“What did you hear?” Kellan asked.
“In the water?” Sawyer clarified. “Nothing. Not really. But when I was on the pier....” He looked at Ciaran then. “This is gonna sound really weird.” Then he gave Ciaran an apologetic grimace. “To be honest, I’m not sure what’s weird or what’s normal anymore.”
“You heard something on the pier,” Kellan prompted.
“Yes,” Sawyer replied. “I heard... a voice. But not a literal voice, I don’t think. But it spoke to me all the same, pulling me toward the water. Calling me.”
Ciaran’s hearts were staccato drums, his stomach a greasy knot. Which, of course, Sawyer felt.
“No, no,” he said quickly, pulling on Ciaran’s hand. “It wasn’t a bad thing. It was actually kinda beautiful, and it’s so peaceful in the water, I can see why you love it....” His words trailed off, and he looked from Ciaran to Kellan and back again. “Oh. It’s, uh... it is a bad thing? Both your faces.... I mean, I know falling in water isn’t a good thing, and if Tobin hadn’t pulled me out—it was Tobin, right? I thought I recognised him?—”
“It’s not good,” Ciaran said. “He said you smiled at him like it was perfectly normal for you to be at the bottom of the Cove. Which it’s not, Sawyer. In case you didn’t already know. You’re human, with very human lungs.”
“I know,” he murmured. “I’m sorry.”
“Tobin also said you weren’t alone down there,” Ciaran added. “Same thing Dylan said the first time you went in.”
Confusion crossed Sawyer’s face, and he looked as if he was trying to remember. “I never saw anyone else.”
“You said it looks like the stars,” Kellan said.
“Yes. Like floating in a galaxy or glittery dust motes. It’s beautiful and like no other water I’ve seen.” His gaze tracked from Ciaran to Kellan and back again. “Does it not look like that for you?”
“Well, yes,” Ciaran replied. “But it shouldn’t for you. And it doesn’t even for us in human form. It just looks like normal water. But when we’re in freeform... well, it looks like what you’re describing.”
Sawyer, of course, thought this was a great development, if his excitement was anything to go by. “Really?”
Ciaran and Kellan exchanged glances again.
“Hmm,” Kellan hummed. “I can’t help but wonder if your bonding is the reason.”
“It was like that before,” Sawyer said. “The first time I went in. It was beautiful. And we weren’t bonded then.”
“That’s true,” Ciaran noted. He didn’t like this. He didn’t like any of this.
He didn’t want Sawyer affected in any kind of way.
“Not by body,” Kellan said. “You weren’t bonded by body, but your souls were already aligned. The second you got here and saw Ciaran, it was sealed.”
Ciaran sighed and brought their joined hands to his lips, kissing Sawyer’s knuckles. “I’m sorry,” he murmured.
“What for?” Sawyer asked.
“That you... that you underwent changes. That you were changed because of me. We had no way of knowing?—”
“That’s exactly right,” Sawyer said. “We had no way of knowing. You’re not to blame here. You heard what Kellan said. That shit was decided before I stepped off Tobin’s boat.”
Ciaran wasn’t convinced. If he hadn’t?—
“Hey,” Sawyer said sternly, and Ciaran could feel his anger brewing. “We’re not doing guilt here. Not a fucking bar of it. Are we clear?”
Dylan snorted from the next room, and even Kellan smirked at that.
“Okay,” Kellan said quietly. “We’ll leave you alone. Sawyer, you need rest, propped upright as you are now, preferably. Ciaran, you know where I am if you need me for anything.”
Ciaran gave him a nod. “Thank you. For everything.”
“Can I ask something else?” Sawyer said as Kellan turned to leave. “Before you go, sorry. I mean, thank you as well for looking after me, but about the voice. The one calling me into the water. Well, it wasn’t really a voice, more like an echo. Something far away but inside my head.”
