There was too much of the old Maren in me, brought out by wilderness and the lack of castle walls, to not play Steward to the Land.
To create life. To preserve it. And, when it had ended, to give it back to the soil.
Fraught with restlessness, Kye sank to one knee, sweeping damp gravel back over the piscine grave with the back of his hand. His knuckles brushed mine, sending a tingling warmth into my veins. The ghost of a smile drifted over his mouth. Then he pushed to his feet, heading out of the cave to meet the sun.
A thought occurred to me as I followed him.
“We don’t have money for horses.”
“I have some fraggs in my pocket. And these.” He lifted his hand, wiggling his fingers lazily at me.
My brows rose at the rings he wore. “I’m surprised the pirates never took them from you. You weren’t wearing any the day you came to Cynthus to meet us.”
I recognized all three of them. Two usually graced his right hand. A gold band around his narrow thumb and a masculine silver-wrought circlet on his middle finger, inlaid with a heavy sapphire.
The third was his wedding ring. A larger version of what mine had been before Burian had taken it. My heart gave a small twistas I realized I might’ve been able to steal it back from his body, had I been thinking.
But I’d sent it to the bottom of the sea instead.
Kye inspected the rings. “I stored them in my pocket before we went to the beach. Except for my wedding ring. I kept that on until they dragged me onto the ship, then I managed to sneak it into my pocket as well. This one I don’t care if I have to sell,” he said, pointing to the golden band, “but the sapphire belonged to my mother.”
He didn’t mention his wedding band, though it was the one we both stared at.
“You weren’t wearing them in Leihani,” I finally said.
“No. I didn’t think I’d make it back from Leihani.”
My eyes flicked to his. “You didn’t?”
His mouth parted slightly, surprise blooming in his eyes at his own words.
I frowned. “What do you mean, you didn’t think you’d make it back?”
He muttered a curse to Aalto and pocketed the rings, leaving me standing alone on the rocks.
“Kye.”
He didn’t answer. Feet carving long strides over the cliff line, I watched the light bounce off his shoulders as he stalked away.
I hurried to catch up. Had he planned tostayon the island?
No—that didn’t make sense. If he’d left home with the intention of living in Leihani, why wouldn’t he have taken his rings with him? They were obviously important to him.
Besides, he’d made attempts to sail home while on the island. He’d approached ship captains, and when they refused him passage without payment, he’d taken to fishing on the boats to afford passage. He’d written a letter, knowing the Navy would come for him.
Unwittingly, my mind flashed to the day we’d met. He’d fallen into the water a mere arm’s reach from the beach and let himself sink into the drop off.
I’d assumed he’d been tired. Too exhausted to swim.
How did you row from Calder to here?
Where is here?
Leihani.
The fishing islands?
I reached for him, halting his progress with a hand around his arm. My eyes scored into his, asking a question I couldn’t even begin to form into spoken words, my heart thick in my throat. Kye reluctantly met my gaze before darting his own away, as though it burned to look at me.
