Page 115 of Death of a Mortal

Bramick laughed even harder. “Hey, Kaelor! Hey, c’mere real quick.”

“Oh gods, Bramick, please no.”

He ignored me. “Kaelor, guess what she called us when we were posing as guards?”

Bramick told him, and I knew my face was beet-red. They both laughed, but it didn’t make me feel bad. It made it feel like…I was in on a joke. Like I was laughing with Nella.

That’s when I realized I was actually laughing, and I had no idea how long it had been since I last laughed.

“Well, Naci, it’s nice to really meet you. You can keep calling me Buzzed Head if you want, but the name is Kaelor. At your service.” He extended a hand to me, and it took me a moment to realize he was expecting a handshake.

Men didn’t usually shake hands with me, let alone fae males.

As I grasped his hand and we shook, I was sure I felt eyes on me from behind. But when I turned around, all I found was Drayce, with his back facing me, at the helm of the ship.

As Bramick and Kaelor fell into conversation, I looked back out across the water.

It felt peaceful, as if my mother and Nella were with me.

And for the first time, thinking of them did not make me sad.

It made me smile.

Chapter 28

Somewhere New

As the settingsun gave way to the first night of our journey across the sea, we all huddled inside the main cabin, save for a few crew members operating the ship. I’d learned that there were two air elementals on board, one of which was Aerie, who took shifts pressing their air magic to the sails to propel us along faster than any natural wind would. Every few hours, Aerie would take off in her vey form to scout the skies, often taking Noxie with her to roam.

“Overwhelmed?” The mortal man from the rescue sat down beside me at the main table and handed me a glass of red wine while others served themselves with food brought up from the galley below.

He was confirmation for me that the fae and mortals worked together in the rebellion. The thought made my spirits lift with the hope that outside of the Caedryn supporters, fae could live with mortals in peace.

This was the first time I’d seen him up close. His eyes were the darkest brown and he looked to be just older than my father with salt and pepper hair.

But it was the smile I noticed most. It was wide and genuine, crinkling the corners of his eyes.

“Yeah, I suppose I am,” I said.

“Kellan,” he said, extending a hand the way Kaelor had.

I took it and we shook.

“I’m honored to have you with us,” he continued. “Keryth always longed for the day the two of you would work side by side.”

I wasn’t sure how to feel about that. She’d expected me to join them one day but had never come home for me? It seemed like Kellan meant well, and while I was inclined to trust a mortal more than a fae at the moment, that wasn’t a discussion I was ready to have with anyone.

So I just nodded and gave him a tight-lipped smile. I looked around the table and listened to the conversations going on while I sipped my wine.

Kaelor told me that the glythyrs on the sides of the ship served two purposes: one, to bend the light around us so that we were near invisible from a distance (Kaelor was a light elemental, which was wildly cool); and two, to keep the wine barrel full no matter how much the crew drank.

“I still don’t understand how a glythyr works,” I said after my second glass of wine, feeling the beginnings of a buzz.

“Fae can trace symbols onto a surface and imbue it with their specific magic and then trigger it with their touch. The symbols act almost as instructions for what the magic should do when triggered,” said Kaelor, very matter-of-factly.

“Basically, lots of magic that does really powerful shit,” Aerie chimed in, cheeks already rosy from the alcohol, feet propped up on Bramick’s chair beside her.

“It requires a lot of magic, and fae that create them recklessly can use too much and leave themselves depleted and vulnerable.” Kaelor became very serious, as if he had known someone who had been reckless.