“Niya,” said Larkyra gently, coming to her side. “Is this true? Do you . . . have feelings for Alōs?”
Niya felt like a cornered animal as she glanced between her two sisters. She wanted to hiss and claw away their confused expressions. Panic swirled around her, her magic spinning with her terror, but instead of lashing out, she did something even she was not prepared for.
She covered her face and cried.
And it wasn’t a gentle cry. No, Niya let loose ugly, gulping tears that racked her entire body as every emotion she had grappled with for the past few months surged out of her.
She hiccuped a breath as arms suddenly wrapped tightly around her.
Larkyra and Arabessa hugged her, which only seemed to set off more tears.
But by the stars and sea, it felt good.
Even as it pained Niya to be so vulnerable, it felt like the first real breath she had taken in so very long.
“Get it out.” Arabessa stroked Niya’s hair.
“Yes, all of it.” Larkyra’s arms tightened. “Arabessa doesn’t mind getting snot on her robe, do you, Ara?”
“I’m sorry.” Niya wiped at her face, stepping back. “I don’t know what’s come over me.”
“You’ve been through much this year,” said Arabessa. “And it appears much more has come to pass between you and the pirate since you stepped aboard the Crying Queen than we had originally thought. We had our suspicions when we watched you both in the Thief Kingdom but were not quite sure what to make of it.”
“Neither do I,” admitted Niya.
“I mean, after all that he’s put you through, threatened our family with,” said Larkyra, “we didn’t think it possible that you’d . . . but of course now, understanding his past with his brother’s sickness, yet still—”
“He saved my life.”
Larkyra’s brows drew together. “Excuse me?”
“With the giants,” said Niya. “You know how we were forced to fight for our freedom?”
Her sisters nodded.
“Alōs didn’t lift a finger to hurt me. He just stood there, letting me hit him. Over and over.” Her fists ached at the phantom memories of them connecting with his jaw. “He sacrificed himself so I could go free.”
“He . . . he did?” Larkyra blinked.
“Are you sure?” asked Arabessa.
“Quite.”
“Well then . . . ,” breathed Larkyra.
“That does rather complicate things,” admitted Arabessa.
“Yes,” said Niya. “But it also can’t. He and I . . .” That familiar pain in her chest again. “Beyond what connects us with this binding bet, our duties afterward do not lie on the same path.” She shook her head. “So it doesn’t matter how things might have changed. The only importance right now is that we find him, preferably before he dies, so he can save Esrom as he is meant to.”
Her sisters watched her a long moment, no doubt wondering whether that speech had been meant to convince them or her.
“So what’s our plan?” asked Arabessa.
A wave of relief fell over Niya. “We have to find where they are holding him.”
“And how do you suggest we do that?” asked Larkyra. “Their city is huge, with huge citizens lumbering about.”
“Yes,” agreed Niya. “But I have a good hunch that he’ll be kept in the chief’s manor, which is at the edge of the town. We just need to—”
Niya’s words died away as a shiver of cold caressed along the back of her neck.
She swiveled around, gazing into a tangle of trees.
But the jungle stayed quiet. Shards of sunlight pierced through the canopy, highlighting dancing pollen and creeping phlox.
“What is it?” asked Arabessa.
The cool touch ran along Niya’s neck once again.
“That bastard,” she muttered, stomping into the forest.
“Where are you going?” asked Arabessa as she and Larkyra scrambled to follow her.
“To kill someone,” Niya growled.
“That seems counterintuitive.” A silky voice wafted through the forest then. “Seeing as you came to save my life.”
Alōs stepped from behind a moss-covered boulder, his large form not at all diminished by his surroundings. Despite his bruised face, he still moved like the prince he was, beautiful and dangerous and utterly sure of his standing.
Certainly not at all concerned that he was meant to be caged inside a giants’ city just a few paces behind them.
Niya’s entire being fought with a cacophony of emotions at seeing him here, alive.
“Lord Ezra.” Arabessa spoke first. “We were led to believe you were about to be the centerpiece of a giant’s barbecue.”
Alōs’s gaze moved from where it had been pinned to Niya to take in the eldest Bassette. “I was. Until I wasn’t.”
“Should we be preparing to run, then?” asked Larkyra.
“Not unless you desire exercise. I walked away a free man.”
A bird called in the distance, filling the dubious silence as his words slammed against Niya.
“‘Walked away a free man’?” she repeated, incredulous.
“Yes. With a rather warm send-off, in fact.”
“No.” Niya shook her head, confusion swirling. “No.”
“I think it’s true,” said Larkyra. “He’s standing right here, after all, and no giants appear to be giving chase.”
“I don’t believe it,” Niya insisted.
“How can you not believe what you see?” asked Arabessa.
“Because!” yelled Niya. “We were forced to fight for our freedom. I bruised up your face! You were to be eaten. Why, then, would they merely let you go?”
“Perhaps they realized he’d taste gross?” suggested Larkyra.
“It’s idiotic!” Niya threw out her hands, irritation soaring along with her magic. Tricks, it whispered. Tricks. “You’re telling me I made Kintra my enemy, summoned my sisters from the far reaches of Aadilor, fought the entire crew until they lay unconscious, and then sneaked back to this horribly humid, giant-infested island in an attempt to save you, just for you to walk away a free man?”
A softness settled into Alōs’s features as he held her gaze. “I’m flattered you went to such lengths, fire dancer. But yes, it appears so.”
A frustrated growl ripped from Niya.
But instead of shoving him with her coiling powers, Niya found herself throwing her arms around him instead.
Alōs stiffened beneath her, no doubt just as caught off guard, but then his hands slipped across her back, hugging her tight.
“Hello,” he said softly.
Niya breathed him in, savoring Alōs’s cool sea breeze hidden under a layer of dirt. Her gifts swirled around his, hot and cold reunited.
He was here.
He was not dead.
He was—
A throat clearing pulled Niya from the moment.
She stepped quickly back. Cheeks no doubt ruby red.
“Well,” began Arabessa. “Now that we’ve had that . . . reunion checked off, shall we return to the ship? I’d rather not dawdle while hungry giants roam behind us.”
As they walked toward the beach, Alōs fell into step beside Niya, washing her in his cool presence. She did her best not to meet her sisters’ stares. Stares that she all too easily felt aimed at her back as they kept close behind.
You’ve fallen for him.
Arabessa’s words twisted up in her heart.
You are more valuable on this plane than I, fire dancer.
Alōs’s pained gaze as he’d stroked her cheek, bleeding in her arms, gripping her tight.
She had fallen for him. How could she not? He had proved just how much he had changed from the young man who had once betrayed her. He’d put her life above his own. Had trusted her to complete the final part in saving his home, his brother, without him. He had given her everything as he’d lain on the floor in the giant’s throne room, spoken his heart as he’d held her in her bedroom within the thief palace.
Yet still, did it change anything?
He was still a pirate captain, bound for the sea and treasure raids, just as she was duty bound to her family, to the Mousai and her king.
The emotions she was feeling—relief mixed with anger, joy mixed with confusion—muddled her thoughts even more. All she knew was that something had shifted inside her, had moved out of the way, but she didn’t know what to do about it. What she could do about it.
She looked up then to find Alōs watching her.