Page 77 of A Storm in Every Heart (Enchanted Legacies #2)

I raise my eyebrows, and open my mouth to comment, but Kastian beats me to it. He laughs. “Don’t tell me the pirate is growing on you?”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Jett grumbles. “But he’s not…horrible. He saved your life.”

“True,” Kastian says, sobering instantly.

“I’ll have our healer take a look at him,” Lyra says. “I think it’s possible that he’s just experiencing how it feels to be mortal for the first time in decades.”

“So does that mean you’re staying here?” I ask Jett.

“Maybe for a little while, but I need to go back to Vernallis and talk to Daemon and Alix as soon as possible. I assumed you’d be going with me?”

“I’m not sure.” I glance sideways at Kastian. “How long before we need to return to the ship?”

“No idea,” Kastian says. “Maybe Connell can tell me after the healer sees him.”

“The only question left is what to do about Hydratta,” Jett says.

All eyes turn to Kastian who takes a step back. “Whatever you’re all thinking, stop. I haven’t thought of this as my kingdom for over a century…and maybe even before that.”

“The people wouldn’t take a change in leadership well even if you did want the throne,” Lyra says flatly with no apology in her voice—as if it’s just a fact. “It’s been far too long since your family was in power and things have moved on.”

“Didn’t you say the people view Magnus as a god?” I ask.

Her nose wrinkles. “Not all of them, but essentially yes. In my opinion it will be too much for them to experience a sudden shift. They won’t bow to Daemon, or whatever your Vernalli king’s name is. They don’t know him and he’s not from here.”

“Just for the sake of argument, Magnus isn’t from Hydratta either,” I remind her. “He’s Thermian.”

“True, but that’s not a bad thing right now. Thermia is the entire reason why an alliance with Vernallis was a good move for Hydratta.”

I press the heels of my hands to my eyes. “I’m too exhausted for a political discussion. I need a bath, and a real dress,” I gesture loosely at my toga-style rags.

Jett snickers, but quiets when Kastian shoots him a look.

“Alright,” Kastian says with finality in his tone. “We don’t need to solve all of the problems on the continent this afternoon. All I want to know is who’s in charge until Daemon and Alix get here and can weigh in?”

“Me,” Lyra says flatly, as if it brokers no argument. “Obviously.”

We all look at her.

“No offense, but we don’t know much about you,” Jett says after a long moment.

“And?” she snaps. “You don’t have to trust me.

If anything, you need me to trust you. You’re only in here because I let you be—I found you to save Kastian, I got Odessa out of the tower, I didn’t stop you from torturing my father or tell the guards to seize you the moment you walked through the door. ”

“Yeah, but you’re not the rightful ruler,” Jett argues.

She glares sideways at Kastian. “Without me, the rightful ruler would have died years ago.”

“I agree with her,” Kastian cuts in. “Lyra should hold on to the crown, but I have a suggestion.”

“What?” Lyra barks.

“Don’t tell anyone what happened to Magnus. At least, not yet. That way, you can be him sometimes and make the transition smoother.”

She blinks, startled, then her expression turns pensive.

I sigh. I know I’ve thought it before, but Lady Lyra Von Bargen is not a meek girl, she’s a calculating woman who is clearly much more than she appears.

W hen Kastian and I leave the office, Jett is still inside with Lyra, helping to draft a letter to Daemon and Alix.

It seems as if Hydratta and Vernallis will be forging an alliance after all, but I doubt Kastian and I will be on land long enough to see it happen.

At least, not right away. We’ll have to see how things are going when we return in six months.

“I wish I had a chance to pack before we have to leave,” I comment.

Kastian looks sideways at me. “I don’t think it’s like a prison sentence,” Kastian says. “Connell clearly came to shore for long stretches of time. We can stop in the harbors to buy things.”

I grin. “But that’s so dangerous.”

He rolls his eyes. “You could find danger alone in an empty room, Princess. I doubt it matters much where we go.”

“Now you mention it, where are we going right now?”

He’s leading me up a flight of white marble stairs and I followed without question, trusting that he’s leading me wherever I need to go. Still, I’m curious.

“I’m taking you to my room,” he says. “My old room.”

I raise my eyebrows. “Why? Wasn’t once enough to hold you over for a few hours?”

His eyes heat. “Let’s agree that you’ll take that word out of your vocabulary.”

“What word?”

“ Once.”

I laugh. “Touched a nerve, did I?”

“Absolutely. Once is offensive when every day for the rest of my life will never be enough of you…but actually, that’s not what I was thinking about. I want to see if I can find something.”

He takes my hand and tugs me faster up the stairs and down the hall until I’m practically running to keep up. A laugh bubbles up in my throat, and I’m grinning ear to ear when we finally stop in front of a closed door.

Kastian pushes the door open and my eyes go wide as I look around. “Wow.”

“Wow what?” he asks, walking deliberately across the room.

“Wow…I thought your room at the Ashwater Estate was strangely impersonal, but no. I see you’ve always been exactly the same.”

He scowls at me and I grin.

The room is dusty from lack of use, but underneath that I can tell that nothing is out of place.

The bed is made, there’s barely any art on the walls, and not a single drawer has been left open.

I wonder how Kastian is going to handle living with me…

maybe it’s lucky that I didn’t have a chance to pack.

It will take longer for a new mess to accumulate, and by then he’ll already be in too deep. I smile at the thought.

Kastian stands over a desk in front of a large window and starts opening drawers one by one. I walk over to stand behind him, looking over his shoulder.

“Ah, there it is,” he says triumphantly, reaching for something in the very smallest drawer.

“What?”

He holds his hand out, fist closed, and drops something into my palm. My breath catches when I stare down at an ancient brass key.

I hold it up to the light from the window, and it glimmers. “You still have this?”

“Apparently,” he says. “I forgot about it—I guess I thought I lost it years ago, but I just remembered it’s been here all along.”

I glance up, my chest constricting. I’m not entirely sure we’re talking about the key anymore—Maybe we never really were.

“My father told me this opens some treasure buried somewhere off the coast of Solistine. Who knows, maybe we can go find it now. It seems like we’ll certainly have enough time.”

As if he heard his name called, he suddenly glances sideways out the window. I follow his gaze and spot the outline of a dark ship bobbing on the horizon. A shiver travels up my spine.

Kastian looks back down at me, his brow furrowed. “You’re really sure about this? I don’t want you to be cursed along with me.”

“What about this is a curse?” I scoff. “You can never die? That seems perfect. And I also feel like you’re forgetting that I grew up on a ship. I love ships. And if you’re the captain now you’ll need to learn to do every single job on board. Fortunately for you, I’d be willing to teach you.”

He grins. “What about Vernallis, though? What about all our friends and family?”

I shrug. “Six months isn’t forever. We’ll come back, it’ll just give them enough time to miss us. If we leave soon, we could be back by yule. Belle is visiting again this year and I don’t want to miss it.”

Kastian grins. “As you wish.”