Bay of Sighs Read Online Free Page A

I’m happy with whatever is left.”
    â€œIf you really don’t mind, we could take the room across from ours. It’s the smaller of the two left, and big enough for what we’dneed. And yours would face the sea. You’d rather wake and sleep with the sea.”
    Touched, Annika moved to hug Sasha. “Thank you.”
    â€œI’m across from you,” Riley told her. “I love me a sea view as much as the next guy—or mermaid—but there’s something to be said about looking out over a lemon grove.”
    â€œAnd guarding the rear flank,” Bran added.
    â€œAnd that. We’re eating outside. As soon as I find plates.”
    She found them, as colorful as the cushions. With Sasha helping to set up, they went out as Annika meticulously added the herbs to her dish.
    â€œIs this right? Did I do it the way I should?”
    Sawyer glanced at her tray. “Looks perfect. I just need a few minutes to put the rest together.”
    â€œBut we need candles! And flowers.” Annika dashed out to hunt up what she considered a properly set table.
    Sawyer tested the pasta, turned off the burner. “Sasha okay?”
    â€œA little more shaken, apparently, than the rest of us. Food and rest should do the trick.” He looked over as Doyle came back in. “I’ve done a basic protection spell on the house and grounds, but will want to layer over that before we turn in for the night. She’ll find us, sooner or later, and she’ll be right pissed.”
    â€œShe’ll find us,” Sawyer agreed as he drained pasta. “It’ll be a lot tougher for her to find the Fire Star where and how you’ve hidden it.”
    â€œWhich says to me she’ll come harder for the next.” Doyle lifted his beer, drained it. “In her place? I’d decide I’d underestimated my enemy in the first round of things. Her pride would lead her to that conclusion. She’ll go harder, bloodier.”
    â€œAnd it may be cannier,” Bran added. “Much of what she did was rage and violence. Whatever it cost us, it cost her more. She may, if wise, consider more strategy than force. We’ll need to prepare for that.”
    â€œWe need to eat.” Sawyer dumped the pasta into a bowl, tossed it with the butter and herbs he’d prepped. “And we need to sleep.”
    â€œYou’re not wrong. And we need to celebrate, however briefly, the fact that we’re safe, whole, and together.”
    â€œAnd ready to search for the next star.”
    Bran nodded at Doyle. “For the next. Water or ice, we can’t know, not yet. But the fates sent us here, where the inestimable Riley has again secured us a roof and beds, food. Tomorrow’s soon enough, isn’t it, to plot our own strategies?”
    â€œIt’ll have to be, because this is ready. Grab that tray, will you? And the wine. And I could use another beer.”
    Sawyer stepped out into the lemon-scented night where a slice of moon shot soft blue light over land and sea.
    Annika, being Annika, had fashioned a bouquet of flowers out of napkins, and gathered candles from around the house.
    â€œI couldn’t find the . . .” When the word escaped her, she mimed striking a match.
    â€œMatches,” Sawyer supplied.
    â€œI’ll take care of that.” Bran simply flicked his fingers, and the tea lights and tapers glowed.
    With a laugh, Annika clapped her hands. Then rushed over to hug Bran.
    â€œI hugged Sasha and Riley. We’re all together, in this new place.” She turned to wrap her arms around Doyle, coaxed a smile out of him. “We have good food and good friends.”
    Last, she turned to Sawyer, embraced him, indulged herself by breathing in the scent that was only his. “Nerezza is not with friends, and can’t have what we have.”
    â€œShe doesn’t want what we have.”
    Sasha swayed once, then straightened. Her eyes