For Darkness Shows the Stars

captains shared. She supposed it was the result of their training, or the months they spent steering their ships. Perhaps they got used to perfect control, like the movements of a musician or a surgeon. Beside them, though, the old admiral seemed almost clumsy.
    Elliot and Felicia were almost upon them, when from within the warehouse there was a deafening crash. The walls of the building shook and the ground shuddered beneath them. The horses reared and Elliot clung tight to Pyrois’s neck, hoping to keep her seat. The horse bucked beneath her, and for a moment all was topsy-turvy and the air was rent with horsey screams. Elliot squeezed her eyes shut as her grip gave way, and she braced herself for the fall.
    But it never came. She felt her hand sweep the sand, heard hooves hit the ground close to her head, and then two arms clamped around her waist and she was placed on her feet.
    “You’re all right.” Kai’s voice in her ear, very close.
    He’d touched her. He’d touched her . Her skin buzzed like a wire, and her chest and face grew warm. She brushed her hair from her eyes, but he’d already let go, snapping away with that same unnerving precision, marking the space between them as if with a ruler. She took an unsteady step toward him, and his hand shot out again to bolster her by the elbow, and to halt her approach.
    “Careful.”
    She blinked, willing herself not to reach for him like roots after water.
    Beyond, the admiral had caught hold of Pyrois’s reins and was soothing him, while Donovan was even now rushing into the building halfway across the beach. Everything must have happened in a second or two. But how? Surely Kai had been too far away to catch her in midair. He was always fast, but still . . .
    Felicia remained on her horse, and watched Elliot and Kai with a concerned look on her face.
    “Can you stand on your own?” Kai asked her now.
    She nodded and he instantly left her side and headed into the shipyard warehouse. The admiral had somehow already tied up Pyrois and gone into the building. Felicia dismounted, led her horse over to the hitching post, and gestured to Elliot to join her on the bench.
    “Please sit, Elliot. That was a nasty fall.”
    No, but it would have been had Kai not been there to catch her. How had he reached her in time? Had he been watching her much more closely than he’d let on?
    “What happened inside?” she asked instead. “Is anyone hurt?”
    As if on cue, Kai appeared at the doorway. “One of the hulls broke free from its suspension,” he announced. “No one was injured, but we’ve lost several days’ work.”
    Felicia shook her head. “What a shame.”
    “All things considered, the admiral thinks it best if we cancel our plans for the evening. We’ll probably work through the night.”
    Through the night? “You must have a hundred sun-lamps!” Elliot exclaimed. Otherwise how in the world would they be able to work in that dark warehouse?
    Neither Post replied at first. “Yes,” said Felicia at last. “And speaking of, I’ll send someone to fetch a sun-cart to take Miss Elliot home. I doubt she wants to try the horses again so soon, especially if she’s to lead the extra.”
    Elliot folded her hands in her lap as Felicia entered the building. She figured Kai would follow, but he remained still, standing over her like a guard. His shadow fell across her lap, and she traced its edges with her hands. The places he’d touched her—her torso, her chest, her elbow—still tingled. His words still echoed in her ears. He hadn’t spoken to her directly since that night in the barn. She soaked up every syllable like it was rain on parched soil.
    You’re all right.
    Careful.
    Can you stand on your own?
    They were as clear to her in her mind as the words he spoke now. “Are you recovered?”
    She looked up, but his face remained turned toward the sea. “I’m better, thank you.”
    “If you are, then it’s best you try walking home, rather than wasting someone from the Fleet’s time by making them chauffeur you back.”
    These words broke something inside her. Perhaps it was his touch, perhaps it was the fact that they were alone again, perhaps it was the way Felicia Innovation had spoken to her, like she at least wanted to be friends, or maybe it was the weeks she’d wasted hiding from these Posts because she was afraid of this very moment. But whatever it was, Elliot could not prevent the burst of laughter that escaped her lips.
    Kai