was a renowned gladiatii, the girl who slew the retchwyrm, now the most wanted killer in the Republic.