away from my heart.
“You didn’t find your brother.” I shake my head because I can’t say the words out loud. It’s too much and too hard to swallow every single time I come back empty-handed.
“You will find him,” she pledges. I almost scoff, look who’s being naive now. The world is too big, and I’m only one person with a crew of fucking idiots that can’t keep Lorne in one place for enough time so I can catch up to him.
“I’ll help you.”
“How?” I leer. “You can’t step foot off this island.”
“I know someone,” she says carefully. “Someone who can help us find—”
“You’re not going to go back to Taysa and ask her for another desired spell,” I snap. “Are you out of your fucking mind?”
“She might be able to—”
“No,” I digress. “No more spells. No more magic. No more lies. No more—” I wave my hand in between us. “This.”
“What’s this?”
“The stupid little illusion that we’re friends when clearly we’ve just become—”
“Don’t say another word that you’ll regret later,” she warns. “I’m protecting you.”
I take a step toward her. “From whom exactly? When is the last time your father visited you?”
“Thankfully, not for a while,” she replies, crossing her arms. “He makes everyone nervous. He walks around judging and complaining about how nothing is good enough. He issues out—”
“This island isn’t good enough for you,” I vouch. “You don’t belong here.”
Her eyes slit at me. “Are you saying you don’t want—”
“Don’t say another word you’ll regret later,” I counter. “I wish for more than you could ever imagine.”
“But you’re scared.”
I perk a brow. “Of?
“What you men call rejection.”
I look heavenward. “You read too many books.”
“You bring me the books.”
“Going to have to start looking at what I’m bringing you next time.”
“I think you do,” she notes. “I’ve learned more from what you’ve brought me than anything I could’ve under the sea.”
“But?”
“You don’t act like any of the men in those books.”
“How?” My eyes widen a little when I think I see her cheeks flush a soft shade of red.
I’ve never seen Davina blush, she’s too impassive most of the time, and the rest of the time she’s either teasing or chastising me for something.
“They hold a woman in their arms and—” My arms think before my brain registers her body pressed into mine, my hands gripping above her hips.
“Like this?” She nods, looking into my chest. “What else?”
“You know what else,” she mutters as she slowly pulls her gaze to meet mine.
“I’m not going to kiss you, Davina,” I whisper. “You remember the last time I tried.”
She blinks.
She remembers.
I was on my ship, standing on one of the wooden planks over the hull. The closest place to the water where we could talk without yelling at each other. She would sit with me for a few minutes before her skin would start to dry out, and I went for it. The sun was setting, making shades of pinks, oranges, and purples color the sky. It illuminated her skin and the green shades of her eyes.
It ended with me getting a mouthful of salt water and wet clothes.
She apologized, saying she wasn’t used to people like me being so close to her. So I kept my hands to myself.
Until now.
Now I wanted to see how far she’d let me go, but I wasn’t about to get flung from the room like she did with her bed one time when I told her that I didn’t like how she went and made a private deal with Taysa that took her voice.
It wasn’t that I didn’t like her on land, I do, it just makes her extremely unhappy.
“Are you not a man?” she asks me innocently. I clench my teeth because, even though she doesn’t know it, she’s pushing me.
“In flesh and blood, Princess.”
“Then why won’t you—”
“Didn’t you hear what I just said?”
“Doesn’t mean I’ll do it again.”
“Do you want me to try and kiss you again?”
“I think you ruined the moment,” she hedges. “I’ve read that it’s immediate and, sometimes unexpected.”
“Next time,” I allude, releasing her from my hold and taking a step back. “You’re just curious, and you need to get rid of the Viking.”
“I need to know how he got through the veil first.”
“He isn’t going to speak, Davina. You think I’m stubborn, those men are downright fearless. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done to him, he won’t pierce a word from his lips.”
“I haven’t tried everything yet,” she retorts.
“Which is?”
“I don’t know.”
“You think your father will get upset