Page 31 of Shadows and Flames (Twin Blades #2)

Chapter Nineteen

TANA

W e didn’t emerge from Elián and Meline’s cabin much over the majority of our voyage.

The first time we’d entered the dining cabins, the wary glances were nearing on oppressive.

Same in the corridors and decks. At least up top, there was fresh air and pulsing ocean to drown out the whispers. Wondering when we’d come for them next.

Tomás tried to speak to the captain for us, requesting him to do more to get the humans in line. But, as Tomás told it, the man had sputtered and made excuses, stating that he was in no way able to force the humans to playact nice around us.

I sighed, then tasted salted air as I inhaled. The sun was ascending into a warm day, the clear sky a pleasant, expansive azure. There were several benches for passenger use, and with the calm winds today, we’d claimed a spot away from the few other humans on the ship.

Their stares, I ignored, even when they seared against my senses.

Now that I’d been taught to recognize such things, I had trouble turning it off.

The three men at my back, smoking as they leaned by the water.

The woman and her child to my left, dressed in expensive fabrics and playing a clapping game with their hands.

The babe had smiled at me when they walked past, a greeting I returned with the sunny smile my mother used to coo over me for. Well, until the woman caught sight of my fangs and hastily ushered her child away as far as she could manage.

My smile had dimmed then.

Another sip of my tea, and I resumed my tasks, picking through the jars I carried with me and adding some hyssop sprigs to the small cotton sachet in my lap.

The gardens in Versillia were long out of my reach, as was the one I’d started in Ralthas during our extended stay.

Though my world, my days, were filled with contracts, training, and brawls, my craft was woven through every breath.

My healing these days did not extend past remedying cuts and weary muscles, but where I could buy herbs and supplies, I did.

The solstice was approaching. Meline was not a coven sister, so the celebration would be abbreviated, but some sachets to give us protection, to ask for additional protection for those we cared for, was enough.

I snipped from my diminishing spool of twine and finished off the small pouch I was working on, stuck on who I would speak the protection spell over. Past years, my cousin and I always spoke over each other, and I still would. But, now she had her Shadow, didn’t she?

The child screamed, and I raised my gaze, watching as another joined and began running along the deck’s edge, chasing the seagulls that hovered overhead.

In my mind’s eye, I saw myself, wheat-colored plait trailing behind me while Meline gave chase.

A couple years older than me, I’d idolized her, talking her ear off about the simple spells I’d been learning, trying and failing to hide giggles while we were supposed to behave during official Versillian events.

I sniffed as my heart clenched, grief for that far simpler time, when our parents were alive and her brother was nothing more than the studious one we bothered with our silly jokes.

My fingers felt heavier, clumsier, as I started on another sachet.

My cousin and I had gone off to live our own lives, though our reunions always had us settling back into familiar rhythms. We understood one another, perhaps a bit too much.

And after snatching her from the edge of death, we’d done more than lean on each other—we were reliant on one another.

She protected me, shielded me, and I was the buttress keeping her from crumbling to the ground. But, sometimes, I found myself getting quieter when I knew she’d speak for me. I noticed her falling without trying, knowing that I would catch her.

The more I thought of it, how much I looked to her and she to me, the less it seemed… sustainable for the both of us.

“What’re those for?” The Shadow asked lazily beside me.

My fingers slipped, dropping leaves of sage onto the floor. I cursed and bent, swiping them up before they could flutter away. “The solstice coincides with the next full moon. We’ll probably be traveling, but I want to be prepared.”

We weren’t spending any time alone these days, aside from trips to the communal bathing room on our deck.

Talk of the contract we competed for was effectively put to the side.

The three of them groused about this sometimes happening, an employer hiring multiple mercenaries for one job, which often caused confusion and animosity.

We would already fight once we closed in on Von Herron, competing to snatch him up and take him to Blackwood first. To save us all from even more bickering, we decided to pause talk of our current mark for the time being.

So, we were resorted to shallow chatting, and it’d long grown monotonous. I considered myself a fairly sociable person, but even I had my limits.

“And you just hang that around your neck or something?” Tomás had been stretched out beside me, upper half bare and sprawled out. On my other side, Meline and her Shadow read from their respective books, hers a thick novel and his a thinner packet with pictures.

I snorted and plucked some yellow flowers from a jar, stuffing them in the sachet. “No, I burn them. These are for protection.”

He mumbled some contemplative sound and turned his face back to the sky.

The four of us spent our evening hours in Meline and Elián’s cabin, as that was most likely when the humans would get bold, but the daytime hours were marginally calmer.

And staying confined belowdeck was only tolerable for so long.

Elián had already turned green on multiple occasions when we sat too long down there. I wouldn’t complain about enjoying the warmth on my skin and spray of sea.

Tomás’s voice startled me, but I kept my physical response still. “Is this ritual to protect yourself?”

“Yes, but you can make one for anyone you wish and dedicate it to them. Meline and I do so every year.”

My cousin flipped her book, keeping her place while she rested it in her lap.

“I’ll make mine now if you can spare the supplies.

” Her eyes flicked to me, the request for permission unspoken yet clear.

I nodded quickly, closed-lipped smile an attempt to reassure.

My frustrations, at her and myself, had bubbled up in our first true disagreement in… decades.

What could you fix, though, when the strain was impending change?

Meline began to pick out her ingredients, no longer needing my instruction after the past three years.

A dark, cool-toned finger jutted in my line of sight. Two thick silver rings shone under the bright sun. “Can I make one, as well?”

Surprised, I pursed my lips and appraised the mouthy male.

The usual taunting smirk was wiped clean from his face, so I acquiesced.

The herbs were meant to be used, and they were typical enough in most regions, so procuring more was no hardship.

And, after centuries of studying, I needed little to harness the aether to my will.

Even now, with just water and sky around us, I felt it humming.

“You don’t feel confident in your own abilities to protect yourself?” Meline challenged while she worked on two sachets simultaneously. Her Shadow watched.

Tomás scoffed. “I could take down an army with one hand tied behind my back, love. Confidence, I do not lack.”

A faint growl carried in the wind, and we all turned to Elián. He was glaring right back at his brother.

“And which part do you disagree with, Nogón?” Tomás took the empty pouch I offered him. “My abilities or the endearment to your intended?”

My eyes grew wide, despite becoming quite accustomed to how much this one teased. Meline froze with sprigs of lavender twisting between her gloved fingers.

“Um…” I grasped at anything to diffuse the tension. “What does that mean? Nogón.” I tried to mimic the accent Tomás used, but it didn’t come out the same.

Meline shot me a grateful glance, and I nodded.

Though she’d feigned giving up on finding him, the life that filled her eyes, now sitting next to the male she’d lost, was impossible to ignore.

I’d already made my position known, that to make this life possible with him, she would have to be honest. To tell him everything .

While we’d packed our things and made the journey to the port, I vowed to not mention again. By the tightening of her shoulders, she knew.

“It’s Zonoran for ‘dragon,’” Tomás supplied while the fire in Elián’s eyes calmed. At least, as much as it could. “I’ve been pulling his tail since we were wee lads. Got burned a couple times, but it’s always worth it.”

Said dragon grumbled, as evidence of the Shadow’s point, and my cousin and I chuckled. “And what were you like as a boy? I’m guessing your disposition has not changed.”

“No,” Elián answered for him. “It has not.”

Tomás flashed his fangs and winked. “Came out of the womb a charmer. One of us has to be the interesting one.”

“I think he’s plenty interesting,” Meline qualified, but her trembling mouth revealed how amusing she thought the flat look on Elián’s face was.

I pointed Tomás to the ingredients used for the protection ritual, and he handled them with fingers far gentler than I’d anticipated.

Carefully, he placed one after another, hunched slightly over his lap as he worked.

He shook his head, locked hair running across his shoulders and smiling to himself. “Nor called it, I think.”

“What?” I asked.

“Our sister, Noruh. She likes to tease us.”

I felt Meline stiffen again beside me, but she did a better job of hiding the grinding of her jaw.

“About?”