Forging Ties (Ties, Book 3) | ✓

Chapter 27

They set sail at dawn the next morning. Skye hid in his crowsnest until they were underway and then came down to sit on the stern of the ship.

He didn't really want to talk to anyone, but he was kind of hoping someone would come over to him and do or say something that would make him feel better. He didn't even know what that could be, honestly, but he really wanted to stop feeling as bad as he did.

"Good morning," a familiar voice said from behind Skye. Perry. He offered Skye a plate of toast smeared with butter and jam. "I made the bread myself."

Skye took one of the pieces of toast and bit into it, then nodded his approval. "You succeeded at bread."

"Would you perhaps be open to talking a little more about your experiences during the war?"

Skye shrugged.

"It's okay if the answer is no."

"I know. I'm good at saying no. I just actually don't know how I feel about things."

"Okay."

"It's not that long of a story, really. I lived with a bunch of other kids in a group home, and then there were things with the humans trying to take us somewhere and we ran away. Then we met Aris, and she told us there were other people on the other side of the mountains, so we tried to cross the mountains. Me and Aris and Nim got separated from the humans and Aris and Nim died, but Aris turns into an egg when she dies so I took the egg. The end."

"That is interesting, but it sounds as much like the beginning of a story as the end of one."

Skye licked jam off his hand. "No. I made myself not be in my head anymore because of trauma, so that's all I remember until recently."

"Ah, I see," Perry said. "So you ended up on the side of the mountains where we met, but do you know if you successfully completed your journey across or if you actually ended up back where you came from?"

"Oh," Skye said. "No, I don't know. We got most of the way across, so I just thought I must have kept going, but I really don't know. Maybe I went the other way."

"I have some old maps. Let's take a look and figure it out."

"Okay."

Perry was a ridiculously patient person. Skye lay on his back on the deck, saying no and eventually just shaking his head with every place name Perry read out from one of the maps in the book full of maps that he had. Skye kept expecting Perry to get frustrated with him for not being more helpful, but he just kept going.

Skye shook his head to the latest thing Perry had read out and then hesitated as he realised it had nagged at his memory a little. "Say that one again."

"Ridgeview High School?" Perry repeated.

"Oh," Skye said. "Maybe. Is there a school for little kids nearby?"

"There's one called Crestwood."

"Yes," Skye said. "I think that's it. I think that's where we were. I only went to school once, but sometimes they'd talk about the schools and those were the names."

"That's on this side," Perry said. "The side we met."

"Oh," Skye said. "I went the wrong way. Maybe the friends of mine who weren't already dead could have found me if I'd gone the other way, but now they're all dead anyway."

"I'm sorry," Perry said. "I've lost friends, though not to death. It can hurt just as much as losing a member of your family."

"My friend who died on the mountain, his mum was where we were going. His werewolf mum. If there are werewolves who live there now like Slone, maybe...?"