44. The First Ancestors
The First Ancestors
ALASTAIR
The knock that reverberated from the other side of the door of my quarters had caught me off guard, but what made me question if I was still drunk on Leilani’s essence was the man who stood before me.
Crimson gaze sweeping my frame as I moved from the sealed threshold and back into the room, Caspian perched himself against the wall across from my desk.
One booted foot tucked behind the other; their shadowed hue matched the thick belt that hung loosely on his waist and the fitted trousers hugging his thighs.
A slate-blue tunic stretched across his broad chest and powerful shoulders, the linen pulled taut in all the places it never had on me.
Collar open, leather cords laced loosely over the center of his hair-laden chest, revealing just enough to remind me what lay beneath the fabric blanketing him.
His olive skin was warm beneath the morning beams dancing through expansive stern windows, the inked lightning mapping the side of his neck before vanishing beneath the lightweight material, only to reappear on his left arm.
Where it once represented a mark of defiance, now the thin veins beneath had polluted into twisting rivers of black, spreading beneath his flesh with merciless purpose.
Dark curls longer than I remembered them in Veilmar, the thick and unruly strands brushed the nape of his neck.
His beard had filled in beyond the neat trim I remembered, giving him a rougher edge without hiding the handsome face that haunted me far more often than I cared to admit.
There had always been something unfair about him.
Even burdened by Sorva’s influence, even dressed in my little more than worn linen and leather, he looked every bit the man I had fallen in love with during our time at sea.
That was until our lives had tragically and violently sailed apart.
Positioning myself behind my desk, my palms pressed against wood as I cleared my throat. “Glad to see you’re up and moving.”
Caspian studied me for a breath longer before his rasped jeer came. “Are you?”
I rolled my eyes. “Gods above, you’re unbearable.”
“So you’ve told me many times before.” The corners of his mouth curled in both amusement and reminiscence.
“Is that why you stopped by? For a reminder?”
“I suppose, partially. Though the main purpose of my elected visitation was to talk.”
His irises wavered, and I swore, for half a breath, the endless blue I used to admire for hours returned.
Once a mirrored color to the waters we grew up on, every glance he’d offered me became enchanting in a way I’d never been able to comprehend—a kaleidoscope of shades that clung to an otherworldly influence.
Elaros.
“Talk about what?” I prodded as that ire-filled, scarlet stare threatened to devour memories I continued to cling to like a lifeline.
Brows rising, Caspian nudged himself from the wall. With deliberate footfalls, he crossed the space, the gap between us shrinking with each heightened influx of air. Coming to stop opposite me, he matched my posture, hands resting on the desk, now the only thing keeping us apart.
“You’re really going to make me spell it out for you, Seridean?”
Biting the inside of my cheek, I swallowed. “No. I guess I see little purpose in discussing what once was when—“
“Still the terrible liar you used to be. If you don’t wish to talk, then fine, listen.
” Pinning me with his gaze, his palm settled over mine.
“I am sorry for what I did to you. As I’m sure, at this point, we’re both aware of the blinders we were forced to wear, it does not discredit the fact that I not only stripped you of a crew but nearly took your life alongside the title I rid you of. ”
Emotion swelled at the unexpectedness of his touch, and the sense of rekindling it brought. Moving around what my men claimed to be my makeshift throne, I planted myself against its lip. “You can’t do this to me, Vayne.”
“I am doing nothing more than giving you what you’ve deserved from me for the past eight years.”
“You’re speaking as if I am innocent, as if I—”
“Because you are innocent,” he growled with adamance.
“Your supposed responsibility in this falls to nothing more than a plan devised by the Others to force us apart. A feigned claim that you were seconds away from betraying the crew and me. A mirage I believed without question, as if you hadn’t devoted your fucking life to me, and gods, Alastair, if I could take it all back, I would.
If I could rid you of the scar I know you bear because of me, I fucking would. ”
“I’ve tried to kill you… I-I’m the reason you landed back in that godsdamned palace. I…” My words molded into a dense ball that settled in my throat, robbing me of my ability to keep speaking without stumbling into the depths of vulnerability.
“You’ve tried to survive your entire life, Ace.
And, faced with opposition from the one man who promised to give you everything, that is all you continued to do.
For fuck’s sake, I am the one who ingrained that in you, and it would be even more hypocritical of me to have expected anything less.
” His hand moved from mine, and when I went to lift my chin at the absence, his fingers wove through my hair.
With a gentle tug, he pulled me toward him, our foreheads meeting.
“So, yes, I will apologize for becoming the monster in your story, for harming you in a way I wish I could have prevented. Sure, Sorva’s influence and potent wrath had always been present, but I should have been stronger for you.
I should have fucking listened, and gods, I should’ve fought harder. ”
This was the Caspian Vayne I remembered. The man who had never failed to bring a smile to my face when sailing conditions were poor. The captain who protected me with his life day in and out. The one whom I had not only grown to admire, but to fall in love with.
“I’ve missed you…” I whispered. “Gods, Cas, I’ve missed you.”
Cradling me, nostalgia consumed his gravelly chuckle, “I’ve missed you too, Alastair.
Far more than I’d like to admit.” My fist collided with his chest, and he laughed harder before planting a gentle kiss on the crown of my head.
“Okay, okay. But, in all due seriousness, if you are willing, I would like another opportunity to do things right with you. We may not be what we once were, but I would like to foster a friendship. I want to get to know you again, Ace, just as I wish to get to know the woman who holds your heart.”
I drew back to look at him. “Lani?”
“Yes.” Smile lines carved into his cheeks, a sight I would never tire of seeing. “After all the time we spent together, I’m quite familiar with your tells, and that is a woman who has you wrapped around her finger.”
Biting the inside of my mouth, I shook my head. “That I am, Caspian Vayne. That I am.” With a playful nudge, I pushed myself to stand before adding, “It’s good to have my best friend back.”
What had started as a rarity transformed into serenity, like a gathering of friends who had awaited one another for decades.
Each creak from the galley’s long table acted as a cry of joy, a valiant cheer for all that came with once-opposing forces joining in arms. It was as if the universe had been awaiting this conversation, one aimed at discussing the summoning of five gods to dismantle the corruption that the Others and the King of Serevalen had bathed our lands in.
War was on the horizon, but together, we stood a chance.
As he’d always commanded attention, Caspian settled at the head, his shadow cast across the dark oak with a promise of destruction.
Revenge cloaked him with its potency, his olive complexion seeming to challenge all that darkness meant.
Tied to the God of Death, with his dark curls combed behind his ears and his watchful eyes roaming between us, there was something enchantingly ethereal about him.
It was as if he were crafted for the implications of leadership long before I had even realized it.
Briefly, he flashed his crimson gaze at me, a smirk quick to follow.
But, without missing a beat, and with an attentiveness molded by the fates, he glanced at the woman beside him.
The only person who would ever be capable of making a man as spontaneous and unruly as him obey with a single utterance.
Rohen.
Lips upturned in a way I hadn’t experienced until now, she leaned forward to bat Syoran’s hands away before he had the chance to flick her forehead.
Her copper waves tumbled freely to her waist, framing her features with an innocence I knew as lethality.
Emerald irises raked between us as a newfound power emanated from her.
It was a strength she’d always carried, but with Caspian beside her, it seemed to stir from its deep rest even more.
As if to confirm my observation, she peered up at the man beside her, a clash of fire and water. Holding his stare, I didn’t miss the way her entire essence shifted, just as I didn’t overlook the way he melted to all she was.
He had fallen.
“Well,” Leilani chimed in from across from me, her cadence carrying a liveliness I’d always clung to. “Should we dive in?”
I had seen women draped in silk and glittering beneath jewels, beauties who knew every practiced trick for stealing a man’s attention, but none of them had prepared me for her.
She was wrapped in soft ivory linen, the fabric gathered in generous folds around her shoulders and wrists. The billowed sleeves gathered like clouds caught in a warm morning breeze, while the delicate ruffles framed her throat and collarbones with the elegant strength she commanded.