Maybe it’s the dip in adrenaline now catching up with me, but it doesn’t get better the longer we stay in the air. Aster’s the only one who seems to notice. He keeps shooting me concerned looks and asking me what’s wrong, but since I barely know myself, I don’t know what to say to him.
I close my eyes for a moment, hoping the swaying movement and the rhythmic thumping of the gryphon’s wings might help me drift off to sleep.
Despite the lethargy dragging me down, I can’t quite drift off. Instead, I wind up pulling my knees to my chest and find Torin’s steady gaze already focused on me.
“Are we going to talk about that thing in your chest now that we have some time on our hands?” he asks.
And nowhere to hide.
But he deserves to know.
“I’ve spent all my life skipping from place to place, moving on whenever anyone got too close,” I tell him, before my eyes shift to Jack who is sitting with his eyes closed. “But it was all for nothing.”
There’s no longer any need for me to keep my secrets. Secrets were supposed to keep me safe, to stop the worst from happening.
So much for that.
“I’m a selkie,” I tell them. “I don’t know if you know much about them?”
“A selkie,” Jack murmurs with a snort that seems entirely out of place following me revealing my closest kept secret. “And you thought that gryphons were mythical.”
Then Torin’s the one letting out a low chuckle, shaking his head. “Sorry. It’s just... Jack’s got a thing for mermaids. We’re always telling him they don’t exist, but all the legends—”
“—start with sailors spotting selkies in the water. A woman’s head pops up from beneath the waves, and a seal’s tail bobs in the water as she transforms.” I nod, glancing again at Jack, whose cheeks have gone an impressive shade of red. “Yeah, I’ve heard them all before. You know, I grew up terrified sorcerers were going to steal my skin and use it in their rituals.”
“They probably would,” Jack replies. “If they believed you existed.”
Well, I’m fairly sure one does now. Jack seems to realise as soon as the words come out by the way all that extra blood disappears from his face.
“Anyway, I gave Kit my sealskin for safekeeping and then he got himself abducted by a sorceress,” I say. “And it seems that the longer I’m away from my seal, the more I can feel our separation. Headaches, dizzy spells, aches and pains.”
Jack surprises me by reaching out to pat me on my knee, unconsciously echoing Aster’s words from days ago. “We’ll get it back for you. You’ll find we’re pretty good at that kind of thing.”
“And Kit’s not going to let that woman touch your skin,” Torin adds. “He’d let her tear his own skin off first.”
That’s something I am both hoping for and terrified of.
I MUST ACTUALLY FALLasleep after that. I wake from a deep sleep as someone carefully puts me to bed, turning my head slightly into a bulky bicep and breathing in the faded scent of cloves. For a moment, I’m entirely weightless and totally safe, cocooned in a strong pair of arms. And then my awareness fades as I melt back into unconsciousness.
I’m woken some time later, having slept so deeply and in one position for so long that my ear aches. Sitting up, I’m aware of what woke me. Someone is tapping incessantly on the cabin door. I force myself up, pausing as my head swims and a wave of nausea rolls through me.
It’s impossible to know what time it is, but I’m alone in the cabin. Whether that means Aster’s already been to bed and risen again, or hasn’t slept at all, is impossible to say.
Bones is standing in the doorway, his craggy face pulled into a grin that distorts as he takes in my appearance. “Not feeling your best, pet?”
“I, uh, not really.”
He nods. “Cookie’s busy in the kitchen whipping something up. No doubt you’ll feel better after.”
My stomach protests, and I lean heavily against the doorframe, still too lost in the fog of sleep to argue. “Uh huh.”
Bones nods. “Right, well, there’s someone on the scrying glass for you in the captain’s office. They’ve been calling pretty constantly since you’ve been gone, and Cap’s threatening to string whoever it is up.”
“For me?” I ask, my stomach twisting again but for a different reason.
“A lady ogre, Cap says it was. Friend of yours.”
Frannie. I let out a breath, hit with a strange mixture of pleasure and disappointment.
