Stormbreak (Seafire #3) - Natalie C. Parker Page 0,116

reached to unlatch the window, then stopped. What good would it do to announce her presence? She should just go inside. She raised the key.

Her breath came more quickly. Not from fear, but from anticipation. What part of herself would she find in his star-pale eyes? Who would she be when she entered that room?

Who would she be after?

The key slid into the lock with a soft metallic kiss. In the back of her mind, the question spun, sending invasive winds through her thoughts.

You are a reflection of him, they hissed.

She closed her eyes and paused with the key in the door. A fine sweat coated her palm. She felt as she always did on the brink of battle, when her senses were as vast as the ocean itself. Only now she had no one to fight.

You are the person he made you, the winds moaned.

But that wasn’t right. That had never been right. Caledonia was the person she’d become because of herself, because of Pisces, because of every girl who’d ever joined the crew of the Mors Navis, because of Oran and Sledge and the rest of the Blades. She was the person she was in spite of Lir. He’d stolen pieces of her against her will. She had nothing to gain from him. She never had. But if she walked through this door, she’d give him one final victory.

Caledonia pulled the key from the lock, then she turned and left the prison.

Lir had been the focus of her story for too long. His door was shut. And Caledonia had so many more to open.

CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

The Mors Navis had never been so beautiful. After the battle, she’d been reclaimed, repaired, and more. The sails were crisp and white, the solar sail inky black in contrast, and all around the railing hung garlands of fragrant green leaves woven through with sprigs of lavender and tiny white flowers. Swaths of deep green fabric wrapped the bannisters of the companionway ladder and bells were strung from every available perch so that whenever the wind blew, the air stirred the ship into song.

Caledonia stood on the balcony overlooking the main deck from the narrow platform behind the bridge. She’d stood here so many times before. Always to rally her girls or deliver bad news. This time, however, she was wedding two of her dearest friends.

Hime was radiant in a blouse of deep blue and brown pants with lengths of pale blue satin stitched down either side. Nettle had insisted on doing the needlework herself. Hime’s hair was bound in a simple braid and she wore a crown of the same tiny white flowers that ringed the ship. Standing opposite her was Amina. She wore a dark blue shawl, wrapped around her shoulders to spill down her back. Beneath it, her shirt and pants were the paler compliments to Hime’s blue and brown. Her long braids were coiled atop her head and woven with spears of lavender.

Each stared warmly, calmly into the other’s eyes. At Caledonia’s prompting they gave the sign of consent and then it was Hime who leaned forward and cupped Amina’s cheeks between her hands, drawing her forward into a kiss.

“Before our eyes and our hearts, you consent to love one another from now until the stars fade from the night sky,” Caledonia said.

A cheer rose from the main deck and the air filled with flowers and lavender, all tossed into the sky before they landed again where they would be crushed into a fragrant carpet beneath dancing feet. Caledonia let tears warm her eyes and backed away to give the couple their privacy. Or, as much privacy as they could have in the midst of a hundred people.

The sun was hanging low enough to tease the horizon, and the sky was painted in brilliant pinks and oranges, the clouds catching color along their bellies before sweeping into deep pockets of silver and gray. The breeze was light and warm, and the waves lapped at the hull of the ship. Dotted along the water around them were several smaller ships, all waiting at anchor, their crews here on the Mors Navis to witness the occasion.

Hime and Amina were drawn down the stairway to the deck by the commanding rhythm of a reel. Soon, the floor was lost beneath dancing feet, and the musicians struggled to be heard above joyful laughter. Caledonia followed more slowly, enjoying the sight of her crew dancing on the back of the sea without fear that someone