Page 36 of Soulgazer

“I—” My face burns. “I know that having your child would only complicate things.”

“Oh, love,” Faolan says, leaning closer—careful not to touch me now. “There are plenty of ways to make your body sing thatdon’tinvolve getting you with child.”

The room is too small, his body too near.

I smell of Faolan and the sea—not myself at all.

It’s too much.

“No.” I barely manage that single word, but force another behind it. “Please.”

Faolan jerks back. “Stars, lass, I only meant—there’s no needto…” Whatever he sees on my face, it erases the self-assured smile from his own. “Marriage in name only. You have my word.”

My shoulders drop, but I remain wary until he reaches the door and turns, tilting his head to consider me. “At least, until you’re curious enough to ask for more.”

I latch the door behind him, then crumple into the center of that lonely bed, burying myself in unfamiliar scents and fabric until the world ceases to exist.

Thirteen

I awaken to the wind lapping a sweet trail across my wrist. It pours in through the open window, dappling the warped glass with sea spray as the ship crests one wave and glides neatly into the next.

My first sign this is only a dream.

I turn my face into the pillows and groan when they smell of whiskey rather than lye. A hint of it clung to Faolan the first time I met him, lingering long after I’d raced from the beach back to Father’s ship. But the window of my room could not open.

And Faolan’s wolf ring still glints just below my knuckle.

I raise my head and a breeze trickles beneath my collar, running along the fresh, tender scars. Tremors erupt across my body, gathered in furious pools at my temples and the hollows behind my knees. As I shift onto them, the bed creaks, ropes tied below the mattress putting up a fight until I go still. Wide-eyed and ghostly pale.

Or at least, my reflection looks it in the polished bronze surface nailed to the opposite wall. I trace the blueish-purple smudges along my throat where Maccus’s torc dug in. Glimpse four similar lines on my arm when Faolan’s sleeve drifts past my elbow. The fringe Da always insisted I cut to shield my eyes is plastered to oneside, the rest of my hair falling in dark, heavy tangles to the generous curve of my waist.

None of that matters, though. Not as much as the tattoo burning between my shoulder blades.

I bite down on my lip and ease the laces farther apart. Faolan is larger than me—it takes only a few tugs until his shirt is loose enough to dip past my shoulders, exposing the top of my back, where two-thirds of the tattoo is complete.

Below the stark white marks, my skin is angry, painted bright pink as though I lay in scalding water for too long. Unlike the woad tattoos common among our people, these markings are unnatural, almost glowing in their brightness. My stomach rolls as I reach to trace the curve of one spiral.

“Good morning, wife!”

I nearly tumble out of the bed. The door muffles Faolan’s voice, but barely, as he nudges it open with a boot. I scramble to pull the shirt back into place. “You looked so peaceful this morning, I hated to disturb you. But then I thought, even a mystical lass with ocean eyes must want to eat at some point.”

He grins from the half-open doorway, and I try not to look like my heart’s just leapt clear across the room. “You weren’t here this morning.”

Faolan cocks a brow. “Wasn’t I?”

My gaze drifts to the bed. The divot in a pillow beside mine, and the nest of blankets where someone must have kicked them off through the night. “I—I didn’t notice you come back last night.”

“Well, you were dead to the world, weren’t you?” Faolan smirks. “If you hadn’t started snoring, I’d have checked your pulse.”

Heat splashes across my collarbone, surging up my neck. “I don’t snore.”

“Aye, you do. But it’s a precious wee sound, like thunder off the horizon.” He chuckles as I glare, touching my nose, like that will give me any more truth. “Music to a pirate’s ears.”

“You could have slept somewhere else.” It’s my last defense—one he laughs off instantly as the door swings shut behind him.

“And risk my crew thinking I’ve lost my touch?” Faolan lays a wooden tray on the bed beside me, and I pull back as though it contains venomous serpents. But it’s only…

“What is that?”