I have met so many males. And yet he confuses me with every word, every action. “I can’t help my face. What exactly would you do about it?”
He mutters something beneath his breath, before straightening. “A conversation for another time. We’re reaching the end.”
Oh, gods. My hands grip the railing instinctively. “Will it be as challenging as the other side?”
“Normally, yes.” He shakes his head, bemused. “But not with my maegis at its strongest. It’ll be the easiest landing we’ve ever had. I could leave immediately for another trip, when it usually takes weeks to recover.”
Grip tightening on the ship that carries us, I look to where he’s concentrating in an attempt to see anything beyond the endless darkness.
“Tell me what’s wrong.” Callan pulls a sleek, shining instrument from his pocket, flicking it open and studying whatever is inside. The rudder creaks beneath his hands as he turns it a little to the right. “Something is bothering you.”
He’s not evenlookingat me.
When my hand slips down, my nails reaching for my healed wrists, his own hand whips out. “Don’t.”
I suck in a breath. “It’s a habit.”
I wouldn’t even knowhowto stop. Most of the time, it’s done without thinking. Boralas had tried, over and over, incensed at the marks he thought marred his precious oddity. He had shouted and punished and bribed and nothing had changed. In the end, he stopped caring altogether, since none of the men he sent to me had noticed it at all. Some had added to them.
Callan squeezes my wrist softly before letting go. “I’ll make sure your accommodation has a tub. And more of that salve.”
He turns back to his work, adjusting the rudder once more. My hand slips away after little more than a single scratch of my nails. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me.” His voice lowers. “This is your home. We’re just…,”
Invaders. Conquerors. Murderers.
But the words don’t seem to fit. Not as I might have imagined. For the first time, with Asteria so close, I allow myself to think about what happens next. “What should I expect?”
“Don’t be afraid.” He pauses to look at me. “They won’t hurt you.”
I don’t particularly care about that. You cannot break something that broke a long time ago. “I didn’t think they would. Yourkingneeds me to fix the Never. It makes no sense to torture me if they want my help.”
Petyr. I try to conjure up an image of this male, this Caelumnai who sits on a throne in my goddess’s temple, bought with the blood of my sisters. But Callan says nothing. “I’m right, aren’t I?”
His nod is barely perceptible.
The sky broke apart on the day the faeytes fell. It’s not difficult to follow. “You know I can’t fix this, Callan. I wouldn’t know where to start.”
“I would have agreed with you.” His eyes meet mine. “It’s too much to sit on one pair of shoulders, particularly when the Caelumnai are the reason you are alone. But you have a habit of doing the impossible. Who is to say what you can or cannot do?”
He leaves it at that, giving me space to think as he steers the ship into the darkness, checking his compass again.
I came to avenge my sisters. To avenge them, and then to join them. The thought makes me feel impossibly small. Butthis…. This feels like an impossibility far beyond my reckoning.
Not to destroy… but to save.
The words collect in the back of my mouth. The need to share this with him. “I was reckless when I tried to get on board.”
“How so?” Callan steps back from the rudder. I turn as he crosses to stand beside me.
And then past me. Callan climbs over the railing beside and settles himself on the ledge. His boots dangle into nothing but air. I can’t keep the hysterical edge out of my voice. “Getdown.”
“I have better balance than Leo, thankfully.” He nods to the space beside him. “And you have wings, although I won’t let you fall. Won’t you join me? Just a few minutes, before we land.”
Callan breathes deeply as I settle beside him, shaking out my wings. Our fingertips brush as they settle on the railing beneath us.
“I despise this view,” Callan says quietly, staring out into the void. “And yet it still takes my breath away, every time I look at it.”
