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Rayla hadn’t seen Callum for hours. He’d said he was going below deck for a little while, but in Rayla’s opinion five hours was not “a little while”. So, she went down to look for him. He wasn’t in his cabin, or in the “common room” where the sailors hung out. Finally, she found him, in the room in which he’d been imprisoned.
When she opened the door quietly, he was kneeling on the floor, punching at something. ‘Callum?’ she called softly into the darkness.
There was a little gasp and he stopped hitting. ‘Hi. I’m here.’
‘What are you doing?’ Rayla asked, closing the door behind her and crouching beside him.
‘Nothing.’ His hands were behind his back.
‘Callum.’ She unclasped his hands and pulled them forward, and he didn’t resist. He was holding something cold, metal, and writhing. She squinted in the half-light. It was a snake made of metal. There was another in his other hand. Rayla knew at once, deep down, what it was, her heart sinking. ‘Callum,’ she said again, slowly. ‘How did you get out here when you came to save me?’
Callum shook his head. She could see his Adam’s Apple bobbing as he gulped, not meeting her eyes, ‘I…I…’ His shoulders sagged, and finally he looked straight at her and gave a tiny, forlorn nod that confirmed her fears.
‘Oh, you stupid, stupid, stupid…’ Rayla began to scold him, then trailed off, tears running down her cheeks. She hugged him tight, burying her face in his shoulder. ‘Thank you,’ she whispered instead. ‘For saving me. I’m sorry that’s what you had to do. But thank you.’
‘It hurt,’ he sobbed. ‘It was horrible.’
‘I know,’ she told him, stroking his head. ‘I know.’
Callum gently untangled himself from her and put a hand on her shoulder. ‘Hey. Please don’t feel bad. Don’t feel it’s your fault. You need to know I have no regrets. If I had to do it over…I’d do the same thing. If there had been another way, of course I would’ve done that, but it was either do dark magic or do nothing and let you die…There was never any question.’
Rayla nodded, hand on his cheek, thumb gently caressing the bruised skin under his eye. ‘Thanks.’
‘It was like the first time,’ Callum said. ‘There wasn’t a choice, really. I’m always going to choose you, Rayla.’
She smiled at him, her heart glowing. ‘Me, too. From now on. I made that mistake once, choosing revenge over you. But I was wrong. You’re the only thing that really matters.’ She sighed. ‘I still wish…’ She looked at the snakes, still twitching on the floor, and at the boy beside her. ‘I wish you hadn’t had to do that.’
‘So do I. But I would do anything for you,’ he told her. ‘I’d do anything, no matter how dangerous, no matter how vile, to protect the people I love.’ His hand found hers.
If Rayla had known what infamous dark mage spoke those same words, she would’ve been concerned. But she didn’t know. All she heard was the word love. He’d finally said it. No more skirting around the word, the truth they both knew. She felt like she was flying. She wanted so badly to kiss him, more than ever before. But she looked at his tired, broken face and knew that now was not the time. ‘You need to sleep,’ she said instead.
‘Yeah.’ Callum took a deep, shuddering breath. ‘I’m…I’m scared. Of what I’ll see when I close my eyes.’
‘I know. But I’m here. I’m not going anywhere,’ she promised. ‘I’m going to stay here all night, and if you have a nightmare, or if anything happens, no matter how stupid it might seem…wake me up. If I find out in the morning that you didn’t, I’ll take it personally.’
He managed a shaky laugh. ‘Okay.’ He settled down with his head in her lap, and closed his eyes. She watched him, listening to his breathing. After a few minutes, he whispered, ‘Rayla?’
‘Mm?’
‘Can you lie down with me?’
‘Sure.’ She took off her jacket and gently eased his head onto it, before settling down next to him, facing him.
‘Turn over,’ he said, nudging her with his foot. ‘Then we can do spoons.’
‘What’s spoons?’ Rayla asked, turning over.
‘Like this. We’re like spoons, fitting into each other,’ Callum yawned, tucking his arm under her head like a pillow. ‘It’s a real thing, I promise.’
‘Okay,’ she whispered, settling her head into the crook of his arm. It felt like coming home.
‘Rayla?’
‘Mm?’
‘Never mind, it’s stupid.’
‘Now, I distinctly remember saying that stupid things are welcome.’
‘Okay. Can you, um, sing something? It’ll help me sleep.’
Rayla bit her lip. ‘Sure. I…I don’t know much.’
‘A lullaby would be nice.’
‘Okay. Here goes nothing.’ She took a deep breath and began to sing. ‘Twinkle, twinkle, little moon, you’ll be in the dreamland soon. Up above the world so high, like an opal in the sky. Twinkle, twinkle, little moon, I’ll be watching over you.’
She sang it a few times, feeling his chest rise and fall against her back, his arm wrapped around her waist. They had come to the point, she realised, where they both knew they would do absolutely anything for each other, and that they loved each other no matter what. Perhaps they loved each other even more than before, because now they knew what it was like to live without each other. And Rayla knew that she never wanted to live without him again.