“No.” She licked her lips. “I have a favor to ask.”
At the corner of my sight, I saw a shift of shadow on the steps below.
“Of course. What is it?”
“I want you to heal me.” She touched the bandage along her cheek.
“Is it getting worse? Is your jaw locking?”
“No. I am all right.”
“Why do you want me to heal you, then?” I pulled back.
“You know if I do, I’ll have your will. Vida says your injury will right itself.”
“I know.” Her voice cracked. “But I still want you to do it.”
“Not if I don’t have to, Dela.”
“Can’t you just do it because I ask? Please.”
“Are you afraid of being disfigured?”
“No, it is not that. “ She angled her face away from me. “Can’t you see? If you heal me, we will be the same. Ryko and I will be the same.”
The flicker of shadow surged into a big body launching itself up the steps at us. The light caught the work of his muscles across his chest and the liquid dread in his eyes.
“No!” Ryko boomed, hauling himself onto the deck. “You will not do that.”
Dela spun around. “Why not?”
The islander grabbed her shoulder. “Do you think I want that for you?” For a moment, his eyes caught mine, the fear in them snapping to fury. “Do you think I want you to be caught in her ghost world, too?”
Words rose to defend myself, but I quelled them and stepped back. This was their matter, and it was best they be alone.
“At least I would be with you!” Dela seized the edge of my tunic, stopping my retreat. “Do not leave, Eona. I want you to heal me.”
“No!” Ryko said. “Please, Dela, don’t do it. Not for me. I could not bear it.”
She reached for his hand, but he snatched it away as if he had touched royalty, and stepped back into a bow. “Forgive me.”
“I cannot bear
“It is better this way.” The torment on his face gave lie to his words.
“You know it is not.” She closed the distance between them and laid her hand on his chest, her body swaying toward him. “I would be dead now if that sword had struck my head at a deeper angle. Do you think you would have saved yourself any hurt, Ryko?”
His eyes were fixed on her hand. Slowly he shook his head.
“Then stop being such a noble idiot,” she whispered.
“I just want to keep you from any hurt.”
“You can’t.”
She touched the pain on his face. Gently, he drew her against his chest, her head fitting neatly under his chin. She leaned into him, her slim body engulfed by the wrap of his arms. He kissed her bandaged forehead, the tenderness bringing an ache to my throat.
I quickly turned and saw Ido’s guard peering around the rise of the steps.
“Return to your post,” I ordered, blocking his view with my body.
With a bow, he backed away. I followed him, resisting the urge to glance over my shoulder. The guard took his position again in front of Ido’s jail. Although I intended to walk straight past, I found myself stopping outside the wooden door. The back of my neck crawled with the energy of the approaching cyclone.
“Has Lord Ido said anything?” I asked the guard.
The man shook his head. “I’ve not heard a sound, my lady.”
With a nod, I made my way down the passageway to the loneliness of my own narrow cell.
I woke with a jolt, my face only a fingertip away from the bunk wall. The cabin lamp was still alight, its yellow glow steadfastly fixed despite the steep rise and fall of the ship. The slap and boom of waves against the hull resonated through the wood, and I could hear the wind screaming, the eerie sound like a dragon in pain. I rolled onto my back, struggling to kick off the blanket, and saw a figure crouch down beside the bunk. With the energy of terror, I gathered my legs under me and levered myself to the top of the bed, every sense coming together to recognize Ido.
He held his finger to his lips. “Quietly, Eona. If I’m found here, Kygo will rip my heart out.”
I lowered my voice. “How did you get out?”
“Your constant link to me seems to have broken,” he said with a tense smile.
His other hand gripped the edge of the bed as the junk plunged and rose sharply, the wood groaning around us. Beneath all of Ido’s smooth control, there was an uncharacter-istic urgency that alarmed me almost as much as finding him crouched in my cabin.
“What do you want?”
“Right now, I want to survive the next few bells. Have you felt the cyclone?”
Involuntarily, I rubbed the back of my neck. The crawling sensation had hardened into pain.
He nodded. “It has doubled its pace and shifted. The edge will hit us in a bell or so. We are not going to outrun it.”
My unease burst into cold fear. Nearly everyone I loved was on this ship. “We should tell Master Tozay.”
Ido looked up as another grinding moan resonated through the wood. “It is already too late.”
“Can we do something to stop it?”
“It is why I am here.”
“I thought we weren’t strong enough to do anything.”
“We’re not if I have to fend off ten dragons as well as work the elements.”
“But you don’t.” A deep plunge rocked us. I grabbed the edge of the storage unit above. “The dragons only come for me. You could go in alone.”
Ido rose and sat on the end of the bunk. “Eona, I am not strong enough to control the cyclone by myself. It usually takes all the beasts and Dragoneyes to redirect such force.”
“So can we or can’t we do something?”
“I have had an idea.” He rubbed his mouth. “It is one that has unknown risks for both of us.”
“What is it?”
“Bypass the ten dragons by compelling me.” His eyes held mine. “But let me take that power and use it to get us out of the cyclone.”
“You mean the compulsion I used when I made you call Dillon?” I flushed, remembering the way his pleasure had curled back upon me.
“That holds the most power between us.”
Although I still wore my tunic and trousers, I pulled up the blanket. It would be a big risk; every time I used those pathways was a chance for Ido to find a way to block them.
“Will that work?” I asked.
“Possibly.” He watched me. “But are you willing to do it without Kygo’s knowledge?”
“Why should we keep it from him?”
“Did you tell him about your new way of controlling me?”
I looked away from his keen scrutiny. “No.”
“Well, someone has. Perhaps your islander guard? He certainly felt the difference when you first used it.”
I shifted uneasily. “What makes you think Ryko told him?”
Ido lifted his hands to his tunic collar, and in one smooth movement pulled the garment over his head.
“What are you doing?” I demanded, pressing myself back against the bunk head.
He threw the tunic onto the bed. The yellow lamplight highlighted the dark purple bruising across his ribs. “I would say Kygo is aware of your new way of controlling me.” His voice was dry. “He will forbid you from doing this,
