The last time, they’d had no choice but to walk through the Ordas—that had been the most direct route they could find out of danger.
This time, they didn’t know where they were going in the Ordas, how to find Green Spring or the Goddess of the Hunt. They couldn’t begin to guess what they’d face with the Ordas. And once they found either the lost city or the goddess, how were they going to stop not one but two gods?
Sucking in a deep breath, Rayne pushed away from the door and straightened. He needed to get ahold of himself. A panicked advisor was of no use to his king.
He turned toward the stairs and climbed to the upper deck, blinking against the overwhelming darkness of the cave. The running lights on the boat barely pierced the thick blanket of gloom. Water lapped quietly at the hull and the motor rumbled, propelling them forward at a steady clip.
Eno was piloting the boat while Adrian was tinkering with the engine to make sure the damn thing remained running.
Caelan was easy to spot. The King of Erya sat on the deck with his legs crossed and his sword laying on his thighs, his posture like someone in the middle of deep meditation.
Caelan Talos was a god now.
Rayne couldn’t wrap his brain around the idea. What did that mean for Erya? He could continue as the king since no one but the five of them knew Caelan had died. As far as the rest of Thia was concerned, Caelan was alive and well. There was no reason he couldn’t be king, right?
But would he want to?
As a god, didn’t that mean he had a higher calling? What did gods do all day? Well, that was assuming they weren’t trapped in a godstone.
Fuck.
Was Caelan destined to be trapped in a godstone when it came time to stop Zyros and Lore? Were they heading to Green Spring only to lose their friend?
“Rayne.” Caelan’s soft voice rose high enough to reach his ears above the waves and the motor. “I can feel you worrying behind me. Come sit with me.”
Rayne almost snorted. “Is this one of your newest abilities?” He crossed to Caelan’s side and carefully lowered himself to the filthy deck, inwardly grateful that it was too dark for him to see exactly what he was sitting in.
Caelan chuckled. “This has nothing to do with any powers. I could feel you worrying even when I was a teenager. Particularly when you knew I’d sneaked out of the Towers with Drayce.”
“You and Drayce gave me plenty to worry about.” He glanced over to find that Caelan had placed both hands on his sword. His eyes were closed, and there was an expression of peaceful concentration on his face. A very un-Caelan-like expression.
“What is bothering you?”
Rayne clenched his teeth for a second to hold in his sigh. When he felt like he had a handle on his emotions, Rayne stiffly replied, “It is nothing I should trouble you over.”
Caelan made a noise in the back of his throat. His eyes flickered open, and he turned his head to regard Rayne with a skeptical look. “Is that because I’m your king or your god?”
Both were disturbing thoughts, and Rayne had no idea how to answer that question.
“Rayne Laurent, you have a fuckton to worry about.”
“So do you,” Rayne countered.
Caelan shocked him by smiling broadly. It was as if that grin pushed away some of the shadows on his face, and it caught Rayne off guard. “I do. How about you tell me what’s on your mind and I’ll tell you what’s on mine? Then we put both our brains to work on the problems. If we can solve one between the two of us, I’ll consider it a win.”
Rayne narrowed his eyes at Caelan and leaned closer. “How are you so calm? The Caelan I know is never this calm.”
His king smirked and bumped his forehead on Rayne’s. “I’m not.” He cackled briefly and leaned back. “But I’ve got way too much power running through me. When I lose control of my emotions, I also lose control of that power. And I never want to put those I love in danger because I’m not in control. I will fake being calm and peaceful if it means keeping you all safe. Now, what’s bothering you?”
Rayne’s lips parted almost against his will, and the first thing that came to mind sprang forth. “I have no idea how to serve a god.”
This time, Caelan didn’t laugh like Rayne had expected. The king nodded, his brow furrowing slightly as if he were giving Rayne’s words serious thought.
“I’m assuming you mean that as a replacement for your old job of serving the king.” Caelan paused and cocked his head to the side a little. “But you know that deep down it was never about serving the king. Your priority was always serving Erya. Helping the king was the most expedient way to get what you believed was best for Erya. And now to serve a god means trying to do what is best for all of Thia, right?”