Page 104 of Fallen Stars
“You can stop salivating. I like women.”
Adrian grinned then. “Me too.”
“This is why we shouldn’t have sought out a pirate for help,” a soft, melodic voice muttered. And damnit, if Adrian didn’t nearly bow before her. The last of the group looked at him with disdain. She could have been Torra’s daughter for her beauty. What he wouldn’t do to sink his teeth into that skin…
“You’re two lucky bastards,” he said to the Lion and his friend—who still had a shit-eating grin on his face as the golden-haired girl rolled her eyes, hiding behind him.
“Lyra, are you going to tell me what’s going on? You know you’re harbouring afugitive?”
“About that… I may have told a teeny white lie at the ball. You see, my name isn’t Lyra, it’s Elara. Queen Elara of Asteria.
“Is this a set-up?” Adrian exclaimed, backing up towards the bed. “Look, I didn’t mean to steal the Queen of Altalune’s pearls, they just slipped into my hand. And before you ask about her daughter, Itoldher I would be gone by morning, sheseducedme.”
He was near the window now as Elara advanced. Adrian was just as she had remembered him, his midnight-blue hair a little longer, with stubble on his strong jaw. She hadn’t gotten to see his full face at the masked ball, and he was just as handsome as she’d suspected he would be.
“It’s no set-up, Adrian. And I’m taking a leap here by trusting you.”
“Trust?! Me?! I’m a pirate!” His voice was high now, and she gently slapped Enzo’s chest, the king sniggering as he took pure enjoyment out of the pirate’s distress.
“Adrian, will you just calm down for a moment?”
“You calm down,” he retorted. “Here I was, tongue deep in my favourite woman in the Sinner’s Sands and you barge in here, unannounced, reveal that you areroyals, and not just any royals, nooo, but the fucking king and princess, whose heads are plastered round every establishment from here to Perses, with aStar’sbounty on you.”
“Queen,” Enzo corrected, his voice a growl. “She is a queen, not a princess.”
Adrian threw him a hateful stare as Elara observed him, waiting for him to calm, a thrill racing through her at her Lion leaping to her defence.
“Adrian,” she said softly, walking to him. His eyes were hard, assessing her every move.
“The way I see it,” she said, looking to the window then back to him, “you have two options. You see, if you refuse to help us, I could scare you to death—quite literally petrify you. Enzo could blink, and you’d be ashes on the wind, or any one of my other friends could harm you in whichever creative way they wish.”
Adrian gulped.
“Or you could run out of here, somehow managing to get past all of us, and go to tell the nearest authorities that you caught twowrongfullyaccused fugitives. Although,” she paused, tapping her chin with a long nail, “someone may be stationed there right now, ready to tell them that Pirate Lord Adrian was harbouring said fugitives in his room. And then there’s the third option.” She smiled wolfishly. “You grant us safe passage across the Olympian Ocean to Concordia and avoid all this mess, as well as being paid.” Her voice strained as she pulled a sack from behind Enzo. “Very handsomely.”
Adrian’s eyes popped out of his skull. “Are they midans?” he whispered.
“A sackful for you once we’re on your ship and another sackful when we arrive in Concordia. That’s nearly the price of the bounty.”
Adrian’s gaze roved over all five of her pride, Elara feeling an immense sense of fullness to be standing with her family, Enzo at her back as always. Enzo squeezed her by the waist as they waited for the pirate to make his decision.
“So there’s no way out?”
Elara shook her head.
“And if Idomanage to escape, the Stars will just find me and kill me in a much more gruesome way?”
Elara nodded.
Adrian sighed, passing a hand over his face as he tucked blue hair behind his ears.
“Then I suppose I’d better welcome you aboard The Starred Siren.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Enzo hated ships.
The Starred Siren stared back at him, its black flags unfurled, the mast of the ship hewn to look like Cancia herself.