Page 44 of The Song of the Void

Not black?

I would have called him out for lying if it wasn’t for the serious look in his eye, and the sensation of his bare knuckles brushing against the back of my hand. Warm and reassuring, just like his arm.

I leaned into him. “Call me Blue. I like it.”

“Fine, if you’re going to be so pushy about it…Blue.”

“Much better. Now, what are you doing out here? It’s late.”

“Couldn’t sleep. I must be too used to your serenading, because without your damn song, it’s impossible for me to get any shuteye.”

I almost wanted to laugh. He had been so aggravated when I sang before, so imagining him tossing and turning because I didn’t sing for him simply delighted me. Although, I had a feeling that wasn’t the only reason he couldn’t sleep. He used to get up and leave every night before he got injured, and now I wondered if, when he did, it was to come up here to smoke and stare at the water, like tonight.

“You’re hurting, aren’t you? Not your gunshot wounds. Something else.” Rei stiffened when I rested my hand on his arm. “What is it?”

“I…” Reiven clamped his mouth shut and stared down at the black water slapping against the hull. The longer he stayed silent, the more worried I became. Even in the darkness, I saw the battle taking place within his starlit eyes.

After what felt like forever, he finally turned to face me with an odd, melancholy smile. “I’m cursed.”

Curses were not natural magic a specific nation could tap into. They were born of dark magic, the kind anyone could use, so long as the price was paid: their eternal soul, sold to some sinister being that lay shrouded in shadows beyond the Spirits and the god of time. A being without a name, beyond comprehension. Occasionally summoned by those desperate or greedy enough to sacrifice their own eternity for the sake of power in the present. I hadn’t heard of a single instance of dark magic previously.

“Before I met Ash…years before, I was a different person. The worst kind, really. Rich, powerful, and reckless,” Rei said in a dull voice. “My family had so much influence, it didn't matter if I destroyed things or hurt people because they could cover it up. So, I caused destruction everywhere I went for the hell of it, and I didn't stop even if people got in the way. I was behind so many unnecessary deaths, people who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

A piece of me wanted to recoil.

“I killed…the wrong person, and a curse was laid upon me,” he said. “Looking back now, I think I deserved it.”

“And…that’s why you’re always in pain?”

He nodded and held up his cigarette. “These things are supposed to be therapeutic, but they haven’t actually helped me in a long time. Now they’re just a toxic distraction. Surely there’re faster ways to kill myself, right?”

His quiet, derisive laugh unsettled me as he flicked the cigarette into the darkness of the water. Why was he talking like that? Was his suffering so horrible he didn’t even want to live? Was that why he gave up so easily when he had been shot? I didn’t like that at all, not when helping him like I did at Redsand Cove cost me nothing but a bit of energy.

I impulsively rested my palm against his face. “Well, maybe you should stop using them. I can take your pain away for a while, if you’ll let me.”

Reiven rested his hand over mine and pulled it away from his face. “I thought nothing would ever make me feel normal again, until you touched me when I was wounded. But I can handle pain, so don’t worry.”

“Does Ash know?”

“No, and I’d prefer to keep it that way.” Crushing, oppressive silence enveloped us as he paused, rubbing the back of his neck before clearing his throat a bit too loudly. The half-smile he cracked made my heart sink into the sea. It couldn’t push away the gloom weighing over us, no matter how he tried to act carefree. “Ha, odd that a Siren is offering to help a former pirate bastard.”

I wasn’t about to forget about this, but he obviously wanted to stop talking about it. I filed away the rest of the questions I had about his curse—who he killed, who put it on him, and how it could be broken—in the back of my mind for now. I folded my arms across my chest and leaned back against the railing. “Well, you never know. If you actually help me get revenge on Vaetrik, I might have to take you off my shit list. Maybe I’ll even grace you with my friendship.”

“Me and a Siren? Friends?” Rei said, chuckling in disbelief. “You can’t fathom how bad of an idea that is.”

“I guess you’re right. Then, when this is over, and Ash’s pretty dream of a peaceful world comes to pass, you and I will part ways as traveling companions who barely tolerate each other.”

He moved before me, moonlit eyes glowing with mirth. “Damn right. So, for now, that makes us…temporary allies.”

“Roommates, unfortunately.”

Rei brightened like a child being told he could have sweets for dinner. “You mean you’ll come back to our room?”

I pursed my lips as if I wanted no such thing and tried to blame the galley bedroom as being too small for more than one person. He definitely saw right through my excuse.

Reiven pulled his pack of herbal cigarettes out of his pocket, squinting at the expanse of dark water in consideration before hurling the small box with a soft grunt of effort. The rewarding plunk of it hitting the water somewhere in the night prompted him to give me a sly grin. “You told me to stop using them. Now you’ll have to deal with me being insufferable while I have withdrawals, Blue.”

I sniffed. “I hate to break this to you, but you’re already insufferable.”