Page 64 of By the Flames of Her Fury

“Ah, well,” I said with a hum. “That’s good to know.”

Vera grimaced. “Look, I know it sounds crazy, and it’s probably a lot more dangerous than you signed up for. This is my fight—our fight,” she amended, shooting me a glance, “and I wouldn’t blame the rest of you if you wanted out, now that you know the full story.”

Tessa stood. “We came all this way for a reason, and it wasn’t just to be diplomats, right, Kieran?” He nodded in agreement. “We’ve watched you work toward this for so long, Ev, and we’re not going to stand in your way now.”

I swallowed hard, giving the two of them a tight nod. We both knew she wasn’t just talking about finding Mortep.

“I’ve been fascinated by the kingdom my entire life,” Odessa said eagerly, more curls slipping free. She pushed them behind her ear. “If there’s a chance it truly exists, I want to find it with you.”

The others looked at Starke expectantly, the only one who hadn’t said anything yet. His hand dropped to Vera’s lower back, and my pulse thumped angrily in response. “You should know by now that I can’t say no to you,” he said, the words almost too quiet for me to hear.

But they gutted me all the same.

Vera dipped her head to him, then looked away quickly. “How far are we from Twin Tides?” she asked.

“It’s less than a day’s sail west, if the winds cooperate,” he responded.

“How quickly can we get there, make port to resupply, and let the wounded and anyone else who doesn’t want to come with us get off?” Vera asked.

Starke twisted his lips. “We could do that and be pushing off by tomorrow morning.”

“The day before the spring equinox,” I realized.

Vera’s eyebrow hitched higher. “Sounds like the perfect day to hunt a myth.”

Something settled in my chest as the room fell into a moment of quiet. Finding Vera had always been my main mission, the only thing I'd allowed myself to think about. But now it had grown into something more—a mystery, a lost kingdom, a fight for our retribution. I looked at Vera across the room and saw familiar fire burning behind her eyes. I had spent a year writing letters into the void, wondering if she was alive, wondering if she'd ever come back. Now here we were, standing on the edge of something I couldn't have imagined when I left Drakorum.

Tessa broke the silence. “Are there a couple of spare rooms around? I slept on the quarterdeck last night, and my back is killing me.”

“Our rooms are crowded right now. Why don’t you three take Vera’s?” Starke said to us as he walked toward the door. “V, you can stay with me.”

And there went the end of my patience.

“Absolutely not,” I growled, gripping the edge of the open door. The captain stopped in his tracks. His blue eyes narrowed in warning, mere inches from my own. “Vera stays in her own room. Tessa can sleep in there with her.”

“And where will you two sleep?” he snapped back, looking at Kieran and me.

“On the ground, for all I care.” I pushed the door so that it skimmed his shoulder as I stalked out of it. “But she is not sleeping with you.”

29

Everett

FIVE AND A HALF YEARS AGO

“Are you going to sleep with me?” Songbird asked, her yawn echoing through the hole.

I blinked. “Excuse me?”

“You know what I meant.” She yawned again. “As in, are you about to fall asleep, too?”

“Oh.” Well, now I wasn’t. My mind was wandering down all sorts of directions. “Yeah, I’ll probably go to sleep soon. Why?”

“Nothing. Just checking.” There came rustling from the other side of the wall. “Do you feel okay?”

I couldn’t help but smile. She’d been worried for me over the last week, ever since Mortep’s men tortured me. She was constantly checking in, playing the nervous mother hen, waiting to go to sleep until I did. She even tried to shove as much of her food through the hole as she could. I had to admit, it was sweet. I hadn’t been doted on in years.

“Songbird, I’m nineteen,” I said with a chuckle. “As much as I love the attention, you don’t need to tuck me in every night.”