Page 104 of Seaborn and the Seven Seas

Something warm moved through me, not just the present moment but the ghost of another one, old and familiar. He’d said those words before. In another life, in another body, with wings folded at his back and the sea crashing below. And he’d meant them then the same way he meant them now. Calroy didn’t make promises he couldn’t keep.

“Yes, my love,” I said softly. “You always do.”

Palto’s form rippled. “What is your verdict regarding Rowhan? Do you agree to restore him?”

“How do we know this isn’t a ruse?” Calroy’s jaw tightened, the warmth leaving his eyes. “To undo everything all over again.”

“You don’t,” Palto said.

“That’s not good enough.” Calroy snarled.

“It never is.” Palto’s form drifted closer to the edge of the pool. “But consider what I have already done. I went against the queen. Against the others. I sent you both into rebirth knowing I would face consequences for it if my plan had not succeeded. I have waited in this place, the between worlds for years, Calroy. Watching. Waiting for you to find Yeri.” His voice dropped. “Does that sound like someone working against you?”

“It sounds like someone with a long game,” Calroy said.

“The queen would not have sent Yeri here to learn the truth about herself.” Palto’s form flickered. “She would not show Yeri her own death. She would not reunite the both of you. She wants you divided. Everything I have done has been the opposite of what the queen wants.”

Calroy said nothing. But his jaw worked.

“I made a mistake.” Palto dipped his head slightly. “I believed her once. I helped strip your power and I have carried that ever since. I cannot undo it.” His form drifted toward me, then back to Calroy. “But I can help you end her. One chance to make it right. That is all I am asking for.”

The waterfall filled the silence.

Calroy looked at me.

He wasn’t asking for permission. He was asking what I felt. After years of being Star, surviving on instinct alone, my gut was the one thing I trusted above everything else.

I studied Palto, water and light shifting together, the suggestion of features rather than the true form. But there was something in the way his figure stilled. No flicker. The restless water that had rippled through him since he appeared had gone quiet.

“We give him the chance,” I said. “But only him. Not the others.” Calroy could handle Rowhan alone if it came to that, but all four of them together was a different calculation. And there was still the matter of… “How do we know if Rowhan is willing to help?”

“In this pool we can communicate among ourselves.” Palto gestured toward the water. “Rowhan, Junio, Eules, Saura, the goddess of fire. They all regret conspiring with the queen.”

“Because she betrayed them.” Ranis laughed dryly.

“True. But that mistake cost us all dearly.” Palto’s form rippled. “They have learned their lesson the hard way.”

Calroy’s eyes darkened. “If you betray us, there will be no corner of this world or the next where you can hide from me. Not even here.” He gestured at the land of the dead. “Are we understood?”

“Perfectly.” Something shifted in Palto’s liquid form, the suggestion of a smile.

“How—” Minha pressed her fingers to her temple, squinting like she was working through a problem. “How do we bring one god back from the dead?”

“Come to the water,” Palto directed.

We moved to the edge of the pool and peered down.

Beneath the surface, suspended in the still water as if simply resting, five figures stood luminous, their features peaceful. No pain. No awareness. Just sleep, deep and endless, the kind that had no dreams.

Gods who had conspired against us, turned by a queen’s promises, and ended up here — sleeping at the bottom of a pool in the land of the dead, unaware that the two they had helped destroy were standing above them looking down.

In the center, Palto’s body among them, hands folded, eyes closed. While his spirit hovered above us in water and mist, his physical form rested below with the others.

“Do they know we’re here?” I asked.

“No.” Palto lowered into the water, half of his body disappearing beneath the surface. “We have been like this since the queen turned on us.” His voice carried no sympathy. “It is more mercy than we deserve.”

“That’s you.” Ranis stared down at Palto’s body beneath the surface.