2. Calista
Chapter 2
Calista
A fleet of ships like I’d never seen departed the port of Shadow Stone. Every soldier was commanded to fight and leave the lands behind devoid of defense. There were no known enemies to the kingdoms besides the monsters to the north, and their trespass seemed unlikely. And Talon didn’t want to lose the war simply because he’d chosen to leave too many men behind.
I stayed on the same ship as Queen Eldinar and my uncle, preferring their company to Talon’s men. Talon stayed on the first ship with Commander Navarrese, but I knew he would make his way back to me eventually.
The dragons soared overhead, leaving their wings open and gliding most of the time to conserve their energy. They had no riders in case the extra weight tired them. I knew this journey would be longer than the last, so I tried to prepare myself for the cabin fever that was bound to set in. Without Talon there for company, it would no doubt descend quicker and more intensely.
A knock sounded on the door of my quarters below deck, and I assumed it was my uncle or the queen. “Come in.” I sat at the small table in my room, the roof so low that even I had to hunch down in certain places. I enjoyed a bottle of wine, and since I was alone, I didn’t bother with a glass. I wanted Talon to join me on this ship, but I knew his duty made him obligated to lead his men. I could join him on his, but after my time with the elves, they were the ones who felt like home.
My uncle stepped inside, ducking his head as he entered my quarters. It was unnecessary to be in his full armor when we were out to sea, but nonetheless, he was geared for war. “Am I interrupting?”
“No.” I kicked out the chair beside me. “Just drinking.”
He gave a slight smirk before he took a seat. He took a quick look around my accommodations but kept his opinions to himself.
These galleons weren’t nearly as nice as the elves’. They didn’t possess the same craftsmanship. Their only focus was function, whereas the elves had incorporated luxury as well as beauty.
“May I?” He nodded to the bottle of wine.
I nodded. “Want a glass?”
He grabbed the bottle and drank straight from it. “This way is more practical.”
We sat in silence for a while, the ship rocking back and forth slightly. The galleon was more unstable than the other I’d been on, so I felt seasickness more often.
“How are you?” I finally asked.
“Nervous.” He sat back in the chair, arms crossed over his chest.
“About?”
He took a breath then let it out slowly. “Everything. My wife is about to be in the hands of pirates, and if that union goes poorly, there’s not much I can do about it. And even if that is a positive experience, there’s everything that comes after that. I have to defend her in territories I’ve never visited against foes who have no faces.”
“If Talon trusts them, then so do I.”
He grabbed the bottle and took another drink.
“And don’t forget, we sail upon their shores with dozens of ships and dragons in the sky.”
“Doesn’t change the fact that we’re on their turf, a place I’ve never been. And it doesn’t change the fact that I’m married to the most beautiful monarch who’s ever lived.” His eyes shifted away, his fingertips still around the bottle. “I almost cut off that commander’s head.”
“Other men will appreciate her beauty. You can’t be angry about that.”
His eyes lifted to mine. “She’s my wife. I can be as angry as I wish.” His look had been so calm seconds before, but now it was ruthless, as if I was the one trying to take her away from him.
“I hope Talon will leave his ship soon.” It was a sincere comment, but I also needed something to douse his hostility.
“If he spends too much time with the queen of the elves, he’ll look weak to his men.”
“Why?”
“Because it’ll look like he follows her authority rather than his own.” He took another drink of the red wine. “Why have you decided to stay here rather than in his accommodations?”
“When Queen Eldinar granted me asylum in Riviana Star, it meant a lot to me because I had nowhere else to go. I know her intentions were to keep me close, but I appreciated having a home, nonetheless. The elves have been my people ever since.”
His eyes slowly softened as he stared at me. “We have something in common.”
“I understand your love for them.”
“What will happen if Talon wins his war and the dragons are free?” he asked. “Will we still be your people?”
Talon and I never made plans for the future. He could barely acknowledge his love for me until I’d demanded it. But I knew my life would be vastly different than it was now. There was no scenario where the forest would be our home. “You will always be my people.”
He continued to stare, the sadness slightly noticeable.
“As much as it pains me to leave you, I imagine we’ll live in the Southern Isles. It’s where his kingdom resides, the reason he’s doing all of this. I’m sure he would do whatever I asked, but what I want most is for him to be happy.”
His eyes flicked down to the wine bottle, but he didn’t take another drink. He just stared at it, the sadness wafting from him because he produced so much of it. “That’s what I feared…but I understand.”
Time passed with painful slowness. I waited for Talon to come to me, but he still hadn’t. I wanted to remain with my uncle and the people I considered my own, but being apart from Talon like this felt like knives under my fingernails. I reached out my mind to Inferno. Tell Khazmuda to inform Talon that I’ll be joining his ship. Just had to figure out a way to do that.
Inferno was quiet as he relayed my message. It was minutes before he returned. TALON IS ON HIS WAY.
I didn’t ask him to come to me.
KHAZMUDA SAID HE WAS ALREADY ON HIS WAY WHEN I SPOKE TO HIM.
The tightness in my chest released when I realized that the separation hurt him too, that he was as miserable as I was. I left my quarters, the sun still above the horizon but quickly descending, and made it to the deck where the sailors continued to man the ship. My eyes were on the sky, searching for Khazmuda’s dark scales against the faint blue sky, but there was nothing to see. I looked at the fleet that surrounded us, looked at the first ship ahead that everyone followed. Then I heard the commotion behind me as the sailors spoke to someone who had joined the ship from the rear.
I turned around to see him, his black cape billowing behind him in the sea breeze, wearing the armor embedded with black diamonds, the hilt of his heavy sword appearing over his left shoulder. The breeze ruffled his dark hair, and the sun lightened his dark eyes.
I stared at him like I hadn’t seen him in a lifetime.
He finished his conversation before his eyes locked on mine. The intensity was like a spreading vine that snagged around my wrist and gripped tighter and tighter. His possession was like the thorns that cut into my skin and made me bleed.
He broke contact and came down the stairs to the lower deck where I stood, his cape still dancing brilliantly behind him. As he came closer, his harshness vanished, the softness he showed only me coming through. Instead of embracing me with a kiss, he continued his loving stare.
“How did you get here?”
“Once a sailor, always a sailor.”
“I know I said I wanted to stay here, but I don’t want to do that anymore.” The elves became home to me when I had none other, but now I’d found a home in the man before me. Wherever he was, I wanted to be.
“Good,” he said. “Because I don’t want to do that either.”
His arms were pinned behind my knees as he took me in the corner of the small bed, his muscular body flexing over and over every time he thrust inside me. He couldn’t grip me because his hands were locked behind my knees, but his stare was strong enough to hold me captive. We rocked together as the ship shifted from side to side, our breaths loud in the small cabin below deck, the sound of the waves against the hull when there was a powerful wave.
Our time on different ships had made us long for each other physically more than emotionally, so he took me like a whore he’d paid for the night, like his body craved the release only I could give him. He didn’t care if he gave me too much and caused me to wince. Didn’t care if other people on the ship could hear our moans and grunts. It was cold out on the open ocean, but it was an inferno inside that little cabin.
My nails left marks from clawing so deep, and the tears in my eyes felt like raindrops from a storm. Even when I clenched around him in a release, he continued to plow me into the headboard. Even when he came inside me, he kept going as if there had been no interruption. He fucked me like I meant nothing to him, but it somehow made me feel more loved.
When there was nothing left in either of us, he lay propped against the headboard, eyes glazed from fatigue and satisfaction, the gleam of sweat all over his chest and shoulders. His fair skin was blotched red from the rush of arousal that simmered underneath his skin. He stared across the cabin to the storage bins that contained wine and water but didn’t move.
I lay on my side with several inches between us, both of us trying to cool off after the blaze that swept through us both. I studied his body, seeing the cords in his neck and the tightness in his arms, his enormous chest and the abs beneath, the long legs that were thick with muscle and covered in dark hair. Every inch of him was perfect, even his large feet.
His breathing returned to normal, but his empty stare continued. The high from our reunion faded, and a shadow of darkness replaced the euphoria we both felt. It reached every corner, and its origin seemed to be Talon.
My fingers moved to his arm.
He gave a slight flinch at my touch, a little twitch of his arm muscles, as if he’d forgotten I was there. He gave no outward reaction, his stare still on the opposite side of the small cabin.
“You alright?” I whispered.
“Yes, just dozed off for a second.”
“But your eyes were open.”
He gave no outward reaction to what I said, but he pulled his arm away and crossed his arms over his chest.
Our minds and hearts had been locked together just minutes ago, but now he was further away than the homeland we’d left a week ago.
He grabbed the sheets then draped them over my body, covering me up like I was cold.
I pushed them away. “I’m still warm.”
He ignored what I said and tossed them on my body again.
I didn’t take them off this time, not when I felt the unease in the room. Talon’s hostility was silent, but I could still feel it, feel a change in the room that was so profound I couldn’t deny it. I followed his gaze back across the room, and for a reason I couldn’t explain, I expected someone to be staring back at us.
But there was no such person.
We stayed that way for a long time, the tension so tight between us it seemed like we’d fought rather than made love. But I knew it had passed when Talon left the bed and grabbed a bottle of water from one of the bins. He uncorked it then poured two glasses before he returned and handed me one.
I eyed the glass for a moment before I took it, wanting to ask what had just happened but afraid I would get no answer.
He sat against the headboard and downed the glass before he set it on the nightstand.
I held my glass but didn’t take a drink. My eyes were locked on the side of his face.
He seemed to be avoiding my stare…or he didn’t notice it.
“Talon?”
“Hmm?”
“What just happened?”
He stilled before he slowly turned to look at me. “I don’t understand your meaning.”
“I think you do.”
He was stiller than a statue, his dark eyes locked on mine with unusual calm…like it was fake.
“I saw nothing and heard nothing, but I felt something. It was like someone else was in the room and made you behave differently.”
He didn’t blink as he held my gaze. Gave no reaction. Stared with such intensity it was as if he was mesmerized by my words. “I’m haunted by many ghosts, Calista.” He spoke with sadness, the kind that was quiet but profound.
My eyes shifted back and forth across his face, unsure what to make of that response. “You—you see the dead?” He had the power to raise the dead from their graves. He could transport his likeness into the forest without crossing the border. Perhaps he could see the dead too, see past the barrier between the realms.
He looked away and crossed his arms over his chest again. He took a small breath and let it out slowly. “Something like that…”
Talon wasn’t himself the following morning. Whatever had haunted him had left a mark deep under the skin, a permanent pain behind his eyes. He greeted me with a kiss on the shoulder and squeezed me hard into his chest, but he didn’t make love to me like he usually would.
Once we were dressed, we left the cabin and stepped onto the deck, finding Queen Eldinar at the bow of the ship as she looked at the fleet of ships that accompanied ours and the open ocean beyond. Flowers were no longer in her hair because there were none to be found in the desert of water that surrounded us.
My uncle stepped aside when Talon approached, letting the monarchs speak to each other. Their conversations were always cordial, but the affection that burned underneath was impossible to miss.
Talon stood beside her and stared at the ocean ahead. “With this wind speed, we should arrive within a week.”
She gave a slight nod. “I expected the journey to take longer.”
“The wind has worked in our favor.”
“Will you remain with us for the rest of the journey?” Her gown had its own cape, so it flapped in the breeze behind her.
Talon’s cape did the same, black like the diamonds in his armor. “Since I’m the only one who knows the location of the hideout, I must steer the commanding ship.”
She gave a nod in understanding.
“I came here for Calista. She’s agreed to join me.”
“I understand,” she said. “I would not be separated from my love either.”
“She considers the elves her people?—”
“But you, her home.” She looked out to sea once more. “I understand that better than anyone.”
Talon turned to stare at the side of her face, her blond hair whipping in the breeze behind her. “Is there anything I can do for you before I depart?”
“I have everything I need, Talon.” She turned to look at him.
“Then I shall depart, Eldi.”
She gave him a slight smile. “I’ll see you when we arrive.”
He gave a nod before he turned away and approached me. “Gather your things and meet me at the stern.”
There was a flush to my cheeks and sweat on my palms. The powerful breeze wasn’t enough to fight the perspiration that continued to form as fast as raindrops. My heart raced faster than usual, prepared for a flight when there was nowhere to go.
He stared at me as he waited for my agreement.
“How will we get there?”
“I’ll row us.”
“You would have to row really hard to match the speed of the ships.”
He continued his hard stare. “As I said, I’ll always be a sailor.”
Talon proved his physical fitness by rowing us to the front of the fleet and securing us to the galleon in the lead. Perhaps the water was already moving with the ships and that aided him, but it was impressive, nonetheless.
He had me climb the ladder first before he followed me, carrying my pack for me and then handing it to one of his men when he was on deck. His commander was there, standing with his hands behind his back as he waited for orders.
Talon took one look at the horizon and seemed pleased with the direction of the ship. “We’re about to cross the meridian. There are powerful currents and riptides that can easily set a ship off course. All hands on deck until we arrive.”
Commander Navarrese nodded. “Yes, Your Majesty.”
Talon stepped away and took the lead, guiding me under deck to the cabins below, carrying my bag again. Most of the sailors slept in bunks in a single room, some even in the storage area, and the other cabins were meant for the captain of the ship and the first mate, which was Talon and his commander.
He opened the door for me, showing a bed and a little table with a window above the stern. “It’s not much, but half the journey is over.”
“I’d be fine with a broom closet as long as I got to share it with you.”
He stared at me as one hand rested on the doorknob. My bag still hung over one of his shoulders. It was heavy, containing the dragon armor he’d gifted me, but he didn’t seem bothered by the weight. With gold flecks in his eyes, he looked at me like he could do it forever. Nearly a minute passed before he shut the door and carried my pack to the corner. “I’ll return when it gets dark.”
“You’ll be on the deck all day?”
“Only I know the way.”
On the other ship, I’d had the elves to speak to. But on this ship, I would be below deck all day and see Talon in the evenings, and most of that time would be spent asleep.
He seemed to read my disappointment. “I can take you back if you wish.”
“No…that’s not what I want.”
His eyes flicked away for a moment. “We won’t have the same time together from this point onward. It won’t be the way it was in your tree house or on the island. It pains me to say it, but that’s our reality.”
I gave a slight nod in agreement. “But we have the rest of our lives afterward.”
Now, he looked away altogether, focusing on the window that showed the water and the ship behind us. He didn’t look at me again, as if those words had struck a nerve. “I’ll see you tonight.” He turned away, still avoiding my gaze like he didn’t want to look at me again.
“Talon.”
He stilled, his back to me, his hand on the door.
“You don’t have to believe it, but I do.”
When he stepped into the cabin that night, the first thing he did was bathe. There were no showers on the ship, but he scrubbed himself with cold water then dried off with a towel. He pulled on a pair of clean underwear then opened a bottle of wine and drank straight from the top.
I sat at the table, my day having passed so slowly without him there to spend it with me.
He sat in one of the chairs, clearly tired from being in the sun all day. His skin had darkened from its exposure to the elements, and now he had a beautiful tan mixed with a hint of olive. He drank straight from the bottle again, fatigue heavy in his eyes but his appearance handsome, nonetheless.
“How can you figure out where you are on the open sea?”
“The wind, the currents, the stars…”
“You still remember all that stuff?”
“I spent more time sailing than I did doing anything else in my life.” The window was dark, but he still looked outside like he could see the whole world.
“Can I ask you something?”
He stared a moment longer before he looked at me again.
“You said you see ghosts…”
His eyes hardened in defense, putting on invisible armor for protection against my interrogation.
“Does that have anything to do with the day you disappeared?”
He raised his shield against my sword and blocked the attack with his silence.
“Why won’t you tell me?—”
“Let it lie, Calista.” Instead of raising his voice in anger, he lowered it in defeat.
Disappointment burned my heart until it was hollow. “I asked you how you earned the command of the dead, and you said you would tell me?—”
“I would tell you another day—but not today.”
“Do you mean that?” I asked quietly.
His eyes shifted back and forth.
“Because you’ve told me everything about your life, even told me about Vivian, but you still haven’t told me about this.”
His eyes shifted back to the window.
We’d spent the last week apart, and it had been torture. I didn’t want our time together to be torture too. “Have you told Queen Eldinar?”
He turned back to me quickly, provoked by the question. His dark eyes seared into mine as he absorbed what I’d asked. He didn’t answer, and that seemed intentional.
“I’ve thought nothing of your closeness…until you called her Eldi. I’ve never even heard my uncle call her that. And that level of closeness can only be earned. It’s earned through challenges and secrets. So, have you shared that information with her?”
He continued to stare at me. “This is not how I want to spend the time we have left.”
My heart started to race faster. “Why won’t you answer the question?”
“Because I don’t have to.”
My entire body tightened toward my spine, and my chest constricted over my heart. The beats were harder. A twinge of pain burst inside me and circulated in my veins. “Why would you confide in her…and not me?”
“I never said I confided in her?—”
“You did when you refused to answer the question. Now I’m forced to draw my own conclusions, and it seems to me that you trust her more than you trust me. And if that’s true…is there more to that relationship?”
His eyes narrowed further, his eyebrows scrunching up at the question. “You insult me.”
“ You insult me .”
He gave a slight shake of his head.
“I’m not blind. I know how beautiful she is?—”
“You are blind,” he barked, his voice rising. “Because her restrained and meticulous beauty doesn’t compare to your strength and resilience and fire. She’s a beautiful work of art to most men, but to me, she’s a black-and-white sketch. Your canvas is an explosion of color that I would hang over my bed. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I’m numb to hers. If you understood the depth of my feelings and the flames of my attraction, you would understand how ridiculous your accusation is.”
“If that’s true, then why confide in her and not me?”
He stilled once again, his nostrils flared in annoyance. “I never said I did?—”
“Then answer the question.”
He bowed his head and released a heavy sigh. “Calista…” His eyes remained down as he tried to find the words, as he tried to navigate the situation that caused me pain. “I need you to trust me.”
“Tell me why you can confide in her and not me?—”
“Because I can’t.” He lifted his head and looked at me again. “And not because I trust her more than you. Not because I desire her. Not for any nefarious reason whatsoever.”
I continued to stare, my heart wanting to trust him when my mind knew I shouldn’t.
“Baby.” His eyes burned deep into mine. “Please trust me.”
“And if this were reversed, you would trust me?” I asked incredulously.
“Yes,” he said without hesitation. “I trust you more than anyone except Khazmuda.”
“And Queen Eldinar, apparently.”
He winced in annoyance before he gave a sigh. “If you have any doubt about my feelings toward you, then I’m obviously not doing my job right. I thought my love and obsession and insanity were obvious every time I look at you, every time I touch you, every time I fuck you. I said I would marry you if I was lucky enough to do so, that you would be the mother of the children I so desperately want to have, that you would rule my kingdom as my queen, and I would rule our bed as your king.” His voice started to rise as he continued to speak, his eyes growing impassioned with his words.
“I don’t doubt all of those things, Talon?—”
“Then let this go.”
“I just don’t understand?—”
“And you will never understand,” he snapped. “Trust me, you don’t want to understand. Perhaps I look like an asshole to you right now, but just know that I’m protecting you from shit that you don’t want to know.” He bowed his head again, trying to hide the rage that melted his flesh as he boiled on the inside. “Please…let this go.”
I bowed my head, knowing I would never get the answers I sought. I just had to accept his reasoning had nothing to do with his love for me—and perhaps not knowing was a blessing rather than a curse.
“This isn’t how I want to spend our final days.”
I lifted my chin and looked at him again.
His eyes were full of quiet desperation. “I want to kiss you. I want to love you. I want to cherish this time together…like it’s all we have left.”