Chapter 25
J A N E
“ W hat are you doing in here? They’ll be here any moment,” I say through tight lips, glaring at the witch. My gaze shifts to the door, expecting the outside men to come barreling inside at any moment.
“Don’t worry about them. They won’t be aware of this meeting occurring. I’m sure you can guess why I’m here?”
My heart races, a sinking sensation pulling down on my stomach. It’s more than obvious why she’s here, but it also makes my blood fiercely pound through my veins. Everything has been good . My father is weirdly distant, but I feel peace now, like there’s a real closure there. My heart burns for Soren in ways I didn’t know it could. Bones is actually kind of funny, and Anya doesn’t seem to hate me.
Things were looking up .
“I’m sure,” I say, my soul saddened. So much can go so wrong with whatever she has planned. If she’s here, then she suspects Misery is near, I bet. Or else why protect me, now?
A vigorous gust sweeps through the open window, fluttering the fabric of the hammocks and gently moving strands of my hair. The room actually darkens as Cypress’s obsidian irises alter into shining black voids for eyes.
Once, that would have affected me greatly. It even did, back in the Undercroft.
The show has very little influence on me now, just wanting to get this over with.
Facing the witch, her eyes are already boring into me. “Well? Are you here to put something in my skin?”
Silence.
I glare at Cypress, and something hits me in the chest that tells me she will do whatever she wants, whether I like it or not. “Does it matter that we have a plan now?” I ask.
She tilts her head. “What kind of plan?”
I swallow thickly, rubbing my face as I say, “Shade, a gladiator from Skull’s Row, was working for Misery. We interrogated him on Tempest’s ship. He told us what Misery wants.” I point at her. “Did you know he was after my skin? The magic in my veins? Oh, and they want to breed me. So that’s fun.”
The smallest smile tugs at her lips. “There is something special in your veins, my dear Jane. And don’t worry about the latter; that will not happen. I do not foresee it in any of my visions.”
“Well, still, I don’t want to risk my skin getting used. Shade said Misery is growing really weak, and will need to go back to his lands soon. So we’re just going to wait him out.”
The small smile slowly unfurls into a larger one. “You cannot wait Misery out. What will happen is he will grow more tenacious and risky. Which means lives , Jane. Blackwell originally sending Soren for you was Misery’s first attempt to have you. He did not take you then and there because it would have been hard to leave the harbor without many following. In numbers, Misery does not have strength. Not in the Balar Coasts. Not in his current state.
“Misery was planning to attack Rosmertta’s, because he was running out of time. And now that you wasted two more weeks on that ship, he is willing to use what remaining influence he has to take you in whatever way deems necessary.” She raises a brow. “The remaining power he has can wipe out everyone at this camp before they know it.”
“He’d have to get here first.”
Anything recognizable as human is gone from her face. “He already is.”
My head juts out slightly, a hand rising to my chest as if I felt her steal the air from my lungs. “He what ?”
“As I said, he will use everything he has right now. You do not want him to be able to read your heart or soul if he’s near you. Silence will be your greatest shield.”
A sickening sensation twists my heart at realizing how deep this failure is. “How did he get here? How does Tempest not sense him?”
“If I had to guess, he’s draining his followers until their life is gone. It’s potent, but taxing. He will need significant rest after this. I only know he’s here because I’m keeping the closest eye on him.”
“He can’t sense you?”
“I’m using my own sacrifices to ensure that’s true,” she grimly replies.
That bleak reality momentarily settles on me, truly hearing what she just meant. “What if I refuse?”
“Then I will do this to you while you’re unconscious.”Her abject gaze holds no space for any remorse.
“We seriously can’t try to outrun him?” I cannot believe I bought into that plan with such confidence, only for it to turn to smoke.
“Not when he is already here.”
“No—I just… It doesn’t feel right just letting you do this. This isn’t right. None of it is.”
I want to yell. What if I screamed as loudly as possible? Would it be worth it? Could Soren hear me, then? Anyone, other than Cypress?
I don’t fully hear her when she says Misery is here . Honestly, it sounds like a fucking lie to me. Sure, if he showed up on that shoreline outside my window, I might tell her just get it done with because I’ll take anything I can get to fight him.
Soren . There’s regret now, in not telling him. And yet my mind screams it wouldn’t have made a difference. How can they stop Cypress?
I’m about to bolt for the door, the trust issues returning as all I know is I’m being used .
Moving my knees to lift my feet—they’re stuck.
What the?—
Shit.
Rubies climb up my legs through the floor, stopping at my calves, bolting me to the shanty.
My racing heart mixes with my panting breath, glancing between her and the door. “You’re offering me to him, aren’t you?” I ask with more panic than I’d like in my voice, nearly falling over when my balance is off, but I can’t move my feet to counter.
“Jane, if you're in an alley that only has two exits with no other way to escape... and at one end lies your freedom, while the other containsyour mother's killer before he reaches your home all those years ago, which would you choose?”
All movements cease and my breathing becomes shallow as I glare at her. “Don’t use my family like this.”
She nods. “I’ll answer for you. You’d choose the killer, to stop him from getting to your mother.” She holds up a hand when she senses my protest. “I truly do admit that these circumstances are different. They are much more akin to you seeing your mother’s killer and having no idea what he is about to do. You’d choose freedom without question, as any sane person would.”
Out of everything she’s said so far, this holds my attention the most.
Cypress rises to her feet, mine still stuck in gemstones. “I am going to go ahead and perform this act, seeing as how I do not believe you will trust me to be honest—and no need for guilt for not sharing this, as I asked. You know why you didn’t, and it’s not because you’re being a hero.” She walks to my backside, my jaw trembling from how anxious I am. “Your father made the exact same deal to save your life. If it makes you feel any better, if you had told any of them the truth, I would have removed you from them immediately.”
She pushes my head down, my body shaking when that barrier between us is broken. Her power behind me, even if it’s unseen, is almost as palpable as being drowned in mist.
“I’m aware Soren didn’t press you further, either. Do you think that wasn’t for a reason?”
“He said he didn’t feel like he should, and… I dropped it after that. He left it up to me.” I’m about to become incensed if this turns out to have been a poor decision.
“Because the fates told him not to, through his powers. His moment of action is not yet to come, and to know would have ruined what he will do. The actions he will take that will benefit us all the most.”
Soren… she’s using him, too.
She prods at my hairline at the nape of my neck, and holy shit do I just want this over with. “I will numb what I can, but I am putting a ruby directly underneath your skin. You will then reach back and heal it. It will block the ability for anyone to sense you, and will kill you if removed—” she places a hand on my head to keep me from rising, the back of my thighs straining with how I’m holding myself up at this slight lean “—which has a purpose of preventing Morvock from doing so himself.”
“Did—did you just say it would kill me? Why couldn’t you share those details before hand! ”
Ignoring me, she places something cold on my skin. I feel the slicing of flesh, my shoulders tensing as my mouth opens in a silent scream; I’m more terrified of the unknown than the pain. The slight numbness has the unsettling feeling of frostbitten metal in winter. It’s when she shoves something under my skin that the pain is so unnerving I want to vomit, the sensation beyond violating as the foreign object presses on nerves that radiate all through my shoulders. I can’t help it when I jerk away, to which she doesn’t stop me, because, well, I don’t have anywhere to go.
“You can heal it now.”
Well… do I feel anything? Any sense of mind control from Cypress? A warm wetness at the back of my neck tells me I need to heal my wound.
Cypress grins with utter triumph. “I can’t feel you at all.”
The rubies rescind down into the floor like spores withering away, and I stumble over until I catch myself on the table, my palm slamming into the edge. Reaching back, my fingertips graze against a lump under my skin, to which I swiftly pull my hand away, disturbed by the sensation. “What do you mean you can’t feel it? It’s your magic! Did something go wrong?”
“I have been working on that stone in particular for over five years now. I wanted it so strong that even I couldn’t sense it.”
My stomach drops, not ready to heal the skin and sew it in. “You can get it out, right?”
“Yes, of course. I would guard that spot with your life, though. There’s no question that if another tries to do so, you will instantly die, like taking your heart from your ribs. The process to harvest your skin will require your heart still beating, right up until you drink a potion that keeps your skin fresh for an entire cycling of the sun and moon… but he can’t use that until you are in his lands, and they’re currently unreachable until the next solar eclipse, which happens to be three weeks from now.”
I hold my hands out, my left one bloodied. “That is incredibly relevant information. You seriously didn’t fucking tell us that before now ?”
Her words of warning lodge into my brain, and even then, I can’t quite comprehend them. That if I were to give myself to Misery and do nothing , that he’d actually use me and my body to create a really fucked up re-birth. It’s almost like being afraid of sharks but still on land—the threat is so far away that it’s negligible. Hearing it from Shade was unnerving, but having her confirm it brings a new reality to it.
I really do have to fight a god .
“Heal your neck, Jane.”
I feel gross. Like I let her do something to me that I’m embarrassed to admit, and the thought of sealing it in myself is almost too much.
“ Jane ,” she presses, her thin brow perching.
“What if you can’t get it out?”
“Does it matter? Are you willing to risk the lives of those you love over that stone?”
Fucking bitch. I bet she can’t get it out. I bet, after all of this, I’ll be stuck like this, because why would she care? As long as her god gets what he wants, why would she?
Too late now.
Probably better to heal it rather than risk it falling out and killing me—what a stupid death that would be. I place my hand on the back of my neck with such aggression I nearly smack myself, sending healing energy into the wound while closing my eyes.
My hand flops down to my side once the deed is done, and I sigh. “Can you at least tell me why he wants me ? Shade said there was a reason. There’s something about me . Even you said there’s something in my blood.”
Her eyes look comforting, but in a way that only makes me feel worse about myself. It’s like the act is very foreign and uncomfortable for her. “You will find out in due time. I promise, for what it’s worth, that this is all to help you. The less he can feel you, the more freedom you’ll have if you’re near him. The less you know, the more he can’t use your mind against you.” She inhales deeply and slowly looks out the window. “If I exposed the details of what I see is likely to happen, it would ruin your behavior too greatly. And that behavior, as I see it now, is what will allow you to survive.
“There is one thing I can tell you, though—” my gaze hones in on her, and I don’t even blink “—once he has you, as he is close , your goal from then on out is to free the sirens.”
My lips part, only for a sad exhale to leave them. “Is that code for something else?”
“I won’t say more. I can’t,” she says, shaking her head. “I know that’s frustrating. Right now, what I see for you is if I don’t reveal more, you will have the best chance to derail Misery so greatly that he will make severe mistakes. And freeing the sirens is like opening up a massive hole in the bottom of a ship in an open ocean—it will be only a matter of time before it sinks. Your role is to create that opening that will sink Misery and all of his plans, and no one else can do it but you.”
A glance at the entrance is like tempting a drowning man with fresh air. I want to bolt, so badly. What if she’s full of shit?
I hesitate to move… what if she’s not ?
“I struggle to believe you,” I say, looking at the floor. “Because I’m not an idiot, and I’m not driven by ego, Cypress. I know that it’s not right for me to be chosen.”
There’s a long pause from her, long enough that when I glance up, she truly seems deep in thought. “You are the only one, Jane, with skin that cannot burn and a magic that is useful. And Misery cannot kill you.” She shrugs, but it’s more out of pity than to mock me. “Mix that with your temperament, your motives, those that surround you… it’s a web of the fates that I cannot describe to someone who can’t see it.
“It’s time for me to go, though. You will have until this hourglass drops its last piece of sand before Soren will realize something is wrong, and he will immediately seek you out. If that happens, then he will become calamity in Misery’s wrath.” Onyx eyes connect with mine as she pulls out an hourglass as tall as my hand, made of gold. Her shoulders rise and fall with a sigh as she places it on the table, turning it over so the red stand starts to trickle down. “Yes… I think I will tell you this, too… Morvock is Soren’s god.”
My lips wordlessly part, my blinks slow. “He’s what ?”
“When gods exist, their powers can sometimes enter this realm. Oftentimes through us mortals that can use that god’s powers. Morvock has relinquished his true title as a god and would rather rule here as a god emperor. Sensors have an origin in something much darker than being an empath… the entire point of this, Jane, is that Morvock has the ability to completely break Soren without much effort, even if their connection is severely broken. Soren cannot be near him if you want him to live, and that’s why he could never know what’s about to happen. I couldn’t tell you earlier, because I bet he’d sense that within you.” The witch stands, some sympathy in her eyes. “What happens next is entirely up to you.”
The witch morphs, like scrunching up a blanket into a ball, except she’s a collection of feathers until a raven’s shape is clear, the bird taking flight out the open window.
My neck starts to hurt, like a deep scratch once the soreness sets in.
I immediately begin to feel wrong, as if I cheated on Soren, knowing if he barges in right now, he won’t be able to feel me, and that I know of his god. What will Soren do when he finds out what has happened here? It’s not like I can just let him open me up and read how my intentions are genuine. How I was afraid of what Cypress would do if others intervened, and how apparently, I can’t let him near me.
Perhaps, more than anything, my inaction stems from… well, maybe some part of me wanted this.
This is my revenge.
My father and Soren… they’re both important people no one crosses without watching their backs. I know damn well they’d do anything to have an advantage in a battle, no matter the cost to themselves, so why can’t I?
The red sand builds the smallest mound at the bottom.
Well, shit, where do I go? What do I do? Can I run to Soren and tell him everything? Can I possibly tell him of what I learned, and make him promise to just walk the fuck away? Tell him who his god is, and explain that that’s why he can’t be near me?
No, he would never allow that.
Nearing the window, all I see is a calm ocean, the sound of the waves so innocuous.
I glance back at the hourglass before surveying the shanty, everything eerily still , except for the small stream of sand. Tapping my hand on the wooden sill, I give a scoffed laugh. “Okay… so, uh, what now?”
My eyes shoot wide open when I think I hear something.
Sticking my head out the window, the faint hum in the air comes from the jungle nearby, when it’s now clear that what I hear is the sound of sirens singing in the distance…