Chapter 35
Ishut my eyes against the afternoon sun streaming through the window as Thea’s voice echoes in the hallway. The door opens and her feet click through the room, stopping beside my bed.
“I know you’re not asleep.”
“Go away.”
“I’ve never understood why you hate your birthday so much.” She pads to the vanity and sinks into the chair, pulling pins out of her hair.
I push myself against the headboard and rub the sheet between my fingers. “It’s not that I hate my birthday—”
“You just wish you could spend it with your family,” she sing songs, reciting the words I say every year. “Where are they anyway? Your family?”
My heart slams into my back, and a burning sensation sinks into my throat. Thea is the only family I have left, and the rest? My mother?
“I don’t know,” I whisper.
“Sorry I brought it up.” Sucking in a cheek, she pulls the earrings from her ears and tucks them into a jewelry box. “It’s a shame we aren’t allowed to go out tonight and celebrate.”
I grimace. My birthday was once a holiday people celebrated under the brightest stars of the year. But Caelus put a stop to that. Taverns are ordered to close before the sun sets, and gatherings of more than three are strictly prohibited.
I’ll never forget that first year—the day after my birthday when Caelus arrested dozens who went against his law. He gave them a public execution.
Thea smiles in the mirror. “I can ask the cook to bring us up a slice of cake after we leave the tavern.”
I groan. The tavern. “Do I have to go?”
“Yes, Briar. I’m dying to get out of the castle, and it would be suspicious if Harriet didn’t show up when the rest of the competitors are going.”
I fold my arms over my chest. “No one saw Harriet between the first and second trials, so I don’t think anyone would miss her now.”
She stands, dress shifting with the movement, and strides to my bed.
“Yes, but that was before Harriet solved the king’s trial.
When she outsmarted a Sopor.” She leans closer, leveling me with a glare that rivals the one she used to give me aboard our ship.
“Before she saved another competitor when it would have been far safer and wiser to leave her for dead.”
“We made an alliance,” I whisper.
She straightens and throws her braids over her shoulder, the opal beads on the ends catching the light. “The Briar I know wouldn’t risk her life saving someone who was collateral damage.” Her voice lowers to a whisper. “So, what are you hiding from me?”
I search her eyes—not those of my first mate, but a friend nonetheless. A sister. One I trust with my entire life, to the ends of the world.
“Kressa has power.”
She flinches back. “What?”
I nod. “Caelus was right. But it’s more than that.
” I pause and worry my lip. I can’t tell her about my power sinking into Kressa.
She’ll only forget. A sigh slips through my lips.
“When I saved her, her power sank into me. It’s a small amount, but it’s connected us somehow.
I don’t fully understand it, but now we can communicate with our minds. ”
She opens her mouth, but I raise a hand, and she obliges. I pull the collar of my tunic down and tap at my heart. “When I touch her, or get too close, a light appears where her power sank into me.”
And since the night in the infirmary, hers hasn’t lit. Not once has a cerulean glow flared over her heart, while mine is uncontrollable.
Thea lowers to the mattress. “Why haven’t you told me any of this until now?”
I reach for her hand. The words are sticky in my throat, but I force them out. “I wanted to protect you. It’s dangerous, knowing Kressa has Earth power.”
Her gaze jerks to mine, and she lowers her voice to a whisper. “Earth power?”
I nod. “If anyone finds out, it can risk everything. But it’ll all end when I win this competition and we leave Sarenia forever.”
A strangled laugh comes from her. “Now it makes sense why you saved her.”
“What had you previously assumed?”
She huffs. “That you were in love with her.”
A faint glow filters through my thin shirt. I pull the blanket up before Thea sees. “I’m not in love with her.”
The servant’s door opens, and a flash of red hair peeks through.
“Are you ready to go?” Marianne asks, pushing into the room. She hands Thea a pile of clothes, ones from the lower streets of Sarenia. Unless someone knows her personally, no one will think she’s a royal courtesan.
Gemma follows close behind, eyes scanning me warily. “Are you feeling okay? After the trial?”
I nod and throw my legs over the bed. Rising, I stretch my arms. “Let’s get this over with. I don’t want to pretend to be a pirate any more than I have to.”
Marianne circles to the dressing room and emerges with my pirate clothes, the hat perched on top. I make quick work of sliding into the shirt and pants, patting the dagger hidden beneath my pocket. I tuck Kressa’s necklace beneath my collar, the metal cool against my skin.
Gemma cups my face, but flinches back. Her eyes widen. “You feel different.”
“Different?”
She glances at my chest, directly where Kressa’s power burrowed in. She shakes her head. “Never mind.”
Replacing her palms to my face, she closes her eyes and glamours me inch by inch, bone by bone.
She lowers her hands, refusing to make eye contact. “I won’t be at the tavern, so don’t risk staying more than an hour.”
I lean closer. “You can feel it in me, can’t you?”
She searches my face and nods, lowering her gaze. “Please, be careful.”
“I will.”
Dressed in her disguise, Thea lowers the hat on my head, tilting it at an angle. She links her arm through mine and smiles. “Let’s go have some fun, pirate.”