Imprison the Sky by A.C. Gaughen

Author:A.C. Gaughen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Words Aren’t Enough

I didn’t sleep. I stayed in my cabin, endlessly weighing my options. Trading Linnea could work for us—I was certain I could make a deal to benefit us. The phaedra would give me whatever I wanted for a power such as hers.

But what did I want? To continue sailing, to maybe even be free, and yet cross the one line I never had? Or to maintain this one, flimsy boundary and face down the most powerful slaver in Sarocca?

When the sun rose, hot and lacking answers, I searched for Ori. I found him with Linnea, up on the deck, huddled close together by the stern like they had been talking all night.

I hated her. How could she leave him? How could she not see how monumental his trust and affection were?

When they saw me, they stood, hand in hand, and Linnea kissed his cheek before letting his hand go and walking past me. I glared at her.

Ori’s mouth twisted, and I stepped closer to him, grabbing him in a hug before I knew what I was doing. He hugged me back, fierce and tight, shaking a little in my arms. “Let me go, Aspasia,” he whispered softly.

I jerked away from him, shocked by the request and the sound of his voice. “Did I hurt you?” I asked.

But there were tears on his face. “Let me go with her,” he said, his words slow and careful. “I will stay here if you want me to. I will stay with you if you need me.”

I felt like every solid thing beneath my feet was gone, and there was just water, a place where the wind and the air couldn’t reach me. “Leave,” I said softly.

I looked at his face. We were his family, but we were a family that had failed him. We had lost his sister, and now all he saw was the empty space where she was supposed to be. Until Linnea made him smile again.

“You barely know her,” I protested.

His shoulders just lifted and fell, and I wondered how I would feel if someone said the same about Kairos. It hadn’t been long, and yet—yet.

Tears fell down my cheeks, because I knew what I had to tell him. I knew that if he stayed on board, he’d never be more than a broken half of a set, and if he went with Linnea—even if they weren’t even a couple, even in love, he would be a person in a different story.

So I hugged him again and whispered, “Of course you can go. I wouldn’t ever deny you a damn thing, Ori.”

He held tight onto me, and he let me cry on him, and in that moment, I knew my decision had been made.

It wasn’t long after when we got in the rowboat with Thea, Linnea, and Ori, Fisk manning the oars for us. Kairos watched us get in the boat with crossed arms and a scowl, but he didn’t ask to go. Maybe he knew the future well enough to know I would have never agreed.

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