I gave a half-shrug. “We don’t know. She tried to tellMakua.She drew maps in the sand and gestured with her hands, but he could never figure it out. He used to point ships out to her, every time one came to port with a flag he hadn’t seen in a while, but she just shook her head.Eventually he gave up trying to figure it out, but sometimes I think he’d still like to know.”
His brows raised with interest, and he pressed in close, scrutinizing my face in a way that sent my heart beating fast against my ribcage. “You see traders from every corner of the world here. What nationality do you think you share?”
I shook my head, willing him to lean away as my pulse drummed inside my ears and my mouth went dry. “I’m not sure. I’ve never seen myself.”
He gave me an odd look, then straightened, a notion occurring to him. “There are no mirrors here.”
“I think a few islanders have them in their homes. But I’ve never seen one.”
He stared at me in quiet surprise. “You’veneverseen yourself?”
Though it was clear he was trying to distract me, I tilted my head to consider him, the numbness inside giving way to vague curiosity.
What was it like, to come from a world brimming with such luxuries as reflective glass that he might be shocked to find I’d never seen a mirror?
As a child, I used to wait for tide pools at sundown, when the light was ahead of me, and the water was dim enough to see my reflection. I’d been informed, numerous times, that I resembled my mother, though generally not in the kindest way. A lifetime ago, when the island children refused to let me play, I’d clung to the idea that I had another set of people in the world. Waiting for me.
I swallowed. “All Leihaniians look the same. I doubt I need to see one.”
Angling forward to look me in the eyes, Kye watched me, his own gaze carefully guarded like he wanted to disagree. But he sucked a gulp of air, swallowing whatever argument that had been on the tip of his tongue. Instead, he leaned in, reading my eyes and skin as if following the words of a handwritten letter, looking for hidden details of my ancestry. I stiffened.
His golden irises burned, speckled with pale dust under the moon.
“I could tell you what I see,” he offered softly.
“No, thank you,” I said. I didn’t want to hear what he thought I looked like. I knew well enough.
A murderer. A traitor. A coward.
Exhaling a shaky gust of air, I fixed my gaze overhead once more. My wrist throbbed. My throat tightened. Inside me, an ache deeper than tissue and marrow began to crack its way to the surface, sharp splinters driving into my flesh.
I waited for him to move away. To sit back against the rocks, relinquishing the space between us. His breath brushed my cheeks, sending a scent of mint collapsing around me.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I’m not good at this. Jokes and stories I can tell—”
“I don’t want to talk about it.” My voice broke, and tears sprang free from my lashes.
“I’m not talking about it.” Kye swallowed, leaning back against the rocks.
“He left the chicken in the water,” I blurted, despite my own words.
“I know.”
I turned my head, meeting his gaze.
“One of the islander’s chickens went missing, and he thought a hawk had taken it. But I remembered seeing one the morning of the shark attack, tucked under Naheso’s arm. I didn’t make the connection until a few hours ago, seeing him in the marshes. But you knew someone had put it there.”
I nodded, watching the tide. The clouds shifted overhead, draping luminous moonlight over us both.
“Do you believe we go to Perpetuum when we die?” I asked, unable to keep the burning question from my mind. Where had Naheso gone, after I killed him? Where was he now?
Kye stole a glance at me and exhaled, his eyes hard on the distant waves. Something like irritation seemed to fizzle over him, though when he spoke, his voice was little more than a soft murmur. “Yes. There’s a prayer we say to Theia in Calder when someone dies.” He swallowed, his voice softening as he recited the words from somewhere deep in his memory.
Mother moon, take my hand,
Lead me to the after land.
Beaches warm and water pure,
