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The faint sounds of movement reached my ears as my now-alert senses tracked the person moving closer to me. Why didn’t he or she speak? My hold on the ladder tightened, until I noticed further details about the two animals. They weren’t chickens escaped from the upper hold or other livestock either. In fact, they felt exactly like a fox and a bird of prey.
“Ember?” I gasped. “Phoenix?”
Orange fur entered the patch of lantern light, Ember trotting daintily forward to lean against my leg. I stared down at her, too astonished to move.
“What are you doing here?”
“I brought them,” said a deep voice as a man stepped into the light, a falcon on his shoulder.
“Nik?” My mouth dropped open, and I left it that way, too stupefied to close it. “What are you doing here?Howare you here?”
He gave me a stern, disapproving look. “Did you really think I was going to let you run off to try to stop Grey alone?”
I grimaced, too guilty to meet his eyes. “I’m sorry that I…There was no time, and I knew you would…”
“Yes, I would have,” he said. “This is an inexcusably fool-headed endeavor, Delphine! What would happen if you got yourself into trouble with all your friends an ocean away? Luckily, your little trick wore off as soon as you ran away. It took me a few moments to regain my wits and work out what had happened, so I was too late to stop you, but in the chaos of the departure, I managed to swim out and climb aboard.”
“So you’ve come along as a stowaway?” I asked, as incensed as him. “And that seems like a more sensible choice?”
He shrugged. “It was the only one you left me. I wasn’t letting this ship sail away without me—not when you were on board.”
“Nik!” I cried in a half-stifled shout, as the full ramifications hit me. “If you’re here, who’s going to tell the others what we discovered? They’ll have no idea of the danger from the island!”
“We’ll just have to find a way to get straight back there,” Nik said implacably, showing no remorse.
“Ugh, you’re impossible!” I muttered.
He stepped closer, but I noticed he remained just out of my reach. Guilt stirred. He had trusted me, and I had betrayed that trust.
“I really am sorry,” I whispered. “I was making decisions under pressure, and….well, it wasn’t my finest moment.”
He stayed where he was, a silent statue in the flickering light, assessing my face with his eyes. I tried to look strong and trustworthy, while inside I remembered every time he had touched me—grabbing my wrist, cupping my cheek, taking my hand, touching his lips to mine. It had never struck me before just how much trust it showed to touch a healer, especially a new healer in training.
Had I just destroyed Nik’s trust?
His face softened, and he stepped closer, coming fully into the circle of my lantern.
“You’re right that you shouldn’t have done it,” he said. “But it’s too late to worry about that. We’re both here now, and what’s more important is what we’re going to do next.”
I looked upward, into the hold above, an obvious fear hitting me.
“You’ve just stowed away on a ship with multiple healers!” I hissed, letting go of the ladder to grab his arm and push him further away from the trapdoor. “Someone is going to sense you down here!”
He shrugged, as if he’d already considered the risk and dismissed it as insubstantial.
“They aren’t mage level strength which means they can’t sense much of anything without physical touch. Their reach won’t stretch this far.”
“What about Grey?”
“Grey isn’t the type to be climbing up and down ladders fetching supplies. He’ll be on deck or in the captain’s cabin, and from there he’ll be feeling people all over the ship. There’s no reason for him to take any particular note of someone being in the hold. You’re the only one likely to discover me.” A smile spread over his face. “And I was hoping you would—sooner rather than later, although you exceeded even my expectations on that one.”
“Nik.” I rolled my eyes, but I was also laughing.
He stalked closer, his eyes dropping to my lips. “I think we have some unfinished business from last time we talked.”
“Nik,” I protested again, putting my free hand up to fend him off even as he slipped an arm around my waist. “Be serious.”
“I am serious. Down here in the pitch dark, wedged between a sack of potatoes and a barrel of flour, there’s not a lot to keep my attention. So I’ve had plenty of opportunity to think about exactly where we left things.” He leaned closer, only stopping when Phoenix ruffled his feathers disapprovingly.
