Eona - Alison Goodman [161]
“Lord Ido! You must go back now,” Dela said. “They will realize it is dragon power. If His Majesty finds you in here, you’ll die!” She grabbed his arm, her courtier’s eyes raking over the room. “Is that his tunic?”
I snatched up the garment and held it out. She snagged it from my hand, her mouth tightening. “I hope you know what you are doing.”
“We were saving the boat!” I said.
The islander spun around to face me. “I know—I felt it!” He stabbed his finger at my dishevelment. “You’d better make up some story. Something that doesn’t involve the two of you together.”
Dela pulled Ido into the passage, Ryko casting one last scathing look at me before following them. I took a step toward the door, then stopped. What could I tell Kygo? Power still thrummed through my body, Ido’s touch hot on my skin. I looked around the cabin. The mattress was askew. With shaking hands I pushed it back into place and straightened my tunic, trying to find composure—and a convincing lie. I wiped my mouth, feeling my torn lip. I pressed my finger against the damage, the tiny pain an echo of the sharp shame building within me.
I had paced the length of the cabin five times before the sounds of footsteps turned me back to the door. Kygo filled its narrow frame, Tozay behind him. Both men were soaked. Kygo had been up on the main deck, too—always rushing into the fray. An errant thought sent useless dread through my body—if he had stayed below, in Master Tozay’s cabin, he would have heard us. I dropped into a low bow, glad to hide my face for a moment.
“Lady Eona, was that you? Did you calm the waters? Tozay says only dragon power could do that to the storm.” I felt his hand touch my shoulder, drawing me out of the bow. I stood and forced myself to meet his elation. Surely he could read the truth in my eyes?
“Yes.”
Kygo took my hand, his skin cold against my heat. “How did you do it? I thought you could not work your power without Ido’s protection from the other dragons?”
I steeled myself; this lie was going to be difficult. “I can, for a short time, Your Majesty. Although I could only push us a little way from the storm.” I looked past Kygo to Tozay. “I hope it is enough, Master Tozay. I cannot do any more.”
“It is, Lady Eona,” Tozay said. “You have saved us all. Thank you.” He bowed.
“But how?” Kygo would not be deflected.
“I have learned a great deal from Lord Ido, Your Majesty.” Four years of lying to survive kept my gaze steady and my voice calm. “It is why we rescued him from Sethon.”
Kygo’s gaze was just as steady. “It is good to know he is worth all the trouble.” He smiled. “Your power is, indeed, becoming formidable.”
“It is in your service, Your Majesty,” I said.
I caught his glance back toward Tozay. “So I have heard.”
Was Ido right? Was Kygo manipulating me?
“You have hurt your lip.” He touched the fullness of his own mouth.
“I must have bitten myself,” I said, glad he could not also see the race of my heart or the sharp rending of my spirit.
CHAPTER TWENTY
WITH THE FORCE of our illicit power, Ido and I had pushed the junk a day ahead of schedule and out of the range of the diminished cyclone. For the remainder of the journey, most of my time was spent in intense sessions of campaign planning with Kygo and Tozay. When I was not in the command cabin looking at maps or discussing strategy, either I sat with my mother—our conversation safely centered upon small talk and the father and brother I had never known—or I lay on my bunk in a dark cycle of shame and confusion that inevitably ended with me reliving Ido’s mastery of the cyclone. And the rushing rise of our power, together.
The planning sessions at least brought me close to Kygo, although the fast approaching strike against Sethon and my role as weapon and trigger were building a constant dread within me. I was seeing Kygo the emperor, all of his energies centered on the war ahead. Only once, on the morning after the cyclone, did I have a few precious moments with Kygo the man. Tozay