the cabin right now.
He also couldn’t trust Vasili not to further corrupt Yasir. The prince would absolutely push his new sorcerer to keep trying darker and more dangerous things, which would require more blood, more poison, and nothing about that sat easy with Niko.
Yasir left at dusk, touching his hat and smiling as he passed Niko on the deck. Seran’s twinkling waterside streets soon swallowed him up.
Niko was back at the rail, absently watching the docks come alive at night, when he sensed he was no longer alone. “Yasir cares,” Niko said.
“Then he has much to lose.” Vasili stopped at the rail beside Niko and admired the dockside.
Raucous laughter bubbled up from the crowds. Men and women loitered outside bars, their merriment spilling into the streets. It all felt surreal after last night and the morning’s massacre.
“Do you think he’s out there?” Niko asked, searching for Amir’s royal blue coat and short blond hair. The rat-bastard hadn’t been much more than a dangerous nuisance before, but now he was something else entirely.
When Vasili didn’t reply, Niko checked to see if he was even listening. He watched the crowds too.
“No… I don’t.” The prince swallowed softly. “I can’t account for the hours lost last night.”
“Spice takes memories.”
“That is true.”
Niko faced the revelry again, grateful it was far enough away that the lights didn’t reach the ship’s deck. The quiet aboard the ship, softened by the gentle lapping of the sea against the ship’s hull, lulled Niko’s ragged mind. “We’ll surely know soon enough.”
“You met Shah Yazdan at the gathering?” Vasili asked, sounding interested.
“He threw me out.”
“Understandable.”
Niko huffed, then leaned a hip against the rail and faced the prince. The shifting light from the docks illuminated the small smile on his lips. He didn’t look over, which was probably a good thing. It certainly made it easier for Niko to admire his face in profile. The kind of proud face you’d expect to see on a coin. But then Vasili bowed his head, and the regal poise vanished behind an almost shy glance. It must have been the light because Vasili wouldn’t know modesty if it looked him in the eye. “I sometimes struggle to speak my mind, while you have it down to an art. I was silent for years.”
Niko kept the wince from his face. Julian had told him of Vasili’s silence while he’d been caged. It must have been a way to keep control of some part of himself while the elves took from him.
“When I returned, my silence kept everyone away. I used that to my advantage, but it also cost me.”
“Made you lonely.”
The corner of his mouth ticked, giving him away. “Of course, you’d see straight through that.”
“I didn’t, not at first. I thought you were a vicious, frigid, icy Caville prick. It took me a long time to see anything else under all those layers.”
“What do you see now?”
“A vicious, frigid, icy, Caville prick… but someone else too. You hide him well. You guard him because he’s the most vulnerable and probably the most honest part of you.”
Vasili gripped the rail beneath his hands and pointedly stared at the drunken revelers again.
“It’s all right to be vulnerable, Vasili. It makes you human.”
He’d fallen still, like he did when threatened, right before lashing out, but it was fear holding him firm, not rage.
Niko ached to touch him, just offer his hand, but touching Vasili usually resulted in a slap to the face, and after seeing the ashes of his family scattered in the breeze, he wasn’t sure he could handle another blow. “Where did Yasir go?” he muttered.
“To get supplies.”
Vasili placed his hand on the rail next to Niko’s. His thumb brushed Niko’s finger in a small, fleeting touch. He’d surely startle and pull away, but the touch lingered, becoming deliberate. And suddenly, Vasili’s thumb against Niko’s finger was all he could feel.
Did Vasili even know what physical comfort was? Had anyone ever truly loved him? His mother perhaps. He’d spoken of her in warmer tones, unlike the rest of his family. “Do you ever think of the boy—?”
“Alek? No.”
Yet he’d instantly known who the boy was.
Vasili added, “I try not to.” He trailed his long fingers over the back of Niko’s hand and lightly rested his hand over Niko’s. If it had been anyone else, Niko might have taken the touch as the beginnings of some deeper want, but Vasili seemed content to stand beside him and stare at the city. His hand on his felt