by Becca Andre
Still gripping the dock, she leaned over and brushed his lips with hers.
“What are you doing?” he whispered, sounding almost pained.
“Kissing you. Or trying to. It’s a bit one-sided at the moment. You seem distracted.”
“I can’t stop thinking about the fact that you’re wearing nothing but my construct.”
“Yes, and you’re wearing even less.” Her heart thumped against her ribs as she released the dock to grip his shoulders. Keeping the space between them, she kissed him again.
He cupped her face in both hands and deepened the kiss, but didn’t pull her closer. A moment later, he released her. “I should head back and leave you to your bath.”
He stepped away, but she still gripped his shoulders. “I don’t want you to go.”
He hesitated. “But—”
“You said you would do as I asked and I’m asking you to stay.” Her heart still hammering, she slid her hands up his shoulders to encircle his neck. They both pulled in a breath when their bodies came into full contact.
“Briar,” he breathed as his hands slid down her bare back. “Are you certain?”
“Yes.” She was certain, even though her stomach was a knot of nervous anticipation. “If I’m to lose you, I don’t want any regrets.”
He leaned forward and touched his forehead to hers. “I would never willingly leave you.”
“Then stay with me now.”
He drew back enough to meet her eyes, holding her gaze for one long moment, then wrapped her in his arms and obeyed.
It was perhaps an hour before dawn when Briar returned to the canal, hand in hand with Grayson. All was dark and quiet aboard the Briar Rose. It seemed that no one had noticed her night-long absence.
She turned to Grayson, and he wordlessly pulled her close. A long, leisurely kiss followed. They drew apart a moment later and silently parted. She left him to make his bed on the bank while she returned to the boat.
The silence between them wasn’t so much to avoid notice, but because they didn’t need to speak. She had believed that she’d dropped the barriers between them when she told him she loved him, but that was nothing compared to the way she’d let him in tonight. Now, it felt as if they were connected soul deep—and maybe they were. The notion ought to terrify her, but strangely, she felt just the opposite.
She climbed up to the aft deck and found the hatch was still open. Quietly, she descended the ladder into her dark cabin. It had cooled some, or perhaps it was that last swim and her still-wet hair that made the muggy cabin bearable.
“Where have you been?” Molly’s soft voice carried out of the darkness, and Briar jumped in surprise.
“Molly? What are you doing up?”
The bunk creaked as Molly got to her feet. “I know you weren’t sleeping on deck,” she continued as if Briar hadn’t spoken. “I checked.”
“I went swimming.”
“With Mr. Martel.”
Briar couldn’t lie to her. “Yes.”
“Your clothes are dry.”
Briar stepped out of the pool of moonlight shining through the hatch. “I wasn’t wearing my clothes.”
The comment must have stunned Molly to silence, and Briar immediately regretted it. Molly was all about doing the proper thing. She might have shared a stolen kiss with Eli, but she would never understand this.
“Look,” Briar continued, “I know you feel responsible for me, as you did when I was younger, but I’m an adult now. I can make my own decisions.”
“And mistakes.”
“Those, too.”
Molly moved closer and continued in a whisper. “If he gets you with child…”
“I’m part Scourge. I might be sterile.”
“Your mother wasn’t.”
Briar ran a hand over her face. Molly was killing her good mood. “I only have a few days left with him.”
“Why only a few days?”
“He’s decided to do as Solon wants. He’s going to try to save the others—and accelerate his own devolvement.” She clenched her fists, trying to keep the emotion in check. She also made a conscious effort to block Grayson out. She didn’t want to remind him of that.
“Oh, Briar.” Sadness colored Molly’s voice, and she reached up to brush her cheek. “I’m at a complete loss how to deal with all the things you’ve thrown at me since I came aboard your boat.”
“I’m struggling to keep up, too.”
Molly sighed.
“No lecture, all right?” Briar requested. “I get it. I really do.” Even if she hadn’t thought too deeply on it at the time.
“Fine.” Molly pulled her into a fierce hug. “I’ll always be here for you.”
“And I, you,” Briar swore.
With one last squeeze, Molly released her. “Now go get some sleep.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Briar turned and beat a hasty retreat to her alcove. Shucking her pants, she dropped onto her bunk. A tingle of static along her throat, and Lock hopped off onto her pillow. He rubbed his cheek against hers.
“Things have certainly gotten complicated, Lock,” she whispered.
He cooed.
Rolling onto her side, she reached out to Grayson, but got no response. He was asleep. With a sigh, she ran her fingers along Lock’s scales as the little dragon curled up on her pillow.
“Good night, my fearsome dragon.”
If he answered her, she didn’t hear it. She was already asleep.
Chapter 17
With Molly’s prodding, Briar was up and dressed at her usual time, and irritably pouring her first cup of coffee when an insistent knock sounded on the cabin door.
“Come in,” Molly called out.
The door opened, and Grayson was across the threshold in an instant. He barely nodded to Molly before hurrying to Briar and holding out his hands. “Look.”
She had been a little anxious about her first meeting with him this morning, fearing some awkwardness, but his barely contained excitement blew them right past that.
Not certain what he was up to, she glanced down at his palms. “I don’t—”
“The exposed soul iron,” he reminded her. “Look, it’s covered once more.”
She blinked in sudden understanding. The exposed soul iron on the palms of his hands was such a recent development that she had momentarily forgotten. But he was right. It was gone.
“What the hell,” she whispered, tentatively touching his palms.
“You,” he answered, his voice just as soft. “It has to be you.”
She blushed as she understood what he was implying.
“I’m going to serve the coffee,” Molly announced. She snatched up the blue enamel coffee pot along with a handful of mugs, and hurried from the cabin, closing the door firmly behind her.
“Molly knows,” Briar confided.
“Knows?”
“What we did last night. She was waiting for me when I returned.”
“Oh.” He gave the door a worried glance.
“It’s fine.” She waved away the topic. “Back to your hands. Are you saying I reversed your devolvement by um, well, you know.” Her cheeks were on fire.
“It seems a logical conclusion. Check my back.” Before she could comment, he grabbed the hem of his shirt and, without bothering with the buttons, pulled it over his head, turning away in the process.
The morning light glinted across the abundant metal in his back. Though Briar had been skeptical of the cause of his healed palms, she had been hopeful that his back had repaired itself as well. The sight of all that metal was like a punch to the gut.
“It looks the same,” she whispered.
“What?” He faced her. “Why didn’t it reverse, too? Did you consciously make a distinction?”
“I consciously did nothing. I wasn�
�t doing a whole lot of thinking at the time.”
He looked up from studying his palms. “You changed your mind. You do regret it.”
“No,” she quickly denied. “Not at all, but,” she dropped her voice to a whisper, “being with me did not do that.” She nodded at his hands.
“It’s the only explanation. It didn’t just happen.”
“What if you did it? I mean, isn’t this what you’re supposed to be able to do?”
“I’m supposed to be able to stop another’s devolvement, not my own. And this isn’t stopped devolvement.” He held up his palms. “This is reversed devolvement. I didn’t think such a thing was possible.”
“Dragon’s fire?”
“Can knit skin together, not regrow it. This has to be you.”
She rubbed the back of her neck at a complete loss.
“Think back. Do you remember anything you might have done, or thought, that could have caused this?”
A denial sprang to her lips, but his earnest gaze stopped her. He was right. It made no sense, but something had happened. She chewed her lip, trying to ignore the embarrassment as she thought back over the events of last night.
“Were you thinking about my devolvement? Maybe your goal of trying to stop it?”
“No,” she answered. “I wasn’t even thinking about you being a ferromancer.” He had just been Grayson, the man she loved.
His brow wrinkled. “There was such a connection between us this morning. It’s gone now.” He reached up to touch her face, his healed palm cupping her cheek.
She closed her eyes, remembering a similar moment last night. He had touched her face, the metal on his palm brushing her skin. It had been supple and warm, but she had been very aware that it wasn’t flesh.
“I remember being aware of the metal on your palms when you touched me,” she admitted. “I wondered if it limited your ability to feel. That bothered me.” She opened her eyes and looked up at him. “But I didn’t consciously do anything.”
He sighed and took his hand from her face.
“I’m sorry.”
He shook his head. “It not your fault. I just have to puzzle this out.”
“We have to puzzle this out.”
A halfhearted smile touched his face but didn’t last. “Let me get a clean shirt.” He moved to the table to retrieve his trunk.
Normally, she would have teased him, but she couldn’t summon a light-hearted quip at the moment. God, just when it seemed she was so close to helping him, it slipped away again.
He dropped to a knee and opened his trunk. She eyed his back, troubled anew by all that metal. If she had been responsible for his palms, could she do something about his back? And even if she could, would it just be a temporary fix? Of course, if she had command of such a power, she wouldn’t mind fixing him again and again. Especially if it required a repeat of last night.
She expected him to look up and give her a grin, but his attention remained on his shirt selection. Perhaps she was getting better at keeping her thoughts to herself—unlike this morning when it seemed her very soul had been wide open to him. She had felt incredibly close to him then.
He rose to his feet and pulled on the clean shirt, then turned his attention to his buttons.
“I think we’re looking at this wrong,” she said in the silence. “This is a breakthrough, not a setback.”
His fingers stopped working on his buttons and he looked up, his blue-gray eyes meeting hers.
She stepped closer. “Something happened. Whether the power came from me or you, it…” She fell silent as she suddenly remembered that Solon didn’t just want Grayson. He wanted her, too. Because Solon knew that the only time Grayson had slowed another’s devolvement was when he’d inadvertently worked with a soul singer.
“We did this together,” Briar told Grayson, certain of the fact. “You mentioned that you felt the connection between us. I noticed it, too. It felt as if our souls were one. We were linked.”
One corner of his mouth crooked. “It wasn’t just our souls that were linked.”
Her blush returned in full force. “You’re a bad man, Mr. Martel.”
“I believe that has already been established. Vile ferromancer and all.” He slipped his hands around her waist and pulled her to him.
“I’m serious.” She refused to let him tease her away from the topic. “This is the solution. I know it is.”
His expression sobered as he watched her. “All right, but we don’t know exactly what it is.”
“But we’re on the right road.” She pressed her hands to his chest, over his heart. “When we get to Portsmouth, don’t give in to Solon. Not yet. Give me a chance to figure this out. Please?”
“All right.”
“That’s it?” She eyed him. “No argument?”
“In case you haven’t noticed, I can’t tell you no.”
She frowned. “Because I can command you.”
“No.” He held her gaze. “Because I love you.” He didn’t give her a chance to reply before kissing her soundly.
She slipped her hands beneath his partially open shirt, enjoying a few private moments—until Molly knocked at the door.
“Damn it,” Grayson muttered as he let Briar go. “No wonder I can’t keep my dark impulses in check. I’m in a constant state of frustration.”
“I’d think you’d be doing much better with that this morning.”
“I might surprise you.”
She laughed at him as she walked over to retrieve her mug. Maybe Molly wouldn’t be suspicious if Briar was standing across the room sipping coffee. “Come in,” she called.
Molly stepped into the room, and after a glance at Grayson, gave Briar a small head shake. So much for removing suspicions.
“The team is hitched, and Mr. Waller is waiting for you on deck,” Molly told her. “I’d better get breakfast started.”
“I’ll help you,” Grayson offered.
“Good.” Molly walked to the stove. “I’d like a word with you.”
Grayson’s gaze meet Briar’s, his expression suddenly concerned.
Briar shrugged. This is a canal boat, she reminded him.
He sighed. Where privacy is just a courtesy from your fellow boatmen.
She dipped her chin and gave him a sympathetic look. It seemed Molly wasn’t offering that courtesy.
The early morning passed in the usual hustle of getting the boat underway and the day started. They stopped for breakfast a little over an hour later, outside the village of Nashport.
Grayson took his usual seat beside Briar at the breakfast table and seemed to be in his typical good spirits. Perhaps Molly hadn’t been too hard on him. Briar didn’t get to ask him about it because as soon as breakfast was cleared away, Grayson joined Zach on the towpath for his daily escape from the confines of the boat.
The sun climbed in the sky, and Briar retreated to the shade of the awning over the tiller deck where Molly was already sharing the rail with Eli. Briar took a seat on the deck, facing them, and used the step up to the aft deck as a backrest.
“It’s September,” Briar complained. “When is this weather going to break?”
“It might be nearly fall,” Eli answered, “but we won’t get the cooler weather until October.”
Briar knew that, but it didn’t keep her from complaining.
“If we weren’t in a rush, I’d suggest a swim once we lock through into the Licking River,” Eli said. “River water is always cooler.”
“Yeah,” Briar agreed. So were spring-fed ponds. She hurried on before she blushed. “A shame we can’t stop, but we have to meet Andrew in Newark this afternoon.”
Eli frowned. “Does that black-hearted—” He stopped and cleared his throat. “Does your cousin intend to meet us at every canal office?”
“Seems
that way. I guess it’s his job to make certain we’re not arrested.”
“He’s the one who needs to be arrested,” Eli growled.
Molly patted his knee. “It’ll be fine. Briar knows how to handle him—and it’s usually very amusing to watch.”
Briar smiled, then pressed a hand to her mouth to cover a yawn. “Aggravating Andrew is a skill I’ve honed since childhood.”
“I’ve witnessed a bit of that myself,” Eli said, “but I’d rather not talk about the… man at all. I’m sure Miss Molly agrees.”
“I’m fine with speaking ill of him,” Molly answered, then patted Eli’s knee once more. “But if you’d rather discuss something else, I’m sure we can find a topic just as entertaining.”
“Like what you’re planning for lunch?” Eli asked.
Molly laughed. “Very well. Being that we have an excess of potatoes, I was considering a potato soup. I thought I might bring them up here to peel in the shade.”
“If you can wake the captain, I’m sure she’d be happy to help.”
Briar suddenly realized that she’d let her eyes slide closed. She sat up with a start, though it was already too late to pretend she hadn’t been dozing.
“You seem especially tired today,” Eli said. “Are you feeling all right?”
“I’m fine.” Briar rubbed a hand over her face. “I slept poorly is all.”
Molly pressed her lips together, but refrained from comment.
“It was a hot night,” Eli allowed.
“Indeed,” Molly agreed.
“Mr. Martel had the right of it,” Eli said.
“What?” Briar cut in.
“Sleeping on shore,” Eli said. “I bet it was cooler.”
Molly looked like she was about to bust a gut holding in a laugh.
Briar got to her feet. “I need to move around. I’m going to fall asleep if I stay here.” She didn’t wait for any further comment before hurrying down the ladder to her cabin. Unfortunately, it was too warm to remain there. She would have loved to sneak in a short nap in her bunk. Instead, she left the cabin for the cargo hold.
Perseus and Kali lounged in the shade of the tarp. For once, Perseus wasn’t sharpening a knife. He and Kali sat facing each other and seemed engaged in a soft, but animated conversation. They both fell silent when they saw her.