Page 148 of Carousel

Yet I’m also finding myself… impressed? My mouth parts.

He nods. “She didn’t hear a thing. I have never been able to do that.”

He reaches for my hand. Lifts it, but moves his palm away, so we are connected only by the tips of our fingers.

I gasp.

I can see it. The magic, like tiny pinpricks of white light, springing from each of my fingers into his. And from each of his, into mine.

It’s beautiful.

And I know that no one else would be able to see this. This is our magic, visible to our eyes alone.

I look up. His black eyes meet mine. They’re lit up from the sparks between us and the night sky behind us.

Warmth spreads through me for a second.

And in the next, I’m freezing. It’s hit me on the back of my neck, cleanly and coldly, like the blade in a guillotine, what I’m doing.

The extremely intimate nature of this moment.

I separate my hand, sharply.

What was I thinking?

Something came over me. Yet I don’t think he was using his blood magic on me.

Cosmer.

What would Cosmer think? The man I love, who is currently in the brig for me?

I’m so embarrassed – and furious with myself. I wish I could take it all back.

I open my mouth, summoning the words I need to say.

But before I get the chance to make it very clear to Drake that I didn’t mean to stare into his eyes, in any way, misleadingly, Meg calls out to me.

“Ara. I’m done here. Do you want dinner?”

“Yes,” I call out, looking away from Drake.

And I do want dinner. I feel as though I’ve never been hungrier – which can’t be right, as I’ve now found out I spent time going hungry in both Rhavna and Hevalla.

I take a step – but Drake bends down to me.

“This conversation isn’t over. Be ready for when I come to you.”

My heart thuds.

What does that mean?

And is that something I should go along with, or avoid like a plague?

The Wardroom is as ornate as I remember it from the Captain’s Dinner. We take our seats at one of the two mahogany tables, and a menu is brought to us. There are only two options, but they do look far more appetising than anything I’ve seen served in the Mess Hall.

“The bone broth is better than the fish chowder. If you needed help choosing,” Meg says.

I’d been planning to choose the fish chowder. It was a dish we often had in the Palace.