Corvus (Stars and Sails, Book 1)

Fourteen

It hadn't rained in Aydesreve for four years. It was dry and hot during the day, but at night, Aydesreve was a different world. The mist would trickle down to the cold earth. The birds would hunt. The scorpions would dance together and go to war with thick claws and virulent tails. Nighttime in Aydesreve was a life dance. The mist settled in odd pockets of life around trees and cacti. The night winds swelled. Everything became purple.

There were those strange days when the moon looked over the waking world in the oddest familiarity. There was always something that lasted longer about those days. Their memories seemed to last on Aiden's tongue, bitter and fragrant like loose tea leaves. Most days, however, were merely filler.

Amelia Rose lived in a double-story log cabin. Mr. Wagner had built the family home himself with several different woods that came together like patchwork. Next to the home was a yellowing mesquite tree in a garden of weeds. Amelia Rose walked over to the tree and hid under the branches. Aiden stepped into the shade with her.

"I'm afraid we're in this together. I'll make sure that nothing happens to you," she promised.

"I don't need that," he said. She tilted her head to the side and leaned back against the tree. The mist coiled around her.

"All right," she whispered, lifting her eyebrows. It was only a gesture. She didn't mean it at all. She'd help him whether he liked it or not.

A toad began to croak from somewhere nearby. It was incessant. Amelia Rose turned around and lifted her foot into a knot in the mesquite. She tugged herself upwards. Her hair was still wet and dripping down her back. It caught the light of the stars when she pulled herself up. Her white dress tugged at the bark, but she kept going. She stopped halfway up and cradled herself between two diverging limbs. "What is your name?" she asked.

"Is it that important to know?"

"If I don't know your name, then what kind of friend would I be?"

"Friend?" Aiden stepped back. He narrowed his eyebrows and looked up at Amelia Rose sat up high in the tree. Even after staying awake half the night, with ocean water and stars all aknot in her hair, she still looked gorgeous, like something out of a dream. But it was also a pretty safe rule of thumb not to make friends with people who remind you of the worst mistake of your life.

"Yes, aren't we—shouldn't we be friends? We've gone through all of this together." But then again, Aiden made a lot of mistakes. Who cares if he made another one? A tiny one?

"I guess so," he said.

Amelia Rose dropped out of the mesquite tree. She raised one eyebrow. "Wonderful. I've been wanting so badly a friend." The toad started to croak again. Amelia Rose tucked a hand over her shoulder. He noticed her fingers weren't shaking anymore as she smoothed her shoulder seam.

"My name is Aiden Magnus Payne," he said. "Aiden is good."

She nodded and turned around to scale the tree, but she stopped herself. She looked at his eyes for a moment. A light wind trilled throughout the Aydesrevean valley. It tugged sheer curtains of sand all across the expanse as if they were operated on a string. "Aiden," she said. "Listen to me."

"I am."

"We've all got to have someone to trust," she said. "We've got to have each other then, if we haven't anybody else."

He wanted to say yes as he watched her head bob up and down, but he couldn't get the words up. "No. People will talk about you. You can't be seen with the likes of me."She dropped back down from the tree.