Page 335 of The Spider Queen
“So you’ll be on the ship, then?” I pressed.
She gritted her teeth. “Now I really don’t like you.”
I smiled, but it dimmed. “What’s in the sea that scares you?”
“I never want to find out. But since my brother refuses to leave you until you are done with this”—she paused—“voyage. Then I have no choice but to remain by his side.”
We stared at one another, two women, strong in different ways, loyal in different ways too. I answered the question she couldn’t bring herself to ask.
“Your brother’s heart is safe. I promise.”
“Aloysius has always led with his heart. That’s his greatest blessing—and his greatest curse. He’ll fall in love with you because he can’t help himself.”
“I offer him nothing but grief and heartache. Why would he let himself fall in love with me?”
She stared at me with understanding eyes. “Did you have a choice in falling for the man you gave your heart to?”
It was my turn to fall silent.
“Valid point,” I said softly.
“Finish your breakfast. We leave in an hour.”
Meghan moved to the door, but my voice stopped her. “I meant what I said. I want nothing from your brother. I will gladly take his friendship and aid, and offer whatever I can in return, but my heart is not on the table.”
Her smile was sure. “If anyone has a chance of making you forget about another man, it’s my brother.”
I let her go, not bothering to tell her that the man I’d fallen in love with was no mere mortal, so what human could possibly measure up to the broken, destructive Prince of Darkness?
And what did it say about me that I wanted Lucifer anyway?
Chapter 28
By the third day of our journey, my insanity was at its height. Because I was with humans who needed rest in ways that I didn’t, we camped at night. They slept. I tried to rest, but it was useless. By the morning, I’d be muttering to myself, having no recollection of the day before. Only when we started moving again did the madness clear from my mind. My human companions did not suffer the same fate because they belonged to the desert. Thankfully, the heat no longer bothered me due to the metal armor I was given. It was smithed with some sort of magic to repel the heat.
It took six days for our four-person band to reach the edge of the sea. Meghan stared at it with something akin to fear. When she caught me looking at her, she haughtily squared her shoulders and schooled her face into a bland expression. As Dorian and Aloysius looked at each other in obvious trepidation, I stripped off my armor, removed my boots, and waded into the salt water.
“Stella!” Aloysius cried.
I laughed and floated on my back. What would they do if they saw that I could breathe underwater, knew that I’d been to Atlantis and befriended a merrow?
“I’m fine!” I called back.
“You don’t know what lives in the depths,” Dorian bellowed. “Get out!”
Not wanting to cause them more worry, I swam back toward the shore and came out of the water. My clothes stuck to my skin, but for the first time in days, I felt like my lungs and skin were no longer coated in dust and sand. I was done with the desert and I wanted to sail away immediately.
There was just one problem…
“There’s no sign of a boat or a ship,” I said to them.
Aloysius stood with his arms crossed over his chest and a glare on his face. “You may be immortal, but you can’t do whatever you want whenever you want.”
I raised my eyebrows but said nothing. If he was asking for an apology, he wasn’t going to get it. In fact, I felt my own anger beginning to simmer. I was tired of high-handed men ordering me around. “The ship?” I pressed. “Where is it?”
“At the bottom of the ocean,” Meghan voiced. She looked from me to her brother, silently asking us not to engage in a battle of wills.
“The bottom of the ocean?” I repeated.
