Chapter 18 Faolan
EIGHTEEN
FAOLAN
It was excruciating between us. I'd been an arse when she tried to talk to me before we left. I was trying to keep my distance, but all I did was seem rude and made her feel bad for approaching me. Now we were stuck together, and it was frankly painful.
We'd loaded the crates onto the boat and settled into the hold. They had rustled us up four hammocks, so there was that. But even in the privacy of my own hammock at night, I would not be able to escape the fact that I was swinging just inches from where she lay on the other side of some thin wood.
Why did I think we could do this?
I was going to drive myself fucking mad with all this time in my mind.
I was sick over what Alaric said about his brother, but I’d already known it to be true.
One didn’t exist in the Twelve Kingdoms without hearing about the heir.
He was the topic of much gossip, and things were so much worse than I’d even told them.
They thought it was a death sentence that she was just my ryder.
Kol was still humming as I set about stringing up the hammocks and arranging things as best as I could in the tight space.
It was both sweet and irritating. I knew he was trying to soothe the princess while she had to remain contained, but Goddess, I just wanted to rip into something or someone to release the frustration I was carrying.
It could not be Kol, I told myself. Then who?
Nyx? Probably unwise. As if I wouldn’t be on the King's bad side already, I didn’t need to injure the general.
Instead, I headed back out to the deck to see if I could help with casting off.
The crew appreciated my experience on ships and allowed me to take up some of the work.
Anything to get this ship moving. Now that we were aboard, it felt even smaller than I feared, and I already wanted off.
But it was ideal to get us away from this port and into safer lands.
Who would suspect such an insignificant vessel of having any important cargo?
“Is there anything else I can assist with? I asked the small crew after helping release the dock lines.
“Ah, another strong male to help with the sails,” said the aged captain. “The Goddess has blessed us! You can assist your friend in hoisting if you will.”
“Gladly,” I said and found Nyx puzzling over ropes and rigging.
“Need some help?” I chuckled.
Nyx looked up and breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank the Goddess, someone who knows what they're doing.”
“I have my uses,” I said, taking over the chore before he tangled us into a ball that would require a blade and set back our departure.
“You were very useful during the attack,” he said meaningfully. “I don’t think I thanked you for coming back.”
I shrugged.
“You didn’t have a choice, did you?”
“There is always a choice,” I bit out, annoyed by his knowing look.
“Is it really a choice if the alternative is worse than death?”
“I won’t let it be that. I came back to ensure she is safely delivered to her heir, then I will fly off into the sunset and make peace with it.”
“Okay…” Nyx shook his head. “And how will you deal with her knowing you left her despite what she is to you?”
I faced him fully. “No one will tell her,” I said menacingly. “I’ll ask you to make certain of that in return for my assistance as guard.”
Nyx scoffed. “She won’t need to be told once that bond fully kicks in.”
“It’s not going to. I will keep my distance, and it won’t have a chance to develop. Just make sure no one tells her a damn thing, and it will be fine.”
He held up his hands in defeat at my harsh words.
Once the boat was in motion, Nyx informed the captain that we would be taking shifts guarding the wine.
The captain looked insulted, but Nyx assured him that it was necessary because sun wine must stay at a particular temperature constantly to maintain its superior quality, and our magic was needed in the hold at all times to sustain it.
I wasn’t sure where Nyx conjured this stuff up from at times, but he didn’t miss a beat, and the captain looked suitably satisfied. I was kind of in awe.
What I was not in awe of was the fact that he’d told me to go take first shift with Kol, then tipped me the nod to say he would keep the crew away, and it was safe to open the crates for now. So like a male on his way to his death, I trudged below.
“Nyx said you can go up,” I told Zaria. “We are taking first shift.”
“Are you going to open them?” she asked low.
I nodded, and satisfied, she left. I stared after her even after I’d closed the door and slid the wooden brace across it to prevent it from being opened from the outside. I just stared at the grain of the wood, unseeing, wishing I could be in her place…or anyone else’s place, really.
“You good?” Kol asked, his brow creasing.
I pulled my eyes from the door. I nodded to the crates. “Yeah, fine. Shall we give them some air?”
“Definitely,” he said, bending to rummage through one of our bags for the tools we brought.
He handed me a clawed bar, and we moved around the crates to the backs which faced the ship’s hull.
Opening these sides would ensure that even if one of the crew somehow got a look into the room, they would not see them open.
We went to the prince’s crate first. I knew Kol wanted to get Nova out as soon as possible because she had been so afraid, and that had definitely tugged at the trauma in him, but royal protocol was burned into his soul, and the prince came first. Together, we pried the side of the crate easily away from the frame of Alaric’s crate, and his face greeted us with a grin.
“That was faster than I thought,” he said, sounding shockingly chipper for a prince who’d suffered the indignity of being stuffed in a box, hauled out of a palace’s merchant entrance, and dumped on a boat that had seen better days.
“Didn’t want to keep you waiting, Your Highness.” I smirked.
Alaric opened his mouth to correct me again and then seemed to realize I was kidding.
Kol moved on to the sister’s crate, and I started moving wine crates to make a gap for the prince. But could feel the tension radiating off Kol when the nails seemed to have a firmer grip on the panel, and they weren’t budging.
“I’ve got that,” Alaric said, beginning to pull cases of wine inside with him to create the gap. “You help him. Nova was very upset, so let’s not keep her waiting.”
I turned to Kol, impressed at the prince’s willingness to roll up his sleeves and move the wine himself.
“Here,” I said, jamming my bar in alongside Kol’s to apply more pressure behind the nails on his side.
When it finally started to give, I moved along to the next corner, and we made fast work of removing the panel.
The sisters were not as cheerful-looking as the prince. Calytrix had Nova huddled in her arms on one of the cots, and she was humming the same tune Kol had been. Nova’s head shot up, and she sat, wiping her eyes as soon as the side of the crate was removed.
“Thank the Gods,” Calytrix muttered, and I immediately averted my eyes from the crate’s interior to avoid her gaze.
“We can leave this open for now,” Kol said, moving cases of wine aside to create a doorway for them to come in and out. Not that they had anywhere to go. He held out his hand for Nova, and she took it. Hers was shaking as she placed it in his. “Are you doing okay?”
She nodded, sniffing as she stepped out of her tiny prison. “It wasn’t so bad. Thank you for checking in with me. It really calmed me down to know you were out there.” She looked down at the stone she still had clutched tightly in her other hand and then made to hand it back to him.
“You keep that,” he said, folding her hand back around it. “I’ll always be here.”
She held his gaze for a long moment.
Okay then!
I turned away, not wanting any part of this whole fiasco. First, I had a bond I didn’t even want with one sister that would almost certainly get me killed by her prince. Now the other sister was making moon eyes at Kol when her prince was right fucking there.
These sisters were trouble.