“They help sailors navigate,”Masie added.
“Both true,”Elijah said. “But they’re also stories. Every constellation up there has a tale behind it. Some are Greek myths, some are Scottish legends, some are simply ways people found to make sense of the patterns they saw.”
“Tell us,”Connor breathed.
“All right.See that group of stars there?” Elijah pointed. “The ones that look like a ‘W’?”
“Aye!”Connor squinted.
“That’s Cassiopeia.She was a queen in Greek mythology who boasted that she was more beautiful than the sea nymphs. As punishment, she was placed in the sky, tied to a chair, forced to circle the North Star for eternity.”
“That seems harsh for just braggin’,”Masie observed.
“The gods dinnaetake kindly to mortal pride,” Elijah said. “And there, those seven bright stars in a cluster? That’s Pleiades. The Seven Sisters. In one story, they were the daughters of Atlas who were turned into stars to escape a hunter.”
“Did it work?”Connor asked.
“In a way.They became unreachable, but they also became eternal.” Elijah’s voice was warm now, engaged in a way Piper had never heard. “And that line of three bright stars, that’s Orion’s Belt. Orion was a hunter, one of the greatest who ever lived.”
He continued pointing out constellations,weaving their stories together, and Piper found herself captivated not just by the tales but by the transformation in Elijah.
This waswho he’d been before grief and guilt had hardened him. This was the man who could still find wonder in the world.
Connor asked a hundred questions,and Elijah answered each one patiently. Even Masie dropped her defensive walls, asking about navigation and how sailors use the stars to find their way.
At some point,Connor shifted so that his head rested on Elijah’s chest. Elijah’s arm came around him, holding him close, and Connor let out a contented sigh.
“Da?”Connor’s voice was sleepy.
“Aye, lad?”
“I’m glad ye’re teachin’us about the stars.”
Elijah’s voicewas thick when he answered. “I’m glad ye wanted to learn.”
Piper caughtElijah’s eye across the space between them. He smiled at her, a real smile, full of gratitude and something else she couldn’t quite name.
Thank ye,he mouthed.
Piper smiled back,her heart so full it felt like it might burst.
She loved him.Desperately, hopelessly, completely.
And watching him like this—finallyconnecting with his children, finally letting himself be the father they needed—only made her love him more.
21
“And that one there,” Elijah said, pointing to a particularly bright star low on the horizon. “That’s Venus. Nae actually a star at all, but a planet. The Romans named it after their goddess of love and beauty because it’s the brightest object in the night sky besides the moon.”
Connor had fallenasleep against his chest, breathing softly and evenly. Masie was still awake, though her questions had grown less frequent. And Piper?—
Elijah glancedat her and found her watching him with an expression that made something in his chest tighten. Soft. Warm. Almost tender.
“This was a good idea,”he said quietly, so as not to wake Connor. “Thank ye for planning it.”
A twig snapped behind them.
Elijah's head whipped around,instincts screaming danger, but he was too late. A man lunged from the treeline, and grabbed Piper from behind, one arm locking around her waist as he yanked her backward. She screamed as cold steel pressed against her throat.
