vision.
Panic rises, bubbling over as I beg my magic to listen. To protect me. As I beg for my hand to reach just a little farther around this man to grab the steel blade waiting for me, if only I can get to it.
His friend, the tall one, starts to back away, face panicked as the one gripping me by the throat lifts his blade. It presses against my coat and I brace myself for the bite of steel I’ve grown far too familiar with.
But it’s not me who’s bit.
I fall to my knees, gasping for desperate breaths. My fingers dig into the cobblestones as I heave and blink the fog from my vision.
“You’re going to be fine.” I know at once it’s Bastian’s hands that settle upon my shoulders because my lungs breathe easier and my vision sharpens at his touch. I let myself fall into him, rubbing my tender throat.
My attacker lies face-first on the ground, two long needles poking from the skin of his neck. Shanty stands behind him, tucking the remaining needles into the tiny spaces between the bones of her bracelet, and a tiny vial of thick white liquid down her sleeve.
Ferrick’s on my left, and I jolt from the sharp sting of his restoration magic on my throat. It flares once at the sharpest point of pain, then ebbs away to nothing but a dull ache. Still, my voice itself is raw as I ask, “Is he…?”
“Dead? No.” Shanty kicks at the man’s hand, pressing her boot down upon one of his fingers until he groans. “See? Just unconscious. Might wake up with a killer headache, but nothing he wasn’t asking for. Casem took off after the second guy.”
Good. I could have killed them with Rukan, but the kingdom cannot love a queen who they see as a monster; I’ve already learned that the hard way. My people expect a queen to be kind and fair, not someone who will bloody their hands unnecessarily.
If I use Rukan’s poison to kill, these men will get what they want; I’ll forever be thought of as a ruthless, dangerous ruler. It’ll go against everything Mother wishes for me to show Visidia, and she would have had me sailing back to Arida within the day.
“We should have never let you out of our sight,” Vataea growls, teeth bared at the unconscious man. “We have to arrest them.”
I’m about to stop her when Ferrick beats me to it. “We can’t. If others found out Amora was attacked at our first stop, after Kerost already refused to participate in our Visidian tour, how do you think that’d look? This could ruin our journey before we’ve even gotten started.”
Bastian practically preens at that news, but Shanty shakes her head.
“Maybe not.” She crouches, lifting my chin with a finger to inspect me. “If there’s one thing my magic’s taught me, it’s that people will always see what you show them.” Straightening her spine, she turns to Ferrick. “Go get me as much parchment as you can find. And you”—she turns to Vataea—“do something with this man’s body. He won’t wake for a few hours; put him in the sun and let him burn somewhere.”
There’s a gleam in the mermaid’s eyes as she tucks her hands under the man’s arms and lugs him farther into the alleyway, out of sight. I can only hope she’s not dragging him directly to the sea.
Ferrick, meanwhile, leaves only after double-checking me for injuries. “Stay here,” he says seriously before he turns, hurrying toward the street.
I have no desire to follow. Instead I lean my head against Bastian’s chest as he holds me, relaxing into the feeling of wholeness that comes with his touch. Connected like this, I can’t tell whether it’s my curiosity that spikes or his when Shanty’s eyes glimmer with mischief.
“What are you up to?” he asks, to which she squares her shoulders.
“Trust me, pirate. I’m about to be positively brilliant.”
* * *
I’m leaning against the main mast back on Keel Haul when Shanty hands me her creation.
“No need to say thank you.” She beams as I grab the parchment. “You can just slip me a bonus when it’s time for payment. Make it that navy blade of yours and we’ll call it even.” There’s a hunger in her eyes when she peers at Rukan.
I cover the blade with my coat and out of her sight as I spread the parchment onto my lap, startling at the moving image that plays back at me