Chapter Forty-Nine
The rest of the night is all rough waters and unsettled minds – and stomachs concerning poor Diarmid, who spends most of his time before bed, hanging over the railing, projecting his guts over the side of the ship.
One by one, we head to the dingy hold for our beds of straw and sadness.
Lillienne taking Diarmid pretty early to the hold, repaying the favour from last night.
Cole follows soon after, pulling his coat over the bulk of his chest like it’d protect him from any further lapses in my control over my power.
Calli plays a game of cards with her brother before leaving us to it, muttering under her breath something about giving us some time alone.
And then it is just Eliaz and I, the weight of the situation tugging at us like the pull of the tide. We stand at the railing, my head rested atop his shoulder, staring into the thrashing of the night.
I turn his words over in my head, his talk of sacrifice for the sake of his people. As the ship shudders with the waves and I stumble backwards a little, the words stream from me like a gushing river.
‘Please don’t leave me alone in this. I can’t do any of it without you.’
In the flickering glow of the lantern light, a tear falls from his fiery eyes. ‘I have no choice, Eira. I thought you of all people would understand.’
‘I don’t want to understand. Not if it means losing you just as I’ve found you.’ Hit with a sudden, earth-shattering, wave-crashing-into-the-hull clarity, a laugh bubbles up in my throat.
Eliaz cocks his head at me, not following the thought. ‘Forgive me for being unable to locate the humour in this moment, Princess.’
‘I’m sorry.’ I pull his hand into mine, brushing my thumb over his knuckles in apology. ‘It’s just, all my life I was told to fear your people, to fear you, the terrible Umbrian king.’
‘And…’
‘And even in this short time that I have come to truly know you, I cannot fathom a life absent of you. Nor do I have any inclination to.’
He closes the gap between us, chest rising and falling with rapid breaths, hair frizzed with the spray of the sea, eyes hungering.
‘It both pains me and delights me to no extent to hear you say that,’ he says with a breathy laugh.
‘I have been too long in the dark, alone in the cold, unrelenting world I was left in control of. But you have brought me light, Eira, and life, so much of it. I haven’t felt so much warmth since I was a boy. ’
A crack of lightning slashes white through the void of the night’s sky, and with the rumbling of thunder, comes rain. We do not make any attempts to move, heads upturned, welcoming the water of the heavens as it drenched us, cleansing us of the day. Of every day before this one.
Before this moment. With another flash of white breaking overhead, Eliaz drops his head to mine, a smile resting soft atop his lips.
His arm finds my waist, pulling me closer until our bodies meet in the middle.
A joining of us once again. Our foreheads kiss in anticipation of our lips doing the same, both of us savouring this blissful teetering on the brink of indulgence. He shudders, no doubt cold to the core.
‘I’ll keep you warm.’ And I blow onto the embers of my power, coaxing the gentle flames that rise from the depths of me upwards until they meet my skin but do not break from it.
I wrap my arms around him, wishing every inch of him to feel, as I do, the delicious heat that emanates from my body. He melts into me, his lips falling onto mine with one swoon.
The kiss is like a breath of life into my lungs. The rumbling of thunder synchronised with that whirling storm within me, the crack of lightning punctuating each desperate press into one another.
It’s almost as though we are trying to merge into each other, pushing our bodies as we do our lips, desperate, hungering, pleading.
Eliaz breaks free from me, only to sweep me off my feet with one arm, lifting me into the air as the ship sways. He tumbles backwards a little, and I can’t help but giggle at how shocked he looks in the moment.
‘No teasing, Princess.’ He smirks. ‘That’s always been my job.’
I press my lips into his neck, planting kisses over his wet skin as he carries me across the deck and up the stairs to his cabin.
He kicks open the door like it is the only barrier between him and the heavens, before gently laying me down on the bed.
He stands back for only a moment, devouring me with his eyes, before crashing his lips down on mine once again.
With frantic fingers he pulls my soaked dress from my body, hands trailing every inch of my bare, searing skin, before falling back into me again.
We are no longer just two young royals battling to save our kingdoms. The outside world melts away until we are simply two young souls metamorphosising anew.
We’re those youthful beings we were before the Divide, a boy and a girl untainted by life and death and everything in between.
Boy crashes into girl. Fire meets smoke.
And suddenly I know everything I need to know.
He is the missing piece of information I have been searching endlessly for. I grip his body closer to mine.
I will be damned before I even consider letting this man go.