Chapter 21 Something Gained and Something Lost #2
“Riley,” Calla said quietly. Her cool fingers cupped her cheek, and suddenly it was just the two of them standing in this room, alone. “Whatever you’re thinking right now, don’t. It’s alright.”
“I don’t want to,” Riley said, and she knew how dumb it was.
They were just pieces of leather. Masterfully crafted soft leather that fit Riley’s hands just right.
But still just objects. Riley never used to get attached to things.
But the gloves were more than that. They meant something.
For cycles, they’d been the only evidence in her possession that Calla cared for her, even after she’d done her best to ruin everything between them.
She’d never gotten to own things that were worth more than just the price she could fetch for them.
Calla’s thumb stroked her cheek so gently Riley couldn’t help but lean into that touch. She supposed she didn’t need the evidence anymore, with Calla looking at her this way. Like nothing else existed right now.
Calla leaned to murmur in her ear, “I can give you more of my clothes to wear.”
Riley huffed, even as her cheeks flared. “It’s not about–”
“I know,” Calla said with a fond smile.
“Okay,” Riley breathed out. “Fine.”
As soon as Calla’s hand slipped from her cheek, Riley remembered everyone else, and her cheeks flushed hotter. She handed Mirellen the gloves without meeting her eyes.
“Oh,” Mirellen said, glancing at Calla with a sudden understanding as she rubbed the leather between her fingers. “I see now. She does concern you.”
“I would thank you to mind your own business,” Calla said, her voice as crisp and cold as winter’s wind.
Mirellen’s eyes glinted in amusement. “There is an energy to feelings,” she said as she retreated beyond the wooden stall again, and past the door.
There was a clink of glass, the sound of liquid being poured.
Riley strained to see past the curtain, but there were only shadows.
The witch’s voice drifted as she spoke. “They bleed out, you see. And they get infused into objects, places. You need only know how to listen, and they’ll whisper to you the secrets of the world.
There’s a great many feelings in these gloves.
Of love, and pain, and loss. I will nurture them.
Cradle them. Feed them. But I can keep what I found to myself, if it makes you so uncomfortable. ”
Suddenly, Riley felt every eye in the room settle on her, and she pointedly did not meet any of them. The heat on her cheeks spread to her neck and ears, and it was like fire licking her skin. The witch was using a… big… word.
Luckily, the witch was back in a wink, and she held a stoppered glass vial. It was narrow and tall and filled with a dark blue liquid. Riley eyed it cautiously.
“Here.” Mirellen handed it over. The vial was cool to the touch. “One drop in the mornings, no more. It will not last forever, but long enough.”
Riley turned the vial in her hands and glanced out one of the windows. Aelion hadn’t risen yet. “Can I start now?” she asked.
Mirellen’s smile was indulgent. “It is still morning, isn’t it?”
Riley didn’t need any more encouragement than that. She unstoppered the vial, nose crinkling at the odor coming from it, and with no better way to do it, she simply tilted the rim towards her palm until a drop fell squarely in the middle. She licked it off. It made her tongue tingle.
Her lips parted with another question, but Mirellen waved her off. “Yes, it should already be working.” Her gaze drifted towards the entrance, where Venn was still seated. “I will see the other one now. He’s been waiting so… patiently.”
Venn had the grace to look sheepish as his boot heel stopped tapping against the floor. He stood, and Riley stepped aside for him to approach the witch with his request as she stored the vial safely in a pocket of her bag. Patch shifted at the brief intrusion, but did not come out.
“Well?” Mirellen asked, tilting her head.
Venn looked at his audience with a frown. When Calla lifted her eyebrows at him, he grew surly, but said nothing. He visibly steeled himself as he addressed the witch. “Do you have anything that would allow me to live underwater?” he asked.
Riley blinked at him. Calla went entirely still. At their backs, Thorian shifted on his feet.
Mirellen’s smile curled like smoke, dark and smothering. “That is a powerful spell you’re asking for, darling. It would take a lot out of me.”
“I can pay.” Never taking his eyes off the witch, Venn fished for the chain hanging around his neck. A silver ring hung off it, and he cradled it in his palm for a single breath before offering it to the witch. Pain etched on his face as he watched the witch reach for it.
As soon as her skin made contact, Mirellen’s hand flinched away. She considered Venn more carefully. “This is your only link to everything you’ve ever known,” she said, hushed, and a hunger rose in her eyes. “Are you certain?”
Venn’s lips twisted in a sour smile. “I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t.”
“Wait,” Calla cut in sharply. “What are you doing?”
Venn pressed his lips together, stubborn, but Mirellen smiled knowingly as she fished the ring out of Venn’s palm. “He wants to go live with the sirens, daughter of the sea. Surely you of all people can empathize with that.”
“What?” Riley asked, looking between Venn and the witch.
The lines of his face were set in grim determination, and a fuzzy memory rose of the first crew party since leaving the Gullet.
The part where Pip talked about the sirens.
Venn, looking something other than angry for the first time since his brother.
Riley had been… distracted, after, but she thought she remembered Venn talking with Pip later in hushed voices, asking questions.
“Why?” Despite the demand in her voice, Calla looked even more confused than Riley felt.
“Does this one concern you as well, daughter of the sea?” Mirellen asked, amusement laced in her voice.
“Yes,” Calla snapped. “Everyone on my ship concerns me. I am their captain.”
Venn scoffed. “Not anymore,” he said, and a smug smirk tugged at his lips. “I quit.”
Calla drew back as if struck, and Riley shifted on her feet, stomach churning. “This is foolish, Venn.”
“Not any more foolish than getting myself killed on another one of your foolish missions. Draven already gave his life for you. I won’t make the same mistake. I want something different.”
Calla frowned. “You could’ve stayed back at the Gullet. Signed on another ship.”
“You don’t get it.” Venn looked away sharply, nails digging into his arms as he took several hard breaths, staring out the window.
“There’s nowhere his ghost won’t follow me.
We grew together. We did everything together.
We learned how to sail together. I don’t know who I am without him, and I can’t find out with him haunting me all the time.
But he won’t follow me underwater.” He hesitated, looking at the witch.
His voice went softer, vulnerable, as he asked, “Will he?”
Mirellen shook her head silently.
Venn breathed out in relief, and he met Calla’s eyes again. “I can make a life there. A different life. There’s nothing any of you can say to change my mind.”
Calla’s fingers tightened against the sword at her hip. The pain on her face was plain to see. “I’m sorry, Venn.”
Venn scoffed. “Fuck you.”
Calla ignored that. She addressed the witch. “Will he be safe here?”
Mirellen tilted her head. “At least until he leaves. The spell will take some time to prepare. And there is a siren coven not far from here.”
Calla nodded sharply. With a last, searching look at Venn, she turned her back on him. “I hope this works out for you,” she said.
Riley frowned between Calla and Venn, shifting on her feet. She’d never been close to him, but this felt–
“Goodbye, Riley,” Venn said with a sigh. “If you see Sable again, greet her in my stead. She was… kind to me.”
Riley blinked. She wanted to probe, or say something, but he’d already turned away in dismissal. All she managed was a lame, “Good luck, Venn,” before she followed the others out of the witch’s house.
It was a beautiful day out. Aelion was rising, a warm caress against her skin. The sky was bright. Her mind was her own once more.
And yet Riley couldn’t help the feeling of loss.