The Reckless Reign (Book 3, The Culled Crown Series)

Chapter 25

The Jerian Sea.
Between Erydia and Pellarmus.
Voyage – Day eighteen.

If anyone noticed that I was wearing Kai's ring again, no one said anything. Even Heidi, who thrived off using small details to torment people, left me mostly alone. Since my talk with Anna, I'd decided that I wasn't done with Kai. Not entirely. Not even a little bit, if I were being honest. I still loved him. That much I knew. I'd almost told him during the Commencement Ball, but he'd stopped me with that damn kiss. I was glad he'd stopped me. Glad, I guess, that he'd kissed me too.

Even if I hadn't understood then what he'd meant by it.

And so, I wasn't done with him.

I wasn't done with Erydia either. As Kai once reminded me—the throne was mine to fight for. Of course, when he'd said those words, I hadn't realized it belonged to him too. This fight was ours. Even if he hadn't said that, even if he'd spoken around the truth far more often than he'd outright said it, it didn't make it any less true. This was something that we could, any maybe should, fight for together.

Goddess.

There were a lot of things Kai said that, in hindsight, turned out to mean different things than I'd thought. I'd teased him once about how cryptic he sometimes was, but I hadn't known the half of it back then. Over the last few months, I'd realized there was a difference in being teasingly cryptic and outright lying. Kai had done his fair share of both.

But I had too.

And, that was something else I probably wasn't done with.

***

I was eating breakfast in the little mess hall when the shouts rose up. At first, I'd panicked and stood up, pushing my chair back so I could see through the large windows. I wasn't alone in my fear. The room seemed to inhale at once.

Since Darragh had mentioned Caine sending boats after us, we'd all been on guard. At the table with me, had Leighton paused mid-bite and turned in his chair to peer across the table to the nearest window. Even Heidi, who I swear wasn't afraid of anything, glanced up. Cohen, who sat across from me, had taken hold of Nadia's hand as soon as the yelling started—his own worry as raw as my own.

Isla was the only one at our table who didn't stiffen or even look up. "It's land," she said, still chewing. "They are yelling because they see port."

There was a collective , relieved sort of "Oh!" from everyone in the group. Only Cohen spoke Pellarsh and even his language skills weren't good enough to pick up on the muffled voices. As the yelling died out, we sat back down and continued with our meal, our actions a little more rushed now that there was clearly something new and exciting to see.

I finished at the same time Cohen did and we walked outside together. While the doorway of the mess hall led out onto a deck, we were faced away from whatever the commotion was about. I started to walk around the mess hall to the other side of the boat, but paused as Nadia called after us. She caught up in a few strides and took hold of Cohen's hand again.

Together we walked to the railing on the south side of the ship.

Isla was right—you could see land now. It was still a good way off, but with the distance we'd been traveling each day, we'd probably make it there by sundown. From our vantage point, I could just make out the shining of the sun off white beaches. There were red shingled rooftops and the outline of trees.

Cohen pointed towards the northern side of the island. "The palace is that way, I think. It's been a while since I was here, but we used to dock in Varins and take a train into Reubinon."