Fishbone found Kova watching the last of the fishing boats come in with the evening. She barely felt the rocks digging into her arse, it was so numb. With the sun fully set, the night chill made Kova shiver. The hound snuffled in her ear and she pushed the wet nose away.
She was waiting for the tide. Not looking for a boat with Ta’aliya on it. Not looking for her mother’s narrow hunting craft.
She’d thrown everything away to prove herself, and all she’d done was prove everyone right. Eight moons, up into the snow sea and across the frigid wastelands, all to come home to lover who didn’t want her and a mother who didn’t care.
But Tal had promised. Tal had said she loved her. Tal had said always.
“Willa doesn’t know what she’s talking about, does she, Fish? Neither does Hoot.”
“Kova?”
The call came as if summoned by her thoughts, so much so that Kova was certain she was imagining it. The voice she’d been dreaming of for the past year. Instead of coming from one of the boats, it came from behind her. Two figures strode over from the eastern edge of the village, the rise of the Wilds behind them.
Kova stood, straightened her rope belt, and waited for the figures to come clear.
One, of course, was Ta’aliya, as beautiful in the starlight as she’d ever been. Her lean arms were bare against the cold and she walked with a fish spear like a staff. Three arrows marked her upper arm above her coming of age circle—her mother, her father, her middle brother. Her hair hung loose and dark across her shoulders, a few beaded braids swinging through it. Her jaw was hard, clenched.
The woman with her was tall and muscular, pale, with straight, tar-black hair pulled in a messy bun. The wide leather belt at her waist was decorated with gold buckling, and silver bangles jingled at her wrists. Her shirt, something soft and dyed bright, billowed in the night breeze. A scar cut through her right eyebrow and a curved blade hung at her hip. Sea raider stock from Tidings.
“Ta’aliya,” Kova said. “Don’t let me stop your moonlit tryst.”
“You’re Kova?” The stranger hooked a thumb around the hilt of her sword. Thick lines of ink covered her hand. The other was as pale as her face. “What are you doing here?”
“This is my home,” Kova snapped. “Who are you?”
“I’m Yuris. From—”
“Tidings.” Kova sneered, eyeing Yuris’s lavish clothing. “I can tell.”
The folks of Stormwatch did their share of raiding, no mistake, but the people from the Islands of Good Tidings made it their whole lives. The only thing stopping them from taking on Stormwatch was that there wasn’t much to take they couldn’t get themselves—namely, fish.
“This is what you replaced me with, Ta’aliya? A fucking—a fucking parrot?”
“Kova—”
“If you hadn’t left her, you wouldn’t need replacing, would—”
“Yuris—”
Kova’s fist collided with Yuris’s chin before she could finish her sentence. The blow made the raider stumble sideways and Kova followed, knee already rising to connect with that too-pretty mouth. But Yuris lunged for Kova’s standing leg and yanked it from beneath her and they both crashed onto the rocks, rolling and punching and kicking like cats in a sack, ignoring Ta’aliya’s protests above them.
It wasn’t until Kova heard Tal’s boots crunching away that she shoved Yuris off and stumbled to her feet to catch up.
“Tal, wait.”
“Like I waited for a fucking year, Kova?” Ta’aliya rounded on her. She studied Kova, lingering on her mouth where Kova could taste bright copper pain. Then Tal shook her head in disgust.
“I told you I’d be back.”
Yuris caught up to them. Her chin was already darkening, to Kova’s satisfaction. “If you cared at all—”
“This isn’t your business, raider,” Kova snarled.
Ta’aliya closed her eyes and exhaled. After a long moment, she said, “Yuris, I want to talk to Kova alone. Tell Willa I’m safe.”
“Are you?” Yuris curled a lip at Kova, showing off a golden incisor. But at Ta’aliya’s glare, she turned up the slope to the green.
Kova’s sullen look followed her. She didn’t turn to Ta’aliya until Yuris was back amid the houses, too far away to hear or see anything that might happen between them. Somehow, Ta’aliya managed to look both irritated and guilty at Kova.
“I thought you were coming back rich. ‘A fortune.’” Ta’aliya didn’t give Kova a chance to answer. “Gah, you sent it on a rope! You didn’t even say goodbye, you shit!”
Kova opened her mouth. Closed it. Licked her lips. More copper. How was she supposed to tell the truth without feeling even more pathetic? I was afraid you’d be happier if I was gone. I was afraid you’d tell me to go. I was more afraid you’d tell me to stay and I’d disappoint you.
“The slayer is an arsehole.” Kova held out her empty hands, her knuckles scraped from the rocks. Or Yuris’s teeth. “She won’t let me apprentice to her.” She jerked her head toward the green, where Yuris had vanished. “I haven’t been gone that long.”
“You were gone long enough.” Ta’aliya turned away from Kova, started walking along the rocks.
Kova followed her around, backpedaling to stay in Tal’s line of sight. “And now I’m not.”
Ta’aliya drew herself short. Her face shifted through a million emotions, expressions Kova knew well. Pity. Understanding. Anger and frustration. A year’s worth of loneliness, maybe. Everything Kova had caused.
“I thought you’d died, like them.” Tal’s voice cracked. “I waited. I waited for word, for a rope, a token—anything.”
“I’m sorry, Tal,” she whispered.
At Kova’s words, all those feelings on Ta’aliya’s face steadied into one: the resolve Kova had always loved Ta’aliya for. Ta’aliya took one of Kova’s outstretched hands and squeezed. She brushed away a tear on Kova’s cheek and caressed her jaw. Her eyes flicked to Kova’s lips right before she kissed her.
It was like dipping into the sun-warmed water, this kiss. Ta’aliya’s tongue parted her lips and Kova surged into her, ignoring the pain and tangling her fingers in Ta’aliya’s loose hair. Like lazing on the beach shirtless, full of shellfish and fresh fruit. She sighed into it, feeding on the sounds Ta’aliya made. In the year she was gone, she hadn’t touched another, but it wasn’t only that. So much had changed. She wanted one thing to belong to. Kova wanted to feel like she was home.
She tugged Ta’aliya’s shirt out of her trousers and reached her hand under, seeking warm skin. A pitchy moan as she found Ta’aliya’s breast. Then the other woman was pulling away, holding Kova’s hand away from her, eyes closed.
“Kovani.” The pain in those three syllables was enough to break Kova’s heart.
“Tal?”
Ta’aliya shook her head slowly. “You don’t know, do you?”
“Don’t know what?”
“Your ma—”
“Someone’s taken over the house. I bet she set sail right after I left. Didn’t even stay to make sure—”
“Kova, she was taken.”
Kova cut her tirade short in disbelief. “No she wasn’t. She probably got drunk and fell off her own boat.” Not that that was any better, but it was easier to imagine, easier to blame—
“No, Kova. She’d—she’d been ashore for a few months. Was trying to sort out your grandda’s things. She was sleeping dryside and wasn’t even drinking—much. She wasn’t tide-swept.”
A cold ache spread through Kova’s chest. The world suddenly loomed huge around her.
“Then what happened to her? Where’s her boat?”
“I don’t know.”
Kova slid down Ta’aliya’s leg, clutching her hand like a lifeline.
I have to go and get her.
It was the only clear thought in Kova’s mind as Ta’aliya sank to the ground beside her, stroking her back. It grew louder and louder, filling her until the urgency of it spilled out.
“I have to go and get her.”
She understood Young Hoot now.
She pushed herself out of Ta’aliya’s embrace, ignoring her bewildered protests and strode back to the green.
That’s the end of this preview, but if you can’t wait to read the rest, preorder the book at one of the links below or, even better, email your favorite local bookstore and have them order it in for you!
