Chapter 30 Odessa
Thirty
Odessa
Thora sat on the ship’s railing, one leg dangling over the edge as she stared across the gray-blue sea to the setting sun.
Her hair, like mine, was washed and clean. The flecks of dried green blood from the bariwolf attack were gone, leaving nothing but smooth white strands that fell in sleek panels past her waist.
She looked younger. Lonely. Like she was seconds from toppling over the edge of the ship and sinking into the ocean’s depths.
Thora hadn’t spoken a word since going to bury Mathias last night. As we rode to the coast at dawn, she stayed at the back of our small procession, even giving Jodhi a wide berth. And when we reached a small village on the Genesis coast, she disappeared.
While Ransom hired a fisherman and crew to sail us to Quentis, Evie and I went to a bath house. After we were clean and wearing fresh clothes, we met Ransom and Jodhi on this ship. Thora was nowhere to be seen.
I’d truly believed she’d left. That she’d sent Jodhi with us to collect payment for her and the rest of the Mavins from my father. But then I came up from belowdecks, where I’d been situating Evie’s tiny quarters, and Thora’s colorless hair had caught my eye.
She was dressed in a simple pair of leather pants and a gray tunic, the same clothes I was wearing—the village merchant’s only variety had been in size. Gone were the leather, armor, and weapons, but she was still as intimidating as she had been the day we met.
I tamped down a rush of nerves and walked closer, the heels of my new boots sharp on the wooden deck. “Hi.”
A blink was the only indication she’d heard me.
“I’m sorry about Mathias. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. But I am grateful to you, and to him, for saving our lives.” Something I should have told her yesterday.
The splash of waves against the ship’s hull filled her silence.
I took a step away, having said what I’d come to say.
“Odessa.” She looked to me with red-rimmed eyes, her expression empty. “His death is not your burden. It’s mine.”
As she shifted her attention back to the sea, a tear glistened on her cheek.
I left Thora to her grief and turned to see Ransom.
He stood in the middle of the ship, his hands behind his back.
The four-man crew was on deck, too, most looking bored, staring at the water like they should be fishing, not shuttling warriors and horses to Roslo. But I suspected that the money Ransom had paid was more than enough to compensate them for their time.
My pulse quickened as I took in my husband.
He’d had a bath, too, and the beard covering his jaw was shorter than it had been this morning.
His hair was neatly combed, just begging to be tousled by my fingers.
His tan tunic was open at the throat, revealing a hint of taut skin.
The fabric stretched around his broad shoulders and the wide plane of his chest. His leather pants hugged his bulky thighs.
He was, without question, the most beautiful man in all of Calandra. And he was mine.
Ransom’s green eyes crinkled at the sides as I licked my lips. His perfect mouth turned up at a corner.
My heart skipped.
Shades, I’d missed that smirk.
I hoped that no matter how many years passed, it would never fail to take my breath away.
That smirk was a dozen stolen moments. A hundred precious memories. A single promise of a lifetime together.
I stopped a few feet away.
He frowned, swept out a hand to catch my wrist and pull me closer. “No more pretending, remember?”
“Sorry. Habit.” I’d spent months convincing the realm—and for a time, myself—that I wasn’t in love with the Guardian.
Not that I’d been very convincing. I was a horrible liar.
Or maybe the way I loved Ransom was simply impossible to disguise.
“What’s behind your back?” I asked.
He brought forward two knives.
My knives.
I gasped, reaching for them. But before I touched their hilts, I stilled.
The last time I saw these knives, they were in Brielle’s hands. She’d pulled them from Banner’s dead body after I killed him. And before she’d been taken by the crux, she’d dropped them in the street in Ellder.
Ransom must have found them. I sort of wished he hadn’t.
“Is it strange that I don’t want to touch them?”
“No, Dess.” He shifted both knives into one hand so he could pull me into his chest.
I wrapped my arms around his waist, breathing in his scent. With one inhale, it was wind and leather. The next, a masculine, citrus spice that mingled with the salt breeze.
It was chaotic and ever-changing, like his eyes, but beneath it all was Ransom, and I’d recognize it anywhere.
“Do you know what I don’t understand?” Jodhi sauntered up beside us. “How does one convince an entire kingdom he is not their spoiled crown prince but instead a famed warrior? Are Turans really that gullible?”
Ransom’s body went rigid, but before he could use my knives to slice open Jodhi’s neck, I took them from his hand.
They molded to my palms, their weight familiar and comfortable. The blades were clean and shiny. Ransom had probably sharpened them as he’d rinsed away any trace of blood.
These knives had saved my life, and yet all I wanted to do was toss them overboard.
“Careful with those, doll. They look sharp.”
I leveled Jodhi with a glare as I rolled a wrist, the knife’s blade giving a whoosh. “Go away.”
The Mavin grinned but left us alone, strolling toward Thora. He didn’t join her on the railing, but stayed back, giving her space.
“He’s baiting you,” I told Ransom, my voice quiet.
“Yes, he is.” He sighed. “Don’t worry. I won’t take it. I hate the bastard, but he kept you and Evie alive. So I won’t rip out his tongue. Yet.”
I rolled my eyes and handed him the knives. “Here. Don’t get rid of them. But I don’t want them back quite yet.”
“Whenever you’re ready.” He brushed a kiss across my forehead.
Evie and Faze emerged from the stairwell that led belowdecks. She had his leash coiled around her wrist, pulling him along, his claws leaving marks in the wood. “Come. On. Faze.”
“You’re supposed to be sleeping,” I said.
She was dressed in a new nightshirt with a scalloped hem that tickled her bare toes. It was too big for her, but at least it was clean. We still had her nightshirt from Ellder, but she’d stopped asking to wear it.
“He doesn’t like the crate,” she said. “And he won’t stop growling. Can he please just sleep in my bed with me?”
“Sorry, Evie.” Ransom knelt beside her. “He’ll get used to it. I promise.”
The fisherman had taken one look at Faze and refused to allow him on board the ship. He’d only changed his mind after Ransom gave him the last of the zillahs he’d had in his saddlebags and a promise that Faze would be leashed during the day. At night, he’d be locked in a slatted crate.
It was probably a good thing. I had a feeling that Margot would have rules for the tarkin when we arrived in Roslo, too.
“I don’t like this ship.” Evie pouted.
I didn’t particularly like it, either. The quarters were small and smelled of fish. But it was big enough for the horses, and the crew had agreed to sail without delay.
“I’ll take you back to your room.” Ransom reached for Faze, but the tarkin hissed and swatted at him with a paw, leaving three thin scratches on Ransom’s forearm.
The skin began to heal almost immediately, but not before a few drops of dark green blood appeared.
Evie bopped Faze on the nose. “No, Faze. That’s bad.”
The tarkin immediately cowered, nuzzling against her as he silently begged for forgiveness.
I stared at Ransom’s arm, at those tiny beads of blood and the bite scar beside them. And I felt Jodhi’s presence over my shoulder, his gaze as intent on that blood as mine.
Ransom swiped the blood away with a quick brush of his hand, then scooped up Faze and stood. “Come on, Evie. Time for bed.”
With the monster draped over one arm to hide the scar and my knives in the other, he marched across the deck.
Evie huffed but walked behind him, and together, they disappeared down the stairs.
My heart was in my throat as I took a step to follow.
“Odessa.” Jodhi’s voice made me stop.
I looked over my shoulder, expecting a snide comment, but all I saw was pity in his gaze.
“If that’s what I think it is, then you’d better take those knives back.” The gentleness of his warning made it all the worse. He left, returning to stand watch at Thora’s side.
While I lifted my heavy heart and went belowdecks.
Ransom’s quiet voice drifted from the open doorway of Evie’s small room.
I left them to talk and ducked into our quarters, plopping on the edge of the bed. Then I rolled up my shirtsleeve, unclasping the cuff that I’d worn over my forearm since Ellder.
My fingers traced the notches and grooves. My palm slid over the smooth leather.
The light in the room shifted as Ransom filled the doorway, leaning against its frame.
“What do we do?” I whispered.
“I don’t know.” He stepped inside, closing the door behind him before crouching in front of me, his hands on my knees. His eyes were a brilliant emerald green.
“Here.” I lifted the cuff. “You should take this back.”
He shook his head. “I trust you.”
That trust was more precious to me than every piece of gold in Calandra.
“My father is desperate to find Allesaria before the migration, but I don’t know why. He says it’s the only way to stop the crux, and maybe that’s true. Or maybe he was simply manipulating me to become his spy.”
Father would probably kill for this cuff if he knew what it meant. Months ago, I wouldn’t have hesitated to hand it over. To tell him anything and everything he wanted to know simply to earn his trust. His faith. His confidence.
To no longer be the daughter he dismissed and ignored.
But months ago, the trust I’d had in the Gold King had been unwavering. I wanted to believe he was a good man. That he had the interests of his people at heart. But my trust in Father was cracking apart like a stone hit one too many times with a hammer of doubt.
Now, all I really wanted was to stop the infection from spreading in Ransom’s veins.
Where there is poison, there is a cure.
The words from the old woman with the snake bite echoed in my mind.
“I don’t know how he plans to break the Shield of Sparrows treaty.
I don’t know how he thinks he can go against his blood oaths as king.
I don’t know if he’s planning to start a war or if this is all some scheme for more power.
” I gave Ransom a sad smile. “He’s my father, but I don’t know if I can trust him. ”
And I didn’t know if he’d listen to me when I begged for help in finding a cure for Lyssa.
This cuff could be my bargaining piece. It could mean Ransom’s life.
“You should take it back.” I pushed it into Ransom’s chest.
He eased it away. “I trust you.”
“What if I make the wrong choice?”
“You won’t.”
“How can you have such faith in me?”
He lifted a hand to my face, cupping my jaw. “Because you’re my queen.”
My heart swelled. “I love you.”
“Yes, you do. Don’t forget.” He leaned in, capturing my mouth with his.
I liquefied as he licked the seam of my lips, letting the realm’s troubles disappear to a far corner of my mind where they’d wait until it was time to dredge them up again.
With deft fingers, Ransom refastened the cuff around my wrist all while his mouth moved over mine.
Once it was fastened, I wound my arms around his shoulders, shifting closer until my chest was pressed against his, the warmth from his body radiating through my shirt.
My nipples turned to hard peaks beneath my clothes.
His tongue fluttered against mine before he delved deep, tasting every part of my mouth.
Heat swept through my veins. Desire pooled between my legs. A steady pulse vibrated through my core.
Ransom’s arms banded around me as he hauled me off the bed, lifting me off my feet and turning to pin me against the nearest wall.
My legs wrapped around his narrow hips, rocking against his hardness. My body ached for more.
He trailed his lips along my jaw, bending to kiss the length of my neck as my hands slid into his hair. “Shades, I missed you.”
“Never again.” I closed my eyes. “Wherever we go, we go together.”
Ransom sucked on my pulse, and that ache in my center spiked. “Together.”
His hips held me against the wall as his hands roved up and down my ribs before they slipped under the hem of my shirt. The rough calluses of his palms and fingers were impossibly tender, their scrape like heaven against my skin.
I tugged at the back of his tunic, drawing it higher and higher, bunching it into my fists as his lips continued to explore the column of my throat.
His hands cupped my breasts, and his thumbs flicked my pebbled nipples. “Gods, I need to fuck you.”
“Yes.” My moan was wanton and desperate as he thrust his hips against mine, his cock rocking against my clit.
Ransom set me on my feet, and with a quick yank, my shirt was off and falling to the floor.
I reached to unclasp his pants, except before I could free the buttons, a knock pounded on the door. It was too loud to have come from Evie.
My hands stilled as Ransom dragged in an angry inhale.
“What?” he growled, a sound more monster than man.
I almost felt bad for the person on the other side of the door. Almost.
The person knocked again. Clearly, they had a death wish.
Ransom’s eyes flashed to silver as he stomped to the door, ripping it open only enough to speak to our visitor but not to expose me as I collected my shirt from the floor.
“You’d better see this.” Jodhi’s voice came from the hall.
Ransom slammed the door in his face. “Fuck.”
I pulled on my shirt as he took a few calming breaths, his jaw flexed and his hands fisted. But by the time I was ready, his eyes had shifted to hazel. Still pissed but not murderous.
Lucky for Jodhi.
Together, we made our way to the deck, where the evening light had nearly faded. All that remained was a sliver of orange on the horizon as the stars twinkled overhead.
Jodhi was standing beside Thora at the ship’s railing. He only spared me a hard, cold glance as we joined them.
Maybe Ransom was right about Jodhi’s feelings, but at the moment, I had bigger problems.
Out over the waves was another ship, sailing our way.
Standing on that ship’s bow was Brother Dime.