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He was actively avoiding me, and I couldn’t understand why. He had spent weeks training me with a sword, meeting me on the deck at night to comfort me, and joking with me at the table during meals. But after taking Jacques and the crew captive, he had been completely cold, seemingly angry. He never stayed in the same room as me for a long period of time, and I couldn’t get a read on what he was feeling or why.
So I decided to beat it out of him.
Knock, knock, knock.
He opened the door, his eyes hollow as he stared at me.
“What do you want?” he asked coldly.
“To talk to you,” I replied.
“I’m busy now,” he said, starting to close the door. “Come back when—”
I kicked the door back open, smacking him in the face with it. He stumbled back, holding his eye and hissing.
“When I say we need to talk,” I said firmly, “I mean that we’re talkingright now.”
He rubbed his face as I came into his room, shutting the door behind us. I crossed my arms and leaned against it, letting him know that I had no intention of leaving. He sighed, shifting his weight to one foot.
“What’s wrong with you these days?” I asked. “You’re brushing me off. And your brother. And half the crew some days. You’re always brooding in your room.”
“I do not brood.”
“You definitely brood.”
I gave him a small smile, hoping he would do the same. He didn’t. He turned to his desk instead, papers and books scattered across and beside it. His room was always a mess, but this wasfrantic. He went to his desk and shut some of the books, piling one on top of the other. From where I stood it looked like he was chewing on his tongue, as if the words were sitting there but he couldn’t spit them out.
I stepped forward. “Please tell me what you’re thinking.”
He turned his head toward me, his eyes suddenly filled with sorrow, a stark contrast to the hollow shells they were before.
“Henrik?” I asked again.
“I opened the spirit world,” he blurted out. “I wanted so badly to clear my reputation that I didn’t care about the consequences. And now…now I’m faced with too many things I wasn’t prepared for.”
I helped him straighten the books on his table. “You know more about the spirit world than most people. You have a power I’ve never seen before.”
“The connection between the spirit world and the human world, I understood,” he replied, putting his books on the bookshelf. “I understood that I could manipulate it and wield some of its power, but I didn’t understand the creatures that lived within that world. They could judge every man on this ship, and their deaths would be on my hands. Who knows what else I’ve—”
He was shaking by the time he finished. I stepped forward, taking his hands in mine to steady them. The pain in his face made my heart sink.
“You mended something that was once severed,” I said.
“Maybe it wasn’t meant to be mended.”
“You did nothing wrong—”
“I hurt you!” He grabbed my arm, showing me the faded scar across it. “I cut you open and let you bleed for the sake of my reputation and my family’s finances! How much more blood will be on my hands now that the spirit world is opened?”
He inhaled through his teeth, like it was crushing him to even breathe.
“You asked why I hadn’t been coming to the deck at night,” he said. “It’s because I’m an astrologer. I can read the stars and tell you what the future holds. I don’t think… I don’t think I can go out at night, look at the stars, and handle knowing all the damage I’ve done. All the damage that is coming now because of me.”
He dropped his head, holding it with one hand as he caught his breath. Not knowing what else to do, I stepped forward and wrapped my arms around his neck, holding him close to me.
I had no power of the spiritual realm. This was all I could offer him.
His arms eventually returned the gesture and embraced me, holding me against him as he buried his head in my shoulder. I rubbed his back, hoping it would soothe him.
