#eeek!!!

He hadn’t managed to get to sleep recently, and thus opted to stay aboveboard and make their return to Katolis even swifter using magic. Callum might as well use the time for something useful instead of reliving the horror of a few days ago.

He sat leaning against the ship’s steering wheel, which was really just for decoration because Sea Legs controlled the direction they went in, anyway. The sun was just beginning to peek over the horizon, orange and pink and purple. A pretty sunrise, and it didn’t feel fitting for the circumstances. But the world moved on with no regard for what its inhabitants faced.

Rayla came and sat next to him, sitting criss-cross applesauce. The way she looked at him, tender and loving and full of trust that he didn’t deserve… it reminded him of the top of the Storm Spire, just a– what was it, two weeks ago now? He’d pushed her away, and then he’d nearly lost her, and then they’d gotten close, and then he’d nearly lost her again. And the cycle would just keep repeating, because that was how they worked: fight, make up, near death. Rinse and repeat.

“Whatcha thinking about?” she asked, staring out at the sky.

Callum adjusted his grip on his staff that kept the winds flowing in their favor. “Just… stuff.”

He’d always been a shit liar.

Rayla took a deep breath, brow crinkling. “You’re… you’re sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah. Shaken up, that’s all.” He was really a hypocrite, preaching honesty and trust then turning around and lying to her face in the same breath. But a half-truth was better than a full-on lie. He changed the topic. “How about you? How’s the seasickness?”

She shifted, crossing her legs over his lap and leaning back to lay in the sun. She was breathtaking, the grime scattered across her figure and hair messed up from sea spray and freezing wind only making her all the more enchanting. “It’s better. Maybe all the Ocean magic canceled out the seasickness? Two negatives making a positive?”

Of course she was the one making jokes to make him feel better. He’d used to do that, then went and started being a sack of shit because he thought he’d had all the time in the world to be furious with her, and he hadn’t, and now she’d taken up carrying everyone’s burdens just like before, and he’d never be as good for her as he had been at fourteen. Which was crap, because teenagers were some of the worst people on the planet.

“Do you-”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” Her voice softened, fingers threading through his. “Please.”

He put an arm around her, letting her tuck into his chest and not caring that his staff teetered precariously against the wheel before settling haphazardly. “Of course. I’ve got you,” Callum soothed as he ran his fingers through her hair, though he seethed inside.

Finnegrin was going to pay.

Read more on AO3!