Kingdom's Vice Series: A Voyage of Vengeance ( #2 2015)

Chapter Three

Alec sits on the edge of the bed, picking at his nails.

'I didn't know such things as pirates existed beyond our shores,' he says casually, without looking at me. It isn't something that should surprise either of us, is it?

I take a seat behind him and rest my head on his shoulder. 'There were many things I did not believe existed.' I tell him. He rests his chin atop my hair and listens, says nothing. 'And yet here we are.'

He chuckles, 'I suppose you're right. I know Katan is home to savages, but nothing that goes under the banner of piracy. Anything like that would be sure to cause some kind of uprising amongst the folk.'

I agree. The light pours through the window curtains, a silhouette forming around us, making us angelically illuminated. 'Do you think they are safe there, the people from Kennah?'

He pulls back the covers and slides into the bed, then pats the empty space beside him, inviting me. 'I can only hope.' He replies. 'I would not have sent them there if I knew it wasn't safe for them to be there.' He stops and blinks as I slip in beside him. A hand drapes over my side, keeping me warm. I take his hand and hold it close to me. 'I fear I could be wrong, Skaya.'

I turn to face him and take his face in my hands. 'You of all people should not make yourself heavy with burdens like these,' I tell him fiercely. 'Whatever happens to them is not your fault. You did what you could for them in the time that was given to you. For all they know, you died for them. That alone should be enough.'

He smiles, but it's in his eyes; what he's not saying. 'I wish it could be, but I know that if they...if they...if they were to die on that island, it would be because I sent them there. I knew about what lurked on the island; the drunks and the savages...'

I lightly smack his cheek, hoping to smack sense back into him again. 'It was either that or death, Alec. Remember that if nothing else. If you had not sent them to sail to Katan, they would have been slaughtered. Every single one of them. But they are alive, and they have you to thank for that.' I kiss him lightly on the cheek after I pull my hand away. 'You are alive.'

He grins and tucks a strand of hair behind my ear, before his hand falls to my shoulder. 'And I have you to thank for that.'

I push him away playfully. 'Then start living!'

~.~.~.~

To be honest, there's nothing much to do around here now that all the buzz has died out. Alec and I see each other every day (we barely leave each other's presence for a single second), and Faore and Duhamas's relationship seems to be straining again with all of her visions keeping the entire kingdom on edge.

'You're scaring them,' he tells her, as Alec and I stroll along a Sapphire lit path. They are out of earshot, but I still hear them and their secret conversations.

'What would you have me do, Duhamas?' Faeore yells back at him. There is a sudden hush. He must be scolding her.

'There are those who can hear us, remember?' he speaks with a hint of slyness and I know he's referring to me. I stay quiet. 'The children are frightened...of you more precisely. You and your visions are driving the people sick with anxiety!'

I hear a smack. Maybe she slapped him across the face.

'Do you think I asked for this?' she asks him, demanding an explanation, an assurance that he loves her more than anything. 'Do you think I want this? I don't! I can't help what I see, I just see them and I am expected, as a Seer, to warn others if something is coming. And something is coming!'