Rory’s lips quirked up. “I was thinking I’d just sleep on top ofyou.”
“We’ll break the bed,” Arthur warned, but he was already reaching for Rory.
The bunks were too close together for Arthur to sit upright on the bottom one without knocking his head, so he sat on the settee instead, pulling Rory down onto his lap.
Rory settled facing him, with his knees outside Arthur’s legs. His arms came around Arthur’s neck, a little tighter than usual. “I keep thinking about my mom crossing the sea,” he admitted. “But this is way better than what I was picturing. This isnice.”
The cabin was, objectively speaking, the worst quarters Arthur had ever had on a civilian ship. But he had never needed the opulence of first class to enjoy himself, and the company more than made up for the smaller space and lack of marble. They’d have seven days together to mind their own business on the ship, to enjoy meals with Jade and Zhang, to talk and read and just be a normal couple—
“And I keep reminding myself that I don’t really have to be afraid of the ocean.” Rory patted his pocket where, at Arthur’s insistence, he’d taken to always carrying the Tempest Ring in its box. “After all, I can control the wind.”
Oh. Well. Perhaps not anormalcouple.
The ship left the pier and began its way down the Hudson. Rory stood between Arthur and Jade on the second-class deck and watched Manhattan pass by on the—what did Arthur call it?—the port side. The sun was bright and warm, and the sky cloudless and blue over the skyscrapers.
“This is nice too,” Rory admitted. “And the niceness is a big lie, right? My mom said she threw up the whole trip. When does theship’s rolling, I’m pukingpart start?”
Jade laughed softly. “When we’re out in the open ocean,” she said apologetically, patting his arm. “Get lots of fresh air, don’t try to read too much, and I do have some pills, if it comes to it.”
Rory pursed his lips. There were some kids up on the deck, maybe seven or eight years old, fearlessly laughing and pointing to the waves. He watched them play for a minute as the ship rounded Lower Manhattan, the sun catching the top of the Woolworth Building.
He wrapped his fingers around the railing. “No one let me throw myself off the side of this boat, yeah?”
“I’d handcuff us together first,” Arthur said, with feeling.
“Come on,” said Zhang. “There are some open chairs one level down, by the saloon.”
“And you found them despite standing right next to me,” Arthur mused. “Probably a safe bet to assume you’ve seen the entire ship from the astral plane already.”
“And the bay floor underneath us.”
Arthur raised his eyebrows. “How deep can you go?” he asked, looking impressed.
“How deep into where? Theocean?” Rory glanced over the side and stared into the water. “Do I want to know what’s down there?”
“How deep depends on how fast the boat is moving.” Zhang glanced at Rory. “And probably not, unless you’re not bothered by tentacles.”
“Tentacles? Are you—no, nope, no thank you, you can just keep that to yourself.”
Manhattan was soon replaced by Brooklyn, and then for awhile they could see Long Island. They sat in the sun until it began to set, and there was nothing to see but endless ocean and the horizon line where the sky met water.
When they got into the second-class dining room, Rory could’ve almost forgot he was in a boat, if it weren’t for the unsettling, continuous rolling, faint but unmistakable. “A week of motion, huh.”
“You get used to it.” Jade scrunched her nose. “More used to it. Hopefully we won’t hit any storms, at least.”
Rory’s eyes widened.
“But if we do hit a storm, you’ll just blow it away,” Arthur reminded him. “Look, they have consommé and oyster crackers—that’s probably a safe bet until you see how your stomach fares.”
Rory let the others do most of the talking while he ate. The dishes were steady on the table, at least; if the seas got rougher, he probably couldn’t even count on his spoon staying put.
As he got to the bottom of his soup, Rory could’ve sworn he felt eyes on him. He jerked his head up, but the sensation was already gone.
You’re just nervous on the boat, he told himself.You’re imagining things.“So what do we do on a ship for a week?” he asked, to distract himself.
“There’s a library, a gymnasium, and abar,” Arthur said, with appreciation. “A perk of choosing an international ship. One of the many,” he added, his gaze darting protectively toward Jade and Zhang.
Rory snorted. “What am I gonna do in a bar?”
