Chapter 37

Ari took ahold of Aveline's arms as she fell into him, her knees buckling. Her cheeks were flushed and her curls sticking to the side of her throat, and Ari ignored the stares they were getting as he propped his first mate back up. Coherent Aveline would laugh to see herself swooning like some lady's maid.

The thought, which should have amused him, only worried him further, and he tried not to let it show.

"Avie," he whispered, slinging her arm up around his neck. "Aveline."

She stirred slightly. Grunted. Her eyes stayed closed.

"Tired."

"I know you're tired, sweet, but I need you to act normal. People are watching. Remember what we said about low profile-"

"Where's Eli?"

Ari ignored that.
"We're supposed to be a team," he said through gritted teeth. He grabbed her hands, roughly moving them onto his shoulders in the correct position for a waltz. "We're supposed to be on our toes right now, completely focused, and you're drunk."

"Focused?" Aveline repeated. She bounced on her toes as the violins started up again- she could likely do this dance in her sleep. "You haven't exactly been on your toes, either, how you've been staring at Jamie all night."

Ari glanced up in surprise. Damn her.

"I haven't been-" he sputtered. For a moment her distraction broke; Aveline tilted her head, peering at him like a bird with her clear, dark gaze.

Almost reluctantly, Ari turned from her. Jamie stood in front of one of the table mirrors as she attempted to set her hair to rights.

He hadn't spoken much to her since their previous conversation, thought he'd said all he needed to. He hadn't meant to be cold to her... or perhaps he did, but what was he supposed to do? He couldn't beg Jamie to love him. That would be unfair, and not just because he had the charm and personality of an angry old man.

She looked so at ease and uncomfortable at the same time, to be in high company, dressed like a royal, one of her glittering sleeves slipping off of the skin of her shoulder...

Ari swallowed and looked away. He wanted... God, he wanted. He wished; that they could have met differently, if he didn't have a duty to his crew, if this bloody investigation wasn't consuming him.
He didn't regret what he'd said in their last conversation; he couldn't have Jamie, and perhaps one day he'd be able to accept that. However, if he hadn't been so distracted, without his stress and worry to claw him out from the inside, he thought maybe- just maybe- he could have been honest with her in the first place. But right now it seemed as if Aveline had left him to hold their world up on his own, and Ari couldn't figure out why.

They whirled around another pair of dancers, and Ari lowered his voice.

"This city is dangerous. We're being watched all the time, by people that could mean us harm."

Aveline's skirts flared and brushed against Ari's boots as he spun her in a dizzy circle.

"You're speaking of those men over there, then?"

"What?" Ari startled, nearly dropping her hand. "Who?"

"Those two. In the corner." Aveline bobbed her head in the direction of the flower vases at the back of the ballroom. "They've been staring at us all evening."

Ari followed her gaze, where a pair of men in dark clothing sat behind the dancers. Sure enough, their gazes were fixed intensely in their direction. Ari's fingers tightened reflexively on Aveline's waist; he briefly lifted her up off of her toes as the dance demanded.

"Watch," Aveline giggled as she sailed back down. "Every time I look at them, they look away."

Ari narrowed his eyes at the figures, whose faces were too far away to be discernible. A moment later, one of them gestured to the other, and they both stood up.

"Are they leaving?" Aveline released Ari's shoulder and wiggled her fingers in their direction. "Goodbye!"

"What are you doing?" Ari caught her hand and yanked it back down.

"Nothing! Grouch."

In the lively myriad of people and color, Ari lost sight of the men behind a marble pillar. He bit down on his bottom lip and nearly forgot his steps. Damn.

"Aveline." Ari looked back at her, urgently folding his fingers over hers. "How long have they been sitting there for?"

"A few hours, give or take," Aveline hummed. "You know, I haven't seen you waltz since that festival we attended in Ladreinesse. Remember, when we stole that duke's golden tooth?" Aveline laughed, skipped nimbly to the side as she followed his steps. "You were quite a good dancer, then."

"I am a good dancer." Ari craned his neck to scan the glittery ballroom, but their admirers seemed to have vanished completely in the crowd. "I'm merely focused on something else."

"Ah."

"Oh, and Avie."

"What."

He flashed her a smile. "Thank you."

Aveline blinked at him hazily.

"I don't know what's happening..." Ari hesitated, wishing he could think of the best possible thing to say in that moment, knowing she probably wouldn't remember it anyway. "But I'm not giving up on you."

He didn't bother to search her expression— she was drunk, anyhow, and he knew he couldn't just fix everything with a few words. At least, not yet.

"Uh oh." Aveline's voice rose a few pitches, and Ari's gaze flew back to her.

"What is it?"

"I'm feeling a bit dizzy..." she drawled, beginning to sway on her feet. Ari groaned.

"Not now, Aveline..." Then, just in time, the orchestra softened and the dance ended. Everyone clapped, the sounds echoing in the large room, and Ari shook Aveline's arm as her eyes drifted closed. "Avie."

"What's wrong? Is she alright?" Eli was at her side in a flash, his eyebrows knitted with worry. Where had he even come from?

Ari rolled his eyes. "She's fine. She's just being dramatic."

"No I'm not, you dolt-"

"She's faint. I'll take her." Eli touched Aveline's arm with a soft hand, and she let him lead her away, mumbling something about peaches.

Eli's hand snaked around Aveline's waist, and she leaned heavily against him, her head fitting perfectly in the groove between his collarbone and his shoulder.

Ari exhaled, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand. At that moment, he wanted nothing more than to go to bed. Then he wondered, briefly, who it was that had been watching them across the room-

"We should fetch Lyla, before she keels over."

Jamie stood before him in a sparkling beige gown, her eyes twinkling with amusement. The ends of Ari's mouth automatically quirked upwards, and he glanced over his shoulder at Lyla, whose face shone with mirth as a handsome duke in blue swung her around and around the floor.

"I'm more worried about Aveline. She's drunk out of her wits."

"She won't remember it tomorrow."

The silence was awkward for just a moment before Ari cleared his throat.

"How are you?"

"Truly?" Jamie adjusted the waist of her dress, then sighed. "I feel stupid."

"You don't look it, I assure you." He said it stiffly, almost as if he were insulting her, in a fruitless attempt to mask the longing he still somehow felt for the beautiful woman in front of him.

And she was; there were roses in her cheeks, and one strand of hair had loosened from its bun and coiled against the side of her face.

Her eyes seemed to burn into his for a moment, and then she changed the subject. "Who is that boy besides Camille?"

"Don't know, don't care."

"He seems to look at Lyla a lot."

Ari spared the princess a glance; she was drinking a glass of wine, now; flirting with the prince of Ladreinesse. To her other side stood the boy Jamie must have been speaking of; his blood-colored doublet matched Camille's dress and brought out the amber tints in his brown hair and matching eyes. "He is familiar, now that I've thought of it. You know, I think he sold me these trousers."

Jamie giggled with one hand covering her mouth, and Ari's shoulders relaxed a bit. It was times like these—when they had a tentatively friendly conversation, or she stared at him for an extra second when she thought he wasn't looking— that he couldn't ignore the ache that sometimes stuck inside his chest like molasses.

Ari thought again of his conversation with Aveline and sucked in a breath.

He'd fix everything; the Verignes business, the awkwardness with Jamie, whatever was happening to his first mate...

He wouldn't fail again. Couldn't.

"Have either of you seen Eli?" Lyla bounced up to them, then, her cheeks rosy and her hair waving just a bit from the humidity of the room. "He promised me a dance."

"Another?" Ari inquired dryly. "You haven't lost consciousness yet?"

"No!" Lyla beamed, raising up and down on her toes as if she could hardly contain her energy. "I've never had as much fun in an evening... ever!"

Ari pretended to be affronted. "What about when I taught you how to skin a fish?"

"We're glad you're enjoying yourself, Lyla," said Jamie, bestowing upon her a warm, almost motherly smile.

Ari glanced backwards behind them at the row of chairs for the tired dancers and was surprised to see Aveline snoozing contentedly on a velvet chaise. Where had Eli gone?

He bowed quickly, excusing himself from Jamie, and walked towards the glass-paned door. The last time Eli had disappeared at a ball, Ari had found him plastered with three different women on his lap, and he couldn't afford to keep track of two drunk people right now.

The sweet smell of lilacs and ocean salt accompanied him outside into the evening. The ocean, only about twenty yards away, lingered like a dark shadow that tended to frighten people, sometimes. Ari could understand it; the way the black horizon just went on and on with nothing to break it. But the lullaby of the sea breaking on the beach comforted Ari. Sometimes, when he was a child, he'd sleep under a mossy cave on the beach and let the waves rock him to sleep...

The sound of hushed voices shook him out of his reverie.

"I expect you to behave yourself." The voice was unfamiliar. Flinty, unyielding.

"I'm not a child, Father," came a whisper. "I can make my own decisions-"

"They aren't merely your decisions when they affect everyone around you, Eli."

Eli? Ari leaned forward around the thorny bush he stood behind. A older man in uniform stood in front of Eli; his face was sterner and his hands slightly wrinkled, but his gray hair was threaded with familiar flashes of gold not unlike Eli's.

Eli's father- father?- continued to speak.

"I could overlook your association with the criminals if you hadn't spent the evening falling over yourself for that girl." Eli flushed deeply, but said nothing. "I hope you know I expect you to do away with that infatuation immediately."

"She has a name, Father-"

"Who cares about her name? She's a pirate."

"Aveline and Ari are palace emissaries to Apreuna, and-"

"A year ago, they were Detache's most wanted," Eli's father finished. "They're pirates and thieves, and it is only due to their connections to the Apreuna monarchy that everyone has turned a blind eye to their horrifying altercations with the law."

"Verignes hired her, same as me," Eli spat. His face was red and a jaw bulged in his throat, and Ari thought he had never before seen the palace guard so furious. "She's not a monster."

So fully invested in the conversation as he was, Ari jolted when he felt someone tap on his shoulder. He whipped around, ready to fight someone, but it was Lyla and Jamie who had followed him outside. Their expressions matched; their mouths equally parted in shock.

Is that Eli? Lyla mouthed. Ari brought a finger to his lips.

"I'm asking you as your father, Eli. Figure out whose side you're on."

Then Eli's father strode away without looking back, leaving his words to ring like cavernous echoes into the balmy air.

**sorry for mistakes!!**