Chapter 4 – Princess Saga
PRINCESS SAGA
“Saga, come with me.” Sayyida snapped me out of the daze of watching the flaming pirate ship vanish as she took my hand. Her palm was warm and sticky. I looked down to find blood covering her fingers.
“Are you hurt?” I asked, guilty that I hadn’t asked sooner.
“None of the blood is mine.” She smirked. The expression was so familiar it made my heart clench. “It will take more than that to spill Virtoris blood.”
Cocky as ever, that was Lady Sayyida Virtoris. I snorted as she pulled me below decks. I thought we were going to the healer, but when we turned the opposite direction, my eyebrows lifted. Moments later, Sayyida slipped into her own cabin, the captain’s cabin. She shut the door behind us.
“On the settee.”
“You’re incredibly bossy.”
“I’m responsible for the Princess of Winter’s Realm’s wellbeing, so yes, I am bossy and will not apologize for it. Now, sit.”
Slowly, because my wings still ached, I shuffled to the couch and lowered, careful to keep my back from touching the velvet, bluish-gray cushions.
Sayyida strode to the side of the room and opened a cabinet to extract a bottle. “This potion will help your wings. It has to be applied topically.”
I tilted my head. “Why do you have it in here?”
“A leader sometimes needs to lick their wounds in private. If I sustained a non-fatal injury, I’d want time to think over what happened without others around, so I stocked up.”
She took after her mother in that way—proud, not wanting others to see her pain. Well, most others. As younglings, I’d seen Sayyida cry numerous times. It came with the territory of growing up together.
“Lean forward,” she murmured as she joined me on the settee. “I can get the healer, but he’s probably still working on your guard. Or my sailors. A few were injured. You don’t mind me doing it, do you?”
I swallowed. Parts of a faerie’s wings were sensitive, and others did not usually touch them. Exceptions existed, of course. As a royal, people often bathed and dressed me. And then there were intimate moments, none of which I had experienced yet at eighteen sheltered turns.
My cheeks flushed as I imagined Sayyida running her hands along my dark wings where they met my back.
“Not at all,” I choked out.
Her touch flitted over me, soft and gentle, and my marred flesh tingled beneath her ministrations.
“Breathe,” Sayyida whispered, and only then did I realize that I’d been holding my breath.
I exhaled as she gently rubbed the potion into my membranous right wing. Once she was done, she moved to the left. Where her hands touched, my wings tingled and tightened at the base. I hoped she didn’t notice.
“That was a lot,” I said when the silence and the sensation became too much.
“Being overtaken by a pirate ship? That’s every other day at sea.”
I snorted. “Sure it is.”
“We took care of it, didn’t we? No fatalities on our side, either.”
“A near miss.” Guilt that my guard had nearly died swept through me. He was hurting because of me.
Fingers wrapped around my shoulder, turned me back so that I faced her. “Sir Yagril wasn’t your fault. It’s his job to be there to protect you. He knows the risk. Everyone on my ship understood there was a risk in having you aboard.”
A sharp inhale sank into my lungs. “Are you saying that pirate ship attacked because of me?”
“That came out wrong.” Sayyida set the bottle of potion down and wiped the excess that coated her fingers onto her bloodied trousers.
“They didn’t know you were here. They seemed surprised by it, but once they learned, their aim changed from looting to faenapping.
And no matter which royal is aboard a ship, that’s always a risk.
Even other members of the Sacred Eight are a liability—even me.
” She trailed off, her lips pursed in a way that told me she despised that her noble blood was more valuable to a pirate than who she had become through her own sweat and tears: the captain of a royal ship.
“Vale would have been fine.”
“Your brother is a great warrior, but he’s no natural on the sea.”
That was true. Water was one of my older brother’s failings, a fact that his twin reminded Vale of at every opportunity.
“The attack was too fast,” Sayyida said. “You did your best. My crew doesn’t fault you for being taken.”
I nodded, still not feeling great about it, but willing to move on. “What do you make of the smoke?”
“Smoke? Looked more like shadows to me.”
Ice crept through my veins because, on second thought, she was right.
Smoke would have smelled and been hazy, it would have thinned with the wind, but shadows lived by neither rule.
These had been more a bending of light. Of space too, maybe, seeing as the boat had crossed a large distance in a second. I didn’t understand what I’d seen.
“How do they make them? There hasn’t been a Shadow Fae in so long.” And there shouldn’t be any at all . . .
“At least four thousand turns,” Sayyida agreed. “Perhaps they have a couple of mages aboard though. That’s not outside a mage’s skill set.”
Mage magic varied more than that of other orders.
There could be many mages capable of making shadows.
Sometimes I envied their magical order, and their ability to continue to learn new types of magic as they aged.
However, the downfall to most mages was that they did not heal quickly, and they were not as agile as fae, vampires, elves, wolvea, or dragons.
They relied heavily on power to keep them safe, and magic always came at a cost.
“I thought so too, actually, but I didn’t see a mage on the ship.” Amidst the fae they’d be noticeable. Most mages could easily pass for human, but no fae could.
“Seems more likely. Mage magic can move ships quickly like theirs did too.” Sayyida shifted in the seat and the gold glint of her dragon locket caught a beam coming in through the port window.
I motioned to it. “You never told me your locket did that.”
“This?” She fingered the necklace as though it were nothing and not the exact thing that had helped us escape.
Her gaze dipped to pause on my lips. “Not anymore. It’s only supposed to work once.
The dragon lord I got it from said to use it wisely.
On a loved one.” She stiffened and looked at the ground, but there was no going back, no taking away what she’d said.
The words rang between us and the very air in the room warmed, became electrified. Though she could have meant as a friendly sort of love, her actions spoke differently. And so did the pounding of my heart.
Could it be?
Did I dare?
“Sayyida?” I whispered.
“I—that . . . I meant—”
Stammering. Confident, bold Sayyida Virtoris was stammering. I wanted to laugh and cry at the same time because it became crystal clear she’d meant what she said, what she’d done.
She just hadn’t realized it.
Slowly, I cupped her cheek. “Thank you for using the locket to save me.”
Gray-blue eyes met my own, and the cabin’s temperature seemed to rise even higher. I leaned forward, closer to her.
Sayyida leaned in too and slowly our lips met, soft and exploring. Goosebumps erupted along my arms. I was kissing her—the girl I’d secretly fancied for many turns.
And it felt so right. So perfect. I wanted more.
I wanted it all.
Had anyone been around, I doubt we’d have noticed. The world became Sayyida and me, and unsaid words and unexplored moments come to life in a kiss.
But like all good things, the kiss came to an end too soon. Sayyida pulled away and we stared at one another, chests heaving, hearts pounding.
“Saga,” she whispered. “What are we doing?”
“I—I don’t know,” I replied, taken aback.
“You’re betrothed to my brother.”
The heady excitement crashed down to the depths of the Shivering Sea.
The worst thing was, I could say nothing against her claim.
It was true. The entire kingdom knew it.
Though my brothers were older, I, alone of the Aaberg children, was betrothed because Father thought females were best for creating alliances and bearing heirs to tighten those alliances. My throat tightened.
“That’s arranged,” I whispered through the pain.
“Does that matter?” Sayyida rose, her eyes dashing to the window, the cabinet, anywhere but to me. She was looking for an excuse, and luckily for her, it came in the form of a rap on the door.
“Captain?”
“Yes?” Sayyida replied, tone too high to be natural.
“There’s been a problem.”
She straightened her hair and shirt and, sparing me a glance, strode to the door and opened it. “What’s that?”
“The captives.” His voice dropped, “they’re dead.”
“Bleeding stars! How?”
“They had poisonous crystals on them. Ate ‘em when their guard turned his back.”
“Did we get information from them before that?”
“Not enough to know who they are, where they came from, or why they attacked.”
Sayyida swore and turned to face me. “I have to go. Stay here as long as you wish. And use as much potion as you want.”
I studied her and the mask she’d been able to put on while I sat in place, frozen and exposed. And broken.
“Sure.”
For a moment, my friend paused, but then she exited the cabin.
I stared at the door, brokenhearted, knowing the only person I’d ever wanted had shut me out.