To Kill a Kingdom(103)

Lira descends gracefully onto the Saad and takes a firm hold of my outstretched hand. I bring it to my lips with a provoking smile and then press a hand to her cheek. It’s soft and sharp and as full of as many contradictions as she is.

“Are you ready?” she asks.

I kiss her by way of reply, surprising myself that I waited a full minute. It’s an unusual show of patience on my part.

Lira grins, her teeth skimming my lips, and lets her tongue run across mine. She clutches on to the collar of my shirt and I wrap my arms around her waist. It’s like holding a story rather than a person; she feels wild and infinite in my arms.

She loops my hand in hers and pulls me up onto the side of the ship. The intertwined eyes of Keto are draped over her collarbone in an ornamental lavaliere. On the Sea Queen that greeted me moments ago, it looked like a grandiose choker, befitting an ocean ruler. On Lira, in her deceptively delicate humanity, it looks heavy enough to sink her to the bottom of the ocean.

Lira catches my eye and arches her brow. “Are you staring at my chest or my necklace?”

I give her a shameless smile. “Which one won’t earn me a slap in the face?”

“I’m just trying to gauge whether or not you’re planning on stealing it.” She runs a slender finger over the stone. “You are a pirate, after all.”

“True,” I say. “But then, so are you.”

Lira looks down at her outfit. The navy pants that puff out at the thighs and the knee-high brown boots with enough gold on the buckles to buy a kingdom. She laughs, and the ruby glows against her bust. Salt and magic.

She pulls me closer to her, her fingers held tight over mine, and together we dive.