Page 142 of Enchanted Shadows
The sea breeze whipped against my face as I moved directions and walked to the other side of the boat. The worst part of these ships was that there wasn’t room to move around and stretch enough. Other than taking laps around the deck of the ship like I was currently doing.
“Hey,” Miles greeted as he joined me walking.
“Hey.”
“We should be home in three hours. Zaire will run patrols all week checking on things,” he reminded me.
I knew all of that, I just wanted off this damn ship.Neededoff this damn ship. “I know.”
“You seem annoyed this morning, Commander.”
“I haven’t sparred since the last time we did, and Agria didn’t even put up a fight. I’m restless,” I agreed.
“What do you need?”
“I need ... my wife.” If that made me sound a bit desperate, so be it. I was desperate to get back to things just as they had been before I left.
Miles was quiet a moment before he said, “Not so fake anymore, huh?”
I let out a long sigh. “Not at all.”
“Training will be fun to get back into then,” Miles joked.
“I’m going to need some unbiased help, but I’m not sure that will be either you or Emric,” I added.
“What is that supposed to me?—”
He cut off entirely, as every bit of my power flared to life. And not because I’d rallied it. That could only mean one thing. Someone meant me harm. My power recognized a threat.
My eyes scanned the horizon but every which way I looked there was an endless blue ripple. No land, no other ships in sight. “Were you just thinking of kicking my ass?” I bit out to Miles.
“No. I mean yes. I always want to beat you, but not real harm.”
I believed him. If Miles wanted to kill me, he already would’ve.
My magic flared again, this time hard enough I paused my walking.
“What is it?” Miles looked around as he moved to guard me from an invisible threat.
I bit out, “What are the odds while we were docked that someone shrouded in shadow came aboard?” I looked for pockets of that impenetrable dark on the deck of the ship. I found none, the sun was high, it was lunch time. But that didn’t mean someone couldn’t be below deck hiding, someone who intended harm.
Miles signaled for Team One and pulled them in.
I let him take the lead as I was trying to listen to my body and figure out where the threat was coming from.
Miles’s voice commanded, “Search the ship. Search the entire damn ship. Something is wrong.”
An hour later,my power seemed to be appeased. Calmer. Yet we had searched every room of the ship, every nook and crate, and found nothing.
No one extra was aboard this ship. No pockets of darkness concealing someone.
Miles was barking orders at Team One about docking, getting everyone off the ship organized and in a hurry. Everyone was on high alert.
“What are the odds Calix or Damek were plotting my death so very specifically that my magic flared?” I asked Miles when he finished.
“Terrible. I can’t imagine this far away you would feel it.”
He was likely right. “But we were in the middle of the sea.”
