Chapter 29
Quite a few hours earlier…
S O R E N
T he jungle is disorienting, not made better by the foliage cancelling out so much of the sunlight. It reminds me of being so far beneath the ocean’s surface that it’s hard to tell which direction is up. No jungle has ever felt like this.
Something is wrong.
It breaks me to consider I know why this is wrong, even if I’m trying to avoid it.
Misery .
He seriously fucking took her, and he left a magic to disorient me. There’s only one set of tracks, and I know Jane’s heart. She didn’t go to him because she wanted to. Something forced her hand.
The realization cuts unrelentingly deeper than any blade. Don’t use magic; it makes it worse . It’s nearly impossible to obey that concept. My soul screams to unleash everything I have, to scorch this jungle to ash if it means finding her.
Focusing on the foliage around with my eyes and ears, deadening the well of magic in my chest, it helps lower whatever effect is placed upon me here. It’s all made fucking worse since my mind is one thread away from spiraling; he has Jane.
My sister and Jane have both been taken from me.
I move in the direction that I can weed out as the right one, to where Jane was, my magic never truly turning off, which might also be why this forest is so oppressive.
Trying to emanate my magic once more, just to test my theory, that pressure around my ribs returns—I stop, my gaze burning in the direction where I know I need to go, before moving again while trying to deaden a part of me that’s never been quieted before. It’s like pushing against hurricane winds; even breathing is strenuous.
The moment my boots hit the grass of a clearing, the pressure around me is so unbearable my vision spins. I collapse to one knee, gasping as though the jungle itself is choking me.
I can see the dirt is disturbed, and more than by animals. My fingers eagerly dust away at twigs, footprints made by boots. With squinting eyes, I look around until I see—no.
There’s a long, auburn piece of hair. I pick it up; the length is right.
Jane.
The scream that rips out of my throat is primal, raw, and utterly devoid of restraint, echoing through the jungle, the sound entirely made up of rage .
They don’t know what they’ve done.
If Jane thought she wanted revenge, it’s nothing compared to what they’ve just unleashed in me.
Exiting the clearing was the only option I had, given I could barely stand, and I needed people searching now . Tempest needs to be made aware, too, because how did Misery make it here? We barely set foot on this island.
This whole place needs to be on guard. Every person examined for being a traitor.
Ritter stands there, along with many more, including Bones and Basilisk.Anya is missing—the piece of my mask tells me just as much, and yet I didn’t see any of her tracks, either.
“He took her,” I rasp, my voice hoarse. “I couldn’t do shit. The jungle affects my magic. Hard to focus. There’s a clearing; Jane’s hair was there. Many footprints. I don’t know how.”
Ritter doesn’t need more before he barks out to his people to follow in, his voice cutting through the air like a whip. Donna yells out at the rest to follow her as Ritter leans in before departing, “There’s a note. Left it in the shanty.”
I focus on nothing else, even moving through my people without addressing them as I near the shanty where I left Jane, the absolute void of the place making me want to rip the hearts out of anyone who aided in this. I shove the door open to scan the area for a note. Normally, I’d have felt that there was something waiting for me.
Even that’s gone.
There’s a piece of parchment with a scrawled note made with the hurried lines of someone who didn’t have time, next to her dagger— fuck .
‘What happens if I lose it? ’
I immediately pick it up, denting the sides of the map she wrote on.
Soren,
Perhaps some will see this as reckless. Cypress has given me a task, and it’s one that I was not allowed to share with you. Your involvement— or any of the others— would have lead to death and I could not risk it.
I don’t know where they’re taking me. Only that I can hear the siren’s song deep within the jungle and that it will lead me straight to them.
Which means they’re here.
So, I will go.
You should know that she put a ruby under my skin, right at my neck. It will prevent anyone from reading me, including Misery. Including you. I didn’t have a choice in the matter.
If something happens to me, just know that I, too, now have someone to think about in this suffering. Thank you for that gift.
With more love than I can describe,
Jane
With more love…
The weight of that statement, beautifully unbearable, crashes into me.
A sound escapes me—a low, guttural growl of pain and fury, the kind of noise that tears out of a man when the world has ripped away what matters most.
My breathing morphs into panting, my body full of so much energy and yet nowhere for it to go. “I’ll find you,” I whisper, staring at her name, my voice breaking, barely more than a rasp. “I swear to all the fucking sirens in the ocean, I’ll find you, Jane.”
The tears threatening to spill are held back by sheer force of will, and my eyes burn with something far fiercer than grief.
Whoever took her will suffer a reckoning so complete they’ll wish they’d never been born. Even if that means I have to find a way to ruin a god himself.
I will do it.
I’ll even give Cypress whatever the fuck she wants. I’d do whatever task she had given Jane, and I’d even hold back on the bitching.
Jane is being used. Cypress put a fucking ruby in her skin.
Peering out the open window, now assuming she climbed out here, I lift my gaze to the ocean. That’s all that separates me from the Order of Ash.It has to be where they’re going; it’s where I can feel Anya’s very faint pulse of life.
I reach at my side, touching my mask before lifting it off of my hip to examine it. The chipped away pieces are still there, and for a moment, absolutely nothing exists inside of me; no fear, no love, no emotion, no rage. I simply exist, staring at a mask I earned through blood. Others’ blood.
Only allowing clarity to guide my mind, my sole purpose is to unwind what happened, and figure out how to best proceed.
Lifting my gaze and staring out at the ocean, I put on my mask, the clay morphing until it’s like a second skin. Immediately, I can feel Bones out there, and somewhere, in the distance, I can feel Anya, too. She’s faint, though. More like remnants of her essence rather than her .
Jane isn’t anywhere.
I’d behead a thousand men for her, if she asked.
I have a feeling I’ll have to, no matter what.
It’s not clear to me how long I’m there before I sense Basilisk’s presence, the man entering the shanty, strutting in with hands in his pockets like he has all the time in the world. “You just sat there,” I remark. “When I sensed something was wrong.”
His golden eyes flick up lazily. “I know better than to go near a trap set by Misery.”
“Care to elaborate, at all?” I ask, my voice full of tension. Out of all the people present, aside from Ritter, Basilisk might be the most useful, and instead, he’s like wielding a sword with no hilt.
All the time on the ship, Basilisk hardly moved. Came out only to exercise and refused to speak to another. I left him alone at his behest, because it didn’t feel right to go near him.
Fuck my powers, and the way they’ve misguided me. I should have forced Jane to speak about the conversation she had with Cypress.
“I kept my distance because I’m better at following what my gut is telling me than you are.”
“Oh shut the fuck up,” I quip, squaring him up. “I don’t have time for cryptic bullshit, and I’m tired of these shit powers that have been fucking useless lately.”
Basilisk inhales deeply, nodding to the side like he guesses he will get this over with. “Misery is our god, Soren. Going near him is going to end badly, every single time.”
Those words stop me cold. “ What ?”
“Well, he was . This bastardized state he’s in has sort of unleashed us into unknown waters. But he still has massive influence if we’re near him. Including leaving pockets of his energy that we can’t go near without it killing us.”
I move closer, each step deliberate, like I want to burst through my skin. Basilisk places a hand on his hilt, staring me down.
“You knew that,” I begin, articulating slowly, my voice low and dangerous. “And didn’t tell me when we were stuck on that ship? For weeks ?”
Basilisk’s expression hardly changes, and if anything, only his jaw sets like stone. There’s a moment where he glances to the side. His energy is so calm I want to slit his throat, and I know he’s hiding himself from me, just like I normally am from him.
“You’re not going to like why I’m really here, either,” Basilisk adds, his gaze heavy, and it’s clear he knows his words are going to change everything.
“Get it out, Rasmus , because I have half a mind to fight you here.”
His golden eyes flare. “I said don’t call me that—that’s twice now. No one survives the first.”
“Then fight me, if it pisses you off. Do something ,” I grind out through gritted teeth, still not having processed that Misery is my god .
His lips thin, his glare sharpening. “I’m here, Soren, because Cypress called for me.”
I step closer, his blade pulled out so the metal shines in the light. I don’t bother reaching for mine because I want to beat someone bloody right now, and only with my fists.
“There’s something from Cypress that I am quite desperate to get,” he quickly adds. “It’s a harpy killer. Potent. Useful for me and what I need to do. She called for me to be out here because you’d need my help.”
“What the fuck are you talking about? You’re going from a shadow cat to harpies?” I ask, everything about what he says feeling like the fucking truth.
If Cypress called for him, maybe there’s an answer in there, somewhere. Something to help Jane— Cypress came to her… yes… that’s what happened, isn’t it? Guilt and rage are molten hot in my gut, but I need to know what to do with Basilisk.
“It’s all related to someone. The cat is, too. I’ve been tasked to keep Jasmine alive, and there’s harpies that will become a real problem for someone I’d rather not have problems at all. So, I’m here ,” he explains, his entire aura focusing on concealing the deeper meanings of that. “I thought this endeavor was even more than worthwhile, knowing it would help you, too.”
I need to step away. Cypress is such a conniving bitch, and yet I’d literally do anything she told me, right now, if it ensured Jane’s safety.
With more love…
I ignore Basilisk to stride away, back to the communal space, entering the sunlight once more. I’m beyond enraged he knew of this shit and didn’t tell me. That Jane did, too. And that I trusted my instinct to leave her alone with that information.
It makes no sense why my magic would tell me to leave her be, if it was going to be connected to her abduction .
“We’re not done,” Basilisk says after me.
“Yes, we are.”
“I know where they’re taking her,” he replies, his voice loud so it carries to me.
My vision is nearly being strangled from energy that needs to leave my body, almost uncontrollably. “Then fucking spit it out,” I say, pivoting to face him.
“Order of Ash,” he says, licking his lips. “My cat saw them depart, and saw who had Jane.”
“You can talk to cats now,” I state, feeling like I’m going crazy. Is that what’s wrong? Has something in me been compromised?
“Shadow cats can when they imprint on someone.” He glances my way, speaking as if these facts annoy him. “I, unfortunately, have to listen to everything she says. Including her severe judgement of most of humankind… and that the ship’s rats were too sinewy.”Basilisk, in all his rugged glory, doesn’t quite match the caretaker of a cat . “You should probably go tell Tempest. Save that wrath, Soren. We’ll have an opening. I feel it, and I know you do, too. I know you don’t trust your gut right now; I’ve been there. Many times. But we are freed of Misery’s influence, which means our powers serve us now. Including our heart, and our survival. If your instincts told you one thing, it was for a reason . We will find Jane. And I’ll help you massacre them all.”