Empress of the Sea|✔️

Chapter 22

Rewritten & Edited
***

"Maya, please refrain from swearing so much," said Sehyun, placing his hands on her shoulders.

For the last half hour, Aeryn and Sehyun had taken the liberty to explain how they knew each other. Aeryn had then taken the right to shove Sehyun and his horrible explanations away, taking the spotlight to herself.

"You're one to talk! You were at sea for four years! As a goddamned pirate captain!" Maya exclaimed, flailing her hands around. "And you never even sent a proper letter!"

Suzy and her weak shoulder struggled as they walked through the silent, human-less streets. The group took turns carrying her, no longer focused on hurting one another, just trying to understand one another.

"Mayal, please. You know how my mom can be."

Maya rolled her eyes, laughing to mock her victim. Sehyun could not stand an angry Maya. She was more a demon than anything else in that form. "Your mom? You know how my dad can be?"

Aeryn groaned. "Both of you need to shut up."

Maya gruffed but listened to Aeryn's command.

"You filthy, filthy traitor," Sehyun whispered into her ear, upset she listened to Aeryn instead of him.

Maya kicked his thighs, furrowing her brows at him. "She's better than you."

Exaggerating a gasp, Sehyun quickened his speed to match his pace to Iona. She'd been silent the whole time, quietly supporting Suzy. Not once did she look in any of their directions. She remained focused on her task. He relieved her of her duty, letting Suzy hang off his back. Despite his long, lean form, he was stronger than he looked. He had no problem giving Suzy a piggyback ride.

"Any questions?" Aeryn offered with a shrug. For the royals, the information on their identities must be much to handle—especially because of the perfectly formed lies Aeryn and Han has told them. The lies of what they had been doing for the last few years.

Aeryn still hadn't spoken to Juele privately regarding what happened five years ago.

Juele raised his hand before speaking, "Explain how you two met. From the top."

Aeryn rubbed her eyes. "Well, there's this jewel I wanted, and Han was protecting it. He caught me, told me he needed me dead, let me go, threatened me last night into giving him information, somehow managing to make me speak the truth about what he wanted to know about Erel. We met again at the party. And before all this, I met him when he sank the first pirate ship I worked at."

"You still haven't thanked me for that. I pretty much saved your life." Sehyun turned to face her for a brief second. He jumped, throwing Suzy slightly in the air to fix her position.

No longer feeling threatened or lesser than Han, Aeryn growled. "Yeah, right."

They rounded a corner, Aeryn still confused as to why they were all travelling together despite being enemies of sorts and spotted a doctor's office for Suzy. The bright red cross was easy to spot even in the dark.

"Alright, survivor. It looks like we're going to part ways from here unless you would like to come inside." He kicked at the stone under his feet before shifting to face the rest of the group.

"How exactly do you plan on healing Suzy when the doctor isn't even there?"

"What makes you think there isn't a doctor?"

Aeryn raised a brow, not wanting to ask another question that might embarrass her. Han had a knack for making her sound stupid.

"For your knowledge, I studied medicine. It was such a fun hint to study the human and practice stitching human flesh for a year or two. Then I got bored and gave up," he said with a shrug. The he forced hits eyes closed. He'd overstated yet again. Such a nasty habit he has. Either he couldn't explain, or he could string perfect sentences. Either he remained overly mysterious, or he overshared his thoughts and knowledge.