Page 12 of The Ocean's Heart
My dress was ruined,but King Vaarin had left me with fresh clothes. Soft britches, a baggy cream shirt, and a thick tunic to go over it. There was a large jacket too. My boots were still damp, but there was a pair of long black socks laid out to keep my feet dry.
I dressed slowly, mindful of the dressing pressed to my side, of the throb and burn of the wound that would no doubt take days to heal. I was warm now, swelteringly so, as if King Vaarin had infused me with an everlasting heat.
King Vaarin…
I would not have imagined him so. A century old, I would have expected him to be physically aged, gray-haired, and wrinkled, but it was obvious that the sea folk aged differently than we humans. The king was toned and large with eyes like a gathering storm and a scent to match.
I bit down on my lip as an image of him half naked and gleaming in the candlelight filled my mind. He was a powerfully built male. Broad across the shoulders, tight and toned down his torso so that the muscles made cobblestone that led down to the tantalizing V of his hips. I’d heard tales of the sea fae, of their prowess and carnal hunger. Heard how they shifted form when beneath the waves, had read tales of their undersea city. I’d imagined them to be lithe and light beings. But King Vaarin was a monolith of a man, and when he’d wrapped his body around mine, heat had ignited deep in my belly, blooming outward from there.
If his son had inherited his attributes, then bedding him would be a fine send-off to the afterlife.
As I pulled on my boots, still damp from the storm, a thought occurred to me, one that should have occurred to me sooner. The blue coral route was supposed to be a protected stretch of ocean, free of brigands and marauders, but we had been attacked, and although the men who attacked us had certainly looked the part, they had been accompanied by another. A cloaked figure with power to command the storm. I needed to tell the king of this.
I scraped my damp hair up into a knot and left the chamber in search of the male who would help me save my people.
ChapterSeven
VAARIN
The deck rocks beneath my boots as I study the storm pushing in on us from the east. Another gathers in the west. This one is a natural storm, but the one to the east is moving too fast to be normal.
“They’re coming for her again,” Petyre, my ship’s captain, says. “I don’t understand. Surely they thought she was dead. Isn’t that why they left her there?”
“The Obsidian Pearl has spies in the air. They must have seen us retrieve her.” The Obsidian Pearl will do anything to stop my people from thriving. If we thrive, then the guard against their efforts grows. If we thrive, we may be in a position to assist the other sea kingdoms. Any niece or nephew of mine will carry the gift of fertility, and a marriage between sea realms would spread the good fortune we have stumbled upon. It will unite us.
This woman, this princess is the key to saving us all, one that was hidden from us for too long. If I’d known about the Faircaster royals and their boon, I would have approached them sooner.
Now that I have her, I won’t allow her to be taken.
The wind howls across the deck as if in agreement.
“What will we do, sire?” Petyre runs a hand down his face and the rainwater that soaks him dries beneath his touch. “If we fight, then our precious cargo may be injured, and we cannot take her into the depths with us where we are strongest.”
“No, we can do neither of those things. So we will hide her on land, beneath a natural storm.”
“The Cursed Isle, of course.” His eyes light up. “Genius.”
“You’ll take to the sea. The ship will find its own way home. The princess and I will head west in the rowboat into the natural storm where their eyes cannot see us.”
He nodded. “May the waves be kind.”
“May the depths embrace you.”
“You can’t be up here, Princess!” one of my crew calls out.
I turn to find the princess striding toward me. She’s knotted her dark hair on her head, but the wind tugs at her locks, and tendrils tear free to peck at her cheeks. I can’t help but marvel at her statuesque beauty highlighted even more by the men’s clothing that I provided.
Her face lacks the soft beauty I would expect of a lady of fine breeding. Instead, she has been favored with strong, sharp features that remind me of the ocean warriors of old. Ones that I have only ever seen in pictorial depictions. On her feet now, matched against my men, she is taller than I recall. Or maybe it is just how she holds herself, with a commanding presence, and yes, my men step aside to let her pass, recognizing that command.
A flutter unfurls low in my belly, and irritation flares in its wake, forcing a frown to my face because this is wholly inappropriate.
She comes to stand before me, lifting her face to mine, like a flower to the sun solara, and what am I thinking? Focus, Vaarin.
“King Vaarin, I need to tell you about the men who attacked my ship. I do not believe them to be simple raiders.”
“You do not?”
“No. The blue coral route is under the four sea realms’ protection, is it not?”
