Page 37 of The Demons in the Deep: Extended Edition
“Feral.” Flay’s voice, light and merry, but with a note of steel in it.
“Here to spoil the party, brother?” Feral’s palm left Mai’s waist, and he stepped back.
“Not at all,” Flay replied. “Mai is a sister to me. I’m simply here to see that you respect her.”
“The way you made our father respect your woman?”
A muscle in Flay’s jaw ticked, but he didn’t answer. With a brusque laugh and a wink at Mai, Feral stalked away.
Flay stood motionless, his good hand tightened in a fist.
“Are you all right?” Mai touched his arm.
He vented a ragged laugh. “I should be asking you that question.”
“It’s all right, you know. Kestra doesn’t blame you for what your father did. He slapped her, yes, but you were being choked at the time.”
“But I blame myself.” He spoke under his breath, blue eyes burning. “In this city I’mweak, Mai. I want nothing more than to protect her, but I can’t. If I’d been on schedule, I could have dropped off my cargo and left at once with Kestra, without any unpleasantness from my father. That was my plan, to take her with me to some lovely town like Meroa, where she would be safe. But everything changed—the delay, the loss of my hand, the storms, the damage to the ship. I should have left Kestra on Kiken Island. With the mermaids gone, it wassafe. She would have been secure there, until I returned. But I was selfish, and I wanted her with me.”
“If Kestra doesn’t want to do a thing, she won’t do it. She wouldn’t have come along unless she wanted to.”
“Andyou,” Flay said. “We should have left you behind. This is too dangerous a game for you as well, especially now that Feral has set his sights on you.”
“Set his sights on me?” Mai laughed a little. “I can’t imagine why.”
“Can’t you?” Flay smiled. “You’re adorable, and smarter than all of us. You’re ingenious and inventive, a worthy ally—and my brother can sense a profitable investment from leagues away. He may have backed off for now, but he won’t stop. Thorn and thunder, this is such a mess.”
His gaze flicked to something behind Mai. “And here come the investors, the influencers, wanting to speak to me. I shall have to play the debonair, self-assured captain, certain of my victory, so they will give us the financing we need to build a racing ship. Each captain and crew get seven days to build their vessel, starting the day after tomorrow. The others will have been working on designs for months.”
Mai turned and saw several gaudily dressed people gliding toward their corner. “I’ll leave you to your pandering, then.”
“No, by the tides—stay,” he begged. “Help me.”
“I’m no good at talking to people,” Mai protested. “Kestra should be at your side. Where is she?”
“Dancing with some noble or other. She’s helping our cause too, currying favor with those who have deep pockets. Stand with me, Sparrow, please.”
So Mai stood with him as he gaily greeted a never-ending swirl of high-ranking officials, merchants, and nobles. He introduced her as “a talented inventor and a dear friend, who is helping me design the ship that will win the Race!” Which made Mai proud, but also incredibly uncomfortable.
Still, she managed to smile and nod at the guests circulating past her. She followed Flay’s example, offering bold statements and pretty reassurances without much substance behind them. But all the while her mind was busy dredging up old designs, shuffling through the options, taking a piece from this sketch and another from that, assembling them into something new. She began to have a desperate need for a graphite stick and sketchbook, or any scrap of paper, really. Something on which to draw the ideas clustering and crowding in her brain.
When Mai thought her cheeks would split from smiling, the Magnate and his wife paraded over to her and Flay.
“Is this her?” Flay’s mother looked Mai up and down. “I thought you said Flay’s girl was fat,” she muttered aside to her husband. “Was that your idea of a joke? She’s thin as a twig.”
“Mother,” said Flay, in a tone darker than any Mai had ever heard him use. “This is Kestra’s cousin Mai. Kestra, being the beautiful and desirable woman she is, has been a popular dance partner all night. She’s dancing now.”
“Indeed. Well, son, everyone is talking about that savage thingyou put onstage as your champion. What is it, exactly?” She lifted the stone of a large ring on her finger, revealing a tiny compartment filled with powder. She snorted the powder up one nostril, pressing the other shut with a long nail.
“I was surprised, boy,” said the Magnate gruffly. “Thought you didn’t take exotic slaves.”
“He’s not a slave. He’s a member of my crew.”
“Since when?”
“Since recently.” Flay held his father’s gaze.
Mai swallowed nervously. She and Kestra and Aunt Lumina had had their share of family squabbles, but those were nothing like the tension she sensed among Flay’s family members—as if, deep down, where the natural love of blood relatives should be, there was merely a crawling, avaricious hatred.
