Chapter 35 #2
“I’m here on behalf of Evelyn.” Tovi inclined her head towards her friend. “She needs a ship.”
Flynn narrowed his eyes. “What for?”
Evelyn retrieved a map from under her cloak and spread it across the oak-stump console table between them all.
The coastline of Sorin ran up the left side, while a majority of the map detailed the Sapphire Sea, its currents and tides all the way to Torren’s mirroring shore on the right.
Evelyn jabbed a finger at the northern fjords.
“We need you to take us here,” she said.
Flynn stared at the spot for a tense moment, then eyed them. “Whatever for? That is the sea.”
“Evelyn needs to retrieve something from the bottom,” Tovi said.
Flynn laughed, then stopped short. “So the rumors are true. Your witchy friend here has no magic.” The air in the room shifted. “Ah, yes. Whispers that she lost it travel on the wind. Little hard to fulfill that so-called prophecy without it, don’t you think?”
“That’s why Evelyn needs your help,” Tovi said. “Her lost necklace is a key item in the spell to get her magic back.”
“A necklace?“ Flynn hissed. “What is your plan? Dive for it? Far off the coast, the sea is miles deep.”
“We’ll retrieve it with magic,” Evelyn said, expression adamant. “All we need is to get in the general area of where it may be.”
“While bracing the fog and mists of the Void, along with all the monsters lingering near the darkness,” Flynn said. “Have either of you faced a sea demon before? They’re not madras. They’re far worse, three times the biggest ship here at port.”
Yen smirked, crossing her arms. “Maybe the job is too risky for you, Captain Flynn.”
He scoffed, shoulders shaking. “I’m glad to see you’ve found friends fit for your company, Tovi. I like them, but not enough to risk my crews’ lives.”
“How about setting them free of the Blood Curse?”
“Not my problem, not my concern.” Flynn downed the last of his rum. “But I appreciate you confirming these rumors. What a delightful surprise.”
Yen leaned forward. “If this information becomes, as you called it, a whisper on the wind, I’ll plant an arrow in your pirate heart.”
“Bloody hel, wolves.“ Flynn rolled his eyes. “Look, I’ll not utter a word about this, but I can’t help, Tovi. My ships aren’t available for this job.”
“Alright, if not for honor, what about for money?” Evelyn asked. “We can pay you whatever sum—“
“No.” Flynn fell back into the love seat, the arrogant bastard.
Heat flushed through Tovi, but she refused to let it rise too far and jeopardize their time with Flynn. Her father would yell, her mother would throw petty words, and as tempting as lashing out was, she didn’t want to make the same mistake as her parents.
She set her wine down and locked eyes with Flynn. “What about for a friend?”
“We haven’t seen each other for ninety years. I’d hardly call us friends.”
“Fine.” Tovi pulled out a folded cloth and placed it atop the map, throwing it open and revealing a ring with one small gem at the center.
A bloodstone granting Flynn the ability to walk in sunlight.
Flynn eyed the ring with such intensity, black swam in his eyes like dissipating smoke, and a mighty—perhaps centuries-old—anger brimmed under the pirate’s skin.
It wafted like a surge, prickling the air with static.
Yen reached for her dagger, but Tovi shook her head once in a silent command.
Don’t. It was a risk, showing Flynn what he’d desperately wanted for so long.
Only the royal family could give the ability to walk in sunlight, a status Tovi had denied Flynn silently for years—she’d forgiven him, yes, but she’d also not trusted him enough to grant him that freedom.
Evelyn tensed in her seat, the static in the air only worsening as Flynn grew stiller and stiller. Nothing else moved, but his gaze snapped to hers.
“Can I speak with Tovi for a moment alone?” he breathed, chest rising.
“Do you think us mad?” Yennifer asked.
“Let me make myself very clear: I’d never hurt her, you have my word.“ Flynn snatched the ring off the table, marched over to the wall lined with windows and opened a concealed door that led to a balcony outside.
The salty winds barreled into the parlor, and Tovi ignored the prickling stares of her friends. She had no other choice, did she? They needed Flynn to help Evelyn with his ship, but what rooted Tovi to the reading chair was not the anticipation of that argument, but what he’d ask for in return.
“Tovi.” A warning wavered in Evelyn’s tone, her gray stare hard.
“It’s alright.” Tovi sighed, not believing her own words. “Stay here.”
She set her shoulders back and met Flynn at the door. Perhaps she’d not pretended earlier, but now, she refused to let him see her fear, to taste it in the air as it mixed with Morrow’s brine.
The door behind them clicked shut, and it was as if the decades between them ballooned on the balcony, and the fresh winds weren’t enough.
Tovi gripped the balcony’s railing for balance.
In the distance, waves rolled more white than blue, the sea’s temperament wild, much like her thumping heart.
Flynn braced the banister with his arms wide.
For a moment, it was their silence, the winds, the distant roar of the waves, and the jolly tunes of the party town.
“I don’t want a bloodstone, Tovi.” Flynn placed it on the banister, sliding it over. The gold band reflected the mold clinging to the Muckie’s bones, the red of the gem almost black under the cloudy sky.
“What vampyr doesn’t want to walk in the sun, let alone a pirate?” she asked.
Flynn tucked his hair behind his left ear, revealing a bloodstone earring piercing the tip of his ear.
Hurt lanced through her. “You’ve already pledged yourself to Riven.” She searched for exits, eyed the seam of the concealed door—fuck. Evelyn and Yen. She’d been a fool to step out alone, to—
He grabbed her arm, not fiercely but with a reassuring squeeze. “I’d never, and you know that.”
She tugged free of his grip. “Then where did you get a bloodstone? It’s only an honor given by the royal family—“
“Why are you really here, Tovi?” Flynn searched the sea.
Tovi blinked. “We need Evelyn’s magic—“
“Fuck the ship. Why me?” He shook his head, finally looking at her and studying her. His eyes flared, and an unpleasant laugh bubbled out of him. “You’re finally going to fight your brother, aren’t you?”
“I need allies, Flynn. He’s working with the Blood Goddess and claims to be king. If we have any chance of breaking our people of this curse, I need to stop him from ruling Drystan to its end.”
“Let me guess, your plan was to hand out bloodstones for fealty?” he smirked, and Tovi’s insides twisted.
“Don’t patronize me.”
Flynn shrugged. “If you can’t offer me the sun, what can you offer me?”
“Money and land.”
“I don’t need money—I’m one of the richest vampyrs in Drystan. Nor as a pirate do I need land.” He pushed off the banister and leaned his hip against it, driving his hands into his pockets.
Tovi tried to smile. “You could start a new business, venture out of the plundering, smuggling, and stealing.”
Flynn scoffed. “Salt, always.”
Impatience thrummed through Tovi’s blood, but she understood how to barter, to start small and work her way up. Flynn came from humble beginnings, and despite his wealth, his status still held him back in their homeland so hell-bent on titles and lineage.
She swallowed, bracing her last hand. “I can make you a lord.”
Flynn shook his head, slate eyes drilling into her. “I want you to make me your husband.”
Tovi reared back. How dare he. After everything she’d endured with her parents.
But he didn’t know, didn’t have the slightest clue, the hold her parents had used the prospect of marrying her off like a bargaining chip.
The only other male she’d ever admitted that pain to had been Eldrick, and the moment Flynn breathed the word husband, it was his face that’d filtered through her mind, her heart aching with the prospect.
She shut her eyes, stilling her heart and pushing out any thought of the werewolf alpha she’d left behind. She couldn’t afford to think of him, to worry about matters of her silly, foolish, poisoned heart when her fight against her brother hinged on this conversation with Flynn.
“I never imagined you’d vie for my hand in marriage to gain power,” she scoffed.
Flynn didn’t budge. “Every unmated male you go to for aid would ask the same.”
Tovi threw up her hands. “Why not throw your name into the mix, is that it? If everyone else is, why not join them?”
Flynn leaned forward, eyes narrowing. “Did you really think this wouldn’t happen?”
“Of course, I expected it! I just didn’t expect it from you!“ she shouted.
He laughed, bitter and sad. “Out of all those pompous asses who’ll demand you marry them, I’m your best option.”
“Is that so?” Tovi didn’t hide the anger rising in her voice.
“Unlike them, I’m not after power. I have no interest in being king, only your husband—a loyal man by your side. The others won’t even care that you’re the queen, they’ll use you as a figurehead while they rule Drystan.”
Tovi seethed, blood boiling. “That will never happen, because I have no intention of marrying to secure my rightful seat on the throne.”
“You might not have a choice,” Flynn said, sounding like Lou.
He stepped closer—too close. His scent—fire and brine—was all wrong, clotting Tovi’s senses. Her baser instincts craved spearmint and spice, the freshness of the Vadon Mountains.
“We were happy once,” Flynn whispered.
“Yes, keyword, once.“ Tovi’s words were like barbed arrows, and she shot them without a second thought as to how deeply they buried into Flynn’s tender flesh. Fuck him.
No. No. No.
Tovi’s entire being thrummed with the word, like a lightning bolt fueled by retaliation shooting through her.
She ignored her heart, fraying at the seams. Her body warred much the same, craving another male, while her mind battled reason and sense.
Flynn was right. Other lords would ask. At least with Flynn, she’d secure a husband, a fleet of ships, and loyalty.
Despite how her heart corroded like the idea was rust, it knew him and trusted him, even after the pain he’d caused all those years ago.
But something else warred within Tovi. It wasn’t Eldrick or her heart’s longing for another. It was the essence of freedom.
To have choice.
Deep in her bones, Tovi refused to give up the last shred of dignity she had.
She’d fight for it. Flynn was only the first contact on Drystan.
There were others. Fight brimmed within her, almost like a magic she could wield.
She’d been so resilient for so long, perhaps she didn’t know any other way than to muster on.
“If you see me as your queen like you say, then you’ll take Evelyn where she needs to go.”
“Tovi—“
“I can’t marry you, or anyone else for that matter.”
Flynn shook his head, grip tightening on the banister. “Won’t and can’t are two very different things.”
Indeed they were, but she would not admit the truth to him.
“Am I your queen or not?” she asked.
Flynn gritted his teeth, nostrils flaring. “I’ll take on the job under one condition.”
Tovi sounded far braver than she felt when she said, “Name it.”
“You’ll take back your answer and consider my proposal.” Before she had time to rebuttal, he continued, “And you owe me for that favor you asked.”
“What favor?”
“When I helped smuggle the werewolves out of Drystan—join me for dinner, that is all I ask in return.”
Tovi wavered. Despite feeling strong in her choice, she couldn’t say no to Flynn’s ask. Not when breaking the curse and setting her people free truly came before anything else. “Alright.”
“It’s a date then.”
“It’s dinner.”
Flynn shrugged, roguish, and there was that smile she’d fallen in love with—dashing and fun. But it didn’t brighten his features, didn’t carve his usually stony, rigid scowl into a radiant beauty.
“Good night, Flynn,” she said, heading towards the door.
“It was Lord Nathanael,” he called over his shoulder. “He gave me the bloodstone.”
She paused her hand over the doorknob. She’d not heard the lord’s name in a long while.
He owned farmland to the east and had deep pockets, one’s that had tempted Tovi to add to her list of diplomatic visits.
But Lord Nathanael didn’t believe she had a right to the throne.
Female, he and his wife had spat during balls at court.
“How in the bloody hel did he come by one?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” Flynn said. “We struck a trade deal six months ago, and the bloodstone was part of the terms. I had my crew vet it first, thinking it was a back-end way for your brother to finally gain my favor, but his greedy fingers hadn’t come anywhere near it.”
“Why are you telling me this?” Tovi studied him, trying to find his reasoning etched into his distant gaze.
“If Lord Nathanael is giving out bloodstones, he has influence. Perhaps you should win him over.”
Tovi bit the inside of her cheek. “I’ll think on it, and Flynn, thank you for telling me.”
He nodded. “Be safe, Tovi. After all, we have a dinner date on the books.”