My breath caught, suddenly tight. If he thought he’d convince me to board a ship, he was entirely mistaken. I wouldn’t. I’d rather take up residence on this cliffside until I starved.
I arched my back, trying to shake the sudden rigor mortis from my limbs while remaining calm. “I’d say you’re hotheaded enough to keep us both warm.”
Cuffs cut into the skin at my wrists. Hands wrenched my knees apart. Pain exploded over my cheek, a sharp ringing piercing my eardrum.
He raised a brow. “I’mhotheaded?”
I closed my eyes, banishing the ringing in my ears. “You have a temper.”
Kye gave a short bark of laughter. The wind played through the channel like a mouth on a flute, woody and breathy, catching his strands. “Are you looking for a reason to share my heat, Leihani? Is that why you want to get back in the water?”
His tone was playful, but as I peeped an eye open to steal a glance at him, he gazed out at the twinkling city lights, brows furrowed. He crossed his arms, hiding his thoughts. I wished I could crack open the door to his mind, if only to steal a glance inside.
Huddled into the rocks, I smoothed the legs of my pirate pants and cast my eyes out over the sea, ignoring the flush his comment sent through my skin. “No. It’s not that cold.”
Across from me, he laughed darkly, lacing his fingers behind his head. “Just think it over—what you might need in the city. I want to be ready when we enter town so we’re not trying to imagine everything we might need on the spot.”
“Fine,” I said, eyes still on the waves.
He watched me again, though he didn’t say anything. Another sandpiper landed on the ledge above, twitching its neck to stare at the crawfish we’d boiled. It gave a low squawk then hopped out onto the sea air, catching the breeze between its feathers.
“What is it about the water, Leihani?”
My brows twitched. “What do you mean?”
“You’re always staring at it.”
I opened my mouth to disagree and faltered.WasI always staring at it?
“In Leihani, you’d sit and watch it in your canoe,” he said, tilting his head. “In the City of Towers, you did the same from your balcony. The night of our engagement, you went to the edge of the cliffs outside to study them. You were so deep in thought, I didn’t want to interrupt you. But you stood so close to the edge I thought you might jump. It scared me enough to say something.”
Absently, I smoothed my pants again, remembering that night.
If you’re going to jump, you might as well time it right. Just in case you have any second thoughts.
I scoffed. “You told me to jump.”
“No, I told you to calculate so you'd hit the waves the tide would pull you under. But I knew you wouldn’t jump if you realized someone was watching you.”
“And how would you know that?”
One of his fingers twitched behind his head, but the rest of him sat, unmoving against the tree. “No one jumps when they think someone is watching. That’s something you decide to do only when you’re alone.”
The wind shifted, sending a sudden chill down my spine. My gaze traveled slowly to meet his. “Had you been considering it?”
His eyes twinkled in the dim light of dusk, but the rest of him remained impossibly still.
A weight anchored in my chest at the sudden notion that our engagement had driven him to visit the edge of the sea with nothing but a bottle of liquor as his only company. From the way he watched me under his lashes, I didn’t need the question answered. I knew. Webothknew.
Kye sighed through his nose. A flat pebble sat beside him, and he picked it up, turning it in his hands. He swallowed. “No. Not that night.”
“Butanight.”
His mouth opened and closed. “A night.”
“Tell me which night,” I said softly. “And I’ll tell you why I love the sea.”
Kye resituated his head against the tree, eyes on his pebble. “My earliest memory was the day Jonet was born,” he murmured, rotating the stone between his fingers. “I remember the servants bringing Hadrian and me into the nursery. They told us we needed to keep our voices soft for the baby. Hadrian was five, I was almost three. He’s been a sun-damned king since birth, you know. Always so calm and serious. He took one look at Jonet, nodded his approval, and went to his corner of the nursery where all his books were shelved to practice his letters.”
