Lightbringer (Empirium #3) - Claire Legrand Page 0,134

the sea. Damp white hair curled at her chin, and her cheeks were red from the wind.

“All is well,” she said, hands on her hips, sheathed sword hanging from her belt, white sleeves rolled up to her elbows. She surveyed Navi’s neat little tent like it was the deck of her own ship. “We’ll be ready to leave in four days’ time. An evening sail, which is not my preference, but until we’re away from the islands, we’ll have to watch hard for imperial ships. Not that the Queenslight cannot fight for herself—she can, she’s a fierce she-wolf of a boat—but best to avoid battle until we can’t any longer.”

Navi had been moving uselessly about the tent, straightening papers, tucking Hob’s notebook back under his blanket, keeping her face carefully blank. She could not bear to look at Ysabet. For a month now, she had simmered with a longing she had not felt since she first lay with a girl at fourteen. And on the heels of her desire was a terrible fear that Ysabet would laugh in her face if she confessed it. Never mind that she often felt Ysabet’s eyes upon her as they worked together, and that sometimes when their hands touched, it was like tinder catching fire.

But then one of Ysabet’s words fixed itself in Navi’s fretful mind. Queenslight. She straightened to stare at Ysabet, whose smug grin lit up her face.

“You named her,” Navi said faintly, all the air knocked out of her. “You named her after Eliana.”

“It’s a good name, isn’t it?” Ysabet winked. “Have I earned a kiss at last, then?”

A slow warmth spilled down Navi’s limbs. Her eyes filled with tears, and she couldn’t stop looking at Ysabet’s face, hungry for the quickness of it. Her sharp jaw and cheekbones, her lively brown eyes.

Ysabet’s smug expression faltered. “You’re crying. Are they good tears or bad?”

Navi shook her head and rushed at her, and they crashed together as if they had been on that course all their lives. She found Ysabet’s grinning mouth with her own, wrapped her arms around Ysabet’s shoulders.

“Thank God,” Ysabet murmured against Navi’s lips, her hands at her waist, and then there was no air left to speak. Ysabet kissed like she did everything else: with an easy confidence that turned Navi’s knees to liquid. Tender at first, teasing nibbles that left Navi’s lips swollen and buzzing. And then, with a quick heated glance, Ysabet slid her hand around to cup the back of Navi’s head, and Navi stretched up on her toes to meet her, and this was deeper, this was fevered. Navi’s hands clutched at Ysabet’s sleeves, and Ysabet’s tongue teased Navi’s lips until they opened.

With a groan, Ysabet directed her gently toward the small stack of crates in the corner of the tent, and Navi scrambled atop them as if it were the most natural thing in the world. At once, she hooked her legs around Ysabet’s thighs, pulled her close. The heat of her, the strong, warm lines of her body. Ysabet seized Navi’s hips and tugged them closer. Navi let her head fall back as Ysabet’s mouth traveled her throat. She threaded her fingers through Ysabet’s hair, delighted by its softness. She wished to bury her face in it.

The sleeve of her tunic had slipped. Ysabet kissed her bare shoulder.

“I didn’t name her that only to get in your bed,” Ysabet mumbled against her skin.

Navi smiled, her eyes fluttering shut. “I have no bed.”

“I do, on my ship.” Ysabet lifted her face, her eyes full of stars. “It’s big. Captain’s quarters and all that.”

Then Ysabet’s face sobered. She leaned her forehead against Navi’s as they found their breath again, and tenderly brushed Navi’s silky black hair away from her cheek. Months after her abduction by Fidelia, her hair had finally reached her shoulders.

“I don’t only want to lie with you, Navi,” Ysabet whispered. “It isn’t only about that.”

Navi feathered soft kisses across Ysabet’s cheeks, her heart aching when Ysabet turned up her face, eyes closed, like a bloom seeking the sun.

“I know,” said Navi quietly. “It’s the same for me.” She shuddered as Ysabet brushed against the hem of her tunic, fingers teasing her naked waist. “Only long ago, when I was quite young, have I been touched like this by someone I wanted. I’d forgotten it could be so nice.”

Ysabet paused, then pulled back from her. Her eyes were grave. “So many stories we have yet to tell each other.”

Navi touched her face