“We’ll take our time, stay on the boat until morning. It’s much safer out here, actually.”
“I know,” I mutter quietly.
I glance at Phaedra, who hasn’t said a word and is cowering quietly on a bench just behind me. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” It’s not convincing, but what can I do. Our best option is to find the safest nearby village or inn to drop her off at, then leave her behind. She can’t be in on this. Her blonde hair falls over her face, and she keeps it there like a curtain, shutting us out.
The gentle sounds of the water lapping against the boat as they slowly row into the night in no real rush soothes me. I lean my arm on the side, resting my face on my arm, and look out at the water which looks like a black sheet now. It would’ve been so incredibly easy for me to swim away after my cuffs were removed. But now I’m glad I didn’t. I would have missed my rescue crew—what’s left of the order.
“You don’t wear cuffs like her.” The voice I yearned to hear for so long now sounds accusing, bitter almost. My stomach twists.
I glance at him and my heart hurts instantly. “Not anymore.”
I don’t know what to say to him. If I talk about what happened, then I’ll have to admit how shameful I was. How I almost gave up. On everything.
Phaedra finally stirs, picking at her wrists. “Now how am I supposed to get these off without Adrian around to sweet-talk like you did?” she mumbles, glancing at me for only a flash.
My gaze instinctively falls on Daegan, whose jaw ticks as he looks ahead at nothing again.
His indifference might hurt worse than anything else I imagined happening when we reunited.
Rhydra, I realize, is leaning against the other side of the boat, already asleep. They must have had a long journey getting to me. They all seem exhausted, now that I think about it. Phaedra doesn’t look far off. I couldn’t possibly sleep right now, though. Not now that we’re all together again. It makes the pain of Meela’s absence hurt more though.
I continue to sit in my thoughts, occasionally studying Raef and Daegan as they lazily paddle. There are only a couple of light orbs on the boat, so I can’t see much of their faces, but they both look older in ways I can’t describe.
And Raef… he may have been smiling when he greeted me, but every time he thinks I’m not looking, his expression falls flat. Something I rarely knew him to do before.
It’s not until I see golden speckles of light approaching from behind them that I realize I completely forgot about Kezra.
“There you are,” her echoing, silky voice sings.
Raef yells, jumping up from his seat and flipping around.
Daegan also stands, searching the darkness for the source of the foreign voice.
They both face the golden fairy now, who glides through the air past them until she reaches me. She takes a seat on the edge not far from my face.
They both turn again, tracking her movements. Raef with awe and wonder, and Daegan with something just shy of indifference.
“Took you long enough,” I say.
“You know the fairy?” Raef exclaims.
“Shhh,” I say, nodding toward both of our sleeping companions.
“No, I will not. There’s a fairy here talking to us, and you’re acting all casual about it, like you’re old friends.”
“So you can see her?”
“Yes…”
“So I wasn’t going crazy…” I mumble.
“Debatable. And we’re all old friends,” Kezra muses. “Raef, I’ve seen your sadness that you hide from the world. Daegan, I’ve seen your unbreakable perseverance at your worst hour, the bodies you’ve slain to break free, and I hear the name that you whisper into the darkness.”
She leaves them speechless, and my face twists with sadness. There’s so much to process from what she said, I don’t even know where to begin. Raef’s gaze travels between Kezra and me, but my gaze ends up staying on Daegan. I just wish I could talk to him. Just the two of us. And I could explain everything so he could stop looking at me with so much betrayal in his eyes. That’s what it is, I finally realize. Betrayal.
“Well, shit,” Raef says.
