“Did you make it?” Seren asked, her eyes on the cake.
Ara nodded. “Last night. I couldn’t sleep. I miss him.” The room was silent except for the sound of them eating. “I miss you, too, Seren. I foolishly thought we would go back to the way we were before . . . well, I thought you would get to Calami and it would be like we were never apart. We used to tell each other everything. So much has changed.”
Ara thought about the comforting presence in the back of her mind. Cal was there if she needed him. Not listening in, but if she brought him to the surface, he could.
“So much, Bella . . .” Seren finally spoke, her voice thick with sadness. “You can take your pick. The void Father left behinddidchange me, Mother’s unending grief, my terrible loneliness. And I learned the hard way not to trust anyone because, in the end, no one is on your side. You only have yourself.”
Ara reached out and put her hand on Seren’s knee. “I’m here, Seren, and if that isn’t enough, then so is Lily. Roxie would even be here for you if you wanted her to be, though I think you would need to jinx and insult her less.”
Ara knew even as she said it that they weren’t who Seren wanted to be there for her. In her mind, a flash of ink-stained fingers slipped through dark threads of hair as they pushed an augure into place, of standing too close and not moving away soon enough, of tempest seas under midnight skies.
Icarus and Seren
Cal was at the forefront of her mind again.
Ara shook her head. “He’s a professor.”
Seren jolted, confusion on her face. “What are you talking about?”
Ara took her hand away from Seren’s knee and the images faded. “Professor Atwood. What is going on between you?”
Seren stared at her, her mouth drawn into a thin line. “You couldn’t let this be a moment of grief between us, could you? To share our pain together. What do my private lessons with Ic—Professor Atwood have to do with any of this?”
Ara snapped her mouth shut. Her sister would welcome nothing she had to say about the matter. Professor Atwood was in a position of power, and Seren was a student. The nuances of it did not matter.
“Are we done here?” Seren asked, her words little more than a growl. “Have we pretended at grief together long enough?”
“That isn’t what this is.” Ara defended, but it made no difference as Seren rose to her feet and turned her back.
“She is infuriating,” Ara grumbled as she climbed the spiral steps to the observatory. It was her second favorite thinking spot and one that had yet to be discovered by Seren. Her sister had infiltrated almost every aspect of her life at Calami, surely this one place could be hers alone.
She had forgotten how persistent Seren could be. How stubborn she was. The year she had been away from her sister had given her rose-tinted glasses to who her sister truly was, but no longer. Seren was playing with fire if whatever it was she had seen was true.
What she had seen . . . was a vision. A glimpse into the past. Her research into the history of the vessel said nothing of seer abilities but there was little available to her about the vessel at all. She stepped into the domed room, its ceiling split open to view the heavens and sighed in relief. It was blessedly empty.
“It’s beautiful. I see why it brings you peace.”
Cal’s voice had never sounded so close in her head before. It was as if she could reach out and touch him. She desperately wished she could. She lifted her face to the heavens and wondered if he was watching the night sky with her.
“Turn around, Ara.”
She smiled and turned, playing at whatever game this was. Her mouth dropped open at the sight.
Cal stood by the enormous telescope, leaning against it as if it weren’t a delicate and expensive piece of equipment. A crooked grin played on his lips but his eyes were hesitant, as if not sure how she would take this invasion of a space so special to her.
She answered the hesitation in his eyes by striding across the room and wrapping her arms around his waist. He seemed surprised by her immediate acceptance of him, but then he relaxed, letting out a breath.
Cal wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her tight against him, breathing her in. “Rough day?”
“Exhausting,” Ara told him, her voice muffled in his chest but content with where she was. “I seem to have forgotten just how infuriating my sister is.”
Cal laughed. “Should you ever forget that again, I will quickly remind you.”
“Between you and Roxie, there is no doubt I will ever forget now.” Ara pulled away and turned her face to meet him. “How are you here? Surely there are wards in place?”
Cal hesitated. “I met with Icarus at the boundary line. I felt a pull to this place and hoped it would be because you were here. I portaled in blind which is very dangerous by the way.”
“How brave you are, Calder Darkmore.” Ara laughed, the sound bouncing off the walls around them. “You look much better than you did the last time you and your brother met. I hope it was a happier reunion?”
