The skin around Callan’s eyes tightens as I shift. His fingers stop my chin as I attempt to twist away. “Wait. Please. This is important.”
“Not as important as that.” I’m drowning in him, in his words, in sensation that I cannot name as his thumb strokes down my wing once more. It becomes hard to form words, to think clearly. “Please. We cannot go from an argument to—whateverthisis.”
His eyelids lower, becoming almost hooded. “In the future, I’ll make sure our arguments end differently.”
“Fine. Good.” My hands land on his chest, and I push him back. “Go.”
“You didn’t answer me.” He steps back, but his eyes still feel like a physical caress against my pebbled, overheated skin.
I keep my lips firmly closed.
“We both know you’re thinking it, Selene. This conversation isn’t done.” He turns, striding over to join Sol as his voice rises to carry out acrossVolatus. “Everyone hold on!”
He turns, watching until Esme joins me before turning away, and my breathing finally begins to steady. Salt fills my nose from the raging waves above us instead of Callan’s scent.
Rio slips in on my other side. “Did I just see—”
“No,” I blurt.
Esme hisses. “Shut up, Rio.”
I swallow. “There’s nothing to see.”
His brows fly up, hands raising in apology beforeVolatuslurches and he grabs the railing to steady himself. “Well, that seemed like a whole lot ofnothingto me, if anybody asked.”
“Nobody asked,” Esme and I both snap the words in unison.
Rio only grins. “If you say so.”
Chapter twenty-nine
Selene
The crossing would not be so bad on this side, they had said.
They had neglected to mention that there would not be a crossing at all.
My grip on the railing grows tighter, holding me in place as my knees tremble beneath me.
Callan had tried to tell me that this would not be the Asteria of my childhood, and I had nodded. Almost dismissive.
Of course it would not be the same. How could it be, when Nyx and Celeste would not be there? Without the Mother, the Maiden, the Crone, without Deva and Erena and Aylina?
Without Emryn, and Leesa—
I stare at this place, this island that calls itself Asteria, and yet looks nothing like it.
It looks like it belongs to the gods. Surrounded by night, the island is tethered to nothing but air. Itfloats.
And yet light shines from it; grey, almost murky rays of sun glow strangely against the dark that surrounds us. Even thewaterfalls that I played in as a child still flow. They’re visible even from here as we descend through the sky, although just barely. They seemed gigantic to me then, and no less so now. Crashing waves of ice-cold water that flow into sandy streams and pools perfect for paddling, before joining the fast-flowing river that now pours directly off the side into the abyss below instead of leading to the ocean.
Callan guidesVolatusforward, his hands raised. His maegis glimmers through his skin, his body alight with a deep, golden glow as we sail forward.
“How do we land?” I ask, studying my unfamiliar homeland as it grows bigger by the moment. For there is no sea for us to land on, not here. At the edge of Asteria is an abrupt shift into the night sky, as if one could simply walk off the end and tumble forever.
“We rebuilt the dock.” Rio clears his throat. “There’s a section we can land in.”
I nod, my eyes locking on those waterfalls with the need to find some familiarity against this strange new place.
