“Only one? But I have so many answers to give. Don’t you want to know what I know about Lir? Where he is and what he’s doing now? Or Donnally? Wouldn’t you like to know what kind of face he made as he murdered Fiveson Decker?”

Caledonia stepped forward, ignoring everything except the information she wanted in this moment. “Why did you come with us?”

Remi blinked, unable to mask her immediate surprise before her mouth returned to its sneer and she exhaled slowly. “Maybe I just wanted to see it all for myself.”

“The inside of a barrack? Cloudbreak? Me?”

“How it all ends.” This time Remi’s smile spread slowly, exquisitely across her wide mouth into the kind of expression that suggested Remi’s mind might never recover from decades of Silt.

“How what ends?” Caledonia regretted the question immediately.

Remi tipped her head back, sighing sweetly as she said, “You, of course. And him. And the two of you and the whole salt-sick world.”

There was nothing more Caledonia could learn from this woman.

Yet, as Caledonia left the room, she felt a pinch of remorse for Remi. And foreboding for herself, too. Though on opposite sides, whatever end was coming for them all, it would be neither pleasant nor glorious.

CHAPTER TEN

Caledonia’s chambers were one level below the observatory, a suite with one window in a curved wall overlooking the cliffs. The bedroom itself was larger than anything she’d ever had on a ship, with space for a mattress of dense foam that resisted the chill of the stone beneath.

Tossing her jacket on the foot of the bed, she lit the trio of candles on her low end table and went to scrub her face of the day’s grime in her private bathing chamber.

A knock sounded at her door. Three firm raps of a knuckle told her who was behind it.

“Come in,” she called, dragging a towel over her cheeks.

Oran stepped inside, pushing the door closed behind him. He was freshly washed, and water clung to the ends of his black hair, making them shine in the dim light. A simple long-sleeved shirt stretched comfortably across his chest and shoulders in a warm shade of brown just darker than his skin. The ends of the shirt were untucked, draping low over pants that hugged his thighs.

Without a word, Oran took three slow steps in her direction. His eyes locked on hers and didn’t let go. Caledonia felt a knot in her stomach relax just as the beat of her heart sped up.

When he was only a few inches away, he paused.

Caledonia leaned forward and pressed her lips to his. Oran’s hands slid along her waist, thumbs efficiently freeing her shirt from her pants. The chill in her skin zipped over every part of her as he pulled her body against his, flattening warm palms against her bare back.