Starlight and Shadows (The Starlight Sanctum Book 1) by Vera Winters

Author:Vera Winters [Winters, Vera]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Winter Woods Publishing
Published: 2024-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter

Sixteen

Briar sat alone at the corner table, her hazel eyes watching her crew’s revelry with a distant gaze. The Silken Verse was filled with raucous laughter and the clinking of tankards, a stark contrast to Briar’s pensive mood. Her thoughts drifted, preoccupied with the weighty choices before her.

Caelan leapt and twirled, the rippling silks he moved with coming alive as he danced. His lithe form captivated the tavern crowd, but it was the adoring look in Jorn’s eyes that cut Briar most deeply. She took a long swig of rum, the burn in her throat barely registering.

How she envied their carefree joy. The freedom to love without fear or regret. Her own heart had never known such liberty. Duty and destiny had charted her course long ago, when the curse first darkened her ancestors’ veins.

Briar stared at the inky lines marring her wrist, a constant reminder of fate’s cruel hand. The same poison now flowed through her own blood, awakened by her tangled feelings for Illyria. Beautiful, brilliant Illyria, who even now held the one object that Briar, for all her resourcefulness, could never claim—a genuine Prism.

Rane’s offer echoed in her mind. True, he’d offered to the deliver the Prism to her—but only if she betrayed Illyria’s trust and aided the Crimson Ledger in tearing down all Illyria had fought so hard to build. It was a ruthless but straightforward bargain, the kind the Ledger was notorious for making. The reason they’d succeeded to the extent they had, Briar thought bitterly.

She scowled, conflicted emotions churning within her like a raging sea. Her desire to save herself warred with her heart’s protests. She thought of Illyria’s smile, the brush of her slender fingers . . . the kiss they had shared. Briar sighed, and as she took another sip of rum, she tried not to recall too much how much better it had tasted on Illyria’s lips.

Raucous laughter drew her gaze upward. Thorne was regaling the crew with the tale of their narrow escape from the Ironbound fleet. His fiery beard bobbed as he vividly recounted Illyria’s concealment spell. Sylphina chimed in with a dramatic re-telling of her engine room heroics, miming the turning of valves and firing of pistons that aided their swift escape.

Despite the perils they had faced, her crew was alive with triumphant energy. Their camaraderie and thirst for adventure remained undimmed. Briar’s own exploits were legendary, yet she had never felt more alone.

Her eyes found Jorn, his handsome face alight with amusement. He leaned in close as Caelan whispered some private joke. Briar clenched her jaw. She envied their intimacy, even as her heart ached for another.

Briar’s brooding was cut short, however, as Jorn slid into the seat beside her. “What troubles you, captain?” he asked, his dark eyes filled with concern. “This sour mood doesn’t suit you.”

Briar avoided his gaze. “It’s nothing,” she muttered, knowing damned well how hollow it sounded.

Jorn was not so easily dissuaded. He leaned forward, his hand covering hers where it gripped her glass.

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