Blood Ties

Chapter 19: Nadia

Stomachs full, and perhaps a little drunk from the alcohol they had found in the ship's cargo hold, Nadia and Declan made it back to the Leyria, where they found Nolan and Rowena waiting for them, looking for all the world like they hadn't been aware at all of their disappearances.

Nadia thought that they at least should have brought Mark and Luke with them. If nothing else, they could have run off and warned the others of their kidnapping. Or, perhaps they would have been sold right along with them. Who knew?

She glanced at Declan, at her side. Part of her was almost resentful of him. Upset that he hadn't protected her, hadn't saved her, hadn't taken care of her. But why should she be? He had sworn no oaths to her, had made no promises, had vowed no vows. He was not her knight in shining armour, nor was he a prince on a noble steed come to save her. He was simply Declan.

An arrogant, irritating, metropolitan, prone to seasickness, pompous prince who had no ties to her nor she to him no matter what her blood that ran gold might say.

She gritted her teeth. He'd come with her to save her, or to watch over her, hadn't he? Yet that one thing, he had failed in. It made her miss her bodyguards, Ilyas and Jack. As silent as they were - or perhaps that silence was a boon - they had been good at what they did. Except when Declan's host had struck the city...

"The two of you look rather dishevelled," Nolan noted. "And you smell like rotting fruit."

Declan remained as unruffled as ever, his eyes still scanning the perimeter as though looking for signs of danger. "We were besieged by slavers looking to sell us for a quick infusion of gold. Someone must not have alerted him to my royal status and her magical one, because otherwise, I assure you that we would have fetched a far higher price at any slave market. Or, a king's ransom."

His words were amused, almost mocking, but she thought she tasted the fear beneath them. Fear of confinement, of captivity, of slavery. And who wouldn't be? Who wouldn't fear that loss of freedom, a state that she was all-too-used to?

"I'm glad you're back safe," Rowena said, running up to Nadia and flinging her arms around her before Nadia could react. She had never been one for physical contact, mostly due to her curse. This... this, felt like friendship. Foreign. Odd. Yet, not unwelcome. "Oh, you do smell like fruit. And wine. How did you get out?"

Nadia patted her on the back. "I'm going to take a bath. I'm sure the prince here can regale you with tales of our daring escape."

Truth be told, her hands hadn't stopped shaking, even after they'd stopped at the Vytian restaurant and Declan had sat across that table from her looking at her like she was a puzzle he wanted to take apart and piece together again. She wanted nothing more than to sink into a tub of hot bubbles and never resurface, at least not until her fingers and toes resembled prunes and her bones had lost the deep ache mixed with the cold bite of terror.

"Well, first, I had my knife on me..." she heard him say as she strode off.

She hoped he mentioned that she had kicked a man in the face, and she would have smiled to herself at the thought if the memory wasn't still vivid in her mind, in her body. The blow reverberating through her leg, the sound of his scream of pain. She had never fought anyone before. It was too dangerous, too risky; there were too many possibilities that she could hurt herself. Yet when her foot had connected with the man's nose and she'd smelled the iron tang of his blood, seen the gush of it over his swollen lips, something visceral had snapped into place inside of her.

Nadia wanted desperately to learn to fight now, especially if they would be ending up in dangerous situations like this one. The feeling of the ropes on her hands was still too raw, too vivid, for her not to want to wash it off of her skin. When she reached her cabin, she found a maid there drawing water and perfuming it with purplish petals.