Page 36 of A Storm in Every Heart (Enchanted Legacies #2)
ODESSA, PRESENT
I squint into the darkness, trying to make out the land on the horizon.
The sun has finally set, and it’s dark as midnight as Kastian, Jett, Captain Connell, and I fly over the ocean toward the land in the distance. My neck aches and my legs hurt where Kastian’s fingers dig into them, but I don’t dare to complain.
I’m all too aware of all the places our skin touches. Of the feel of his muscled arms around me and powerful chest mere inches from my cheek. All I can smell is his wood and citrus scent.
A full-body shiver travels through me, and Kastian’s arms tighten. “Are you cold?”
I shake my head. “No.”
Godsdammit, why does my reaction to him have to be so obvious?
Looking for something to take the focus off me, I reach up to touch a gash just below Kastian’s collarbone. “Does this hurt?”
He flinches as if my touch burned him. “A bit.”
“I can look at it when we land,” I offer.
“Can you heal wounds?”
“Not really, but I’m good at dressing them.”
He nods and offers me what I think is a smile—though it’s hard to tell in the dark. “I can heal it myself with magic. I just need to sleep first. I’m too tired right now.”
“Sorry,” I mutter, feeling slightly guilty.
He’s tired because of me—because he came to rescue me and because I couldn’t let him put me down in the water. My chest tightens, and there’s a pain at the back of my throat.
“Don’t be sorry,” he says quickly. “I could heal myself now if I were better at it, but I’ve never been that talented at healing.”
“Please, I’ve seen you use magic, and you’re excellent at it. You created a tsunami today.”
“That’s different, but I’ll take it. I think that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”
My heartbeat kicks up a tiny bit and I try to ignore it as I put on a flippant tone. “I guess I can be pleasant to you. Once . In exchange for saving me.”
“How benevolent of you,” he says dryly. “You really seem to like that word.”
“What word?”
“ Once. ”
I suck in a startled breath and feel my cheeks heat. I’m suddenly glad of the darkness hiding my blush.
I clear my throat. “I assume Daemon sent you to find me?”
He pauses. “No, actually. He sent Jett.”
I swallow thickly. The question is on the tip of my tongue— why would you come after me? Why do you care?
I know if I ask, he’ll give me the true answer, but I don’t want to know. Because once that gets voiced out loud, it can’t be taken back and we’re already in such a precarious position as it is.
“Bloody hell!” Captain Connell says loudly, exasperation in his voice. “Are you trying to rip my arms from the sockets?”
“Shut the fuck up,” Jett grumbles, sounding far more serious than his usually cheerful tone. “You’re lucky I haven’t dropped you yet.”
“I might sodding prefer that to losing both arms.”
“What are you two shouting about?” Kastian growls.
“I think I see a spot to land.” Connell says. “Thank the gods. Do you know how uncomfortable it is to dangle like this for hours on end? Some might call that cruel and unusual.”
“We could have let you drown.” Jett grumbles, adjusting his grip under Connell’s arms. “I still might. You’re godsdamned heavy.”
I immediately stiffen, suddenly worried that I’m heavy too.
“You’re not,” Kastian mutters, as if he can read my mind.
My cheeks flush deeper, and I’m once again desperately glad for the darkness surrounding us.
W e land on the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean.
Even by the light of the moon, it’s too dark to see much of anything, but the air is thick, laden with the aroma of brackish water and decaying plant matter, overpowering even the scent of the ocean behind us. As soon as Kastian puts me down, my feet sink into the muddy ground.
“Finally!” Captain Connell’s voice cuts through the silence, and there’s a smacking sound and a grunt, as if he clapped Jett hard on the back. “Thanks for the ride, mate. Excuse me a moment, I’ve had to take a piss for the last hour.”
“Charming,” Kastian says dryly as we hear the sounds of Connell crashing away through the underbrush.
“What did you expect?” I ask. “He’s a pirate.”
“I wasn’t talking about him. I meant this cliff.” He punctuates his point with a squelching sound as he tries to pull his boot out of the muck.
“Again, what did you expect? This is Hydratta.”
“Not a part of Hydratta I’ve ever been to,” he says grimly.
“Should we let the pirate wander off on his own?” Jett asks, coming to stand beside Kastian and me. The three of us step closer to make out each other’s faces by the light of the moon. I turn and squint through the darkness in the direction of the rustling bushes.
I shrug. “I doubt he’ll try to run. There’s nowhere for him to go.”
Kastian looks at me. “Why do you say that?”
“I think this is the edge of The Weeping Quagmire.” I shudder. “It’s the stretch of swamp that connects Hydratta to the mainland. I’d recognize the smell anywhere.”
“Why? Have you been here before?”
I nod. “Prince Thorne made the entire court of Vernallis travel by land to Hydratta during his potential engagement summit with your sister. We rode by carriage through here for days.”
As soon as the words leave my mouth, I wish I could take them back. I must be exhausted, because I completely forgot to watch what I say when it comes to Kastian’s past and my part in it.
As far as I know, he doesn’t remember that I was even there when the court of Vernallis visited Hydratta, but unfortunately he’s not stupid, and I know he caught my slip from the way I can feel his eyes burning into the side of my face.
“We should move,” I suggest, trying to cover the mistake. “Find an inn or something. I don’t want to spend too much time out here at night. The swamp is full of creatures just as horrifying as that sea monster.”
“Agreed,” Jett says. “But what do you want me to do with the pirate?”
“I don’t care what we do. Did either of you have a plan for him?”
“Not really,” Kastian says, stifling a yawn. “I just figured we’d want to question him about why he took you.”
“And a reason he was pretending to be from Solistine,” Jett adds. “That wasn’t a Solistinian ship. It had the yellow flags, but it was built in the style of Vernallis.”
“How did you two find me, anyway?” I ask.
“A guard at the station recognized that you were taken by Solistinian pirates,” Kastian explains. “We went to the harbor, but there were no ships from Solistine, so we flew over the ocean until we saw the flags.”
My brow furrows. They flew? I understand how they could fly leaving the ship—at that point our lives were in danger—but before? How can that be?
“We’ll have to ask the pirate for more information,” Jett says flatly. “There has to be a reason for the disguise, and also for why he killed the Hydrattan emissary but left you mostly unharmed.”
I frown, remembering how quickly and remorselessly Connell killed Elio on the train—almost like he’d planned it before coming inside. “That’s a good idea. I should have thought of that myself. I’m just so damn tired and I haven’t eaten since yesterday. I can’t think straight.”
“That’s two nice things you’ve said to me in under an hour,” Kastian comments, a smile in his tone. “Are you feeling alright, Princess?”
“ Focus ,” Jett says, turning to look toward the rustling bushes. “Honestly, we might be better off questioning him right here, then killing him.”
“Maybe,” I hedge, “but there’s only one problem with that. He can’t die.”
“What does that mean?” Jett turns quickly back to me. “Anything can die if you try hard enough to kill it.”
Kastian looks at me, a searching question in his gaze. “Did you kill him too?”
I nod, not bothering to ask what he means by “too”—I wouldn’t doubt that if I was able to stab Captain Connell in the stomach, Kastian probably could and did carve him to ribbons. “On the train,” I clarify. “If he were a normal man, I would have escaped, but he just healed in front of me.”
Kastian smiles, looking vaguely proud of me, and I tear my gaze away before I let it go to my head. I’m not a trained fighter, but I’m not useless, and I had a powerful motivation not to be captured.
“I don’t understand what you guys are talking about,” Jett complains.
“Perhaps I can help with that,” Connell says, his voice growing louder as he moves back toward us through the darkness. “And in the future, I might suggest that if you don’t want someone to overhear your conversation, perhaps try keeping your voices down. Just a thought.”
“We don’t care what you heard,” Kastian growls. “You’re not going anywhere.”
Connell moves to stand at Jett’s shoulder and rolls his eyes. “Again, threats only work if you have something to back them up with. You’re a talented fighter, mate, but as you’ve so expertly observed, I cannot die.”
Jett gapes at the pirate, and I swear there’s a hint of excitement in his black eyes. “Truly? You can’t die?”
Connell shakes his head and sits down on a nearby log to unlace his boot. “No, I can’t,” he says, pulling the boot off and tipping it over to pour a flood of seawater onto the swampy ground.
“How?” Kastian demands. “No one is truly immortal.”
“Well, obviously that’s not true,” Connell says flippantly. “You’re immortal, aren’t you?”
“No, we’re not,” I cut in. “We age far slower than you…or, slower than humans, I mean. But we do eventually age, and we can be killed.”
“I suspect that might be true for me as well,” Connell says, looking pensive. “I bloody hope something might kill me one day, I just haven’t found it yet.”
Kastian shakes his head, looking extremely frustrated. “Stop talking in riddles. You look human, but clearly you’re not, so what are you? A doppler?”
“I don’t have any ever-loving idea what that is so I don’t think so,” Connell says sardonically. “I was human once, a very long time ago. Still am, actually, now I come to think about it. I don’t believe anything about my actual body has changed much.”
“But—” Kastian begins, a real note of anger creeping into his voice.