More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
I’m probably leaving handprints on the material.
Mind your mettle.
Karri smiles. She looks at Lochlan. “See?” she says brightly. “I trust Tessa.”
“Hang them both?”
“I’m telling you to keep your eyes open,” he says. “I’m telling you what it looks like from here. If you’re not sharing his bed, someone is. He’s the brother to the king. As soon as you don’t suit his needs, you’ll be at the end of the rope, too.”
sowing doubt in a way I wish I could shove aside.
“Maybe she shouldn’t have,” says a voice behind me, “but I brought more than enough.”
but I remember seeing his composure crack, just a little, when I told him that he could be loved.
“Ah, Tessa.” There’s something simultaneously wicked and warm in his eyes. “No one dared, until you.”
I don’t know who I’m fooling. I wanted to do it myself.
Then again, if we were openly involved, I’d drag her into my chambers and we wouldn’t leave for a week.
Tessa adds, “Mind your mettle, Corrick.” My smile widens. “Mind yours.”
She’ll be seated with me. I almost say it. I almost growl it. The words sit on the tip of my tongue, hot and possessive. But every syllable would sound petty and chauvinistic, and I swallow my words with another sip of wine.
“Forgive the prince’s pet apothecary, Captain,” Allisander says from his end of the table. “She understands little of politics and negotiation.”
Instead, I keep replaying the moments when Captain Blakemore quite obviously captured Tessa’s attention. She’s so clever. So brave. So empathetic. Unfortunately, he seems to be the same. I saw the way his crew looked at him when he referred to the war. There’s no way to fake that kind of loyalty. We need steel. You need Moonflower petals. Since apparently your own countrymen are reluctant to provide them.
It’s about everything I can’t be for Tessa.
My life, as always, seems torn between poor options.
I wish I could go to Tessa, but I’m terrified of admitting weakness just now,
“As much as I adore being audience to your silent angst,
“Quint.” I feign a gasp. “Are you waiting on someone?”
I simultaneously want to yell at him to do something, while I also just want to give him a hug.
“Come home safe, little brother.” I give him a nod. “I promise. Be here when I get back.” Then I open the door and slip into the falling rain alone.
The thought feels petulant, and I hate it. Surely they’re busy preparing to leave in this weather.
I’m about to push you off the dock.
Go ahead and try.
My brother strides right up to Rian, and there’s fire in his eyes.
My throat threatens to tighten, so I blink the memories away.
You probably think he brought you for some reason other than keeping him warm at night.”
“Somehow you’re smart enough to make the Moonflower work better, but you’re too stupid to figure out that the King’s Justice is a dirty liar who should be chained to the rudder—
where Prince Corrick would never be caught bedding a … a commoner.
“Talk to me,”
All my thoughts are crashing into each other, and I hate—hate—that Lochlan put these doubts in my mind.
“Tessa. Please. Stop. Tell me what just happened.”
So I curtsy just as formally, as if I weren’t just drowning in the taste of his mouth. “Thank you, Your Highness.” That hits him like a dart. I can almost see the impact. He takes a step back and gives me a nod. “I bid you a pleasant evening, Miss Cade.”
She didn’t say it, but she didn’t have to. I heard it in her voice when she asked about my intentions for Lochlan. When I took hold of her arm, she almost flinched.
I kept hearing her voice from the moment he appeared in the dining room. Oh. It’s far too similar to the way she said the very same word when my fingers found the lacing to her
“In the bedroom,” he adds. I give him a look. “Thank you, Kilbourne. I made the connection.”
especially when I did nothing to put her fears to rest. Instead, I probably stoked them.
Which means my brother did.
For an instant, I have a moment of disoriented panic, because I can’t remember where I am.
Quint, I love you.
But of course I can’t.
I may have fallen in love with Tessa Cade, but as usual, I’m reminded that she didn’t fall in love with Prince Corrick, the King’s Justice. She fell in love with the outlaw Weston Lark. She fell in love with a man who doesn’t exist.
“you don’t need to worry about that.”
I’ll have to be more careful when I make the evening doses.
Motion on the deck catches my eye, and I glance up to see the captain climbing down the rigging, quick and sure on the ropes as the ship tips from side to side. He’s still ten feet above the deck when he springs to the boards like we’re on solid ground. His dark hair is windblown, his cheeks a bit flushed from the cool morning air. His jacket is loose, revealing a maroon shirt that’s unbuttoned at his neck, leaving his sun-kissed collarbones bare. A short blade hangs belted at his waist, with a longer one buckled to his thigh. I don’t think I’ve seen him wear a weapon before.
