But that’s not the only thing that’s off. Just like I can feel with absolute certainty that the three of them are close by. I can also feel a definite absence.
“Tell me, gentlemen,” I say, my tone deceptively calm. “Where is my brother and why are he and Jack not on board this ship?”
Chapter 25
Reva
Ifeel the moment Finch steps back onto the ship. Just like I felt it when he shrank from one form into another, and how I’ve spent the past few days experiencing snippets of pure rage that couldn’t belong to anyone else.
You should go to him.
I’m half asleep with a furnace of a body at my back while my head rests on Aster’s bicep, no doubt sending his entire arm numb. I’d love nothing more than to sink into sleep properly, but Noush’s words drag kicking and screaming into consciousness.
I’m sure he’s fine, I mumble back at her.
He sank a billion ships. They attacked him with those weapons that don’t miss. He could be injured. He could be heartsick and hurting.
I groan inwardly, knowing she’s not wrong. I lost count of the number of times the kraken got hit and that was before we lost sight of him the day before yesterday. It takes a minute to untangle the mess of threads looping around my heart, especially when there are now five of them vying for my attention.
Two have shot off and are pulling at a deep spot just below my ribs, tugging me in their direction. It feels uncomfortably like indigestion and general unease had a baby that’s set up camp inside me. There are also two more threads—one gold and onesilver—that are feeling content right now. From their proximity, I know that one belongs to Torin and the other is Aster’s.
And the final one is... a mess all by itself. It’s darker and looser than all the others, linked in a way that seems somehow more fragile, like it’s made out of the most brittle links that might snap at any time. It’s also steel grey and matte, while all the others are shining gold, silver, copper and bronze. I find that if I focus on it for more than a couple of seconds, it feels like it starts to burn hotter and hotter until I have to look away.
He’s not in a good way,Noush insists.You need to go to him.
I don’t need to do anything. Finch is a grown man. A grown man who has spent the past two days wreaking destruction with apparent ease, turning the king’s ships into matchsticks and killing everyone on board with no mercy.
I bet he’d like it if you let him rest his head in your lap. You could play with his hair... and his tentacles.
Fine, I huff back at her. Mostly because I know for a fact Noush won’t shut up until I move. She’s always been stubborn and persistent when she thinks she’s right, aka all the time, but now I get the pleasure of her company at all hours. She doesn’t tend to understand that there are certain times when I’d prefer her to keep her thoughts to herself.
Hence me feeling like I haven’t slept a wink in two nights.
Carefully extricating myself from my position between two males is easier than I expect. Both are sleeping hard, if I go by the sound of their deep breathing. With Torin, I don’t have much else to go on. It’s not like I can see his face, or any part of him, since he still hasn’t worked out how to make himself visible again.
Pulling on the clothes I left abandoned in a pile on the floor, I tiptoe out of the cabin and head toward the kitchen.
It’s the dead of night, and the creaks and movement of the ship are the only sounds I can hear. As I pad along thepassageway, we roll from side to side, cresting on a rolling wave and I stumble forward, catching myself on the walls so I don’t go arse over tit.
I’ve barely taken half a dozen steps when a figure appears around the corner, swaggering toward me and causing me to forget how to breathe for a second.
Finch.
He’s heading right for me, moving with a lithe grace that leaves me feeling like I’ve only just grown legs and haven’t worked out how to use them yet. The way he walks is with the surety of someone who knows every inch of their body and what it’s doing, like a fighter or a dancer. Tossing his head back so that his long, dark hair falls behind one shoulder, he cocks his head to one side as he focuses his attention on me.
“Reva.”
As soon as I’m close enough for those stormy grey eyes to snap to mine, the bundle in my chest glows and I suck in a sharp breath. Then that brittle, dull grey thread tugs at some deep part of me, and I stumble forward until I’m standing with him looming over me.
One tentacle reaches out to prod at his chest, and an answering pulse hits me in the exact same location.
Huh, that’s different.
All these bonds seem to adore proximity, and Finch’s is singing with joy after we’ve been separated for so long.
It’s a strange feeling, that’s for sure.
Just as strange as being bound together by an overabundance of magic and a persistent seal who decided that she wasn’t getting left in the dark again. While I haven’t got Noush to tell me what exactly she experienced while I was dragging my way through life without her, her silence makes me think that it wasn’t a good experience.
