The Stars Over Bittergate Bay

Chapter 50

50

T he sky was heavy with clouds, and the fog had lifted just enough to create a shroud over the water. Sidney leaned against Jonas in the wheelhouse, and Jonas tried not to be too obvious about how much he was enjoying Sidney’s warmth. It was cold on the water, and the little heater on the navigation panel whirred away, as Jonas sipped his coffee.

“Alright,” Sidney sighed, dropping his arm around Jonas’s shoulders along the back of the chair. “What are we looking for exactly?” Jonas smiled.

“The thin space on Clement’s Island leads to a demonic realm called the Abyssal Plane?—”

“The Abyssal Plane? Where Peregrine the Traveler came from?”

“How do you know that?” Jonas asked, his hand lifting to his ribs, where Peregrine’s constellation was inked into his skin. His favorite. Seeing Sidney’s notes about those stars might have changed the course of both their lives forever. Still, Jonas had a hard time believing that Sidney would take any particular interest.

“You left me that book, Parables of the Stars .”

“Mostly as a joke. Those are ancient stories, rewritten for children.”

“Nothing you’ve just said means they're unimportant.” Sidney reached across, his hand resting on Jonas’s above Jonas’s ribs. Above his tattoo. Jonas swallowed down a sharp knot, rising in his throat. How had he almost let himself lose this man? “So,” Sidney prompted gently. “A portal to the Abyssal Plane?” Jonas brushed Sidney’s fingers with his thumb.

“It’s one of the only places, outside of volcanic fumaroles, where you can acquire salichite. It’s an alchemical sulfate that I’ll need to bind Delilah to something new. And technically speaking?—”

“Of course.”

“—the Abyssal Plane is largely volcanic, so it’s just a matter of luck and timing. If something has erupted recently there, it might push some salichite through. Otherwise, I’ll have to buy it.”

“At an alchemist’s,” Sidney said. “Which will be…”

“If they have any, it’ll cost a fortune, which I don’t want to spend because I might be moving soon.” Sidney hummed, frowning as he nodded.

“I am sorry about that, by the way. Again.”

“It’s alright.” And it was alright. Jonas would miss the cottage. But there was something about the prospect of change that was thrilling to him now. Jonas wrapped an arm around Sidney’s waist and tugged him onto the seat, scooting himself halfway off the worn leather to make room. “It’ll be good for me. A change of scenery.” Sidney chuckled.

“That’s what Karolina said.”

When Sidney leaned against Jonas, something in Jonas’s chest loosened, and he exhaled. He’d expected things between Sidney and himself to feel tense. Or even tenuous, but instead, just like when Sidney first arrived at the cottage, Sidney slotted into Jonas’s life so easily; it was like this was an old habit of theirs. As though they were always traipsing off together, looking for something esoteric and largely unfindable. Maybe they could spend half their days researching, the other half exploring. It sounded wonderful and, more importantly, it felt like it could be real.

Jonas examined Sidney’s face in profile. He watched the way Sidney’s eyes flitted across the navigation console and then up and out over the miles of softly rolling waves. There was no coastline in any direction. Just the clouds threatening rain, and the grey rolling waves with leagues of darkness beneath.

They were close enough that Jonas could smell the soft, clean scent of Sidney’s skin, and he kissed Sidney briefly, just below the corner of Sidney’s jaw. Sidney smiled.

“What are you thinking?” Jonas asked quietly, because he couldn’t begin to guess and because he’d never sat with Sidney in silence for so long before. Sidney cocked his head to the side, his gaze still out the window, exposing the tempting line of his neck, and the base of his throat and where the collar of his sweater draped open. He glanced over at Jonas, a smile curling up one corner of his mouth. Jonas chuckled and shook his head.

“I’m thinking, and maybe it’s strange,” Sidney mused. “But I was just thinking how nice this is. I’m excited, of course. But this feels easy, I suppose. Like it's where I ought to be.”

Jonas let himself kiss Sidney’s neck again. After that little speech, how could he do anything else? Sidney made a soft, pleased sound.

“I’ve never taken anyone with me before,” Jonas confessed.

“Not even Asterion?”

“No,” Jonas laughed. “If it’s not an eighty-foot yacht in ninety degree weather, Asterion won’t go near a boat.”

“You’ve been going out alone all this time?” Jonas hummed his confirmation and Sidney gave a disapproving huff before pressing a kiss to Jonas’s temple. “Not anymore.”

The rain started as they arrived at the narrow dock that jutted out from the lowest edge of Clement’s Island. To Sidney, it looked as though someone had scooped up the forest from behind Elmmond House and placed it on the water, cliffs rising up beyond the trees to the edge of the sky. Jonas tied off the boat, explaining that there were only a few inhabitants of the island, and he suspected that most of them would have come to the mainland for the Ascension.

“Pierre and Magda run the lighthouse,” Jonas said, pointing up to where a tall lighthouse perched on the cliffside in the distance. “Magda’s fae. Beautiful wings. But the last time I saw her she was pregnant, so I imagine they’ll be traveling back through to have their baby.”

“Who’ll run the lighthouse in the meantime?” Sidney hoisted his rucksack onto his shoulder.

“Oh, Pierre’s a sorcerer. He’s got some kind of enchantment on it, I’m sure.” Jonas offered Sidney a hand, and Sidney stepped up off the boat and onto the dock.

“We’ll head toward the lighthouse first, and then down into the caldera. Hopefully we won’t have to go far. Keep an eye out for any little outcroppings. Exposed rocks. Anything that looks out of place.”

That was when the thunder started.

The narrow dirt path up from the water felt treacherous with the threat of rain. The overgrowth was dense in some places, run through recently with thin tire tracks, dirt and rocks split by a wagon or something like it.

The breeze picked up, the rumbling of the waves fading as they moved higher. They were almost halfway up the hill when the rain began. Just a drizzle at first.

“Did you ever think about moving here?” Sidney asked.

“What, to the caldera?” Jonas asked, glancing back over his shoulder at Sidney. Sidney nodded. “I’m not sure I would have been able to stick it out. At least with Hindry close by, I wasn’t alone when I was alone.” He paused for a moment, his step faltering before he continued on. “I know that’s nonsense?—”

“No, I understand,” Sidney said, thinking of how he’d hidden himself in among the twenty-three residents of Kilton House. “Alone doesn’t feel the same when you can convince yourself it’s a choice. When you have an option to escape it, even if it’s only for a little while.” Jonas nodded and pushed his windswept hair back between his horns, turning toward the bay, frowning at the oncoming storm. Sidney took two steps to come alongside him, slipping slightly as a cluster of pebbles gave way under the toe of his boot. Jonas reached down and caught him by the wrist.

“You shouldn’t have been doing this by yourself,” Sidney grumbled as he braced himself against Jonas’s arms. Jonas chuckled.

“It’s not that steep. You just don’t have the right shoes for it.”

“These are the only shoes I have.”

“We’ll have to buy you new ones,” Jonas said. Sidney rolled his eyes, despite his grin.

“I suppose I’ll need them, if we’re going to be making a habit of these sort of trips.”

“You don’t have to come with me,” Jonas said quickly. Sidney shook his head.

“I like it,” Sidney said. Jonas arched an eyebrow and Sidney elbowed him. “I do. But you have to remember, my practical research has primarily been walking down to the beach and kissing merfolk.” Jonas snorted.

“You do have a unique method for gathering evidence,” Jonas said. Sidney winked at him, and then grinned as the cherry red flush returned to Jonas’s cheeks.

“You’ll have to teach me better ones.”

“Stop kissing strange creatures.”

“I think you’ve said that to me before.”

“And I’m fairly certain you didn’t listen.” Jonas arched an eyebrow and Sidney laughed and kissed him. Jonas’s grip on Sidney tightened just so, and Sidney pulled him closer. ‘Alone’ was a distant thing, fading away with every passing minute, and Sidney was amazed and relieved to feel it go.

By the time they reached the lighthouse, the sky had opened up. More than once, Jonas was afraid he was about to lose Sidney to a jutting root or a particularly slick patch of wet leaves. Good hiking boots marched their way right to the top of Jonas’s shopping list as he grabbed Sidney’s hand again, and pulled him up the washed out path.

“Do you think we can get in?” Sidney shouted to be heard over the rain, his head tilted up to look at the towering stone building.

“We can try.” The odds were bad, but Jonas wasn’t about to let Sidney get any more soaked than he already was, and attempting to go back to the boat was the surest way for one of them to break a leg. Jonas wasn’t inclined to let Sidney sustain any further injuries, so they made their way carefully, tripping in the mud, through the short white gate, and up to the front door of the lighthouse.

They crowded together beneath the narrow overhang above the door. Jonas wiped drips off the tips of his horns as Sidney glanced around and then rang the bell. There was, predictably, no response.

“Think we can wait it out here?” Jonas stuck one hand back out into the rain and Sidney rolled his eyes.

“Just stand on the doormat for the next what? Six, eight hours?”

“It won’t be that bad.”

“I want to move somewhere with fewer rainstorms,” Sidney sighed, resting his shoulder against the door. Jonas smirked.

“Fine with me.” Sidney smiled and closed his eyes, dragging a wet hand across his forehead, pushing his hair back from his face. “Where would you like to go?” Jonas asked. Sidney sighed and opened his eyes, mouth slanted in an appealing smirk.

“Where would you like to go?”

Jonas thought about it for the first time in his life. It had taken years for the cottage to become his home. It had felt like a cage first, but that had only been fear and loneliness, twining themselves together, stronger than any wall. Because of Morrow’s interference, home would have to shift again. Again. But with Sidney beside him, that seemed like a much more manageable thing.

“Maybe the desert. Clear night skies, at least.”

“True. I like being near the water though. I’d miss the boat.”

“I thought you weren’t a fan of swimming.”

“I’m not sure I am,” Sidney laughed. “But being in the boat isn’t the same as swimming.”

“True,” Jonas agreed, unreasonably pleased by this simple admission. He was rather partial to the boat himself.

“I don’t mind the cold either.” Sidney stepped closer to Jonas, and Jonas smirked.

“I’ve learned that about you,” Jonas said. “Trying to freeze to death is a forte of yours.”

“I don’t have to worry about it anymore.”

“No? Why’s that?”

“You’ll keep me warm,” Sidney said, before tugging Jonas down into a kiss. Jonas would keep Sidney warm, that was true. And safe and fed. And anything else that Sidney could ever want or need.

Sidney slid his fingers into the back of Jonas’s hair. He was pressed against Jonas from knees to chest, and there was something incredible and miraculous about the feeling of Sidney against him. Sidney’s warmth and energy made Jonas forget all about the cold, and about how they were stuck in the rain and how their quest for the salichite would be delayed another few hours.

Truthfully, the storm could have ceased, the sun arrived, and Jonas would have been none the wiser. Every moment with Sidney was perfect weather, blue skies and a soft breeze. And he wouldn’t give it up for anything in the world. Maybe he would just buy the salichite after all.

Sidney lowered himself slowly, glancing down into the space between their bodies, his cheeks beautifully flushed. Then his brow furrowed and he lifted a hand, pushing Jonas back a step, into the rain.

“What—”

“The mat.” Sidney crouched down and yanked up the doormat to reveal a silver key laying on the stoop.