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He lifted a shoulder in a shrug. “He mentioned that you climbed into his bed, in the dark, half-naked. At the very least you were very persuasive.” I glared at him, and he gave me a defeated smirk.

“Okay—I believe wholeheartedly that he agreed to your binding. Listen to me, though, I don’t want to hurt him.

I love him like a brother, so don’t you dare.

” His gaze darted as he thought of what information to volunteer, until finally it landed on the wrinkled blue dress I wore.

His eyes lit up. “Got it.” He put his elbows on his knees.

I leaned in too. “When Theo was a very new king, about six years ago, he would take this ship and turn it into a somewhat sordid pleasure cruise. Went on for a couple years. He’d fill it with beautiful women and his best wine and men from his court and sail it around from sundown to sunrise.

” He pointed to my dress. “That’s where your dress came from.

Left behind. No idea what the poor woman wore off the ship. ”

I looked down at the musty blue silk and back up to Lachlan. “ Somewhat sordid. That’s it? Not debauched. Or sickeningly immoral. Wasn’t he nineteen or twenty? That’s incredibly normal behavior for a young king. What on earth am I supposed to do with that information?”

Lachlan’s mouth pulled into a wide smile.

“It haunts him. He’s disgraced by it. He thinks it was a massive, embarrassing waste of the crown’s resources, and he’s spent the years since trying to rectify the light that he thinks it cast him in with his chancellor.

You’d think he’d killed an innocent man with his bare hands the way he carries on about it. ”

I took a sip of my drink. “Duty-bound to his core.”

He dipped his chin. “That’s right. Now, you tell Agatha that I’ve done nothing but think of her since I last saw her, and had she let me, I would have come to Seraf and whisked her away without a second thought.”

“She told you not to?”

He nodded. “I suspect her refusal to leave had something to do with you.”

“Oh.” I felt the accusation, the touch of resentment. I cocked my head. “But is that true? That you’ve done nothing but think of her for nearly twenty years?”

He downed the rest of his drink, then pursed his lips.

I was surprised when the pretense fled his voice.

“I’ve taken lots of lovers over the years.

Women and men, all of them witty and beautiful.

All better than I could ever deserve. But one letter from Agatha makes me feel more alive, more full of hope and calm and elation, than touching any of them ever did. ”

His genuine smile tugged my mouth into a crooked one. “I’ll tell her that.”

He shook his head. “Please don’t. Tell her the other thing I said.”

“I’ll tell her a variation—I’ll skip the part about all the lovers.”

He hesitated, scratched the dark stubble on his chin, and finally nodded. He paused. “You haven’t thrown up in a while.”

My gaze slid down to the glass I held, and I raised my eyebrows, hopeful I’d found some cure, when the door to the cabin flew open and Theodore strode in.

My spine straightened. Theodore was pallid, with deep grooves of lingering discomfort between his brows. He stood just inside the door, a thick leather folder of papers at his side. He met my eyes, and then his gaze dipped to the dress I wore.

“It fits,” he said, his tone oddly flat.

“Yes. Do you like it?” I flounced the skirt over my lap and added in an overbright voice, “I’m fortunate that you kept it on your ship all these years.”

Theodore’s gaze sharpened and darted between Lachlan and me. A sudden flush of red colored his pale cheeks. “I beg your pardon?”

Lachlan’s eyes bulged at Theodore’s biting tone.

“Good luck,” he whispered before he rushed to stand and made for the still-open door.

“If you’d both like some relief, may I suggest a hug?

” He tried for seriousness, but there was no missing the delight that filled his voice.

“A blood bond is happiest with some level of closeness, especially as it settles.” He swung the door shut before I could throw my glass at him.

I set it down on the table instead, feeling a twinge of guilt for embarrassing Theodore.

Perhaps I could charm my way into his good graces.

I stood and swayed a little from the drink and lack of food, but I met Theodore’s gaze with my chin high.

Even if I’d drunk nothing at all, the whole room would have seemed to tilt.

The king of Varya did that without even trying.

He drew the air toward him, made the solid floor practically bow beneath my feet.

I felt a sort of pain to look at him, his beauty and rigid authority. It made me want to flee.

Since I couldn’t, I smiled fully and inclined my chin toward the folder he held. “What’s that? Do you need my signature on some official paper once you finally reveal our third agreement?”

He gave a grunt. “That’s not a terrible idea, but no.” He looked down at the folder and a lock of dark hair fell over his brow. “These are the contracts the Empress of Obelia sent over with her stipulations for my marrying her daughter.”

“Oh.” I stepped around the settee to stand closer, a soft smile still on my lips. The bunched bond in my stomach loosened and I let out a soft breath of relief. He looked at me with disarming intensity. “Are you… eager?” I asked. “To meet your bride?” I regretted the question instantly.

He considered for a moment. “If I’m honest,” he said, carefully, quietly, “no. But eagerness isn’t necessary. It’s an advantageous match for my kingdom and fulfills what is required of me.”

My brow buckled. “What if she’s awful?”

He shrugged like he’d never considered it.

I half envied the ease with which he could deny himself so much and half pitied him for it. “Have you at least seen her portrait?”

“Yes.”

I waited in vain, smile long gone, for him to say more.

“Well… if you find yourself inspired to shirk your responsibilities…” I tried for levity, despite the frantic claws scraping through the inside of my chest. “… Perhaps I can offer you some guidance on how to rid yourself of an unwanted fiancée.”

He shook his head and strode away from me to set the contracts upon his desk, but as he did so, he smiled. A real, full smile. It dimpled one cheek and crinkled his green eyes at the edges. His teeth were white and straight, and I found myself staring after him like an addle-minded girl.

“Is it so hard for you to imagine?” he asked, as he set the folder within a polished wooden box and locked it with a silver key. “To fulfill one’s duty and be satisfied by it? I don’t need a charming or beautiful wife. I don’t need her to be a friend. None of that will benefit my kingdom.”

“And you are your kingdom? There’s nothing you need that it doesn’t?”

He perched on the edge of his desk and crossed his arms. He beheld me with one of those frustratingly unreadable looks of his. “Like what, my lady?”

“Like…” Like passion or humor or friendship , but I couldn’t bring myself to speak it. My mind went slippery with his attention locked on me. I shook my head and curled my hands into my wrinkled skirt. “You never answered me,” I said, softly. “Do you like my dress?”

He regarded me, lips curling mirthlessly, then looked me up and down, very, very slowly.

I held my breath as his green eyes roamed.

“You look lovely.” His voice was filled with graveled admiration, but it somehow did not sound like a compliment.

I bit into my cheek, annoyed by that tilting feeling he cast over me. “I cannot tell whether you mean what you say.”

“I always mean what I say, my lady. It’s my implication that you cannot grasp.

” He uncrossed his strong arms and gripped the edge of the desk he perched upon.

“You are lovely. You’re charming, and if our circumstances were different, I’d likely enjoy a meal with you, bask in your wit, but as it is your beauty and charm are like gnats that I must swat away from my eyes to keep my vision clear.

Your qualities are wasted on me. They do not matter, because your purpose and power exceed them. ”

The silence between us contorted, a mirror to my insides. I kept perfectly still, refusing to give him the satisfaction of seeing me shrink, of making me into some pest when it was his own self-importance that riled. “My purpose and power,” I said in a glacial voice. “And what might that be?”

For once an emotion flickered over his face, but to my frustration, I could not place it.

He let me see him tense. He made a moment of pulling in a full breath and slowly releasing it.

“Your purpose—the reason I agreed to bind myself to you—is to ensure that you will help me track down and kill King Nemea’s water deity, Eusia.

And it’s your power that makes me believe you can.

That silent lure you possess is Gods’ power.

It’s beyond what a normal Siren can wield. ”

I stilled. Blood raged through my ears. “Gods’ power…” I breathed through the light feeling that began to fill my head. “No. You’re… no—”

His acerbic tone fled, and he sounded suddenly like he was speaking to some spooked creature that was a moment away from a rampage. “I believe you’re the daughter of the Great Goddess Ligea.”

My thoughts came clipped and quickly. Theodore telling me he knew me . The Great Goddess Ligea’s statue in Nemea’s ritual room, her face chiseled to dust. I supported myself against the back of the settee.

I’d already given my word to Theodore, and it was my bleeding duty to honor it. I’d likely die trying. “Not possible,” I squeaked. The sickness from our bond had settled, but I still felt ill.

“You have her face.”

I shook my head. “That’s why… that’s why you look at me like that… isn’t it?” I needed air. I needed to move. On weak knees, I bolted for the unlocked door and ran out onto the ship’s deck. It teemed with sailors.