“Wax plugs,” Callan says promptly. “Warm them and mold them to your ears.”
“Huh—”
“Go on, Smee.” His voice deepens, eyes moving past her. “I need a word with Selene before she starts work.”
Esme glances at me over her shoulder. “See you later.”
“Thank you for breakfast.” I slide the empty bowl back onto the tray, tidying the desk as Callan steps inside.
“You thought I was going to punish her.” The words are light enough, but there’s something more behind them. “You really don’t think very highly of me, do you?”
“I don’t know you.” Shoulders tight, I turn to him. “But would you blame me?”
At my words, Callan straightens. “You’re referring to the Shift, I assume.”
He corrects himself at my raised brow. “The day we invaded Asteria. That’s what we call it.”
The Shift.
Such an innocuous word for such a violent day. “I see.”
He studies me again. I wonder what he sees. “Whatever your thoughts on us, I do not blame you for them.”
My temper threatens to fray from his quiet, soft words, and I turn my face away, picking up the tray. My response is the edge of a blade, cutting and sharp in the otherwise silent room. “It is notyourplace to blame me, or otherwise. Your people may have invaded my home and stolen it from under my feet, but my thoughts remain my own, Edgeborn. And I do not care or wish for your apologies, or wherever this discussion may be heading. What work do I have to do?”
Better to lose myself in menial tasks than be dragged back into memories I have no wish to face. Better to scrub filthy floors on my knees than remember how it felt to drown beneath the salt-filled waves beneath them.
I am going home. Back to Asteria, to fulfil my promise to return.
I have little trust in fate anymore. Whatever the Mother saw when she read me was a different world. A different place, and that version of me no longer exists.
But if Hala will not avenge the ones I lost that day, then I must at least try. And perhaps then I will finally know a moment’speace.
Callan catches my arm as I try to skirt past him in the doorway. The tray wobbles in my hands.
“You’re correct.” His tone matches mine for iciness. “I have no right to your thoughts, nor do I demand them. You do not wish for my apologies, but I will offer them anyway, and perhaps one day you will see them as genuine. But make no mistake—the others on this ship are not responsible for what happened that day. They hurt none of yours, Selene. Attempting any sort of revenge would not be met kindly by me. Do you understand?”
I try to yank my arm free. His grip is not painful, but tight. “Letgoof me—”
“I do not mess around with my crew’s safety.” Callan leans down, his eyes drowning mine in shimmering, molten bronze that moves like liquid waves. “You are not my enemy, Selene. But if I am to be yours, then know that I will do what I need to do, even if I take no pleasure in it.”
My wings feel tight, my skin throbbing where it meets the copper. My breathing feels heavy around the weight in my chest as I tip my face to his, barely a few inches away. “You’re threatening someone who has nothing left to fight with. I’d say you’ve shown exactly what kind of man you are.”
If I thought the words might flay, I was wrong. His eyes narrow. “You don’t strike me as somebody who has nothing left to fight with.”
“This is ridiculous—,”
“You forget,” he says softly. “That I can tell truth from lie. And you’re lying, Selene.”
I empty my face of any expression at all, but it’s too late.
Callan crowds me further, pressing me against the doorframe but keeping several inches between us. The empty wooden bowl slips from the tray, clattering to the floor. I shove the tray into his chest, but he doesn’t move. Irritated, my words come out in a snarl. “I gave you my word, and I will give it once more. I will not intentionally hurt anybody while on this ship. Is thathonestenough for you?”
He tsks. “You’re a quick study, aren’t you? Most don’t learn to word things carefully at all.”
I keep my lips closed. There’s no point in arguing further.
His eyes tighten. “On this ship, then.”
