Page 58 of Stars Above the Never Sea (The Last Faeyte #1)

Chapter thirty-six

Callan

M y heart feels as though it pumps faster with every twitch of her lips that she tries to hide from me.

I want—

No.

I need her to laugh again. Need to hear that sound—low, and husky, and real.

I dare another step closer to her. She tips up her chin, as if daring me to come closer still. “Tell me about this new game, then.”

There’s a hint of wariness in her gaze as I stroll closer, until there’s no space between us. Her head tips up to look at me. There’s not a huge amount of difference in our heights. I already know how perfectly Selene’s face fits into the crook of my neck.

I raise my hand, running it over her cheek. So gods-damned soft that I do it again, indulging myself in the feel of her.

She stiffens as my fingers skate down. Brushing against her neck. Her arm.

A glorious bark of laughter bursts from her as my fingers skate down her side, tickling her through the linen of my shirt. “Callan!”

She tries to dart away, but it’s all too easy to steal her. To wrap my arms around her, one hand spreading over her lower back and my fingers dancing lightly over her side as her laughter peals out in endless waves. “ S-s-s-stop !”

I hold up my hand. And my grin is nothing short of victorious as I wiggle my eyebrows at her. “I believe this game is mine . Victory has never tasted quite so sweet.”

She snorts, still breathless and shaking in my arms. “You have a charmed tongue.”

“And talented fingers.”

My quip has the scarlet tinging her moonlit skin deepening, spreading down her neck and vanishing beneath my shirt. “A bold assertion. I’ve seen little evidence so far.”

My own laugh fills the air as I lift my hand again. But she pulls away, a grin splitting her cheeks as she dances back, out of my arms. They feel far too empty without her.

Selene backs away from me, her feet vanishing into the warm water as I advance. But she’s still smiling. “Another round. I wish to reclaim my crown.”

My eyes travel to the water behind her, reading her intentions. “First, I need to know—do you have any fear of the water? Any limits?”

I have not forgotten what the shadows showed us. Of that small figure, plunged beneath the filthy mud banks, held in place, legs kicking in desperate futility.

I will never forget it. For as long as I live. And I will never tell her the way it haunts my dreams, not when she has plenty of nightmares of her own.

Her eyes widen. “No. I have always loved the water.”

“Good,” I murmur. “Name your terms then, Amaris.”

Her eyes narrow. “A challenge. The first to sink the other.”

My mouth twists, considering it. “You can try to sink me. I win if I catch you.”

Pushing her beneath water is not something I will ever do. Not if the gods themselves commanded it.

But her eyes are filled with stars tonight. They burst within her irises, sparks and showers as she keeps edging back, her lips twitching up until she’s submerged past her knees. “Agreed.”

My eyes travel down. She’s still wearing my shirt. But her legs are bare, endless moonlight above the water that laps at her knees—

Warm water spatters across my face, and I shake it free to another laugh. I feel as though I am counting them. Collecting them up in her wake, storing them in my memories to be marveled at later. She’s laughing at me again when I lift my damp face to hers.

The smile stretches across my face. “I’m feeling generous, so I’ll give you a head—”

She shrieks when I lunge before finishing my sentence, twisting out of my reach and throwing herself back into the water. My heart leaps into my mouth as she vanishes with a splash. “Selene!”

Fuck.

I wade out further, searching for any glimpse of light beneath the water. But the pool is still and silent, and I curse my own stupidity for pushing her too fast as I stride out. The water soaks my trousers, creeping up to my waist and higher, until I swim forward and begin treading warm water.

My heart thunders inside my chest, rapid as a set of wings. As if I might take off at any moment. I massage it with my palm as I search, panic beginning to creep up my throat. “Selene!”

Two hands wrap around my lower legs from behind, and tug .

I topple forward, the world vanishing as water closes above my head and climbs up my nose.

I emerge spluttering for breath, freezing at the sight of Selene a few feet away in the water. She looks delighted with her work.

“Well?” She grins. “Did I win?”

Her hair sits on top of the water in loose, soaked waves that gently waft back and forth, her chin brushing the pool and her body hidden beneath it as she treads water easily.

I run a hand down my face as her smile flickers. “Callan?”

My voice rasps. “Consider me conquered.”

In every way.

Swallowing, I force my lips into another smirk, and flick water at her. “Another round.”

All of the rounds. All night, as long as this time with her does not have to end.

When she finally tires, long after my bones have started to ache, we pull ourselves out and lay back against the heated stone, our sodden clothes soaking the ground beneath us. Our arms press together as we stare up at the ceiling.

“I needed this.” The wonder in her words has my heart tightening into a fist, squeezing as I turn my head to look at her. “To not have to think of anything but this.”

My hand brushes hers. It’s too easy to steal it, to link my smallest finger with hers, chasing even that small connection. “I’m glad the water helped.”

Selene’s finger curls around mine. “It was not the water.”

Warmth sweeps over my entire body, bursts of light dancing across my vision as I fight to breathe against the weightlessness that overcomes me at her quiet words.

“I was thinking,” she murmurs softly. Her head turns to mine, both of us staring at each other. “About what happens after.”

“After?” I stare at her like a fool, still caught on her earlier words.

She bites down into her lower lip, leaving an indent in the skin. “What happens if we can fix this? If I can fix the Never?”

“What would you like to happen?”

Those eyes return to the ceiling. “I don’t know. I’ve never let myself think about the future. Not really. I knew… I knew I wanted to come home, even if it was for the last time. I made a promise that I would. But this is not my home anymore.”

I roll onto my side. Selene does the same, the two of us facing each other in the low glow of the adralite. “Do you think it could be a home again?”

Resting my head on my arm, I reach for her damp hair with the other, pushing it away from her face.

“I don’t believe Petyr will stay here forever.

Once the Never is fixed, he’ll move on. Likely to Terrosa.

His ambition is too big to allow him to stay here.

Most of the court would follow, I’d imagine.

They’ve made no bones of their feelings on the matter. ”

Her eyes lower. “And what would you do?”

“That depends,” I say carefully. So very careful, in this moment that feels like glass between clumsy hands. Delicate, and easily broken.

Selene searches my face. “On?”

On where you choose to go.

The rock in my throat seems to grow. “I think I might like to stay. To build a real life here. To try to fix some of what was broken, and to… to build something new. With your permission.”

She frowns. “You don’t need my permission.”

“Yes, I do.” I hold her gaze. “This is your home, Selene. What we have done, we cannot take back. So if I was to stay, and if you wished to stay—perhaps we could build that something together.”

“Together.” It sounds like a possibility on her lips as she tests the word. The corners of her lips lift. “I think I might like that.”

My heart thuds painfully as we watch each other. Selene’s gaze lowers to my lips, her eyes lidding and her lips parting.

Not daring to breathe, I lift myself, balancing on my arm to lean in—

The sound of footsteps is an unwelcome interloper. Selene jerks upright, almost smacking me in the forehead as she scrambles to her feet, shaking out her wings. My shirt is plastered against every gentle curve, and I feel my throat close as I look away.

Her words are rushed. “It must be past dawn. We should go.”

“Yes,” I say hoarsely.

I keep hold of her hand as we slip out of the chamber, keeping my body between Selene and the first of the early arrivals.

The portly, older Caelumnai—an overseer of one of the Boreasan northern counties, if I remember correctly—stares at us with so much shock that amusement rises in my chest as we climb the stairs and he vanishes from sight.

“I think we may be the talk of the court.”

“I’m already the talk of the court,” Selene says, almost absently. She lingers at the top of the second set of stairs, her head turning as she looks down the now-dark stone corridor. “Can you hear that?”

I join her, tilting my head to listen. “I don’t hear anything.”

When she shivers, I slip my arm around her shoulders, irritated at myself for not getting her a blanket. “Come on.”

I shield her from more curious faces on the way up, bundling her into her room and accidentally waking a sleeping Esme and Rio before I force myself to leave with the brush of my lips against her cheek, breathing her in and filling my lungs with my own damned scent from the soap she continues to wear.

Thoughts of her follow me as I stalk into my own room, stay with me as I upend the cold jug of water over my head and yank on the pull for more.

Those curves—

Ice-fucking-cold water. As much of it as possible.