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“Oh.” She trailed her hand gently over his chest as she walked past, nails leaving red welts against his skin. “I think you would like me very much.”

She disappeared down the stairs, humming as she went. I tracked her, making sure she stayed away from where Aldric coiled ropes on the stern.

She settled on the bow, dangling her legs over the rail as the sea surged beneath her.

Aldric’s nature made him the perfect subject for her manipulation, and I wanted to keep them far away from each other.

Difficult considering the way his eyes tracked her every movement with the concentration of a dog pining for a feed.

The flush that had crept up Solas’s neck caused a chuckle to escape me.

“Do not say a fucking word,” he warned, raising a finger at me as his auburn strands fell loose from their leather tie.

Waves lapped at the hull of the ship as it carved through the water. The steady swaying soothed the unease growing in my gut.

Grey, oppressive clouds pressed over us, the blood moon painting the horizon a glowing red over the black waters.

The Whispering Isle grew closer. It was not so much an island as a small dot of land in the centre of a cursed sea surrounded by a graveyard of sunken ships.

Mist crept along the surface of the water, weaving between the dead bones of shipwrecks as we grew closer.

I steered around the wrecks, following the deeper channel carved into the rocks below. The last thing I needed was to run aground, damning Solas and Aldric in the process.

“Why do I feel like we are being watched?” Solas asked, voice breaking against the eerie stillness.

The mist swirled on the starboard side of the ship and shadows withered around me, crawling up my legs protectively.

Multiple heads breached the water, lips still beneath the surface as they tracked us with their pale, unblinking eyes.

“Because we are,” I muttered as the last faint glow of day light leaking through the clouds bled into the night. “Keep away from the railings.”

Solas let out an annoyed grunt, but a moment later, his boots thudded down the stairs to the main deck. He spoke in hushed tones to Aldric, who looked out into the gloomy horizon with wide, fearful eyes.

An unfamiliar feeling spread through my gut, churning like the swell beneath us as the Whispering Isles grew closer.

It felt like a thousand wasps had taken flight in my stomach, bashing against my innards and begging to break free.

I gripped the wheel a little tighter to stop my trembling hands. Weather it was due to the rot spreading or nerves, I was not sure.

But with each painful beat of my heart, an unbidden fear grew within my chest.

What if she has fallen in love with Helion? What if he does not let her come back to me because I did not find a fucking serpent?

I sailed through the gloom, shoving the thoughts deep down where they could not get in my way.

As much as it had broken me to feel her betrayal, she was still my bonded. I was dying, and she was still my last wish.

“Run the anchor!” I bellowed across the deck, voice breaking the strange silence that seemed to press in from all sides.

The clatter of chains followed by the heavy splash of water brought the ship to a halt. A steadying breath left me while I walked down the steps towards Aldric and Solas.

The prince’s eyes tracked the dark veins pulsating across my chest and regarded me with something close to sympathy. The expression that made me want punch him in the throat and watch him splutter.

Instead of saying something stupid, his lips thinned. Dipping his head in the smallest of nods, he handed me the jar of Stonebriar’s sand.

It was a small gesture, but the unsaid words seemed to pass between us. He needed me to bring back his sister.

I extended my arm towards Solas, hating the way his gaze trailed along the pulsating black veins extending over my skin like a map to my death.