Page 48 of Hymn of Breath and Bone

“Is it something to do with the Betrayal? The Exile, I mean?”

Zephyr gave me a knowing look. “I’m not lying, Marina. I truly don’t know everything. But if Cas thinks she can help, I’m sure he’ll take you to meet her.” She shuddered. “You won’t enjoy it.”

I frowned. Who was this female that everyone seemed so disturbed by?

A thump on the deck next to me broke me from my thoughts as fire-hot hands gripped my hips and warm lips covered mine.

“Miss me, Urchin?”

“No,” I lied, stepping back to scan him for injury. He looked fine, but it didn’t stop me from running my hands over his chest just to be sure. “What happened?”

“It was the Stormcrow alright,” he said. He sounded exhausted, but his attention was diverted by the menagerie of fog animals surrounding me. “Are you sure you didn’t miss me, Urchin?”

Caspian grinned at my restless attempts to distract myself, and I dissipated them into mist with a wave of my hand. “Did you kill him?”

“No.”

“Was he behind the attack?” Zephyr asked.

Caspian nodded. “He was hired.”

“By who?” Zephyr and I asked in unison.

“He wouldn’t tell me,” Caspian yawned. “Not when I had the advantage with a blade to his throat. And he wants to meet Marina first.”

Zephyr scoffed, but I frowned. “Meet me?” I asked, looking between them. “Why?”

“No idea,” Caspian replied, planting a kiss on the top of my head. “But it’s not happening.”

“Why not?” I pushed out of his arms. “Isn’t this why you’ve been teaching me to fight?”

“Teaching you to defend yourself is not the same as bringing you knowingly into danger,” he sighed, scrubbing a hand over his face. “The Stormcrow is dangerous.”

“And you faced him alone today.”

“And failed to kill him,” Zephyr added.

“Skies, I miss Astraios,” Caspian grumbled.

Zephyr snorted. “He’d side with Marina, and you know it.”

“We’ll meet with Theia instead,” Caspian said resolutely. “If she can tell me who was behind the attack, then I don’t need the Stormcrow.”

“She can see those kinds of things?” I asked, both impressed and a little wary.

“Most of her visionsarenonsense,” Caspian replied with a shrug. “But she occasionally makes enough sense that I can figure out her meaning before it’s too late.”

“Too late?”

“They’re usually not clear until after whatever it is has happened,” Zephyr explained, knocking her shoulder against mine as I leaned against the mast beside her. “Not very useful, unfortunately.”

“Who is she to you, exactly?” I pinned Caspian with my best glare which had absolutely no effect on him.

“Everything will make sense tomorrow, Urchin. Patience is a virtue.”

“Tomorrow?”

“That’s when I’m taking you to see her.” He stretched his wings and shoulders in a way I knew was mostly to distract me. “Now, if I’m not mistaken, you and I have some pressing business to attend to.”