My mind drifts as we wait. To that first night, when I assumed the worst of him and boxes had broken and snapped, spilling grains across the floor. Callan’s low, hissed curse.
I wonder if his maegis is influenced by his emotional state. I open my mouth to ask Esme, but the ship tilts beneath my feet. My arm bangs painfully against the railing as it shifts, tipping to the side.
Down on the deck, wooden crates rattle and bang together where they’ve been leashed to the desk with thick rope. And the wind picks up, whistling and stealing away the words that Sol shouts at us.
“What?” My own voice raises in a shout, but I can’t hear anything.Volatusjolts again as we’re all thrown back. My wings bang back into the wood, pulling a pained hiss from my lips.
Callan does not move. He shifts with the movement below him, perfectly balanced as though he’s part of the structure around us. And my eyes widen as he lifts his arms.
His maegis—I can feel it. A crackle that snaps in the air, raising the hairs on my arms, on the back of my neck. A swirling storm of almost visible power that sweeps from him in a wave.
The wave crashes over me, over all of us, pinning us back against the railings we’re clutching. The maegis whirls around my body, as if testing, assessing. A heavy, weighted sensation as it searches for somewhere to settle.
I find myself holding my breath.
And then it’s gone, moving on.
The ship groans, creaking, refusing the call. And Callan’s anger only feeds the surging storm of maegis that continues to sweep from him as he roars his frustration.
“We’re too close,” Esme almost screams it, her words fighting with the wail of the wind as we pick up speed,Volatusflying through the ocean toward that void. “Too close to the edge!”
My lips move silently, forming prayers I have not said in a long time. Prayers for hope, and safety. Prayers for safe passage, prayers I didn’t even know I remembered from my childhood.
All the while, Callan does not move. Strong, steady, as he stares out toward the endless night sky that rushes up upon us. I focus on his hands, on the way they do not tremble, and it softens the harsh gasps from my own lungs.
His shouted words filter back to us. “Steady!”
I inhale as the void stretches out. From bright, shining sun to endless darkness, a perfect line drawn across the sky. The world ends here. We’re going to tumble off that edge and fall intonever-ending night. I press my back against the railing, ignoring the burn in my wings, as if I might be able to escape.
But there is no escaping this. And the void grows bigger, swallowing up the bright blue of the afternoon sky. The ship hurtles forward, gaining speed as if something is dragging us forward—
“Three.” Callan’s roar fills the air.
Hala, help us.
“Two.”
Caelum, help him.
Beside me, Esme buries her face in Rio’s chest. Across from us, Leo’s face is pale, his earlier excitement long gone. Sol has his eyes closed, murmuring.
“One.” Callan almost screams it. “Brace!”
Twisting, I stare over the railing. Watching the space where foam and spray and water meets the night sky in an exact line, even as it grows closer with every pounding beat of my heart.
Callan does not slow, or hesitate.
Wefly, straight over that line between night and day.Volatusarrows into the Sea of Stars, a sole, small entrant into nothing but a vast sky of starlight.
For a moment, we’re suspended in time. The howling wind dies into stillness, leaving silence behind. The light of the sun vanishes, day turning to night in the space between heartbeats, replaced by the soft glow of moonlight.
And it is…beautiful.
Something cracks inside my chest at the sight.
For there, above my head, are Hala’s moons.
Seven of them, nestled together in a line. Every phase; from waxing crescent to waning, the full, luminous sphere in the center casting gentle light over my face.
