Page 98 of Fallen Stars

“A crow, would you believe?!” Santi chuckled. “Don’t know how the fuck it found us here in Midas’s Bay.”

The crew had anchored there, hoping to stock up on supplies in the Sinner’s Sands, filthy and cutthroat place though it was, it was the hub of merchants, a place where you could get your dirty hands on anything from Persean steel to Kaosian liquor. Items from across the realm that would sell for a pretty penny back in Neptuna, so cut off from the rest of the world.

Though Adrian would have to watch from his ship as his crew descended below. Always just out of reach.

The Sinner’s Sands though was the closest place on land he’d call home. A place where if you could fight, like Adrian could, you could likely get anything you wished for free. Well…stolen may be a more appropriate term.

Adrian snatched the letter from Santi. His thumb paused over the waxed seal, a dragon with its maw open.

“Asteria?”

Santi shrugged.

Adrian opened the letter, scanning the short note within.

In elegantly looped writing, was written:

“Dear Lord Adrian,

I hope you remember me from the Stars Masquerade those months ago. I require your assistance urgently. I need safe passage to Concordia, and it is imperative that I travel with the utmost discretion, for reasons I will divulge once I meet you. Please remain in The Sinner’s Sands for I will arrive tomorrow once the Sun is at its highest peak.”

Adrian snorted at that.‘The Sun.’Yes, he and his crew were still wrapping their head around that phenomenon, the whole bloody sky setting on fire that very day. The two celestial events in the space of a month were turning the world into utter chaos.

‘I will pay you handsomely for your silence and passage.

Lyra.’

Adrian sucked a tooth, closing the letter.

“Captain?” Santi asked.

“Change of plans,” he murmured, thinking back to the beautiful raven-haired lady whom he had danced with at the masquerade. “We stay here another day. We have a damsel in distress who needs our aid. And then we set sail for Concordia.”

Santi frowned but knew better than to ask questions. He tipped two fingers in salute to Adrian before leaving the pirate lord alone.

Adrian skimmed a hand over the Starred Siren’s wheel, breathing in the ocean brine.

“Now this,” he murmured to himself, “will be interesting.”

Chapter Thirty-Four

“Quickly,” Enzo urged, ushering thegroup through the in-between. Leo ran through first, followed by Isra and Merissa.

“El?” Enzo said. Elara was eyeing it, squinting at the red sand at the other end of the small path.

“I’m second guessing my plan,” she said.

Enzo sighed, pulling her to him and savouring every touch that he could. “We don’t have another option. Helios is in uproar, and we’ll be gutted in our sleep if we stay a minute longer. You saw the crowds clamouring at the gates.”

“But how will we fair better on another continent?”

“Because Eli is there. You said yourself that you trust him, and I trustyou. He’s the only one who can harbour us until we plan our next steps. And being on the ocean for a while will help us plan our next steps without looking over our shoulder at every turn.”

Elara bit her lip, threading her fingers through his. “Fine. But I swear, if we don’t get a moment to ourselves so we can finish what we started a few hours ago, I will jump overboard.”

Enzo chuckled, trying to ignore the painful craving pumping through his body. He must have been a saint in a past life to be holding out on making love with his soulmate after a month without her touch. He counted to ten, willing his erection—that hadn’t gone down in hours—away. It didn’t work.

“Come,” he said. “A new adventure awaits.”

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