Chapter 33 Hello, Lover #2
“It was nice of the two of you to visit,” Sable said, mouth twisting like she didn’t want to say the words at all.
Then her eyes flicked between Riley and Calla.
She smirked, slow and knowing. “And I’m glad you finally figured your shit out, but,” her smirk dropped then, and Riley shifted on her feet, her stomach churning, “you need to leave now. I’m staying.
Someone needs to keep an eye on it, and that someone has to be me. ”
Riley saw it then, in the proud, stubborn lift of Sable’s chin. That same infuriating, self-sacrificing streak that had made Sable run away with the Heart.
“We’re not going anywhere without you,” Riley said, scowling.
When Sable looked at her, it felt like fire against her skin, her black eyes intense and burning, with a hint of softness just beneath.
It did not last. Sable’s gaze fixed on Calla’s, an eyebrow raised as if to ask, ‘Are you going to let her act dumb like that?’ It made Riley huff, because Calla had been acting just as dumb, but Sable couldn’t see it now.
Calla was apparently still too paralyzed by her own bindings to bare herself when they could all really fucking use it right now.
She’d called Sable first mate just earlier. For fuck’s sake.
Just on cue, instead of repeating what Riley had just said, Calla asked, “Why not leave it here? It’s a fit hiding place. Par for the name.”
Sable crossed her arms with a shake of her head. “It called to you across the waters long before we ever reached it, didn’t it?” she asked.
Riley glanced behind to see Calla give a sharp nod at that, and then shifted slightly to be able to watch both of them.
Doing so put a little distance between her and Calla, and she caught Calla’s eyes flicking to hers in faint disapproval.
Riley bit the inside of her cheek to stop from swearing out loud. This was going to be a problem.
Future Riley’s problem.
“You know it’ll call to someone or something else as soon as it’s left to fend for itself,” Sable said.
“It’s only a matter of time before it makes it back to the surface, and it’s evil, Calla.
I can feel it. I can’t let that out into the world, not when I can do something about it.
It nearly killed Riley. That can’t happen again. Not while there’s air in my lungs.”
“So you’re going to give your life to guard it instead?” Calla challenged.
Sable didn’t even hesitate. “Yes.”
“How’s that any better than me dying?” Riley scoffed.
Sable just shrugged. “Look, you need to go. Neither of you can resist its influence. But I can, for some reason, so it’s up to me. It sucks. But you’ll do fine without me.” She flashed them a bittersweet smile, voice softening. “Alright?”
Calla stared at Sable, completely fucking silent, as if she was considering it, after nearly getting the Moonshadow torn to shreds trying to get here.
These two were fucking hopeless. Riley wanted to knock their heads together until they both found some sense.
All Calla had to say was, ‘No, we weren’t just fine without you,’ or even something sappy like, ‘We fucking missed you, Sable. I missed you,’ and Sable would cave.
She was thinking it. Riley knew she was thinking it.
But Calla’s mouth was closed and tightly pressed together, and neither were saying the things they clearly wanted to say.
And so it was up to Riley.
Riley flopped down on the ground and sat cross-legged, leaning back on her hands. “Well, Calla can do whatever she wants, but I’m not going anywhere without you.”
They both looked at her and blinked.
As if they were surprised.
Riley supposed this was surprising, compared to who she used to be. But now she knew what she wanted, what she really wanted, and she wouldn’t go back to pretending she did not. Sable would cave eventually. Probably. Hopefully before they all starved to death staring each other down.
When neither of them said anything, Riley sweetened the deal. “And, for the record, I can’t speak for Calla,” a pointed look in Calla’s direction, ignored, “but I wasn’t doing fine.” She held out one of her hands and rolled up a still very much soaked sleeve. “This shit’s been getting bigger.”
Despite the growing worry, Riley was glad to have this as leverage, because if Sable loved anything more than being a hero, it was being a protector. And Riley didn’t want to play the victim, it made her stomach roil, but if this was what it took, then she’d give Sable something to fucking protect.
And there she was now, staring at the way Riley’s curse marks had swallowed her fingers and her palms with a growing sense of alarm.
“Also,” Riley added, striking while the iron was hot.
“It nearly killed me once already, and it seems very set on making me go crazy. Keeping the Heart away from me isn’t working.
So.” She shrugged and went back to leaning back against her hands as if none of this was her concern.
“I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure we could figure out a different way to keep us all safe together…
and a way to keep the Heart safe or destroy it or whatever… if you just came back with us.”
Sable shifted the crossed arms at her chest, looking uncertainly between her and Calla. She settled on Calla again. “Is she telling the truth?”
Riley scoffed in mock offense. “Ouch.” Maybe not entirely mock.
Calla’s lips twitched. “Yes.”
Sable’s arms shifted against her chest as she looked at Riley again. At the marks eating their way up her arms. “You won’t starve yourself down here just to get me back on board,” she tried, but she was a poor actress. Her resolve was already crumbling.
Calla looked at Riley. Studied her. An intense gaze that made prickles go all up and down Riley’s arms. “She would,” she said quietly.
Sable frowned deeply at that. “Surely you wouldn’t let her.”
Calla only glanced at Riley this time. Perhaps she heard Riley chanting in her head, ‘Please just trust me here,’ over and over again because she didn’t hesitate as she said, “I would.”
All of Sable’s bravado went out of her at once.
She looked at Riley, who just stared back with her eyebrows raised, and then at Calla, with her stiff, captain shield on full display, and then at the Heart, still discarded among the rocks.
When her expression scrunched in annoyance, Riley knew they had won.
“You two are impossible.”
Riley jumped to her feet then and brushed the dust off her clothes, which didn’t actually get any dust off because she was still dripping, but it was just for show, anyway. “Let’s go then. I don’t know how long this breathing underwater thing is gonna last.”
Sable went to gather the Heart, and then stilled in place, clutching it between her fingers.
“What?” Calla asked.
With stiff shoulders, Sable held out the Heart. “This is our priority. No matter how long it takes–no matter what it takes. We won’t rest until it’s either safely contained or destroyed. And neither of you will touch it.”
Calla gave her a long look, then a sharp nod.
Riley just shrugged. “I already promised I won’t touch it again.”
Sable sighed. “Fine. I still think this is a bad idea.”
Riley found she really didn’t give a shit. They’d found Sable. They got her back. The rest of it could fucking wait.
***
The swim back to the surface went by much faster than the descent.
Riley had a vague idea it might’ve had something to do with the Heart.
Now that her heart and thoughts had had the time to settle, she could swear she sensed its vague influence.
A sort of whisper just at the edge of her hearing.
She wondered if Calla heard it too, or if Riley was more sensitive to it because of the marks she bore.
She wondered how bad it was for Sable. Calla hadn’t talked much about it, but it had been bad for her, and suddenly Riley was pissed.
Sable was right. Getting rid of it, in whatever way necessary, would have to become their priority.
Just as she made that decision, they broke the surface of the water. Nivros hung low in the sky, blood-red rays painting the Moonshadow in fire. Just as they’d left it. Both the sun and the ship. Had they been down there a full turn of the suns? More?
Riley’s stomach gave a savage rumble, loud enough to make both Calla and Sable turn to her. She flushed and faced the ship.
“Oi, fuckers,” she shouted. “Is anyone gonna come get us?!”
The crew of the Moonshadow popped their heads beyond the railing.
Riley didn’t know what she’d been expecting.
Maybe some cheering? Clapping? At least a crack of a smile?
None of that happened. The crew was eerily silent and took a long time to get around to lowering them a boat.
It felt kind of off. As they got hauled back aboard the Moonshadow, Riley’s skin prickled.
Sable and Calla must’ve felt it, too, because they both sat tense and silent aboard the boat, coiled tight as springs.
Something was wrong.