He looked down at his hand in hers and sighed.Her palm remained cool in his, and he swiped his thumb over her knuckles, memorizing the texture of her skin.When he’d gathered his thoughts, he continued.“Somehow, someone saw something in me.I was brought to the palace to train as a prospective knight at the behest of an anonymous benefactor.The opportunity was too big, too generous.I’d been hurt so many times for being truthful about what I was that I kept my lineage a secret.Until now, no one knew.”
With his heart in his throat, Bastion met Ulla’s eyes.He searched them, waiting for judgment.
Instead, with her free hand, she touched her temple twice, her expression curious.
“I have horns,” he said.“Just the ghost of them.And a few scales on my legs.”
Ulla’s brows bounced, and a roguish smile curved her lips.Her gaze scorched him as her eyes ran down the length of his body, lingering over his hips.A flush radiated over Bastion’s cheeks and down his collar.Suddenly, the sea was lukewarm.
Then, slowly, she reached up with both hands and swept his hair away from his forehead.
Bastion froze.The waves tugged insistently at his legs, urging him to run.He forced the instinct away and stood fast.She took her time, fingertips caressing his face and sending goosebumps racing across his skin.The waves seemed to tug him forwards, determined for them to fall together.Bastion turned his face into her hand like it held the solace he’d been looking for all along.When Ulla’s fingers laced through his hair, he didn’t flinch.
She found the two faint rises of bone running parallel along his skull.As her fingertips ran over their length, Bastion closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
It was only then that he realized his chest no longer ached.In place of that insistent pull, there was overwhelming peace.
Ulla let her arms fall to his shoulders, her hands still threaded through his hair.Bastion opened his eyes.He didn’t know what to do with this feeling.
“Don’t you care?”he rasped.Ulla tilted her head.“That I can’t swim far out to sea, or breathe underwater?That I look… human?”
A soft smile curved her lips.She shook her head.
He’d expected relief, and instead Minato’s words circled like vultures in his mind:You will condemn her to a life of isolation.
He pushed the thought away and couldn’t help but ask, “Why?”
Ulla slid her hands down his arms until she found his, then tugged him towards the shore.As they stepped out of the water, she reached for something on the rock.The book.She still had the book.
She opened it to their last conversation and wrote one simple line.
In the last light of day, Bastion read three words.
You are enough.
It took everything not to succumb to the pain of acceptance.It was all he’d ever wanted to hear, and yet, in giving him this, he was taking from her the thing he’d chased his entire life.
He swallowed, marveling that it was the sea and sweat that had brought him to this moment.And tears would carry him away from it.
Ulla moved closer, her hand reaching to tangle in his hair.
Bastion stepped back.
The ache in his chest returned as he broke his own heart.He touched his fingers to his lips and let his hand fall forwards.
Then, he turned and walked away.
Chapter 20
Sleep eluded him.
He sensed Ulla’s return to Moonwatch and her climb through the keep.Sadness preceded her footfalls, slow and heavy.
When she stopped outside his door, he held his breath, waiting, hoping, and dreading a knock.But none came.When she continued on, finally settling in a room down the hall, Bastion exhaled shakily.He didn’t know if this was worse than talking.
A summons came at dawn.Bastion failed to wipe the scowl off his face as he opened the door, exhausted from a fitful sleep and the throb in his chest.The messenger didn’t look the least bit remorseful.
“Lord Kyrith and Lady Nesrin request that you join them for breakfast in the library,” the man said.
