Page 35 of Soulgazer

“I’ll send my reports.” Faolan taps the doorway once, and she rolls her eyes, slipping a knife from her belt. With one easy flick of her wrist, she slices a lock of hair free from the back of her head and presses it into Faolan’s hand.

“I’ll informTavinto send them, given he’s the only bloody person who actually can. See that he gets this, would you? Eejit.”The word is affectionate, as is the tousle to Faolan’s hair as she walks out.

There is a trick here I am too exhausted to understand—one Faolan clearly does, seeing how he nudges his cousin along like a sheepdog nipping at a ewe’s feet. There’s a final flash of green eyes, and then Faolan stands alone in the doorway with his fingers drumming against the frame like rainfall. His jaw divots as he clenches it, grinding slowly from one side to the other.

I can see it now, the way his mind spins stories. He’s writing one this very moment—something fantastical and quick. A net to catch me and wrap me up tight before I even know I’m falling. It’s only now I realize how badly I’d wanted to be caught before.

Freedom. That had been his promise, hadn’t it?

Faolan’s breath hitches, but I speak before he has the chance. “What consequences is Ríona Kiara talking about?”

He avoids my eyes for the first time since we met. “She’s dramatic, that’s all.”

“No…No, you said she’d given you permission to find the island but you never told me—you never said this was just for her benefit.” My voice tightens. “You never said this was to pay your debt to her.”

“Ourdebt, darling.”

My head snaps up and I take a step back, my thighs meeting the edge of his desk. “What?”

Faolan turns abruptly, and his smile is anything but charming—full of irony and a taste of bitterness. “It’s our debt now, lass. You ensured tha’ when you blackmailed me into marrying you.”

My fingers curl hard over the edge of the desk, keeping me upright. “You owe your cousin for your life?”

“Aye.” Faolan tugs the collar of his shirt free. “When I was fourteen, I ran away from court to join Keegan’s crew from UnboundEarth—only turns out he was a shite captain and a raging drunk. We were caught on a smuggling job two years later and dragged before the Ring of Stars to be trialed. Hanged.”

He glances my way, linen gathering at his wrists as he shrugs off the shirt.

“Except for me. As luck would have it, Kiara had just inherited her crown and I’d learned a fair bit on the sea. She pardoned me at the execution, then gave me a ship a few weeks later—and plenty of orders besides.”

There’s more to the story. I know there is, but it hardly matters now.

“Faolan, you never said yesterday that we were searching for the island under Kiara’s command. Or that I would owe her—” What? Mylife? I shake my head. “We don’t know anything about my magic, or the Isle of Lost Souls for that matter. All you have is a bloody song. We can’t just—”

“We can, and we will, because—well, we don’t have much of a choice, now, do we?” Faolan pushes off the doorframe and walks toward me, lips hitching at the corners. “Besides, can you honestly say you’d have come with me if you knew?”

“I…” My head is heavy and spinning at once. Have I really done this? Run away from my parents, married a pirate—promised to use the magic that once killed my brother?!

Faolan’s hand lands on my arm and I stare at it, because I can’t help wondering now if it’s meant as a comfort, or a manipulation. “You took a risk for a free life, Saoirse. I’ve done the same. I won’t apologize for it.”

“Even if you’ve damned me alongside yourself?” I hate the weakness in my voice. He slides his hand beneath my arm, nudging me through the door into his bedroom.

“You’re the one who vowed to follow my path. It’s sort of your own fault, aye?”

“That’s different.”

“Is it? I’d love to hear you elaborate on how.”

I dig my heels into the ruby-colored rug laid beneath his bed as we pass it by, unable to look away from the rumpled pile of quilts and sheets. There isn’t another place to sleep in this room. “There is one vow I have no intention of keeping, Faolan. Have you forgotten?”

His hand drops from my arm, wrapping lightly around a bedpost. “No. I’m only surprised you actually meant it.”

“I meant it.” I study his fingers, elegant and long. The patch of skin exposed at the collar of his shirt. Remember the feel of his lips against mine, brief though that touch was.

Remember the Wolf has a woman waiting at every port.

“I heard the stories at the Damhsa.”

“Then you know I’ve yet to leave a lover without hearing them scream my name first.” He cocks his head, canines flashing as he smiles. “That doesn’t intrigue you, even the slightest bit?”