“She really will be fine. The pretium can make you unsteady. She just needs to walk it off.”
I don’t look up at the sound of his voice. I am too unsteady to spar with him. And far too unbalanced to respond to the softness in his words.
Nodding, I hold up the clothing and slip past. “I’ll get changed.”
Chapter fifteen
Callan
Leo tugs on Merrick’s hand. “Please.”
Amused, Merrick waves him off. “All right, all right. Give an old man a moment, Leo. I just finished eating. Clear the deck for me and we’ll see.”
Letting out a small whoop of excitement, Leo darts around, picking up everyone’s bowls. He hesitates in front of Selene, but she only picks up her empty bowl and holds it out to him. “Thank you, Leo.”
The blush is still in his cheeks when he reaches me. Ducking when I ruffle his hair, he staggers off with his arms full of dishes
My eyes drift. The flames of the hearth still flicker, lower than they were an hour ago and casting dancing shadows over the faces of everyone around me. Esme sits in the space between Rio’s knees, her head against his chest as his back rests against a wooden stool. She rolls her eyes when she sees me watching. “Stop fussing. You’re as bad as he is.”
My lips twitch before I move on. Sol looks more relaxed than he did an hour ago, lounging on his stool and rocking it back with his feet. He catches my eye. “You good?”
Nodding, I shift. The boar stew Merrick made for dinner to use up the fresh meat hasn’t dampened the metallic taste in my mouth, but I’m used to it. Moving on, I settle on her.
She runs her fingers over the leather, not paying attention to us at all. Her knees are pulled up against her chest where she sits on the floor, the boots that fit her perfectly coming over them to just below her thighs.
I wonder what she’s thinking. Selene’s face gives nothing away, her eyes too foreign to be easily readable. But she traces the pads of her fingers over those leather trousers, again and again.
“I’m back!” Leo’s shout startles her enough that she jumps, her fingers closing into a fist as she looks to him. He almost dances around the hearth toward Merrick. “Now? Please?”
Merrick’s weathered face creases indulgently. “Fine. Which one?”
Leo purses his lips, his face scrunched up in concentration. “Endymion. Or…no. The origin? Can you do that one? AndthenEndymion.”
My eyes slip to Selene again, almost without thought. Rio interjects before I can address the question on her parted lips. “Merrick is an excellent storyteller.”
“Was,” Merrick corrects him. But he hesitates. “I was a Traveler in my youth.”
Selene straightens, attention sharpening as she focuses on him. “You spoke at the hearth of Asteria?”
“Several times.” We lose him for a moment, his eyes shifting somewhere else. “It was a great privilege. I spent many months there, learning from Erena. She was kind enough to teach me some of the old stories. And there were others. Friends. I did notwish to leave, when it was time to move on. But all things must come to an end.”
There is no hiding the emotion that crosses her face in that moment. The yearning. Painful enough that I drop my eyes. “Erena was my tutor.”
Merrick almost smiles, but it slips away. “She was relatively new to her Calling when I arrived in Asteria. It was many, many years ago. None taught me better, before or since.”
He takes in her face. Turning back to Leo, he holds up his hands. “The origin it is, then.”
Salt-cracked wood groans softly under my feet,Volatuscreaking beneath the weight she carries. As Merrick prepares himself, I look up to the sky, taking it in. The tapestry of stars above our heads glimmer against the mirrored water below, endless and jeweled within the vast pitch-black night.
None of us speak. None would dare to interrupt. Each of us settles back, and my eyes lower to Merrick as he straightens. Raising his hands, he stares into the flames until his eyes begin to glow a soft red, shades of amber and yellow warring for space. Glowing embers on a cold night. Leo backs up into me, and I pull him down until he leans against my side, eyes agog.
And in front of us, the flames begin to sputter and grow. Sparks travel up, dancing and twisting into the darkness of the Ellas sky as Merrick begins to speak, the hushed words traveling to each of us as if his words are for our ears alone.
“Once, there was only endless darkness. An eternity we know asEllas.”
He swipes his hand. The flames drop instantly, leaving glowing embers behind.
“The sky god, Caelum, had spent an eternity in that darkness. He travelled alone, always alone, and over his eternity of isolation, he had grown so very lonely.”
