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I don’t want them to leave. I want them in any form they’re in.

“I don’t mind. Let’s both get comfortable.” I move to the edge of my blanket and roll myself up. “Now it’s your turn.”

“Must you always talk me into dangerous ideas?” they ask.

I understand what’s so risky about this situation. I should be working to untangle my life from theirs, not weaving myself further into it.

But I’ll deal with that later.

“Yes.”

They dissolve into a cloud of shimmering stardust and re-form themself into a figure the size of my thumb, their wings keeping them afloat above my shoulder. They land and crawl into my hair, nesting in the crook of my neck.

16

CORDELIA

“Where the devil is Ross?”

Darcy tugs on her collar as she patrols the deck.

“My guess is that he’s indisposed at some inn,” James says, wiping an oil-stained rag across the windlass. “Knowing him, he won’t be stumbling aboard until half-past ten.”

“That won’t do. The crew is ready to go.” Darcy watches the men and women racing to secure heavy crates. “We can’t risk them changing their minds and going back to their families now that I’ve informed them of what we’re doing. Hopefully, Ross hasn’t gone running his mouth about our mission.”

James jumps down from the riser, his white shirt smudged with grease. “You worry too much about the wrong things, cousin. Don’t forget we’re going off to hunt an ice dragon.”

“The creature is still stuck inside of an ice formation. There’s no real danger until she fully awakens,” Darcy says, but James slings his harpoon gun over his shoulder.

I dig my teeth into my bottom lip. Hopefully there’s some truth to Zephyr’s theory about the ice dragon’s capsule thawing slowly, and we aren’t sailing straight into a trap.

I still have no idea why the sea witch is releasing another rune-locked beast in the Undine Sea, but the last time she did, the stoor wyrm almost got me.

I wander to the stern as the sails go up on the brig’s three masts and flinch away from the railing, startled by a buzzing swarm of bees. I’ve been warned about the tiny creatures, but Zephyr is leaning closer to them, apparently unbothered by their stingers.

We’ve been meeting secretly in my bedchamber for the last few nights, but I can never seem to catch them in the daylight.

Their mouth moves, and I smile because it almost looks like they’re talking to the insects, their face softening in a way that it wouldn’t if they knew someone was watching.

I hold my breath so they won’t hear me. They catch me unaware all the time, but I rarely get to see them unguarded.

Zephyr waves their hand, and the insects bumble away in a cluster of black-and-yellow stripes.

“Were you speaking to the bees?” I ask, and their features snap back into place.

“Uh. Maybe.” They rub the back of their head, then nod to someone behind me. “G’morning, Bijou.”

I notice how hard I’m staring at them and pull my eyes away, turning to greet the priestess.

She lifts a pile of tomes. “Reading aloud helps to pass the time. Would you like to listen to some stories?”

“No, thank you,” Zephyr declines. “I told the Duchess I’d keep a lookout for any strange happenings.”

“I’ll join you,” I tell Bijou, waiting for an opportunity to jump in with a question about the Undine.

Unfortunately, her tales don’t leave any openings to discuss an ancient, forbidden form of magic. It seems unwise to venture anywhere near that topic as a group forms around us.

The Heartbreak Isles are rich with superstitions, and even Bijou’s mild ghost stories raise the crew’s hackles.