Mermaid Tear (The Fated #2)

09 | Restless Minds

Kain received the answer to their troubles at midnight.

It came in the form of a heavy shuffling outside his door. Unable to sleep--nightmares fresh in his mind, and the moon's energy surging through his veins--he'd retreated onto the balcony to watch the night sky. Images flashed through his thoughts, memories of those precious moments before everything fell apart, leaving a peaceful, heavy grief that was shattered as the subtle noise touched his sensitive senses.

His reflexive alarm faded the moment he realized that whomever they were, they were being too loud. If they were an assassin, they were a poor one, and anyone else...well, there were very few people who would bother to seek him out so late. A different sort of worry chilled his veins as he pushed away from the railing. The noise paused, leading him to do the same once inside his quarters.

What next? He wondered.

The shuffling moved away. Then back, then away again before something heavy clattered against the floor outside. A familiar voice swore under their breath and he went stiff.

They knocked before he could recover.

"J-Just a moment," Kain called.

He hurried over to the door, cursing himself as his clumsy path caught his knee against one of the chairs. Heat flooded his face as he reached to undo his locks. As sensitive as merfolk hearing was, there was little doubt in his mind that Callias wouldn't have caught that.

Still, he did his best to look composed as he tugged the door open with a smile. "Sorry, I wasn't..."

Surprise stole his mind. It shouldn't have--as, surely, none of them expected Callias to be his usual, composed self--but, still, the sight was an overwhelming, mixed degree of heartbreak and grief.

The merfolk's hair was loose, tumbling over his shoulders in frizzy, tangled waves and clinging to his face with a damp sheen. When combined with the way Callias' rumbled clothing clung to his frame, Kain would have assumed the man had come running from somewhere--but, the overwhelming smell of alcohol pulled any suspicion of that from his thoughts. As it was, his frame almost seemed to sway in place.

He stepped forward, intending to help, only to move back--hands up--as the blond jerked away. The resulting still silence between them was suffocating. Callias, surprisingly, was the one to break it as he recovered his partial composure and shuffled past Kain into the room, very obviously avoiding any assistance.

"I--" Kain began.

"You're leaving in the morning," Callias interrupted.

Kain bit the inside of his cheek. There was a heaviness to the words--as if each had been weighed and carefully placed, sealing away any slur or fumble that might have otherwise occurred. Acknowledging that, however, would do neither of them good, so he instead focused on the statement itself.

"We are," he confirmed. "...will you be coming?"

Callias didn't answer right away. Instead, as Kain closed the door and placed his back against it, the merman stared at the bathroom. Kain grimaced, his own emotions swirling heavily in his chest--it was far too easy to imagine the path slipping open to another familiar face.

But, it wouldn't.

"Callia--"

"I can feel her."

For a moment, Kain attempted to follow the unsaid train of thought. The her, if he took it at surface value, would be Melitta. But, it couldn't be--the gods had, after all, severed the siblings' bond.

Which, in itself, was an explanation.

"The person they tied you to," he concluded.

Callias fumbled with something in front of him. It wasn't until he titled his head back, a thermos in hand, that Kain realized it must have been alcohol he'd dropped in the hall. Part of him was tempted to try and take it away--he obviously didn't need anymore to drink--but, the rest of him understood. So, he didn't.