Page 7

“Create whatever she needs,” I said. “I’ll find a way to make her take it.”

I’d tie her down and pinch her nostrils shut if that was what it took.

Stalking out of the cabin, I found Telean standing on the deck, her gaze on Prisca, who was once again clutching at the rail—her hands white-knuckled as she stared at the horizon.

I’d thought her refusal to eat mere stubbornness.

My muscles uncoiled, my chest lightened, and my teeth finally unclenched.

“The healer is preparing a seasickness draught for her,” I told Telean.

“She won’t take it.”

I just raised an eyebrow. I was betting Prisca would put her stubbornness aside. “You will make her. The hybrids are recovering, and the healer has more than enough power to treat Prisca’s nausea.”

“I can hear you,” Prisca called. “I have no desire to spend the rest of the trip wishing to be put out of my misery. If you can guarantee the healer will have enough power should the hybrids below need him…”

Satisfaction slid through me. “I give you my word.”

Prisca’s face somehow turned even whiter, and she let out a sound somewhere between a snort and a laugh as she stumbled past me.

My gut clenched, and I watched her go.

“Interesting that you allowed me on to this ship,” the old woman mused from behind me. “The one person who could teach Prisca enough to prepare her to negotiate with your brother.”

“I care nothing for what you find interesting.”

Her snort was identical to Prisca’s, and I snarled, stalking after the wildcat. She moved directly to the galley, taking the vial the healer offered and gulping it down. It would be a few hours before she felt the full effects, but something in my chest unclenched as a hint of the color she’d lost returned to her face.

Prisca stepped around me, moving back toward the door. Catching her wrist, I steered her to my cabin. Surprisingly, she didn’t put up a fight, although she did snatch her hand away the moment I closed the door behind us.

“What do you want?” she bit out.

“Why don’t you tell me whatyouwant, wildcat?”

The words were out before I realized I’d said them.

She blinked. “What do you mean?”

A strange kind of fury burned through my chest. “It’s an easy question. What do you fucking want?”

Her expression became a cool mask, but her eyes burned gold. “I want to go to the hybrid camp. I want to see my best friend, who I thought was going to die. I want to see my brothers—one who almostdiddie right in front of me. I want to make decisions with Demos, who should have just as much say in his kingdom as I do. And I want to hug Rythos and apologize. I don’t want to stay on this ship for another fucking minute.”

She was panting when she finished, her face flushed, expression vaguely shocked.

It wasn’t unlike the way she’d looked the first time I’d thrust inside her. I couldn’t help my smile.

Prisca went still, eyeing me as if I were a snake about to strike. I missed the way she used to look at me. I may have lost her, but perhaps I could make her trust me like that again.

She frowned. “Whatever you’re thinking…”

“I’ll continue thinking it.” My smile dropped, and I watched her.

I ached to give her what she wanted.

While I had no problem saying no when her safety was at risk, my instinct with her was always to sayyes. To see her eyes light up. To make her smile. And if she ever learned just how close she was to having the Bloodthirsty Prince wrapped around her finger, she would likely laugh until she was breathless.

I’d been silent for too long. Prisca’s mouth hardened, and she darted past me, slipping out the door.