Chapter 4
Esmyra
The waves crashed against the rocks as she stood at the cliff’s edge, staring out at the endless expanse of water. The wind howled around her, tangling her hair that seemed to glow beneath the moonlight as the taste of salt clung to her lips.
Her crew had been either captured or killed. But by whom?
Esmyra dove into the water, her body shifting in seconds during the thirty-foot drop. The cold embrace of the sea wrapped around her as the world above faded into darkness.
She scoured the seabed, searching for anything—clues, debris, bodies, but the ocean floor was deathly still. When searching for her crew in the past, she would send out a pulse of power that sent ripples out through the ocean to feel for any resistance.
Esmyra sucked in a sharp breath through her gills and sent out that same pulse, and almost instantly her eyes snapped open from what she felt. A powerful push of her tail had her banking to the left to follow the pulse and swimming through a massive coral reef.
And then her heart halted in her chest.
A hulking shadow loomed in the distance, and then the ship came into view. It was draped in swaying seaweed as schools of fish wove through the wreckage, darting between the broken beams and rotting planks.
The Night Wraith rested in the sand like a fallen beast, one mast snapped, its hull split open like a gaping wound. The once-proud sails were now tattered ghosts of what they’d been, torn by the merciless tides and whatever had caused it to sink.
Esmyra shook her head rapidly in denial, eyes widening at the sight. A lump formed in her throat as she slowly approached.
What the fuck happened here?
Her mind waged war against itself. The ship had been wrecked, but there was still no sign of her crew. Had they drowned? Had their bodies been taken by the current, their remains scattered across the sea?
The thought made her stomach twist.
No. She refused to believe it.
Esmyra swam through the wreckage, slipping through the shattered beams and broken doors, searching for any sign of life or death.
Giant holes in the ship’s starboard side indicated cannon fire was involved.
But who would be foolish enough to attack The Night Wraith?
Not to mention, the captain’s quarters were eerily untouched, as if whoever had done this hadn’t been searching for valuables.
That meant they’d been after something else.
Or someone.
Draevyn’s face appeared in her mind, and her lips parted.
Her gut churned as she forced herself deeper into the wreck; she had to find something. Any sign that her crew had survived.
But the ship was empty. There were no floating corpses, and no bones trapped beneath the broken hull.
Nothing.
Esmyra’s jaw locked, her gills flaring from the sides of her neck in irritation.
“The sea is ours.”
Esmyra whirled around in a rush of bubbles, eyes wide. What the fuck?
“Every creature and vessel in it answers to Naerysa and me, and that now extends to you. Call upon our power and I will show you.”
Was Kaelypso speaking to her now? She didn’t like that. Not one bit. Esmyra thought she’d heard someone’s voice as Maerinys rose but assumed her mind had been playing tricks on her.
“How long have you been able to hear my thoughts?”
“Forever, my little siren,” Kaelypso admitted. “I have always been with you.”
Tits, this was irritating.
“Creepy,” Esmyra murmured in her mind.
“This wasn’t exactly my choice either.” Kaelypso’s tone betrayed her annoyance. “You wish to find your crew? Call upon our power.”
What was the goddess trying to say? And why did she wait until now to speak?
“My patience is wearing thin.”
Esmyra scoffed. “Yours and mine both,” she spat, bubbles rushing from her mouth.
But she decided to try and listen.
As Esmyra hovered in the dark expanse of the ocean, she closed her eyes and reached out—not with her hands, but with something ancient.
Power gathered within her, rippling outward in an unseen wave that traveled through the water like a racing pulse.
It wasn’t like the usual call she made. This was something deeper—something that connected her to the abyss in a way she couldn’t explain.
It spread through the sea, slipping between currents, threading through schools of fish, and weaving around coral-laden ruins.
“Now, feel.”
She waited, breath held in her gills, sensing the way the water carried back echoes of life. If her crew were here, if their bodies had sunk to her sea’s floor, she would sense them. The same way she always felt the shifting tides, the pull of the moon, and the creatures lurking in the abyss.
But nothing came. There was no familiar presence nor telltale weight of the drowned. The pulse returned to her empty.
A raw and broken scream ripped from Esmyra’s throat, the sound muffled beneath the weight of the water.
It wasn’t just a cry, but a fracture in her very soul.
This was yet another failure of hers, and losing her crew was an added disappointment she just couldn’t bear.
The sound that escaped her was far too primal to be human, and Esmyra could’ve sworn the small isle trembled even from a hundred yards away.
Her eyes squeezed shut as her voice went quiet, leaving the surrounding water in utter silence. The absence of sound was suddenly eerily deafening.
Were they simply beyond her reach? Esmyra’s nostrils flared, pushing the rising panic down. If they weren’t here, then they were somewhere. And she would find them.
Her fingers curled into fists as she fought against the surge of emotions threatening to consume her.
Rage. Fear. Desperation.
Esmyra swam back out, hovering above the wreck and staring down at her ruined ship from above. She knew in her very bones that her crew wasn’t dead. But whether they were currently begging for death at the hands of whoever had captured them was another story.
Something bigger was at play here. Someone had taken them, and she would tear the sea apart if she had to in order to get them back.
A slow, burning heat built in her chest, curling outward like tendrils of flame and scattered lightning. The raw power throbbed within her as the ocean waited for her command.
Her arms extended, webbed, taloned fingers trembling as she reached toward the ruin below.
The water around her stirred, currents shifting unnaturally as the pull of her magic took hold.
A deep, resonant hum filled the sea, vibrating through the very bones of the realm.
The veins in her neck tightened as Kaelypso’s magic flooded her like a surging tide.
The Night Wraith groaned.
The onyx wood cracked, splintering as it peeled free from the ocean floor. Silt erupted in dark clouds, spiraling upward in a haze as the ship’s remains shuddered.
Light shimmered in the water beneath the moonlight, threads of silver and blue weaving around the ship like hands guiding it upward. Her pulse thundered in her ears as the weight of it strained against her will.
Esmyra had risen an entire kingdom; surely she could raise a ship.
An idea struck her then, and she called on something greater.
A shadow coiled in the depths below, forming from the very essence of the sea. It rippled outward, tendrils of water twisting and shaping into the monstrous form of her kraken, its massive body hewn from the liquid itself.
The beast obeyed her unspoken command, just as it always had when bringing down enemy ships as its enormous tentacles unfurled and wrapped around the wreckage.
Water surged in response, streams of foam and bubbles cascading as the kraken lifted the ship alongside her magic.
The ship groaned in protest, waterlogged wood snapping and grinding as it was pulled from its grave.
Esmyra drifted, floating upward alongside The Night Wraith until they both breached the surface. Water cascaded from its broken hull, pouring back down into the sea.
She gasped, her chest heaving as Kaelypso’s magic sang in her blood. But as she floated there, staring at the ruined remains now bobbing in the gentle waves, one face came into her mind.
Draevyn had left through the caves. Dried, bloody footprints led to what was left behind by her crew. Esmyra could only assume that meant he was responsible for whatever happened to them as well.
And that, more than anything, made her fury burn all the brighter.