Kerym dipped his head over the side of the ship, and sure enough, Raine and Frelina were riding beside their ship.
A shudder went through him. They were riding on fuckingsnakes. Large black serpents weaving their way through the water as if they belonged there. Which they definitely didn’t.
“I take it back,” Kerym muttered as Pellie came up to his side, her eyes also going big at the scene unfolding beneath them. “I am scared of one thing.”
Raine shook his head as he waved for Kerym to let down the rope ladder. “You’re as bad as my female over here. I think it’s best we send her up first because otherwise she might stab me in the back for making her do this.”
Hisfemale?
Kerym was about to shoot back a playful remark as he threw the ropes over the side when he noticed the words settle within Frelina, softness layering over her face as she watched Raine get everything ready for her to get up.
Adoration. No… love. It was love that made Frelina’s tired face brighten as if the sun hiding behind the clouds above them had broken free, its rays falling only onto her devoted features.
Raine saw it as well, and something warm took hold of Kerym’s heart when his friend kissed her cheek as she allowed him to lift her onto the ladder, his gazefollowing her as if he were a blind man who’d finally been able to see.
So his friend had finally stopped being a fucking idiot.
Turning to Pellie, he watched her realize what had happened as well, and when she avoided his seeking eyes as she helped Elessia’s sister onto the ship, Kerym mumbled, “I can’t have found someone more stubborn than Raine. I refuse to accept that.”
But there wasn’t room for envy within him. Nor was there room for sadness as Raine flung himself onto the deck, and Kerym caught a glimpse of how his friend had once looked as he quickly pulled Frelina to him and kissed her until her cheeks burned.
This was the pre-Solana-dying Raine.
Carefree. Happy. Passionate. Loving.
Kerym shot a look out over the sea, watching gray clouds gathering over it, and while it made their world darker, there was enough light from the couple beside him to fight it.
Solana would be happy to see Raine like this.
Thissian would as well.
Thissian would have also told Kerym to have patience with Pellie—would have told him that not everyone fell as fast and as hard as Kerym did. But neither patience nor waiting was Kerym’s strong suit. Kerym could almost feel his brother’s hand squeeze his shoulder, and he breathed in the steadiness his phantom touch gave him as the sound of drums started in the distance.
It was almost as if Thissian had warned him—as if he’d told him to be careful.
Kerym looked to the horizon, where ships would soon flood the ocean.
Everything about this war was different from any other he’d fought. Kerym wasn’t sure what his place would be in this one. He wouldn’t have Thissian to calm his hammering pulse. Raine didn’t seem as if he would fling himself in front of an arrow. And Merrick… Well, they’d have to see what state he was in when he and Lessia returned.
The ship had gone quiet when Kerym finally tore his eyes away from the still-empty line between the sea and the sky, and while everyone was turned toward the ship floating at the front of the armada, where Iviry’s fiery hair and Loche’s dark strands betrayed the two leaders standing in the bow, their ears weren’t on the sounds of weapons, of people milling about, or on the sails shifting in the wind.
They were listening to the building sound of war behind them—the one they’d heard only weeks ago.
When Kerym tasted dread, worry, and fear in the air, he threw a look over his shoulder, grimacing at where he imagined Thissian was standing, and dipped to place his hands on the deck of the ship.
“Shake,” Kerym whispered, imagining the planks moving under his fingers, and to his surprise the creaking wood indulged him, although it did so a bit more literally than he’d planned.
Every person ahead of him tumbled into a heap of limbs and bodies as the wood beneath their feet danced, and startled shouts cut through the air as Kerym cursed.
“Sorry! Sorry!” Kerym quickly lifted his hands, and the ship stilled again.
“What the fuck was that?” Raine looked absolutelyferal as he threw his vicious glare around the ship, as if one of the enemy might have sneaked onto it.
“Erm… that would be me.” Kerym gave him an apologetic smile as Raine stormed toward him. “I was just trying to lighten the mood a little bit. You all became ever so serious.”
“What do you mean that wasyou?” Raine snarled, shoving Frelina behind him as he halted before Kerym. “Get the fuck back, Frelina. I am not above pushing you overboard to those snakes again.”
As Frelina rolled her eyes at Kerym, he shrugged at her. “I don’t doubt he means it.”
