Page 44 of Ballad of Sea and Sky

He had passed out again.

I rolled my eyes. So much for the big, bad Siren King.

I looked around, unable to make out any surrounding islands through the fog which still lay thick upon the sea. We couldn’t stay here in the surf. Cas would need to have his wings set, and we would need shelter until we figured out a way to get off the island.

The thought struck me that I could leave him. He had told me to leave him, after all. More than once.

But my lungs hurt and I was exhausted. It was safer to stay for now. It had nothing to do with the fact that I was worried about him, or that his people intrigued me. Or that I had already decided to stay when I had refused to go with Astraios.

Water. Water was our most pressing need. I licked my lips, dry after only a single night without.

My magic was weak and spent, but I focused on the fog, pulling a thin trickle of water into my cupped palms and sucking it down greedily. I repeated the magic, this time dribbling the water over Caspian’s lips. It wasn’t much, but it would stave off dehydration for a little longer.

“I’m going to go look around,” I croaked, uncertain if he could actually hear me. His eyelids fluttered, but didn’t open, his chest rising and falling steadily, but still shallowly. I had the intense urge to kiss him again, but I resisted, pressing my lips gently to his forehead instead. I didn’t know why I felt the need to do it, but part of me was terrified that if I left him, he would be gone when I returned. “Try not to die.”

I wasn’t sure exactly what I was looking for, but I willed my legs back into being and stood shakily, realizing I was wholly nude. Nudity didn’t bother me usually, but I also wasn’t usually stranded on a beach with an extremely attractive and unconscious male while nude.

Regardless, I would need something. It was cold, and unlikely that it would become much warmer, especially when night fell. If we were in the southern Silent Isles—which I guessed that we were based on the rocky outcroppings and scraggly evergreens of the small island—then warm weather was long past.

Water, food, and a place to rest. Maybe light a fire, although only the seas knew how. I stumbled along the rocky shore, the sharp edges of stones and shells cutting into my feet uncomfortably. Shoes too, then, or else risk damaging my feet beyond even my fae healing’s capacity to manage.

Between us we had only Caspian’s trousers. Unless he had a dagger hidden somewhere on his person, a very sharp rock would also be a useful discovery.

I wandered for what felt like at least an hour, testing the sharpness of various rocks and shells until I found a broken abalone that seemed sharp enough to do some damage. The discovery was made by stepping on it, which was less than ideal and resulted in a lot of cursing and blood, but at least we wouldn’t be totally helpless. I also gathered some sturdy pieces of dried kelp and some flat pieces of driftwood, thinking Caspian might need his wings and ribs splinted. Maybe they could be made into sandals if not.

My greatest discovery was a washed up sail, which was grimy and worn and smelled briny and unpleasant, but it could be cut into strips for bandages or clothing. I gathered as much of the material up as I could, fashioning it into a pack to hold the rest of my treasures and slicing it free with the abalone shell.

There was a little area of tidepools with a rocky inlet and a cave that seemed to be empty and mostly sheltered from the wind. It would be cramped at high tide, but it should be large enough for both of us and a small fire, and the ground was soft and sandy compared to the mostly rocky coastline.

It felt like it took twice as long to get back to Caspian as it had to reach the cave, especially as I was laden with my scavengings. I blew out a sigh of relief when I saw him both where I had left him and awake, although seemingly unable to stand.

“Urchin,” he croaked, his eyes glassy with pain. “You’re naked.”

“That’s hardly the most important problem we have,” I said dryly, dropping my bundle of driftwood and kelp and pulling more moisture from the air. I drank first, then crouched and held my palms to Caspian’s mouth. He lifted his head slightly to drink and swallowed greedily, spluttering a bit as he drank too fast. I wondered if he would bring up the kiss, but he dropped his head back down with a groan, clenching his jaw tightly.

“My wings are broken,” he gritted out. “And my ribs.”

“I know,” I said, retrieving my broken shell and laying out the driftwood and kelp. “Can you sit up? I’ll need to splint them.”

He tried, pushing himself up barely an inch before his face took on a sickly shade of green and he fell back down, shaking his head as a fine sheen of sweat broke out across his forehead.

“All right,” I said, trying to remain calm. Panicking wouldn’t help us, and I would need to move Caspian at some point. “Can you roll over instead?”

Caspian groaned, rolling with a stifled moan of agony until he was face first in the sand, his beautiful wings a crumpled mess behind him.

“Seas below,” I said, feeling the blood drain from my face as I took in the mess. I didn’t know how he would ever fly again, with his wings twisted at such odd angles, but I didn’t verbalize that as I tried to strategize.

“You need to set the bones,” Caspian gritted out. “If they heal like this, I’ll never fly again.”

“Okay,” I said, swallowing down my nausea and trying to focus on the task ahead of me. I would just have to pretend these wings weren’t attached to the infuriating and alluring Siren King, about whom I found myself curiously concerned.

“I can walk you through it,” he hissed through clenched teeth. “But…it won’t…be fun.”

These last words were stilted, as if Caspian thought I might faint at the mere idea of such an unpleasant task. I certainly wasn’t thrilled about it, but I could do it.

Ihadto do it.

“Right,” I said, trying to adopt a businesslike tone. Lack of sleep and overuse of magic and dehydration were all starting to catch up to me, but I focused on the feeling of adrenaline pulsing through me instead as I regarded his mangled back.