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LILY

Pristine white and pure, it blanketed the branches of the pines and the earth.

Snow.

My mother had described it to me once, but it was hard to understand, living in the Southern Isles, a place with copious sunshine, hot and humid summers, and winters that were sometimes foggy and bone-chilling.

But it never snowed.

Our galleon was secured to the dock, exactly where we’d left it weeks ago. Bobbing in the waves that came in and rose up the white beach. I hadn’t packed clothes for this weather, but the vampires who’d welcomed us had been generous.

Viper watched my stare, his slitted eyes hot against my cheek. “You can stay.”

After I stared at the snow a moment longer, I turned back to him.

A gorgeous man who served as a general in his brother’s army.

Granted immortal life because of the venom of a kingsnake that had bitten him hundreds of years before.

Our ship had docked to secure supplies because our journey had taken longer than I’d expected—and then it took even longer once I met him.

“I’ve already been gone from home for far too long.

” I’d told my father not to worry, and he said he wouldn’t—but we both knew that was a lie.

Viper didn’t ask again, just stared at me like he wanted to memorize my face.

I’d had some passionate, clandestine affairs, but having a vampire as a lover was definitely at the top of the list. I knew I was his prey so I should be afraid of him, but I never was, and that made it so much more fun.

My mother would be furious if she knew—and a little proud.

“Then come back—someday.”

“I might.”

A foot taller than me and in the armor and uniform he wore to represent his king, he was muscular and thick in all the right places. He looked at me a moment longer before his arm circled the small of my back, and he pulled me in for a kiss.

A kiss goodbye.

It was slow and purposeful, his hand sliding underneath my coat to feel the bare skin of my back. It lasted a long time, a kiss to burn in our memories long after it was over. He pulled away and gently removed his embrace. “Be safe.”

“I sailed to a distant place I don’t know and had an affair with a vampire who warned me he might kill me… I don’t play safe.”

He smirked, affection reaching his eyes. “Not all monsters are as good as I am. Remember that.” He stepped back and waited for me to go, burying his sadness beneath the surface as much as possible. “Goodbye, Lily.”

“Goodbye, Viper.” I gave him a final look before I turned away and joined my crew on the dock. They were loading supplies onto the ship and preparing to set sail. I placed my own supplies on the bed in my cabin then returned above deck to prepare the ship for departure.

Captain Hartshire gave his orders. “Tormac, the anchor. Gerard, untie the ropes. Lily, get up the main sail.”

“Should I rub it, Captain?” I teased.

He tried to stay serious, but a hint of amusement came over his face. “Just get it up, Lily.”

We set sail and journeyed over the ocean for weeks. The air was cold most of the time, drying our skin and cracking our lips when the wind stuck us head on. Most of the landmasses we’d found on our journey weren’t on the map, so we had new discoveries to report to my father when we returned.

We’d spent the last six months traveling the world, lounging on warm beaches with bottles of rum, squeezing through thick jungles and finding exotic fruit we’d never known before. We saw distant places and met new people, and of course, found treasure along the way.

I let the men keep it all. As Princess of the Southern Isles, I had no need for jewels and coin. I was on this journey for sport, not greed.

We left the Northern Isles, the land where my mother was from, and then began our trek across the Great Sea to the south. I’d been so eager to sail away from home on this voyage, to be truly on my own for the first time, but six months of travel had finally made me weary and sick for home.

I missed my mother’s warm embrace.

I missed my father’s smile.

I even missed my brother.

I stood at the bow of the ship and looked to the sea beyond. It was almost sunset, and the sky was a beautiful array of colors. The clouds were puffy and thick, and a breeze picked up from the west.

The sails started to flap harder above me, the wind as powerful as the strike of sword against shield. I stared at it and suddenly felt a chill sweep across me when the air had been humid a moment ago.

I turned to the west, seeing nothing but angry ocean out in the distance.

Captain Hartshire joined me, leaning against the mast of the front sail. He pulled a cigar out of his front pocket and lit up. “Your father will be happy to see you in the same condition as when you left.”

I continued to stare to the west, studying the waves and the clouds that were so dark I could barely make them out.

“I told him I didn’t want a novice sailor on such an epic voyage, but he insisted that you could handle it.” He took a puff of the cigar and let the smoke dance on his tongue before he let it out again. “He was right.”

I turned to look at him head on. “A storm approaches from the west.”

He stuck the cigar between his lips to hold it in place and turned to follow my stare. “Rain and a storm are two very different things.”

“Rain doesn’t cause whitecaps.”

“We’re in the middle of the Great Sea,” he said. “There are always whitecaps. Besides, the wind is blowing in the opposite direction.”

“My father told me the direction of the wind can be as fickle as the currents.”

He looked over the horizon again, the distance growing hazier by the second in the dying light. “Whether it’s a storm or not, that doesn’t change our course.”

“If we try to push through it, who knows where we’ll end up. But if we try to get out ahead of it?—”

“Lily.” He pulled the cigar out of his mouth and held it between his fingertips. “I just said I think you’re a damn good sailor. Understand the galleon the way a man understands a woman’s body. But you’re still young and inexperienced—remember that.”

A flush of anger rushed through me because the wrong decision could get us all killed.

“With all due respect, I’ve probably been sailing for longer than you have.

My father has taken me and my brother out to sea since I could stand on my own two feet.

And I’m telling you, that’s not rain. That’s a storm. ”

Captain Hartshire slipped the cigar back between his lips, his eyes showing irritation at my protest. “Even if you’re right, we can return to the Southern Isles before it arrives.”

“Based on what evidence?” I snapped. “More experience means more arrogance, it seems.”

His eyes flashed back and forth between mine, and the silent anger on his face was like a scream. “Be grateful you’re your father’s daughter. Otherwise, you’d be in the cell for that kind of insubordination.”

“I’m not insubordinate. I’m trying to keep us all alive?—”

“Enough.” He raised his voice now, drawing the attention of the other members of the crew.

“Take a rowboat east if you want. I won’t stop you.

But this galleon is headed south. Help us get there or leave.

” He sucked on the end of his cigar as he walked off.

He let the smoke release then barked orders to the crew.

“Show the sea the meaning of haste, gentlemen.”

It felt as if a bucket of water was being poured over me endlessly. The only reprieve from the drenching was the wind. When a gust struck from the opposite direction, the rain changed its track, and for a mere second, it didn’t pour down my face.

The torches continued to blow out. Jacob constantly had to light them again so we could see what we were doing. Every time I checked the compass my father had given me, it was spinning furiously in a circle because the galleon constantly changed directions.

I tried to push out my mind to feel Zehemoth, to feel any dragon nearby to ask for help, but we were too far away from the Southern Isles to make contact.

Perhaps I would have had better luck if the storm weren’t rampant.

A dragon could fly overhead, and even if we had no acquaintance, my father’s name alone would grant me protection.

But if my father knew about the storm in the Great Sea, he would mount Khazmuda and fly over the clouds—just in case I was there and needed help.

He’d let me go on this adventure without trying to convince me to stay, but I knew it nearly killed him to do so.

I knew he carried the worry in his chest every day, that he counted down the days to my return.

But I still felt nothing.

The galleon rocked sharply to the right, so far, I thought the ship was about to tip over. “To the port side!” I called into the darkness. “Everyone!”

I dropped to my hands and knees and crawled, climbed up the wooden planks of the ship to the opposite side, which was high in the air now. The whereabouts of my crew was unknown. The limited times I could see were ruined by the rain that poured into my eyes.

I made it to the opposite railing and gripped tight.

Then the galleon started to tip the other way, leveling once more on the rocky sea.

Yells erupted into the night.

“Catch the wind with the sails.” That would bring us farther east, but I would rather try to beat the storm than spin around in the eye. “Let’s get out ahead of it.” I didn’t know if anyone listened because I couldn’t see a damn thing.

“Aye!”

“Aye!”

I stumbled to the mast where Davin worked to turn the sail.

I grabbed on to the rope and helped him turn it before I locked it into position until the galleon followed the wind.

The crew must have worked the other sails because I felt us turn.

Then we changed the sails again, straightened out, despite the severity of the storm, and locked them into place.