Chapter 51 #2
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.
“She wants to help,” I explain.
Kezra nods. “I’ve been following you all for years. I know everything.”
Raef’s eyebrows shoot halfway up to his hairline, but he doesn’t look disturbed by the idea, rather… honored. Then his face lights up in a blink. “I knew I saw a fairy that one time! In Wraithmere Forest, remember Sand?”
I nod, smiling. That seems like so long ago now.
“Wraithmere, yes. A place with so much spirit, yet so little life. And Maethrel, determined to right his wrongs, doomed to die alone.”
“You’re fun,” Raef comments with a smirk, shaking his head like he still can’t believe it.
While Raef is thoroughly enthralled with Kezra’s ramblings, Daegan has gone quiet. He’s resumed rowing. And brooding.
“This is longer than you usually linger around other people, Kezra,” I note.
“Ah yes. But when the bonded maroons herself at sea, I’ve no better options than a floating chunk of tree with a couple outcasts for company.”
“You can’t go that far? To land?”
“If I could, I would, but I’m not saying that I should.”
“Right…”
“She’s hilarious,” Raef laughs.
“We’re bonded. I told you we can’t go too far from each other.”
Raef’s jaw drops. Even Daegan looks at me with interest.
“How did you manage that?” Raef asks.
“She asked. She said it will make us more powerful. I don’t really know what that entails yet…”
“It’s so unfair,” Raef whispers with wonder, shaking his head.
“Can I take a turn? You guys can rest.”
Daegan glances at me, then rows again, slowly. “I’m good.”
“I’ll take the break,” Raef says. Daegan shoots him an impatient glare.
“What? She commands water. It’ll be easy for her.”
“Exactly,” I say proudly, crossing my arms and standing. I’m excited to use my powers again.
Daegan sighs, releasing his oar. “Fine.”
I nod in satisfaction, then move past him toward the front of the boat and sit in the middle, facing backwards.
It’ll be easier from here. I hold my hands out to my sides—not much, but just enough—and I command the water around the boat to propel us forward.
We move with ease, and it feels so good.
I close my eyes, almost in a trance as I feel the power flowing, feel the water moving beneath us.
“Nice. Just keep heading south,” Raef says, then moves toward the back of the boat.
It’s now Daegan and me at the front of the boat, with our backs turned on it, and we have a view over everyone inside it. He sits on the bench in front of me. I can just barely see his side profile from this angle.
After a moment of tinkering with something in the bag at his feet, he shifts and sits back against the curved interior of the boat, propping his feet up and tilting his head back against it. I have a full view of his face now. His eyes flutter shut, but I can tell he’s nowhere near sleeping.
I take in the details of his face, how it seems to have aged in just over a year, and I notice more swirling ink traveling from underneath his shirt.
It sort of enrages me. I was trapped on an island with Adrian, and he was out there getting a bunch of tattoos?
“I’m glad you’re okay,” he says softly, startling me with the confession. His eyes remain closed, but he’s been awake this whole time, as I suspected. He probably sensed my eyes on him the whole time.
“You too,” I say in a near whisper.
And we leave it at that.
I think he does drift off for a while, but eventually he relieves me, and I finally fall asleep at the back of the boat, curled in a ball.