In the Veins of the Drowning – Chapter Sampler

The air had grown heavy with the scent of the sea. I could nearly taste it, curling through the warm throne room like a tentacle.

It filled me with an upending sort of dread.

Guests poured in from the entry hall, their tittering and chatter pinging off the marble, but I clung to the outer edges, closer to the bone-white walls. I’d done so well keeping away. I’d spent my life ignoring the lure of the sea, only for it to slink past Fort Linum’s defenses on the silks and fine wools of the long-traveled guests like an insidious stowaway.

“Imogen?” Agatha came to my side, studying me with sharp, worried eyes. She looked much the same as she had when she had been my teenage governess and I had been a girl of six. Impossibly youthful, warm brown skin, curls as shiny and dark as the ink in a pot. Soft lines did not even crease the high edges of her cheekbones, but I supposed one must smile often to earn them. “What’s wrong? You’re pale.”

“It’s the dress.” I set a hand to my sternum, where a deep fluttering had started. “It’s too damn tight. Will you loosen the laces?”

Her look turned raw with frustration. “They’re not long enough. I don’t understand why you agreed to wear this awful thing.” She adjusted the ruffle at my shoulder, shaking her head. “How you agreed to marry a man whose job it is to hunt and kill —”

“Agatha, please.” I kept my attention on the room — the food-laden tables, the flickering candles, the cups filled with wine. “Not now.”

“Then when? The wedding is in two days.”

“I’m aware.” When I met her gaze, there was a desperation in it that twisted my insides. “You know that I wasn’t given a choice.”

Tense, she scanned the throne room, then leaned in close. “We could leave,” she whispered. “We should have left years ago. There might be a way —”

I grabbed her by the hand and dragged her around the head table, into a tight, shadowed alcove. “Agatha, enough.” Her brown eyes were wide and searching, as faceted as polished wood. “Please. I beg you to stop condemning me for trying to make the best of this situation. I’ve done well keeping myself safe here, haven’t I? I will continue to. I must.”

Disappointment stooped her shoulders, but her voice filled with a cutting edge. “If this marriage, and the misery it will bring you, doesn’t make you see that you do not belong here . . . I have little hope that anything will.”

I wanted to tip back my chin so I might appear sure. So that she might think me as brave and hardy as she was. But I was no such thing.  “That’s  unfair  of  you.”  I  sounded  ground  down  and  soft. “Where would I go?”

She  threw  up  her  hands,  exasperated.  “Well,  I  suppose  we’ll never know now, will we?”

An awful pit grew in my stomach. It was still early in the afternoon.  The  engagement  feast  wouldn’t  be  fully  underway  for  a while yet. I searched the room for my fiancé, but he was nowhere to be seen. Nor was King Nemea. More gossiping revelers slowly crept through the towering throne room doors. More and more salt air slithered in with them. My breaths turned rapid and shallow. “I’ll be right back.”

Agatha reached for my hand and held it tight. “I’m sorry. I just want you —”

I shook my head. “I know. I’m all right. I just need some air.” “I’m coming with you.”

Even in the dim, I could see how Agatha’s petite body had gone taut with vexation and the pit in my middle only widened. There were so many ways in which I was powerless, but it hurt me most to know that what I lacked caused Agatha so much pain.

“No.” I gave her hand a squeeze. “Come up with an excuse if someone notices I’m gone. I won’t be long.”

I whisked away from her before she could protest further, through the tall oaken doors and the clog of visitors. I couldn’t remember the last time Fort Linum had been so full, but I shouldered my way to the courtyard and up the winding narrow path that led to the fort’s parapets. The air outside was cool and clear. Blessedly empty of brine.

The fluttering in my chest instantly ceased.

My too-wide skirt scraped the walls, snagging some of the beads, but I trudged ahead. My favorite spot in all of Fort Linum, the one with the grandest view of the sea, was at the end of the battlements, and up a steep run of stairs. I was gasping by the time I reached the secluded spot.

Tugging at my bodice, I traced the thin gray edge of the northern beach in the distance. On a map, the Isle of Seraf looked like a beastly jaw protruding from the waters of Leucosia. It was all jagged peaks and ravenous valleys, and upon its highest summit, King Nemea had built his fort. He’d forced it into existence, carving it from the rock, cramming it into the crooked teeth of the island like a stuck piece of gristle.

I tried to purge my anxieties with an exhale, only to have my eyes sting. It was inexplicable, how both terror and anticipation over my wedding filled me in equal measure. How I both feared what might come of it and hoped for the best. I struck the wall with my palm. “Bloody fucking Gods.”

“Has the party already started, then?”

The deep, smoky voice made me jump. I whirled toward the far end of the curved lookout to see a brooding figure — dark and tall — leaning against the fort wall. He wore a white shirt, tucked neatly into his trousers. His black boots were polished to an absurd shine. No doubt he was one of the many newly arrived guests who now swarmed the fort, thrilled by a rare invitation to gawk. To see what the Isle of Seraf and its hateful, reclusive king had become over the last many decades.

I adjusted my skirt and glowered. “The gentlemanly thing to do would have been to announce yourself when I arrived.”

He gave a conceding nod. Brow pinched, his gaze fell over the abundance of red silk ruffles at my low neckline, the heavy glass beading in the precise color of blood — the king’s color — stitched onto my bodice. The dress was gaudy and unfashionable, and as he stared at it a sardonic half smile curled his mouth. “Unbelievably, I didn’t notice you right away.”

My mood was tenuous, and I wanted to see the smug tilt of his lips fall. I gave a scoff. “How dare you laugh at me, sir.”

His eyes rounded with indignation. “I was not —”

“Oh please,” I said. “I had wished to be alone, but every inch of this place is crawling with ill-mannered people — this parapet included.”

His mouth opened, then shut. For a long moment, he simply stared at me, stupefied. “Well . . .” He crossed closer, narrowed his eyes to a scowl. “Seeing as how we had both hoped to be alone, perhaps we could be alone together. Though I see that you might not be in the mood to share.”

I held his stare. He reminded me of summer. Skin a golden brown, eyes the color of dark leaves. The wind tousled his inky hair so that it hung over his creased brow. He was regal, towering and straight, well-built and graceful, but it was the way he looked at me down the length of his ever-so-slightly crooked nose that made me certain he was of noble birth. I yearned to tell him no simply because he seemed unaccustomed to hearing it, but something in me clamped down on the impulse. “We can share,” I finally said, “but only if you promise not to laugh at this ludicrous dress again.”

A breath. Another. Then his scowl melted into a full smile that dimpled his left cheek. “A tall ask.”

My jaw unhinged in amused outrage.

“Forgive me.” He raised his hands in surrender, face serious once  more.  “I’m  simply  relieved  to  know  you’re  aware  that it’s . . . noticeable.”

“Of course.” I gave my skirt a deprecating flounce. “I’m impossible to miss.”

He gave another dimpled smile as he rested his elbows on the crenellated wall and stared at the vista.

A long silence sat between us. “And why,” I asked, “are you seeking refuge from the party? Strange to travel all this way, only to hide.”

He flexed his jaw. “This fort . . . It’s not a pleasant place.” His low voice had turned somber, ill at ease. He forced a flat smile. “And the wine is terrible. And you?”

I eyed the strong lines of his profile. There was something inviting about him, something that made me want to tell him the truth. “I’m most certainly avoiding the wine,” I said, instead. “Expect to wake with a headache and a burning stomach if you drink too much.”

“You couldn’t pay me.”

We stood side by side, staring over the mountain peaks and old twisted cypresses, out to the glittering band of sea.

“Quite a view,” he said, quietly.

“It is.” It was endless and sweeping and made me feel immeasurably small. “I don’t think that’s why Nemea built this fort so high up, though.”

He gave a disgruntled sound deep in his chest at my mention of King Nemea. Mood suddenly sullen, he turned and rested his back against the parapet wall.

“You  don’t  like  him,  do  you?”  I  asked.  There  were  not  many who did.

His sidelong glance was fleeting. “I’ve heard rumors this fort was built this high so that he could pitch people from the windows and be certain they would die.”

I gave a dark laugh, then gasped in a shallow breath. Nemea was far more inventive in his cruelty than to simply throw sub- jects  from  fort  windows.  “That’s  quite  the  rumor.  And  do  you believe it?”

The way his attention bore down on me made me still. He studied me, as if he were cataloging my every feature, as if he searched for something in them. Finally, in a voice that rolled through his chest like the storms over the valley, he said, “I think the only rea- son anyone would reside this high up — this far from the rest of the world — is because they either have something to fear or some- thing to hide.”

My breath snagged. I looked toward the sea again, blinking against the returned sting in my eyes, feeling stripped bare. “Oh.”

“Have I upset you?”

“Not at all.” I fisted my skirt and started toward the stairs. “Excuse me.”

“Wait.” He took a tight step closer, a gentle hand raised up in offering. “May I be of assistance?”

The earnest crease in his brow made me want to spit. “Do I look like I need it?”

“You do,” he said, commandingly, wholly unfazed by my turn of emotion. “There are tears in your eyes.”

He looked at me again with that incisive stare, like I was made of water he could see straight through. I opened my mouth — to say what, I wasn’t sure — when he cut me off.

“The entryway and halls are full of guests eager for gossip. As we’ve established, you’re quite . . .” His gaze darted down the front of my body. “. . . conspicuous in that gown. It would be wise to take a moment before you descend.”

His fastidious caution stunned me. There was something about him that made me want to relent. Perhaps it was that I could sense no malice in him, no lack of patience. I could feel his steadiness, a rooted, immovable quality that made me want to linger. We stood, gazes locked, at the top of the stairs.

A strong gust boomed up the wall below us. It howled around the  fort’s  corners  and  ran  through  our  hair.  I  took  a  step  back. “Thank you for the conversation,” I said, curtly. “Enjoy gaping at Seraf’s horrors, my lord.” I started down the stairs. “They’re as endless as the cheap wine.”

When I returned to the throne room it was close to bursting. It brimmed with beating music, bodies, and more of that unfamiliar salt air.

Agatha stood at my side, arm looped with mine. She took a deep breath and gave a shiver. “I suppose it’s best you can’t breathe.”

I grunted at that, unamused. The conversation from the parapet played over in my mind, and that odd plucking feeling in my chest had returned. “I need some wine.”

“It’s worse than usual.” She took a sip of her own half-empty glass and grimaced.

“Then I’ll drink it quickly.” I wound us through groups of whispering guests, toward where the drink table sat. I downed a quick glass, then tried to pull in a breath, which earned me her scowl.

“Nemea ordered the dress to be made that tight on purpose, you know.” Her mood hadn’t improved in the least.

I  took  another  gulp.  “Yes,  I  know.”  I’d  already  surmised  that Nemea had wanted my gown to be as heavy and pinching as a fetter. Expensive and garish, so that visitors would see his ward, would look closely, and I would be tasked with hiding my pain. He wanted me to remember that even in marriage, I would still be his to control. “I hope you find someone to dance with,” I said in a gentle voice, trying to change the subject. “I know how you love it. The music shouldn’t be ruined by my circumstances.”

“They’re hard to ignore,” she said. I watched the first of the dancers twist and spin, letting the vibrations of the drum and lute stifle that feeling in my chest. “And how was dinner with your adoring captain last night?” Agatha asked, the question dripping with sarcasm. “Was your husband-to-be what we’d expected?”

We’d expected him to be dull and harsh, but to my surprise, he’d been anything but. I’d been surprised by his wit. He’d shown manners and offered thoughtful conversation. He’d kissed me softly when he left, his fingers firm on my jaw. “It was nice. He was kind.”

The look she gave me felt like a strike to the knees. “Kind.”

My throat clamped. “I . . . I meant that he — I simply meant that I didn’t fear him.”

A woman beside me gasped and pointed toward the throne room’s tall oaken doors. She had not been the first to do so. Plenty of young ladies had swooned, leaning into their friends or escorts, at the sight of the Siren wing hanging above them, stark against the pale wall. The large feathers were stretched wide; bolts through the bone held it to its wooden plaque. The dim, golden candlelight didn’t pull out the riot of colors on the wing’s black plumage — the slash of iridescent blue and green near its base, the purple near its fringed edge — but I could paint it from memory. My gaze dipped to the inscription in the marble below it.

THE MONSTER IS ALWAYS SLAIN.

That motto was the black-tipped root of King Nemea’s cruelty and the reason all the other rulers of the archipelago loathed him. It was why all these people had sailed for days across treacherous seas to visit a poor, near-barren rock of an island. For decades, King Nemea had obliterated all goodwill that might have once been his with the heinous practice of hunting divine Sirens.

I moved us away from the group of young women, whose eyes had found me and drank me in with condescension. Nemea had done well at making me a spectacle. We tucked in near the dais, where King Nemea stood speaking with the queen of the united kingdoms of Della and Gos. He was tall and barrel-chested. Wild black hair streaked with gray contrasted his fairer skin. That narrow, usually dour face of his looked so strange with a smile upon it. He gestured proudly and patted his chest, and the deep red coat he wore, boasting ruby buttons down its front, looked too fine against his rough countenance.

“He’s positively glowing,” Agatha drawled, a hateful frown on her face as she stared at him.

“I can’t understand how you can look at him with such open dislike.” I pulled again at my bodice, gave a small moan of discomfort. “Aren’t you afraid he’ll notice?”

“I’m incapable of looking at him any other way. My face won’t allow it.” She attempted a crooked smile that did nothing to make her look less dismal. “I’ll find you shortly,” she said. “Going to get some more of Nemea’s terrible wine.”

I clung to the edge of the dais, illuminated in the wavering light of half a dozen candelabras. The brightly colored guests looked so carefree, flushed from drink and dance and laughter. Not one of them  seemed  to  notice  how  King  Nemea’s  highest-ranking soldiers skulked through their midst like death itself, clad in their night-black armor. I searched every one of them wondering where their captain — my fiancé — might be. In the candlelight, the large ring he’d given me seemed to trap the flame in its angles.

The spinel stone was the deep gray of the sea in a storm. Spi- nels were not found on the Leucosian archipelago. They were only mined on the northern continent of Obelia, and no captain from any kingdom could afford such a stone. I could only assume that Nemea had given it to him.

I twisted the ring with my thumb. It was a rare and expensive shackle. And I was stuck, yes, but more importantly, I was safe. On King Nemea’s mountain, my mind did not often stray to its darker recesses, where thoughts of shredded flesh and dark water and rivulets of blood did their best to lure me. Here, I could live dulled and peaceful. I would do all I could to keep it that way.

King Nemea stepped onto the dais. The head table set upon it was laden with customary gifts from all the neighboring kingdoms. The swath of red silk draped across it was embroidered with twisting black eels. A gift from Della and Gos, I guessed, as they were famous for their silkworms. Blood-colored flowers sat in sprawling arrangements, likely gifted from Varya. Nemea fisted a new silver goblet, studded with rubies. “Don’t linger in the dark, Imogen,” he said, without casting me a glance. “Come up here.”

Careful of my skirt, I took the stairs and came to his side. He took my hands and raised my arms. With impassive gray eyes he took in the intricacies of my gown. The pins in my hair, the heavy rubies pulling at the soft flesh of my ears. “The gown looks like a perfect fit,” he said in a snide voice.

“It is, Your Majesty.” I gave a weak smile.

He reached up with an inelegant hand and tugged at a dark curl that rested on my shoulder. “What’s this?”

“The curl, Your Majesty?”

“You were to have it all pinned up.” His already cool gaze turned frigid. “As I had instructed.”

He’d given me no such instruction. I bent into a low curtsy. “Of course. I can go —”

He gave a quick shake, the gesture impressively withering and dismissive  at  once.  “It’ll  do.”  He  looked  out  over  the  glittering throne room, filled with guests. “It’s something, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“And you . . .” He set a gentle hand to my cheek, and I went deathly still. He had never struck me before, but I’d seen the flex of his hand, as if it yearned to. I knew how his soft voice could boom, how easily he could order me locked away for a week. “Are you happy?”

I paused at the strange question. “I am. How could I not be?” “Precisely. The gown, the feast — it’s all more than you deserve.” “Yes, Your Majesty.”

His gaze locked onto someone across the room, and it was as if a bolt struck him. He took me by the wrist and hauled me off the dais. “I don’t imagine you think often of a king’s duty, do you?”

“Not often, Your Majesty.” My feet could hardly move fast enough to keep up with him as he wove us through the crowd. “But I have thought of it.”

“And what do you think?” The music rose. A swell of strings and a drum like a heartbeat filled my ears. Bodies pressed toward the center of the room, where the next dance was to begin. “Of duty. Do you think it is achieved by carving out pieces of yourself or by growing, collecting, so that you are equipped to do what is needed when it is time?”

“Your Majesty, I don’t know what you mean. Both, perhaps?” We came to a sudden halt before a wall of gold-armored soldiers. Six of them. All were broad and unmoving, with flowering vines carved into their breastplates, their vambraces. “Theodore Ariti,” Nemea barked.

“Hello, Nemea,” came a disgruntled voice from behind the soldiers. I recognized it, smoky and deep. The guards parted and there stood the man from the lookout. He was even more striking now, clothed in a beautiful deep green coat and wearing a perfect scowl. Tucked into his dark waving hair sat a golden crown of woven laurel. That scowl slipped toward me, and his eyes widened.

I averted my gaze quickly, feeling the heat rise in my cheeks, and sank into a low curtsy before the king of Varya.

My legs shook as I rose.

I knew King Theodore to be twenty-seven — a year older than I was — and ever since he had taken the throne seven years ago, Nemea had not ceased in his obsessive complaining. The “boy-king,” as he still called him, was too haughty, too good, too loved, too honorable to be a ruler that Nemea could ever respect.

“I’ve brought the bride to meet you.” Nemea’s voice came sharp and cold. “This is Lady Imogen Nel, my ward. She and I were just speaking of kingly duty. She’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter while you take her for a turn around the dance floor.”

King Theodore’s scowl lingered on me for a heartbeat before he gave Nemea a beleaguered look. “Very well, Nemea. It’s kingly duty that she’s eager to discuss? If the dance is long enough, we can muse over just how thoroughly you lack it.”

I gaped at his lack of fear. He did not bother to tend to Nemea’s fragility the way the court did — the way I did. Before Nemea could even form a retort, King Theodore extended his hand and, mortified, I set mine within it. His calluses scratched, but his touch was warm, gentle. My mind rattled as I remembered our interaction on the lookout. I’d been emotional. I’d been disparaging and impolite. As King Theodore led me away, Nemea’s meaningful gaze sank into me like a blade. What he wanted me to do was clear. Charm. Mollify.

“I beg your forgiveness, Your Majesty,” I said, my voice small. “I didn’t know who you were. I would never have been so familiar —” “Where is your fiancé, Lady Imogen?” he asked, ignoring my apology completely.

“I —” I swallowed, trying to strengthen my voice. “I’m not sure. Perhaps the captain is hiding away with cold feet, preparing to beg His Majesty to be released from our engagement.”

“Is the captain an idiot as well as a murderer?”

His words struck me, and I did not know if I should feel flattered or shamed. Silent and tense, we found our spot on the dance floor. His gaze pressed down on me, but I kept my eyes on the wall above him, on the disembodied Siren wing that hung upon it.

A lilting, plucky tune filled the air. The thought of dancing an unending reel with him forced a stilted smile to my face. I spoke above the music, trying anew for exuberance. “I’m honored by your presence, Your Majesty. I know you traveled a long way.” He set a hand to my waist, and the quick steps began.

“I couldn’t miss an opportunity to gape at Seraf’s horrors, now could I?” he said, watching me keenly. I bit into my tongue. “I know your handmaid, Agatha.” He nodded to her across the room, where she stood glowering at the sea of people, holding a goblet in her fist. “I was surprised to see her here of all places.”

His disdain for here was clear in the harsh way the word slipped through his teeth. “I didn’t realize you were acquainted.” It was hard to imagine Agatha having a life before she had come into mine. “And how do you know her?”

“She was my governess — for a time.”

“She was mine as well.” She must have been in Varya immediately before she’d come to Seraf. “And would she scold you for dipping below the bottom line with your quill, like she did me?”

“No,” he answered, with perfect austerity. “I never dipped below the line.”

“Oh.” I found myself missing the kindness, the warmth, that I’d seen in him earlier. “I see.”

The steps of the dance were quick and twisting. I slid under King Theodore’s arm, hopped and spun, and could barely breathe for the way my dress clamped as tightly as a fist around my ribs. I stepped back in front of him and set my hand in his, but his fingers wouldn’t curl over my palm to hold it. He stopped us midstep.

“Is there a problem, Your Majesty?” I asked, wincing at the stitch in my side.

“Yes.” He looked so severe, staring down at me with tight eyes. “You cannot breathe.”

“Please keep dancing.” I looked around, chest heaving, worried about causing a scene and riling Nemea’s temper. “I’m perfectly fine.”

“You’re panting like a dog.”

I could not parse whether the man was annoyed or concerned. “Please,” I begged, “I have no desire to disrupt the dancers. I’m well. Thank you.”

He stared at me for a heartbeat, gaze narrowing, and then he started our steps again, but at a half pace. He wove us through the other pairs, keeping us both in step with the music and out of step with the rest of the room. We were as close as my skirt would allow.

“What are you doing?” I whispered.

“I’m letting you catch your breath.”

“I said I was fine.” Panic edged my words. Out of the corner of my eye, Nemea watched us, angry color rising in his cheeks.

“Nemea made you wear this ridiculous dress?” His voice was deep and soft, sending a wave of prickling nerves over my skin.

I glanced down at my bodice. “It was a gift,” I said tersely. “He wanted tonight to be perfect and had it made specially for the occasion.”

“Remarkable.”

“What is?”

“Nemea is even cruel with his gifts.”

The music began to drone, one bar after the next. The laughter of the dancers grated at my ears, and King Theodore, annoyingly, kept our slow pace, leading me with ease through the reeling dancers all around us. I plastered an even, pleasant look on my face, eyes fixed over his shoulder.

He pulled back, just slightly, and cocked his head. “You look familiar.” There was a question strung through the words.

“Do I? Perhaps our talk earlier has you confused.”

He shook his head. “No. It’s something else.” He kept staring, just as he had on the parapet, meticulous and appraising.

“I assure you, you haven’t seen me before today. I was born here. I’ve never left Seraf. When I was orphaned, King Nemea benevolently took me in as his ward.”

He gave a bitter laugh. “And why would he do that?”

I kept my lips pinched, not eager to offer up the true answer: that my family had been wealthy, and it was my inheritance that kept King Nemea’s kingdom afloat. “You’ll have to ask him yourself.”

“I’d rather not speak to the man, so I’ll guess.” I’d caught my breath, but King Theodore kept us at a maddening crawl across the dance floor. “You are a sprig of mint in a fetid mouth. You are the balm that soothes the lash of his cruelty. Why else would he dress you up in half the archipelago’s available crystal if it was not to make it look like both his coffers and his heart were depthless? In Nemea’s mind, he cannot be seen as truly despicable if he’s looked after someone so lovely and charming as you.”

I didn’t hide my wince. He’d given me no compliment; rather, his words curled with scathing distaste. I managed a wide, sweet smile despite the way my stomach sank. “And you, Your Majesty, are clearly too shrewd to fall for his elaborate scheme.” I boldly met his gaze. “You seem far from charmed by me.”

When our eyes locked, he stopped dead and stared in astonishment. His jaw slackened. He let go of my hand, released my waist. “I do know you.”

“What?” I made a quick scan of the room. “Please, you’re making a scene.”

He shook his head, a small movement, but those keen eyes of his studied the lines of my face further — the arch of my brow and the swoop of my nose, and lower, to the bow of my lips and the sharp dip of my chin.

“What are you doing?” I raised my arms, waiting for him to take my hand again. King Nemea had come to stand at the edge of the floor, his head tipped back in suspicion. “Please, Your Majesty, you’re drawing attention.”

King Theodore took a step away from me. A young woman spun into his back, but even that did not break the way he stared. Finally, he strode toward his guards, leaving me standing in the middle of the dance floor as the music dwindled to an end.

Fingers dug into my arm, jerked me sideways. “What did you say to him?” King Nemea said gruffly into my ear.

“Nothing at all, Your Majesty.” My heart was a lump in my throat. “He said he knew me. I have no idea what he meant by it.”

“Come.” Nemea took my hand and pulled me toward the dais. His grip was too tight, his body stiff, his long strides plodding. He stepped onto the dais, and I barely cleared the riser after him. My hand crushed in his grip as he took his ruby-studded goblet and drank. “What more did he say?”

“He complimented my dress.” I fought to give him a warm look. I imbued my voice with as much gratitude as I could, but I did not dare take my hand from his. “He praised the feast. And I agreed. I can’t thank you enough, Your Majesty, for giving the captain and me such a celebration.”

His hold on my hand grew even tighter. The ring Captain Ianto had given me dug into my flesh. “You didn’t truly think all of this was for you, did you?”

I shook my head, trying to keep the pain from creasing my face. “No, of course not, Your Majesty. I only meant to express my gratitude. As you’ve said, I’ve been given far more than I deserve.”

He grunted at that, and my knuckles crunched with the force of his grip. But his voice — his voice was soft as a feather’s touch. “You were meant to defang him, Imogen. To placate him. The last thing I need is a war with that arrogant twit.”

Wet, sticky warmth filled the tight space between my fingers. “You’re hurting me,” I finally whispered.

But Nemea paid me no mind. His attention was now on Captain Evander Ianto, who stood before the dais looking formidable and hopelessly disarrayed. He held his black helmet to his hip. His sand-colored hair was windblown and sweat beaded over his tanned skin.

“There you are,” Nemea snapped. He finally released me, and I curled my fingers into a fist to hide the blood he’d drawn.

“Forgive me, Your Majesty.” Evander bowed. Exertion colored his cheeks. There were clumps of wet sand stuck to his boots. “I got delayed in Port Helris. The ships kept coming and my men needed help.”

Nemea gave him an approving nod. His captain was nothing if not a good soldier. “Take her.” He dismissed me with a quick wave of his hand.

My curtsy was deep, reverent. While bowed, I mastered the pain that might have rippled my face before stepping to the edge of the dais. Instead of helping me down, Evander tilted his head back and took me in. He did not look at me like Nemea did, to assess whether I was sufficient. Nor did he look at me in the unsettling way the king of Varya had — haunted, dissecting, and scowling. No, he looked at me with solemn, surprising adoration.

I basked in it. Stared back. I’d always found the captain handsome, with his amber eyes, and the creases ringing them like sun rays. I liked the smatter of light freckles that sat on the bridge of his nose, the exceedingly pleasing cut of his features. The corner of his mouth tipped up. “You look . . . beautiful.” He let his gaze slink down my body and dropped his voice to a whisper. “And very uncomfortable in that dress.”

“I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I cannot dance a reel in it.”

He smiled. “Then we’ll waltz.” He extended a hand to help me down, and when I stood before him, almost chest to chest, I froze. The scent of the sea clung to him. Salt spray coated his armor, his skin, and it wove itself straight into my nostrils. An intoxicating heat rolled through my body, like a wave ravenously lapping the shore.

“I’m not in my fancy clothes,” he said, apologetically. “Would you like me to change?”

My stomach swooped. “No.”

I set my stinging hand in the crook of his arm, and then he began to amble us around the outskirts of the room, watching the revelry with a smirk on his face. I’d known of the captain for years, though we’d rarely spoken. It had been only a fortnight since I’d been told of our engagement, but my tight muscles unspooled at his proximity. The knot that Agatha’s disapproval had left in my gut loosened, fluttered.

“Shall I guess how many pounds your dress weighs?” he asked. I gave him a full smile.

He stopped us. “Again.” “Again, what?”

“Smile like that again.”

Our gazes locked and an ache began in me. I wondered what his touch might feel like. I wondered if his skin tasted like salt. “You’re incorrigible tonight.”

He gave me a wicked look. “Every night.” His warm fingers wrapped around my hand, and I flinched. “What’s wrong?”

“Just a cut.”

He took it and turned it this way and that, inspecting the weeping wound on my middle finger. His brow knit. “How did this happen?”

“It’s nothing. His Majesty didn’t realize . . .” Evander knelt and stuck his hands beneath the hem of my skirt, where he fumbled with the petticoats. I glanced around the room with wide eyes. “Gods, stand up —”

“Wait.” He looked up at me with a crooked smile on his lips. A quick jerk, fabric ripped. He rose with a strip of white linen pinched between his fingers. “Give me your hand.” Gently, he wound the fabric around the cut. “Can you keep a secret?” he said, his graveled voice filling only the small space between us.

Startled by his question, I looked up into his desperate gaze. I felt as if I were made of secrets. “Yes, I can.”

“If he were not my king . . .” Evander tucked in the loose end of the linen, then kept my hand in his. “I’d run him through for hurting you.”

The sound of treachery spilling from the captain’s mouth like a profession of love made me still. It thrilled me. It terrified me. “That’s very chivalrous of you.”

Evander took a step closer and the briny scent of him engulfed me. It beat through me, making my chest fill with thrumming heat. The look he gave me was expectant, earnest.

A protector, even if it was only in spirit, was not something I’d hoped to find in the captain. I’d only let myself wish for a thread of kindness, for him to be preoccupied enough with his job to let me continue with my quiet life still intact. I rose up onto my toes and set a quick kiss to his cheek. “Your secret is safe with me.”