Read Online Encante by Aiyana Jackson - Free Book Online

further impression that she’d dressed with haste was given by the fact her buttons were mismatched to their holes, and the flower I’d given her still graced her hair.
    “Ah, Drusilla, my lovely.” The captain gave his niece a kiss on the cheek. “Just the girl. Mister Escher here needs seeing to, take him below for me, there’s a good girl.”
    I was about to protest at the heinous notion that he would allow his niece to ‘see to me’, when she planted herself firmly between us and took my arm, ushering me back the way she’d come.
    “Of course, Uncle.” And without chance to utter another word I was swept away.
    Drusilla was certainly swift of foot. I found myself trotting more than once to keep pace. We descended two decks and crossed half the ship before she slowed, and I realised I was in the very belly of the Narwhal, the place Everett had initially ensured was so carefully kept hidden from me.
    “Your gallantry is appreciated, Simeon, but you needn’t have been so concerned; my uncle would never allow me to be a night flower. I’m far too valuable to him for other reasons.”
    She glanced at me from beneath her eyelashes and I couldn’t help that my gaze slid down to her half-bared breasts, heaving slightly beneath her coat from our escape.
    “You must not let him see that!” she warned. “He must never know you find me so attractive.”
    I was about to deny it, but realised it would be utterly without point. The only thoughts I had when I was with her were about what it would be like to kiss her, hold her, tangle my fingers in her hair—
    “Guard your thoughts!” she scolded. “I may be the only one aboard who can read minds, but I’m not the only one who can see the obvious. If my uncle realises your attraction, it will mean trouble for you.”
    “He can’t possibly think I’d take advantage of you?”
    “Quite the contrary, he seeks to take advantage of you.” She shook her head. “Cage already has plans to marry us; if he knows you’d be willing, he’d bring those plans forward.”
    “Cage?”
    “Minerva’s pet name for Uncle Micajah. Rather apt, don’t you think? He keeps us all caged one way or another.”
    “He seeks to marry us?”
    Marry Drusilla in place of Cecelia? The prospect was . . . undeniably attractive.
    “You think so?” She turned on me. “Have you considered that once we wed, my uncle would never allow you to return home?”
    A chill swam through me as her words sank in. My hand strayed to the compass, secure in my pocket, reassuring me I could leave whenever I wished. Perhaps I should simply have left right then, but I had so many questions, such curiosity about this Hollow Earth, such hope for what it could mean to the rebellion, and so little desire to leave Drusilla. Her eyes flickered to me for an instant as the thought crossed my mind, and the barest trace of a frown creased her otherwise smooth complexion. For the first time it occurred to me to wonder if I were truly a guest aboard the Narwhal, or if I was as much a prisoner as Drusilla’s cousins.

Chapter Nine
    “P repare yourself,” Drusilla said, “the covey are unlike any of the girls you’ve known previously.” She pushed open another generic door and we entered a room of similar design to Newton’s laboratories, yet while the labs had been dry, the atmosphere in here was more aquatic than terrestrial—something akin to the hydroponics bay, but with the distinct air of enclosure.
    “Watch your step,” Drusilla warned, a few seconds before I stumbled over yet another join in the floor.
    She held out her hand, and a small orb began to glow on her palm. It cast enough light that we could see, but not so much that it encroached upon anyone else in the room. And there were many others in the room. Before me lay another walkway. This one was far less elaborate than that in hydroponics. The room was roughly circular, and the platform ran the circumference and the diameter several times,