Page 34 of Soulgazer

“What?” The word is somehow mine, strangled though it is.

“You have magic that my cousinsupposedlywitnessed—andI’ll admit, I’ve never seen eyes like yours. So go on.” She waves a hand. “Convince me.”

I have no control over the curse’s magic. It’s always worse when I touch someone’s skin, but now I have the tattoo, there’s no telling how it might react or whether I’ll feel anything beyond flashes. It hadn’t seemed like such an issue this morning, with Faolan spinning silver thread from his tongue, but Kiara does not seem to be a queen who suffers fools—and I am most definitely one of those.

“It doesn’t work like tha’,” Faolan says before I can make another feeble attempt at speech.

“How does it work, then?”

“It— Her eyes shift round and…” I glance at Faolan and for the first time see pink in his cheeks above the scruff, a boyish look about his face as he shuffles from one foot to the other. I can practically see his mind racing through options as his fingers tighten unwittingly on my elbow, where they’ve settled once more. “Look, why are you always trying to explain the unexplainable, eh? Embrace the wonder of the unknown for once.”

Kiara levels him with a look. “Deal’s off.”

“No!” Faolan releases me to step forward. Any hint of his charm and humor are gone. “You said I’d get a year from when I first brought up the island, and I still have six weeks left. The deal’s done.”

“That was before I knew you’d be taking on a pathetic runaway princess as your bargaining chip—magical abilities.” She sneers. “Come off it.”

“I’ve given youeverythingyou ever asked for, Kiara.” Faolan stops a hairsbreadth from her, voice dropping to a snarl. Kiara does not flinch. “Since I was sixteen years old, I have chased down every creature, every problem, everymythyou’ve tasked me. How is this one different?”

“Because it was only ever your life we put at risk. Not our people’s.” Kiara glares past his shoulder to me. “It was a fair trade for what I spared when I gave you that ship in the first place. You still owe me—”

“I’ve paid you back for my life tenfold—I have! And you promised me last summer that the Isle of Lost Souls was the last job.Ten years, Kiara. I’ll owe nothing more after I find it for you. Are you telling me I can’t count your word to be reliable,my queen?”

Faolan lands his mark. The cabin air goes still as a midwinter night until I swear I can hear the soft metal song of a blade drawn, the edge of it slicing down my spine.

I double over, gasping, when a hand seizes mine.

There is a flash of red hair.

Blood?

Something inside me vibrates, pushing against the tattoo and amulet both. A howl rends the air—then a pop like a lyre string split in half.

An arrow…in her hand?

The vision leaves me as quickly as it came, broken into a dozen fractured pieces that refuse to form a single image again. Fear sparks nausea, and I wind my arms tight across my ribs as my head throbs with suppressed magic. It is unpredictable—terrifying.

Faolan releases my hand only to brush the sweaty, dark strands of hair from my eyes.

“Let her see,” Faolan says, his voice muffled as though spoken through water. But obedience is the one thing that comes easy to me, after a lifetime in my father’s home.

I lift my chin. Immediately, Kiara startles back a step, her frown etched into deep lines. I can see her trying to sort out the change, reckon if it’s in her mind or not, but my tongue is thick and my throat dry.

I’ve no explanations left.

“Faolan…” She turns on the young captain. “If this turns out to be one of your tricks—a ruse or a game—if you’ve wasted an entire year of my time on this or try to run on your bargain, don’t forget there is nowhere you can sail that I won’t find you. And I swear I’ll make you suffer for it.”

Her eyes cut back to me, the same glassy green of soft spring leaves when the sun flickers through. I nearly swallow my tongue, knowing there’s a wasp hidden beneath each one. “Same goes for the lass. Now you’re married, whatever consequences you face will be hers as well.” Her lips flicker into a grimace. “Remember, she’ll happily follow the path you lay for her.”

I cringe at the nasty twist she’s placed upon my vows, hearing them properly for the first time.

Hearingeverythingproperly.

“Consequences?” My voice is too soft to be heard as Faolan murmurs something that yields a reluctant smile from Kiara. I steel myself as blood pools beneath my cheeks. “What do you mean—”

Faolan squeezes Kiara’s shoulder and then marches to the door, flinging it wide. “Well, we’d best be off now if we want the stories to do this justice. And you’ve got to let the groom know his bride’s run off—won’t that be fun?”

Kiara weighs the knotted cords in her hand. “It almost makes all this rubbish worth it.”

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