Page 20 of Enchantment of Silver and Sea
“Kieran,” Nya said reproachfully. She had the map out and was carefully moving my candles to make room for it on the desk. “You’re being rude.”
Kieran laughed. A deep, rumbling sound that traveled up from his chest. I wanted to tell him to shut up and never stop. “No,you’rebeing rude. Be quiet and let Maila finish telling me about my own family.”
In spite of myself, I felt a thrill at the sound of my name on his lips. Of course they both knew my name. How else would they have tracked me down? And yet, it was the first time he had spoken it.
I was aggravated with him, though. More aggravated than I probably should have been. But I couldn’t quite place why that was.
“Never mind,” I said, standing to go look at the map.
Kieran caught my arm. His hand was warm and rough from what felt like many years’ worth of calluses.
“Hey,” he said, his already-low voice dropping an octave. The humor had vanished from his face. “I’m not making funof you. I just hate talking about my family. If you even want to call them that.”
“So you really are…” I swallowed reflexively. “Whatever that being was, that that group encountered in the forest. That’s what you are? What your family is?”
“I’m half that,” he corrected. He sat up and threw his legs over the edge of the bed. He was still holding onto my arm, and I struggled to process his words while every part of my brain zeroed in on that contact. “My mother was human.”
A thousand questions boiled up in me all at once. “Your mother married a…” Again, I searched for the right words, not wanting to offend him. “A magical being?”
He laughed. “No, they weren’t married.” His voice had resumed that patient tone, like he was speaking to a child. “That wouldn’t have even been a possibility. My father was absolutely forbidden to marry a human woman. And I doubt he wanted to, anyway. But they did like each other.”
His grip on my arm tightened a bit, and his thumb grazed my skin ever so slightly. A movement just subtle enough that Nya, leaned over the map at my desk, didn’t take notice of it.
“Apparently,” he said with a grin. “My mother couldn’t resist my father’s eyes.”
I tried to swallow, but my throat wouldn’t cooperate. I scrambled for something witty to say back. My mind was blank. Apparently my entire body was going to fail me in this moment. To my horror, what suddenly escaped my mouth was, “I think your eyes are really nice.”
“I know you do,” he said, chuckling softly. His laugh wasn’t mean-spirited or poking fun at me this time. It was more like…like we were sharing a private joke.
We were staring at each other again. But this time, the heat that flooded me wasn’t from nervousness. And maybe I was just seeing what I wanted to see, but I could have sworn it was matched in his eyes.
The silence was broken by a gagging noise coming from my desk. “I’m going to start requesting that someone else accompany me on these missions,” Nya said without looking up.
“You know you don’t mean that,” Kieran replied, but he still let go of my arm.
Not wanting to continue standing there awkwardly, I resumed walking over to the desk. My head was tilted toward the map, but my eyes were unseeing.
“I do mean it. In fact, maybe I’ll bring Xiomara.” Nya finally looked up. She was the one smirking now.
“You’re no fun, Nya,” Kieran sighed. I had my back turned to him, but I could tell he wasn’t smiling anymore. There was a soft thump as he flopped back down on the bed.
I wanted to ask who Xiomara was, but something told me I wasn’t going to get an answer.
“What we need this time,” Nya explained, her voice all business now, “is assistance with raiding a cave devillair.”
I thought at first that I hadn’t heard her correctly. “A cave devil lair?”
She nodded, her mouth twisted into a grimace.
“I want to make sure we’re talking about the same creatures. As far as our Library is concerned, ‘cave devils’ are huge, nasty, humanoid beasts who build their dwellings in the sides of rocky hills and mountains.”
She nodded again.
My eyes flitted over the map, and this time I actually took in what was before me. Drawings—crudely done, as promised—of trees and other foliage, rocks, something that I took to be dirt paths. And taking up almost the entire top half of the map, a sketch of what looked to be a colossal rock formation, with multiple…holes? Windows? No, doors. Entrances.
“There’s a cave devil lair near here?” I couldn’t hide the disbelief in my voice. Did The Council know about this? And if so, were they taking any precautions? Sending Enforcers on a supply run when cave devils had settled in the area was like sending them straight to their deaths.
“It’s not that close,” Nya reassured me, and I nearly sagged with relief. “But a week’s travel on foot will get you there.”
