48. Zena

The next five months see us settle into a strange, comfortable routine. After only a night under their roof, I immediately commandeered Finn’s barn conversion for us. Much as I adore my parents, I don’t want to be in the same house as them.

That is not entirely due to my mate bond either. They still have an ever-burning adoration of each other that I can only hope Briss and I match in decades' time. I just don't need to hear it. Ever.

It appears Finn isn’t coming home anytime soon. He’s embedded into Shadowlands, no doubt a future legend in the making. So now Briss and I sleep in the huge double bed with its skylight to the stars. When Briss isn’t building boats, we take out my father’s smaller one. Refreshing my memory on the rigging, sails, and navigation.

On a night, we look at the maps together, sprawled out along the table in the downstairs half of the barn. Where the sea reaches the edges of the paper with no known landfall, I know those areas interest Briss the most.

The boat