Page 21 of Soulgazer

I fold my hands to hide their trembling. Taste the name on my tongue. “Faolan, then. Are you truly everything they say?”

“Depends on who ‘they’ are.”

I frown. “Can you find things?”

“I foundyou, didn’t I?”

Heat crawls up my neck, drifting into my cheeks. “That’s not—it doesn’t count. You weren’t looking for me.”

“Och, but I was. The only trouble is, I wasn’t expecting you to be the daughter of a king.”

I pull back. “How did you…”

“Don’t worry, love. That and the betrothal to old Stoneheart only complicates our plans a wee bit. Wouldn’t you like to know what they are?”

He’s grinning now, and it’s so…unnerving to be played with,I bite my lip in a refusal to respond. It only takes a moment of quiet for him to sigh.

“All right. Some of the stories about the Wolf are exaggerated, aye. The giant squid was only a tiny fellow, I’ve never slept with Ríona Aisling—you’ve my cousin to thank for that—and my ship’s not crafted of actual starlight, though that’s my favorite bit of the legend. But yes, I’mthatFaolan.” He looks me over and my toes curl hard in my boots. “And you’re Saoirse. The girl with ocean eyes.”

He grazes the fragile skin beneath them with a fingertip, and my body doesn’t know how to respond. To being touched—being seen. Pain flares across the freshly carved swirls in my back as magic whispers in my mind, then quiets.

And all the while, he watches. Like he knows exactly the effect his touch had on me last night and is waiting for my eyes to shift colors again.

I push his hand off, stepping far enough away that he can’t reach me. “Don’t say it like that.”

“Like what? A story?” Faolan smirks, twisting a ring around his fourth finger. “Because that’s exactly what you’ll be. The only one who can guide us to the Isle of Lost Souls.” His gaze cuts to mine, sharp this time. Bemused. “I’ve searched half the world looking for you, lass.”

Oh.

I lay a hand over my ribs until I’m sure they’ll expand.

I forgot what it’s like, to be wanted. To matter to someone, even just a little. And the way Faolan watches me with unflinching focus, I could almost believe he can see into my very soul—the hopelessly fragile wreck of it. Because try as I might for apathy, or dismissal, or even rage at all my father’s lies…some part of me still believes in it.

That the Isle of Lost Souls could be found.

Just not byme.

“I think you’ve wasted your time.”

Faolan cocks his head, as if he can scent my wavering doubt. “I highly doubt that.”

“Why?” I shake my head. “I’m not—”

Special. Worth it?

I am nothing.

“Safe.”

His laugh is a rasp, one that lifts the hairs along my nape. “If safety was such a great concern of mine, do you really think I’d be out on the sea?” Faolan tucks a smile into his cheek as he adjusts the leather glove until it wraps his knuckles like a second skin. “They don’t tell stories about safe lives, Saoirse. Pious fishermen, humble innkeepers, or good daughters who wed whichever bastard they’re told to.”

My face pales as Faolan ties the glove off with his teeth. “Even if that bastard is a king. But I promise you, Trouble, they’ll tell stories aboutus.”

I tear my gaze away to the trees, the patchwork sky through their canopy, the line of cloaks rippling in the wind. Anywhere but the impossibility of him.

Stars.Every breath hurts now, ice threatening to consume my lungs as it leeches from the inked swirls between my shoulders each time a new feeling arises.

I always suspected fate to be cruel, but it is unspeakably so to have met Faolan only now—now, when I’m to be married tomorrow. Now, when I will lose my magic and myself completely tonight.

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