Page 11

Chapter Ten: Bahira

I hate sailing. The thought rattles around in my brain as I throw up again and again into the toilet.

Wiping my mouth with a cloth, I lean against the edge of the tub, the cool stone biting into the skin at my temple. We’ve been on the water for three days, an estimated few more to go, and I’ve managed to avoid King Kai since our last interaction that first night. But it’s only because I’m too sick to leave my cabin. Tua has come by to check on me a handful of times each day, offering food and water which I manage a few bites and sips of. Most of it ends up coming right back out.

My head feels heavy, and my skin clammy, as my stomach continues to churn. Distantly, I hear what sounds like knocking, but I don’t register what it is before I’m unconscious.

“Princess, wake up,” a stern voice rumbles near me.

I go to speak, to move, to do anything, but my body feels as though it’s weighed down by lead. Even my tongue is too heavy as I try—and fail—to remove it from the roof of my mouth.

“Bahira,” he says again, closer this time. His voice sounds distorted through the ringing in my ears, the dizziness in my head swirling until I start to feel nauseous again.

I force my eyes to open, the world spinning around me as I reach out to grab the toilet. Hauling myself up with barely any strength, I start to dry heave though there is nothing in my stomach to actually purge.

“Fucking gods,” the king mumbles before I feel my hair being pulled back from my face.

For a long while, my stomach cramps and spasms in its effort to expel something that isn’t there. Finally, it settles enough for me to sit back, my forearm coming to my mouth as I try to focus my eyes. The glow of a flame gem silhouettes his figure where he squats down in front of me. His hair looks ruffled, the strands on top pushed back and off to the side. A few days of scruff peppers his jaw and cheeks and surrounds his lips, which are currently in the shape of a frown. I meet his eyes, unable to decipher what I see in them before they narrow.

“When was the last time you ate or drank?” he asks accusatorially, as if being debilitated my first time on a boat is my fault. “It shouldn’t take you this long to overcome your seasickness.”

I do my best to roll my eyes, but based on the way his brows draw together in confusion, I doubt I succeed. Clearing my throat several times, I rasp out, “Sorry, Your Majesty. I’ll make sure to relay your unhappiness to my stomach.”

He grumbles something under his breath before standing and bracing his hands on his hips. “Do you think you can stand up?”

I look myself over, my eyes still half-closed, before meeting his gaze above me. “What the fuck do you think?” I grate out. I can’t even move my legs from the position they are in. How long have I been asleep on the floor?

“Does everything have to be an argument with you?”

“Only when you ask stupid questions.” I place my hands on the floor, pushing onto my palms to try and sit up but only managing to cause pain to flare where my injuries from the rope ladder are. My arms give out, but somehow, the shifter king’s hands are on me before I hit the floor as he hauls me up to a sitting position. My heart beats heavy and loud in my ears, my eyes finding his in the haze. His jaw is clenched, a muscle there thrumming with his pulse while his fingers tighten around me a little more.

“Here is what’s going to happen. I’m going to pick you up and move you to your bed. Then you’re going to drink some water and try to eat something so that you don’t die.” His hands leave my body while he repositions his arms under my knees and around my back.

“I distinctly remember telling you not to touch—”

“You can yell at me about it later,” he snaps, and before I can get another word out, I’m crushed against his chest. One of my arms wraps around his shoulders, his muscles there flexing, as he turns to walk back into the bedroom. My lips pinch together, and my head is much too heavy to keep upright, so I let it loll to the side and right onto where his neck meets his shoulder. King Kai tenses, faltering for just a step before he’s at the edge of the bed. Carefully, in a manner that is much more gentle than I ever would have expected, he lays me down. “If you die, then the deal between our kingdoms is null. So eat and drink,” he commands, gesturing to the end table at the side of the bed.

“I can’t,” I rasp, turning onto my side and closing my eyes.

“What do you mean you can’t?” he asks, his tone exasperated.

My eyes open back up, the king blurring in front of me. “I mean, I can’t. I can’t eat or drink anything. I can’t even fucking move on my own.”

Panic blooms, my chest tightening like I’m trying to breathe through a straw. I have never been this weak before, never been this sick. I’m completely vulnerable right now, and the thought has my pulse racing wildly. King Kai is silent for a long while, his stance unmoving.

“Why don’t you heal yourself?”

I’m too ill to come up with a retort, so I close my eyes and stay silent, hoping he thinks I’ve fallen asleep. He sighs, long and full-bodied, before I hear the clattering of glass and metal. I open my eyes again to see that he’s poured some water into a cup on the nightstand and is now squatting down in front of me. I’m caught off-guard by his closeness, by the way his gaze blankets me.

“I’m going to help you get some water in and, hopefully, something to eat, and then you can sleep.”

Surprise flows through me when he delicately wraps an arm around me and helps me up to sit, one hand staying on my shoulder to hold me upright. He reaches back for the glass and brings it up to my lips. I’m so disoriented by what’s happening that I don’t move to drink it, and his huff of frustration tickles the hairs at my temple.

“Please, do not fight me. Just drink the fucking water.” I force enough focus to open my mouth and let the cool liquid in. It slides down my throat slowly before King Kai pulls it away, setting the cup back on the side table. “Not too much too quickly, or you’ll be back at the toilet.” My eyes close again, my fatigued muscles cramping as I try to stay upright and losing the battle as I lean into him. “Why didn’t you tell anyone you were so sick?”

“Tua has been coming in to check on me.” And he had apparently been keeping that information to himself. An awkward silence stretches between us, heavy and filled with a tension that makes it impossible to relax.

He reaches over to grab the cup again, bringing it to my mouth where I gently sip from it. “Do you think you can eat?”

“No,” I answer quietly, my throat still raw and inflamed.

When seconds pass and he doesn’t respond, I clear my throat and push his hand off of me. “What are you doing?”

“I think I just want to go to sleep.” I all but flop backwards on the bed, my legs still hanging off of the edge.

He exhales roughly before inelegantly working to try and move me into a more comfortable position. I decide not to fight him as sleep beckons me, darkness already prodding at my consciousness, when he speaks again. “Try to eat when you wake up.”

Then I hear the door close and fade away into oblivion.

King Kai checks in on me multiple times throughout the day and into the night. His grumpy demeanor grows each time he arrives to see I haven’t eaten anything. On his last visit, he pulled me carefully upright, put a glass of water to my lips, and then laid me back down.

It isn’t until the next morning that I finally find relief in the battering of my seasickness. The first thing I force myself to do is shower, washing off days of clammy skin, and brush my teeth. My thick curly hair is nearly too tangled to comb through, but after an hour or so, I finally get it under control.

A new tray of food was brought to me this morning, fresh fruits and soft rolls laid out next to a pitcher of water and a smaller container of what looks like fruit juice. Sitting on the bed, I reminisce on the way the shifter king took care of me, but before I can even chastise myself on it, the door to my cabin unexpectedly swings open.

“Gods!” I shout, coming up to stand as a hand flies to my chest. King Kai walks in, his golden tan skin gleaming in the sunlight. His dark brown eyes find mine, narrowing slightly, before they dip quickly to look down my body. My fists tighten at my sides. The only benefit to being so incredibly sick for so many days is that the wounds on my hands have almost completely healed. “I guess you’re just barging into rooms now?” I ask, sitting back down on the bed.

He snorts as he walks around to my side, his arms folding over his chest. “You’re awake,” he states, ignoring my question as his piercing gaze once again lingers on my hair, before adding with a flare of his nostrils, “And smelling better.”

A shocked laugh barrels out of me as I gawk at him. “Yes, I truly believe you do know how to entice women, Your Majesty,” I retort, remembering his words from the first day. “How does anyone not succumb to your charms?”

“You would see how irresistible I can be if I was trying to entice you. Unfortunately for you, I am not. And it’s females . Not women.”

I narrow my eyes as I take a bite of the soft roll. He’s right, but I’ll never give him the opportunity to correct me again. “What do you want?”

He takes a step closer to the bed. Too close—citrus and sandalwood reaching me easily as I take my next inhale. Why does he have to smell so fucking good? I hate myself for wanting to lean into it.

“I suppose a ‘thank you’ for making sure you didn’t die is too much to expect?” he rumbles, his head tilting to the side.

“Stop being dramatic. I wasn’t dying.” I scowl, though the memory of how weak I was is one that will be forever burned into my mind. I have never been that vulnerable around anyone. “And besides, as I remember you so eloquently saying, if something happens to me, our deal is null and void. So don’t pretend your care of me was anything more than ensuring a business transaction stayed intact.” I stand from the bed, my arm brushing his as I grab the pitcher of water to pour myself a drink.

“You had no problem with me coming into your room unannounced before,” he says, as if I had a choice in him coming to help me.

I sigh heavily, tilting my head up towards the plants hanging from the rafters. The room starts to feel sweltering with him so near to me. “Let’s assume that anything that happened over the past few days was a once in a lifetime moment for you. Barging into my room unannounced, holding my hair back as I purge my guts, and”—I hesitate, swallowing a drink of water—“any other care you provided will never happen again.”

“Fine,” he growls from behind me. “Don’t expect such generosity from me again, however. I’d sooner turn this ship around and drop you right back off in your kingdom than have to deal with trying to get you to fucking drink water again.”

“I would expect nothing else from you, Your Majesty. Now, if you’d so kindly leave, I’d like to get some more rest,” I say through gritted teeth, my heart pumping against my ribcage in frustration.

King Kai chuckles, the sound sliding down my spine. His booted steps echo out in the room as he walks towards the door, opening it before pausing. I turn to look over my shoulder at him, his glower set deeply into his face.

“You might want to open the window in here. You may have been able to shower, but the room cannot.” He slams the door shut before the roll I hurl at him makes contact.

Asshole .