Starborn by Katie MacAlister

Author:Katie MacAlister
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2019-12-16T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

“Ghosts.” I looked from Hallow to Quinn to the man who stood looking at me with pursed lips. “Your crew are ghosts. We have ghosts sailing the ship. Ghosts who, unless I’m mistaken, have limited amounts of time when they can interact with our world in a corporeal manner.”

“We prefer the term lost mariners,” the man told me in a voice that managed to be both ethereal and haughty at the same time.

“They are spirits, yes, but they are the spirits of sailors,” Quinn pointed out. “And since I refuse to risk any lives—other than your own—on this misbegotten journey, that’s what you’re getting. If you object, we can go back to Abet, and I will be released from your service.”

His gaze dropped to my breasts for a few seconds. I narrowed my eyes at him. “If the next words out of your mouth are that you would be very happy to service me, Hallow will turn you into a bumblepig. One with mange.”

“I will?” Hallow’s brows rose, but he must have seen the pointed look I shot his way, because he cleared his throat and tried his best to look menacing. “Er…I will. One with a particularly unpleasant chronic digestive problem, as well.”

Quinn didn’t look the least bit worried. The ghost, however—who went by the name Commander Ohare—eyed Hallow with respect. “Well? Do we turn around?”

“No, of course not,” I snapped. “But if we die because your crew goes incorporeal at the worst possible moment, then I’m so going to haunt you. And I’m sure I could convince Buttercup to join me.”

“Buttercup?”

“Her mule,” Hallow murmured in his ear.

“Blessed Bellias and all her stars…that savage biting, kicking monstrosity has a name?” Quinn asked while absently rubbing a spot on his back. “It’s your mount? I thought you brought it along as a weapon to unleash upon the Harborym.”

In the end, my worries were for naught. The crew, it turned out, took turns being on duty, so that while one group wandered the ship in translucent, faintly blue tinted forms trimming sails, winding rope, and doing a hundred other things that were beyond the experience of Hallow and me, the others retreated to the spirit world and recharged their respective corporeal forms.

The next five days took on a fairly peaceful aspect, if the ever-present threat of making our way through the impenetrable storms of Eris was ignored. Hallow and I had a cabin to ourselves, which we made use of with such regularity that I heard Quinn ask Hallow if he’d cast some sort of spell on me.

“Yes,” I called out from where I was feeding Buttercup and mucking out the small space that was her stall. “It’s called Hallow.”

“But that’s his name,” Quinn answered, his brows furrowed in confusion. “I meant the name of the spell.”

“They’re one and the same,” I answered, wagging my own brows at Hallow, who just laughed and gave me a heated look that promised reward the next time we were alone.

That time was sooner in arriving than I expected.

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