Light of Stars [2]

Chapter Sixteen

♕ Fine Line ♕

Sybilla sat beside Aubrette, a cold wet piece of cloth on her hand. She leaned forward placing it neatly on top of her head. The fever had started as soon as the sun had come back up, and had barely gotten down since, no matter how hard Sybilla tried. Aubrette groaned, and Sybilla could do nothing but stare as she watched her have another one of her nightmares, wondering what sort of demons waited inside her head.

At least Mason had stopped insisting using his shadows on her, he seemed rather uninterested in everything now, sulking away while cleaning their weapons, again. As if that helped anybody.

She had not wanted to speak with Zander either, not seen they had almost... Sybilla sighed, taking the cloth off Aubrette's forehead and throwing it inside the empty bucket they all used to gather water.

"Goodnight" she whispered to Aubrette, moving away from the bed and walking out the door. She turned around staring at her face as her frown became deeper. "You'll be okay" she said, hoping it was loud enough to make the gods listen. The candles of the hallway were already turned off. Sybilla closed the door of Aubrette's bedroom and stared at Zander's door. She hated that she'd gotten herself in a position where she could not hide from her problems again.

Reluctantly, Sybilla turned right and headed for the stairs. The night air was much colder than the day, and the breeze of the sea at late hour almost made her remember how the air felt the morning before a snow storm. A soothing form of coldness.

She looked around, the cabin's light still on. Zander was not yet asleep. Sybilla was about to turn away and go to her room when the black haired boy stepped outside the door and locked eyes with her. She held her breath.

"Hi" he said.

Somehow he was now someone other than the wounded boy she'd dragged across Regno, those few first days where neither knew if any of them would survive, where all they could do was wait patiently, expecting the queen to come from any angle, cut their ship in half. She remembered how it had felt then, that first week at sea, Aubrette and Iz staying up all through the night, waiting, watching. Zander barely healed enough to keep sailing. Mason doing his best to fish, to get them something else to eat besides rotten meat.

Somehow along the way, she'd forgotten who he was, forgotten Zander was more than just someone stuck inside a cell, wounded by the same people that had taken her away from her family. No matter how much a blessing the latter had been.

"Hey" she said. Sitting and wishing she had bothered to grab a blanket. Not because she needed it, but because the act made her feel normal, gave her comfort in a way. Zander walked towards her, sitting beside her, close enough that she could feel the beating of his heart.

"How's Aubrette doing?"

Sybilla tensed up. "No change" she said. Zander sighed beside her.

The air blew between them, and she waited for him to be the first to speak, waited to see where the night led them now that silence felt so hard to maintain.

"Are you mad at me?" He finally asked.

"I don't think so" Sybilla answered honestly, taken by surprise by his question. "But lately I'm not good at understanding my emotions"

Zander crossed his arms across his chest and looked down. The simple action along with him not moving made her wonder if he would leave after they ran out of words to say to each other.

"I should've told you" He said.

"I thought our agreement was not speaking" she whispered, and Zander fell silent. "It's fine, I don't blame you" she said, hoping her words would be enough for them to carry on with whatever it was they had before.