Rasia tossed her hair, laughing, as dusk fell behind her. Nothing felt better than getting one over on self-righteous play-by-the-rules Nico.
So fucking easy.
Rasia turned to Kai, who paid her no attention at all as he stared out at the dust billowing behind them in their wake.
She jumped at him. Startled, Kai tumbled to the deck and landed awkwardly halfway against the railing. Rasia slapped his face with both hands and shook him. “Kai, you did it. You were fucking amazing.”
He’d managed to pull off the Blindside in the middle of a chase!
Rasia snatched for the ties of his waistband, but Kai caught her wrists. He slanted his shoulders and slid away. His face scrunched as he said, accusatorily, “That wasn’t part of the plan.”
Rasia blinked. Using her momentary confusion, Kai slipped from underneath her and shuffled back on his knees. “You didn’t tell me you were going to use”—Kai motioned between the two of them—“this against her.”
Huh. Kai was angry at her.
Rasia sat up and crossed her arms. “It was your idea. There’s no easier way to rile Nico up than to mess around with you. I thought that was the plan.”
“You groped me in front of my jih!”
“And it clearly worked!”
Kai grabbed the top railing and pulled himself to his feet. He looked down at Rasia, frustrated. “I should have been the one to discuss this with her. She’s my jih, and now you’ve gone and flung it in her face.”
“What’s there to discuss? We’re just fucking.”
Kai grimaced at those words and rubbed harshly at his face. “You know how she feels about you. Now, she probably thinks you’re taking advantage of my innocence or naivete or some shit.”
“Aren’t I?” Rasia said, wiggling her eyebrows as she stood. She scrutinized Kai from head to toe. There was a lot she’d rather be taking advantage of right now than having this stupid conversation.
“I’m serious, Rasia. I know Nico. She’s going to blame you for this.”
“So? I don’t care. Nico is nothing compared to me. Her best can’t keep up with my worst. Apologize to her and do whatever you need to do after the Forging, but right now, let’s get back to what we came out here to do and hunt this fucking dragon.”
“It would be great if someone could untie me.”
Both Rasia and Kai turned to Zephyr, who was still tied to the railing and clearly as disinterested in Rasia and Kai’s argument as Rasia was. Kai left to untie Zephyr while Rasia harrumphed against the railing. This wasn’t the victory celebration she’d imagined. All she wanted was a few orgasms. She didn’t think that was a lot to ask for.
“This is why you should have talked to Nico,” Zephyr told Kai once the knots were loosened.
“I’m sure that would have gone even better,” Kai said.
“So, what now? You’re going to continue letting her chase you halfway across the Desert?”
“Maybe she’ll give up.”
Zephyr gave Kai a flat stare. “After that stunt Rasia pulled, Nico is going to drag you back home, Forging or not. I didn’t think this could get any worse. We need to turn around, Kai.”
“No,” Kai bit out, storming to the other side of the deck.
Zephyr looked to Rasia as if she were the sensible one on this ship, and she laughed at his desperation. She informed him, politely, “We turn around over my dead body.”
This morning, they had been working as a team offloading their well-earned spoils and generally getting along, and now they all stood on three different sides of the windship after what should have been a victory.
“All right, you two,” Rasia said, tired of the dramatics. She walked toward the center of the ship. “What’s done is done. We need to reach the Dragon’s Coast with enough time to do what we need to do and make it back to the Grankull by the end of the Forging. Zephyr, do you know how to steer a windship? Doesn’t your tah have one?”
“I don’t know how to steer your windship,” Zephyr said, implying something was wrong with it. If she had a choice, Rasia wouldn’t let him within five vibrations of her steer.
“Good enough. To reach the Dragon’s Coast with plenty of time, from here on out, we’re sailing without break. We are not stopping to make camp. We are not resting for high noon. We are steering straight to the coast. We’ll each steer in three shifts. I’ll steer at night because I know the terrain. Kai will steer from morning to high noon. Zephyr will steer after Kai, till sunset.”
“You’re forcing Kai to steer through high noon? That’s a heatstroke waiting to happen.”
Rasia waved her hand between Kai and Zephyr. “Are you going to tell him, or should I?”
Zephyr turned to Kai, and Kai ducked his head, embarrassed for some reason Rasia couldn’t begin to fathom. It’s not as if Kai were still quaking the world at every climax. Kai discovered the night of their First Hunt that he could avoid that problem if he held his breath at the right moment. (If only he had been less focused on holding his breath and more focused on pulling out this morning . . .)
Kai took too long to answer, so Rasia wiggled her fingers and revealed, “He’s magic.”
Kai cleared his throat. “That.”
“Come on, Zephyr. You’re on shift first. I need to show you how things work. Kai, go below deck and make sure none of our supplies toppled over in the chase.”
Kai scampered down the hatch. Zephyr, on the other hand, planted his feet and refused to move.
Rasia stared him down, planting roots of her own. “Stop being a kulo. We’re not turning around, so you might as well pull your weight.”
“I want to make clear the only reason I’m here is because of Kai, to make sure he doesn’t end up dead. If anything happens, know I’ve killed better people than you.” Rasia showed her teeth as Zephyr drew near, and their shoulders clashed when he passed by. He kept his back to her and studied the rigging. “Now, how do you steer this stupid ship?”
As Rasia had assumed, Zephyr did have experience steering his tah’s large windbarge. He knew a lot more than those kids who thought they could pull off tricks after one measly class. Teaching Zephyr was as simple as showing him all the small details specific to her windship.
“Why did you bring it?”
Rasia paused in her explanation of the rigging. She turned to Kai, his chest halfway out of the underbelly hatch, glowering at her.
“Bring what?”
“Why did you bring the ilhan?”
“. . . you were looking at it, and I figured maybe you thought we didn’t have any room, so I grabbed it.” Rasia shrugged, not understanding why it mattered. It was a vibration of a decision. “And you seemed to know how to play it, so. Yeah.”
Kai stared at her, uncomprehending. “I don’t know how to play the ilhan.”
“Yes, you do. I don’t remember if you were any good or not, since we were both definitely drunk, but you played it.”
“It’s not mine. We can’t just take things that aren’t ours.”
“But it’s your tah’s. I’m sure he won’t mind. He has hundreds scattered out here.”
“It does not belong to me!” Kai snapped, harshly. “We have to bring it back.”
“The gorge is washed out by now, and no, we’re not turning back around. What the fuck is wrong with the both of you?” Rasia asked.
Kai stared at her sourly, then pulled himself out of the hatch and stomped over to the front of the ship. Rasia glanced at Zephyr for some sort of explanation, her turn desperate for some sense. She was not the crazy one here.
Zephyr crossed his arms, unimpressed.
“You’re a thoughtless idiot,” Zephyr said. “Kenji-shi disowned Kai. Everyone knows that. Of course, they wouldn’t have the best relationship.”
Rasia knew that. The Grankull didn’t allow people to disown infants, but Kenji-shi was the one notable exception. But that was a long time ago, and Rasia didn’t understand what bearing that had on the now.
“This is Kenji-shi we’re talking about. He gives water to strangers.”
Zephyr stared at her, his eyes narrowing as if he were trying to drill information into her head. But if it was so important, why didn’t Zephyr just tell her? Ugh. Whatever.
Rasia crossed her arms and huffed. It wasn’t Rasia’s fault that Kai was all stupidly sensitive about it. She paced. In bored frustration, she looked over at Kai, who was hunched to his knees.
Annoyed, and without any sort of plan, Rasia stormed over. She hovered over him and audibly stomped her feet to get his attention. Kai peeked out of his arms with a dark pout.
“If it’s going to get you in trouble with Kenji-shi, I’ll tell him I took it.”
“No, it’s not that. I . . .” Kai dragged a hand over his face, then bit out, “You remember more of that night than I do.”
“It’s not my fault you’re a lightweight.”
Kai glanced down at his hands. They drummed a specific tune on the deck. He asked softly, “That night, did I hurt you?”
Rasia blinked, thinking she might have misheard at first. She ran the words through her head a second time. Then she laughed. That was the most preposterous thing she had ever heard. “You could never hurt me.”
Kai was bowed away from her, so she couldn’t parse why he would ask such a question. She found Kai extremely puzzling at times. First Nico, then the ilhan, then Kenji-shi, and now a question about a night she thought had been fairly great. At least what she remembered of it. Rasia couldn’t find the thread connecting any of those topics. Maybe Kai remembered something she didn’t?
Rasia unfolded her arms and sat next to him. She stuck her legs through the railing and, testing her boundaries, leaned against his shoulder. She waited for him to shift or move, but he didn’t.
Rasia asked, concerned, “Did I hurt you?”
According to Ysai, she was usually a giggly, dancing drunk. Although there had been that one time that she had gotten it in her head to dance with her swords. Not bad dance partners, in Rasia’s opinion.
“No, not at all,” Kai said. He gave a minuscule shoulder lift. “Some people can be angry drunks.”
“Ah.” Rasia leaned forward, more than happy to dispel that worry. She poked his cheek. “You’re a touchy . . . oddly boastful drunk.”
Surprised, Kai swiveled his head so fast their faces almost collided. Rasia took advantage of the sudden closeness and leaned forward to say, “It was a good night. The best night.”
Kai leaned further back, catching his weight with a hand on the deck, and Rasia chased him until she stretched across the whole of him. “We’re going to be stuck on this windship for several days, and all I want to do is spend it all with you.”
“Rasia.” Kai’s voice was hoarse, strangled. “I messed up this morning.”
“And it won’t happen again,” Rasia soothed. She stroked a hand up his length and whispered, “I really want to suck your dick right now.”
Kai’s face pinched in consideration, and Rasia grinned victoriously when all his reservations gave way. Rasia fell over laughing at the sudden strength Kai pressed to her mouth. He grabbed her by the hips and led her to her feet. They tossed off clothes and stumbled down into the underbelly. Then Kai stuffed them into the small bunk slat that connected the triangle lead of the ship.
Rasia tugged Kai’s loincloth down his thighs and popped free Rasia’s new best friend. She smiled cheekily. “Poor innocent Kai, utterly at my mercy. Oh, whatever will your jih think?”
“Oh no. I’m so helpless.”
Rasia laughed, dunked down, and thoroughly corrupted whatever innocence he had left. One thing was for certain: Rasia was determined not to give him back to Nico the same.