Page 88 of The Songs of Fate (War of Fate)

I tossed the towel off my damp hair and hung it on a rack in the main cabin. Looking at my discarded clothes on the floor, a small problem became apparent—I didn’t have any clothes.

I found the second drawer of the wooden dresser had a few old T-shirts and sweatpants that were my best options at decent clothing. The faded blue T-shirt I chose went to my upper thighs, and I tied the strings of the sweatpants tight over my waist to keep them up.

I looked down at myself. Perfect. I looked like a twelve-year-old boy.

At least I didn’t look like I had undergone an exorcism any more.

I made my way to the top deck, where everyone gathered around a black grill snaking tendrils of white smoke out the side. Danny and Leo laughed at something Logan said from beside the grill as he flipped large fillets of fish over the charcoal.

“Hey, Cri, tell them about the time Kara made you run through the fire.” Leo howled in laughter.

I shuffled closer. Everyone paused their conversations at my approach.

I forced myself to look at them and turned my gaze to the friendliest of the group that I wasn’t waging an inner battle about, Danny and Leo.

“How long was I asleep?” I collapsed on the bench next to them.

“A full day.” Danny handed me the glass he was drinking from. After being coated in his blood, drinking after him seemed almost sanitary.

I nodded and sipped at the water, looking out at the ocean. The sun was low on the western horizon.

“Where are we? Where are we going?” I noted that we were now sailing toward the sinking sun. There was only the dark sapphire ocean in every direction.

Danny and Leo looked at Ales. Logan had shut the lid of the grill and turned toward the circle of conversation.

Logan’s gaze went to my body and landed on my face. “You look better. How do you feel?”

His green eyes peered at me like I was wearing a string bikini, not oversized men’s clothing. I shouldn’t be on the verge of smiling, and wondering how he’d look at me if I told him there was nothing on under the shirt and pants. Charlie was never that forward, but the Valkyrie was. My light bubbled up, seeking Ales.

Oh, hell!

“I’m fine. Where are we going?” I repeated again, now looking at my feet. I hoped no one could read my thoughts like when we were connected.

Ales glanced at Cri before he focused on me. “We are going home.”

I paused mid-sip. “I’m assuming you mean your home.” I turned to Danny and Logan. “We can’t leave. What’s going to stop more creatures from coming, from taking people?”

Ales shook his head. “The creature you turned to ash, it was a favored Raider commander. The remaining Raiders were weakened by its death, and the Keres will draw back because of it. We slaughtered every Raider on the way to you. But we need to close the pathway they are using to get to your world.”

Logan and Danny appeared to be familiar with this plan already, because both nodded their heads in agreement.

I sighed and rubbed my temples. “Home, like Valhalla?”

The light shuddered inside me. How odd? It didn’t hum with excitement like when Ales grinned. It was almost afraid of the term.

Ales frowned. “No, it’s not safe there. We are going to our home.”

“I thought you were all from different places.”

“We are, but we have made another world our home. It is a safe haven for refugees. We stumbled upon it when we were going through the aether. It began as a secret port for Cri and me when we needed to rest. Then, over the years, when civilizations were destroyed, we occasionally found there were a few survivors who had escaped the carnage. We started bringing them to this place.” Ales watched my reaction closely. He crossed his sculpted arms over his chest.

My light ebbed closer to the surface. It attempted to reach for him. It wished to see his home, and in some ways so did the rest of me. I was curious about the refugees. The way Ales watched me made me think he could read my thoughts, like he was waiting for me to come to him.

I clamped down further on my light. No one touches anybody until we all agree on the same thing!

“How do we get there?” I asked.

I had clearly missed a few conversations while I slept. Everyone else seemed to be looking at the ground, avoiding my gaze.

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