Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Ladon
Three days.
It had been three days since my brother had spoken to me. We were more than halfway through our trip across the sea, and things between us hadn’t gotten any better.
A small part of me had believed he might go to bed and wake up with a clear head and an open mind, but he had avoided me since that night.
The sun was beating down on the deck, and the crew was hard at work dealing with the ever-changing winds. The boat rocked more than normal, and I wondered how Cyrus was managing his seasickness. Had the herbs helped? I was in no position to ask about his well-being.
“What are you looking at?” Emilie asked, sitting next to me on a stack of crates.
I hadn’t been looking at anything. I was staring at the sea while contemplating our predicament. The waves were a soothing lullaby to my tumultuous thoughts.
“Nothing,” I told her, leaning back and placing an arm behind her.
Instinctively, I scanned the deck and didn’t see Cyrus. Not that it mattered. He couldn’t possibly get any angrier with me. If I wanted to touch Emilie in public, I could, now that our secret was out.
Emilie shielded her eyes from the bright sun. “The captain says we’re on track to arrive in two days. I told Jade we should have a chat about our next steps when we get there. I couldn’t find Cyrus…”
My chest felt heavy as I inhaled. Was this how it was going to be? He couldn’t check out completely while we were in a foreign land chasing down our enemy. He needed to keep it together, even if he was pissed at me.
“Leave him to me,” I said. “Find Jade and meet me in the lounge. I’ll bring Cyrus.”
It didn’t take long to find him. After one lap of the deck, I moved down into the hull where our cabins were. The door to his and Jade’s room was shut, so I knocked, listening for the sound of movement or snoring. Without much to do on the ship, it wouldn’t surprise me if he were taking a nap.
No noise came from inside, but I wasn’t entirely convinced the cabin was empty. He was pissed at everyone aboard, so why would he respond?
“Cyrus,” I shouted. “We’re going to have a meeting in ten minutes in the lounge. If you still consider yourself part of this mission, you should be there.”
I waited, but the silence lingered.
Sighing, I walked away and headed to the lounge alone.
When I entered, I found Emilie and Jade already waiting for me.
They seemed to be in the middle of a conversation, which was strange but nice to see.
My opinion of Jade had changed slightly after she’d offered to trade cabins with me a few days ago.
She still had work to do before I could trust her or even tolerate her, but it was a sign she wasn’t completely irredeemable.
“Where’s your brother?” she asked when she saw that I was on my own.
I shrugged and shook my head. “I think he’s locked in his room. I told him we were having an important meeting to discuss our plan of action, so we’ll see if he shows up.”
I took a seat opposite the ladies and pulled out the captain’s log we’d taken from the townhouse.
“According to this, they’ll be landing in Baumheim, so we should start there.
But it won’t be easy. We’ll need to set up a meeting with King Marsden before we do anything else.
He’s a strict ruler and won’t appreciate us coming into his lands and causing havoc. ”
Emilie nodded. “We can explain Reyna’s crimes, and Jade can back us up. Can we have her extradited back to Murvort?”
“Will he help us?” Jade asked. “What if he’s just as awful as Reyna was?”
“He’s not,” Cyrus said, and all our heads snapped to the doorway. “He’s an honorable man and an old friend of mine. I don’t think we’ll have any trouble with him.”
It was the first time I’d heard him speak in days. And the first time I’d seen him other than in passing. He avoided making eye contact with me, focusing on Jade and the table between us instead. I forced down the ache in my chest. At least he had shown up.
“Will he have an idea of Reyna’s whereabouts?” I asked.
Cyrus crossed his arms and turned his head toward the kitchen, uninterested in answering my question. The rest of us at the table exchanged confused glances.
Jade cleared her throat. “Does King Marsden keep tabs on foreign visitors?” she asked, rephrasing my question.
Cyrus grunted. “Not extensively. But he might know where she is if she’s within the city’s limits.”
My leg bounced under the table with irritation. So this was how it was going to be? It was childish, and I couldn’t pretend otherwise. I mumbled under my breath, “Fucking ridiculous.”
Emilie shot me a look that clearly said to be nice. And she was right. I shouldn’t make things worse by picking another fight right now, but my brother was making it difficult.
“Then it’s settled,” Emilie said. “We’ll meet with King Marsden first and then go from there. Hopefully Reyna hasn’t gotten far. Cyrus, can you arrange a meeting with him?”
Once again, Cyrus looked away, but not before I caught him rolling his eyes.
My jaw dropped open, and I looked at Emilie, as if she might give me permission to not be nice. She bit her lip in disappointment and nodded to Jade, silently asking her to relay the question.
Absolutely not.
“Don’t be rude,” I scolded my brother. “You don’t have to be kind to me—I can take it. But I won’t let you treat Emilie like shit because of me. Answer her.”
Jade and Emilie both tensed, looking like they wanted to flee the room so Cyrus and I could have it out.
Clenching his jaw, he responded, “Yes, I will set up a meeting.”
Then he turned and left the lounge. We all sighed as the hostility left the room with him, but I was stunned by his behavior.
“Well, that went well,” Jade said once Cyrus was out of earshot.
I grunted my irritation. “We won’t get any messenger hawks this far out to sea. We’ll need to wait until we’re closer to shore before he can send a message. That being said, I have no doubt that he’ll be able to get an audience with King Marsden.”
“Perfect,” Jade said. “Then we’ll just waltz in and ask if we can murder a psychopath that’s hiding in his territory.”
Emilie smiled, and I almost laughed, thankful for the break in tension.
“The real question is, who gets to kill Reyna?” Jade asked, and the conversation grew serious again.
“Emilie and me,” I said flatly. “I don’t care what quarrel you have with her. It’s nothing compared to what Emilie and I went through.”
“She’s the reason my parents are dead.”
“She assaulted us and stole Emilie’s innocence.
She abused us and tormented us in ways you can’t even imagine.
Humiliated and terrorized us. She scarred us for life.
” I held up my wrist where white vines still marred my skin.
The scars there could not tan and, as such, were more prominent now that I’d been in the sun again for a few weeks. “It would have been kinder to kill us.”
Jade’s dark eyes scanned my face, and then Emilie’s, contemplating my words. I waited for her to make a snide remark—something that would make me take back the grace I’d given her earlier. Gods forbid she say something about Emilie because I would tear her limb from limb.
But she just tapped her fingers on the rugged table. “Guess we’ll see who gets to her first.”