A Dark and Starless Night

Chapter Fifty-Two

Eve's grip tightened on Don's hand and he winced ever so slightly.

"They'll be here," he said, offering her a sympathetic smile.

But they were late. Her friends. And the ship would only wait so long before it had to leave. The last ship from Teryon to the Isle of Light this side of winter.

Tarlough had prepared her, going through everything as many times as he could. The route she would take. What stars to follow. What to do if she got lost in the desert. He had even talked her through the different tutors she would face, if things had remained the same since he had left.

It had been a month since she had killed the star eater, since Don had been freed. And he had agreed that it would be good for her to learn more about her powers. She knew he was relieved to have her no longer in his care. Knew he was relieved to have no more responsibility for her. And when she did come back to Teryon, it would be as an adult. She would be free to do as she pleased. At least, without feeling guilty that Don would worry. And there would be no threat of being sent back to live with her mother and Luc.

Thinking of her mother made her feel uncomfortable now. For some reason she couldn't shake, she missed the woman. So much so that she had written to her. Mainly just to let her know that she was leaving Zyrna and that she would be back in a year or so. And that when she was back, she hoped that the two could meet. She didn't know if she still needed an apology, needed her mother to admit that she had been wrong. But she knew that she wanted to see her. To hear her voice again.

She hadn't received a reply, but she didn't focus on it. Didn't let it make her feel more nervous than she already did.

The Isle of Light was the land she was born in. It was the land that had begun shaping her. It was in her blood. But to go there alone. To have to navigate it with no one beside her. It terrified her. What if she had forgotten important customs? What if her time in Zyrna had worn away everything that made her Islan? What if she failed at being a star?

She released Don's hand, shaking out her fingers to try and work the nerves out of her system.

A carriage barrelled towards them and stopped suddenly, and four people poured out. Relief made her weak, but she grabbed May into a hug first.

"Time will fly," Eve said, battling with tears while May wiped at her cheeks. "A year will pass in no time at all."

"It had better," she said, hugging Eve again. "The others don't get me like you do."

"Make them," Eve whispered and May stepped back. Eve was surprised to see Fox step out of the carriage and offer her his arm to hold onto. He gave Eve a nod, a sign she took as a farewell, and she returned it.

"Finally rid of you," Fin said, and Rik thumped him on the shoulder hard enough that he let out a small cry of pain. Eve smiled, but ignored them as she met Ali's eyes.

They had only just really opened up to each other. They had only just found a new layer to their friendship, full of trust like nothing Eve knew. Full of forgiveness. And laughter. And love. The tears that she had been strong enough to hold back in front of Ali began to fall.

"You can't cry," Ali said, tears of her own welling. "If you cry, I'll cry."

Eve wrapped her arms around Ali, burying her face into her shoulder, greeted by a gently scented perfume. They clung to each other for a long moment, until they both stopped shaking with the force of their tears.

"You had better write to me, Evelyn Mintarryl."

"I swear I will. And you better reply."

"It's a deal."

They stepped away from each other, swiping at tears as they smiled. Eve looked towards Rik and he met her gaze.

"Fin, come look at this coat of arms and tell me whose carriage we borrowed," Ali demanded, subtly giving Eve and Rik some privacy. Eve sent her thanks with a look. Ali offered a wink, smiling as she herded the others towards the carriage.

Silence greeted her when it was just her and Rik. He had stuffed his hands into his pocket, and stared at the ship that was going to be Eve's home for the weeks it would take to make the journey along Zyrna's coast and then across the sea to Teryon.

"Fine weather for sailing," he finally said, his voice sullen.

She clasped her hands in front of her, knotting her fingers together.

"I wish things had gone differently," she said, her voice quiet. She couldn't meet his eyes, so she watched his throat bob as he swallowed.

"I do as well, Eve. I-I wish that the star eaters had never come to Teryon. I wish you'd never gotten those powers. And I wish... Gods, I wish more than anything that I had been brave enough to kiss you."

She looked up at him, finally meeting his eyes.

"Rik..."

"I know," he said, stabbing a hand through his hair. "I am content to be your friend, Eve. And proud – so bloody proud – to be someone that you love. And I want... I want to be someone you're proud of."

"I am. Stars above, Rik. I am so proud of the man you've become."

She wrapped her arms around him, and he pressed his hands into her back, holding her close. She was. She was so proud of him. Of the courage he had shown. Of the compassion. The intelligence. She was grateful to have seen him grow, knowing that he would be a great king.

"Neither time nor distance will dull our friendship," he said, his words muffled by her hair.

She smiled, knowing as she pulled back and looked at him, at their friends, her uncle, that he was right. Neither time nor distance could dull her love for them.

"Miss?" one of the cabin boys called, standing at the bottom of the gangplank. "We're about to finish the last bits before we depart."

Her stomach flipped, nerves and excitement ripping through her. She pulled her friends into a quick, brief hug again, all of them talking at once as they wished her well. She even hugged Fin, and she couldn't say it wasn't to annoy him.

"See you in a year," she called from the rear of the ship, leaning over the railing as she waved.

They waved, yelling their farewells, standing there as she slowly pulled away. And when they were nothing but indiscernible specks on the boardwalk, she felt her shoulders sag. She let the cabin boy lead her to her rooms where she unpacked, settling in for a lengthy journey. A lonely journey.

Each day, she rose early, and practiced what she had learned from Tarlough and Ara.

And each night she slept, chased by shadows and bald men in her nightmares. She woke some nights so slick with sweat that she thought it was her blood. And when she vomited each morning, she pretended she was still finding her sea legs, her hands and legs shaking as she went above deck.

Sometimes neither shadows nor star eaters chased her. Sometimes, Althian stood before her, Rik's father prostrating himself in front of him. In those dreams, Rik and Don both wasted away in the Underneath, their ribs visible through their thin shirts. May lay in a fountain of red-tinted water, lifeless, while Ali was chased through the woods of her home by a faceless man on horseback. Those nightmares were worse than the ones where she died again and again. They followed her into her waking day, only chased away by a painful workout.

She had been changed, she realised. She had become something new with each attack upon her. With each murder she had learned of or witnessed. Parts of her heart, her mind, were still tender from it. Still too raw to be prodded or poked at. And she wasn't truly sure if she ever would be able to peel back the bandages that protected those wounds. To look at the wound of her death.

But...

Through whatever luck had borne her this far, she would survive the trials ahead too. And she would be reunited with her friends and family once more.