Page 52 of Soulgazer

“Feck!” The word slips from my mouth, and we blink stupidly at each other before she breaks into a laugh—a genuine one. The first I’ve heard from her.

“That’s the best you can do, Wolf Tamer?” Brona asks, and for some reason, a laugh tears free from me as well.

“Give me a minute, and I’ll do better.”

“Aye, I’ll bet—” Brona starts before Lorcan catches her by the waist and hauls her into his currach. She immediately shoves his arm away, cheeks flushing in spite of her glare, but I’m still laughing as someone helps me into the other boat.

It’s only when I’m settled down in one end that I notice Faolan seated on the other side.

His lips are always tilted up at the corners, but there’s something new to their set now. His chest is puffed out, shirt gone, one arm wrapped and bloody propped along the side of the wee boat as though he hopes I’ll ask about it. And there between his feet are two fish, mangled as though he had to wrestle one of the dolphins to get them.

Faolan stares at me, and it’s so clear he’s waiting for praise, I can’t help it.

I burst into laughter—harder than before.

Every time I glimpse his face, the fit gets worse. I’m doubled over myself, cackling, gripping the boat as his expression goes from taken aback to confused and then to a childlike pout.

“Oi—do you know what I had to go through, getting these? You could at least act a wee bit impressed.”

My breaths are a wheeze, fingers curled hard over my side where an ache has begun, and it’s all I can do to look at Brona, who’s watching me with the smile back on her lips. She snorts and tosses the sack of gills directly into Faolan’s lap.

“You were saying, Captain?”

My unruly laughter tapers down to a few soft chuckles as Faolan unties the bag and stares at its contents, looking from Brona to me and back again. “Right. Well…feckin’ good job you’ve done here, Brona.”

“Don’t look at me. It was your wife’s idea.”

I expect my body to crumple at the sudden attention, the weight of all their eyes. Instead, I shift slightly back and wind my arms loosely over my knees, watching them all over the tops.

Faolan watches me right back, dark brows knit in a line. “How’d you figure it out?”

I glance at the others, conscious of their listening ears. “I…felt like we ought to look up, once the tuar ceatha arrived. And then I saw the cranes carrying fish to their nesting grounds on top, so I…What?”

Faolan’s lips have spread into a wolfish grin that lights his whole face. It punches me clean of breath.

“Youfelt?”

“Aye. But— Don’t touch my stomach!” I squirm back from the finger he’s teased against my soft middle, and he laughs, shaking his head.

“Sorry, but where’d you feel it? There, in your gut?”

I shake my head and, before he gets any more ideas, lock my arms protectively over my waist. “No, it was just—I just—”

I’m beginning to doubt it was even magic now. My power has always led to pain before, hasn’t it?

“If anyone else had tried looking up, they’d have seen it as well. Anyway, that’s not the important bit.”

“It seems pretty damn important to me,” Faolan says, lifting a gruesome set of gills from the sack. He drops them when I touch his wrist, eyes snapping to mine.

“I saw my family’s crest on a flag right before we jumped. It’s crafted in the old style, before my father changed the pattern. Just past that ridge.” I glance past his shoulder, then study Faolan’s expression as it shifts from excitement to awe to something else. Something I’ve wanted to see my whole life.

Pride. Lining every part of his face.

“You found her.”

I nod, my throat thick as Faolan releases a half-broken laugh, then catches my cheeks between his palms. I hardly have time to breathe before he’s kissed the tip of my nose.

It’s a nothing spot. Should be a nothing kiss.

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