Empress of the Sea|✔️

Chapter 33

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Aeryn awoke to a headache and a passed out Iona on the sofa. "Iona," she whispered.

"What?" Realizing who she was speaking to, Iona coughed and sprung up into a sitting position. "Sorry, Captain. Are you doing alright?"

Aeryn grabbed her head and said, "I'm doing quite well." Aeryn's eyes scanned the room, her gaze catching on a particularly expensive-looking vase. The room's rather dull and basic furniture of neutral browns and white sheets on the beds contrasted the vase's elegant blue. The vase very well might be the most colourful thing in the room if her hair and Iona's turquoise eyes were to be forgotten. "Where are we?"

"A small inn in the heart of Waihg. Why?" Iona rubbed the grogginess of her face away. Her pupils burned every time she blinked due to her exhaustion. First, well after midnight, she'd helped haul Aeryn up the stairs and into the room alongside Juele and Reyna after Sehyun Han handed her over. Handed her over as if he had kidnapped her and was returning her for a hefty price. Second, she'd entertained Aeryn until she fell asleep.

The captain needed to stop drinking if Iona wanted to keep her sanity intact.

"An inn?"

Iona nodded.

"Why?"

Instead of saying "You were drunk," Iona opted to say, "Everyone was tired."

"Everyone?" Aeryn pushed her overly tangled hair back. "Does that mean the Black Egret people are here too?"

"Yes."

That set Aeryn into motion. She raced into the lavatory, fixed her hair, scrubbed her teeth with charcoal and a cloth, took a small bath, and headed to the inn's lobby. Iona was left alone to copy Aeryn's bathroom routine and follow her down the stairs.

Taking the stairs two at a time, Aeryn reached the lobby quicker than she had woken up on Christmas Day last year. She expected to be the first down the stairs, but there stood Suzy Aranaz and Maya Djord, both affiliated with the Black Egret.

But they weren't the only early risers there. Juele, Reyna, and Erel had also reached the lobby.

Aeryn caught the prince's eye. He tried to say something with them, tried to provide empathy, but that wouldn't work--empathy? Why empathy? Had Aeryn done something horrible while drunk? Had she lost all her money to Han during their games of poker?

She descended the final stairs with an urgent hesitation.

She joined the huddle of familiar faces and was welcomed by a variety of sentences. "Are you okay?" "Are you feeling better?" "You must be experiencing a lot of pain." To all of them, she simply shook her head, yet she agreed with her words. Erel was the only one who didn't say something sentimental.

Had she puked on someone? Worst of all, had she puked on Sehyun?

"What did I do?" she asked frantically.

Maya cocked a brow, Juele unknowingly copied the movement, and Erel chuckled.

"What is it?"

Reyna placed a hand on her captain. "You got in a serious fight with some dude trying to get you in his room. He smacked the side of your head."

"And then?"

"And then I saved you."

The clack of boots came from behind her. Aeryn angled herself to face the eerily familiar sound, finding Sehyun coming down. He fiddled with his cufflinks and descended the stairs with grace.