Chapter 10 #2
Esmyra sent out another deadly strike, and he barely managed to throw up a shield of fire as he pushed himself to his feet.
The blaze crackled between them as steam erupted in thick, suffocating clouds, shrouding the room in mist. The floor beneath them sizzled, the air overtaken with the sharp scent of salt and smoke.
But Draevyn wasn’t attacking, only countering her strikes.
Why the fuck isn’t he fighting back?! Esmyra narrowed her eyes, fingers curling at her sides as she moved to circle him.
“Fight me,” she demanded. “Fight back, you fucking coward!”
Draevyn didn’t respond. He only held his ground, flames flickering in his hands, eyes boring into hers as his chest rose and fell.
Esmyra’s lips pulled back, exposing her canines. “You won’t even try?” Her breaths came sharp through her teeth. “You’re pathetic.”
Draevyn’s gold-flecked eyes met hers, dark with something unreadable. “I won’t fight you.”
The words had her rage swallowing her whole.
“You don’t get to choose that!” She wouldn’t allow him to rob her of anything else.
Her magic swarmed up from the floor, circling and encasing his body like she had with Atlas. Only Draevyn remained entirely still.
“Are you here to kill me, Wildfire?” Fire spiraled in gold ribbons around Draevyn’s arms, turning the water to steam that should’ve melted flesh from bone.
Esmyra’s jaw ticked, averting her gaze to the floor.
“Look at me!” Draevyn demanded, and she loathed that she instantly obeyed. “A part of me already died that day beneath the sea. The day I saw it in your eyes that I lost you.”
Her pulse thundered, her vision swimming with fury and grief.
“You don’t get to say that, Phoenix,” she bellowed, the echo of her voice shaking the room. Lightning danced along her arms, waiting to strike.
“Tell me the lies she told you!” Draevyn boomed. “Tell me what Syrena claimed happened that day.”
Her chest seized, hands shaking at her sides. “She didn’t need to tell me anything! I saw it with my own eyes. I saw how your hands were on her. Heard my sister’s whimpering moans as your lips were all over her, still swollen from kissing my own!”
She could still see them in the back of her mind no matter how much she tried to will the image away. His hands tracing the same curving paths of Syrena’s body they’d once traced on her.
Every breath felt heavy, searing her throat as she held back tears. “And then you left!”
Esmyra’s eyes slammed shut, and the water wavered, rippling with her heartache as the visions kept flashing in her mind. She barely realized her power released Atlas’s throat as his body tumbled to the floor below.
“Don’t be weak. Don’t falter now,” Kaelypso begged.
Her jaw locked as she finally forced herself to meet his stare again. “And yes, Draevyn. That’s exactly why I'm here…” Esmyra’s head tilted to the side as she steadied her racing heart. “To kill you.”
Her hands shot out, and a spear of seawater surged toward Draevyn’s chest, sharp as a harpoon.
And then—BANG.
Pain tore through her arm.
The force spun her body, the deadly strike aimed for Draevyn veering off course. It slammed into the structure behind him, shattering the stone and sending cracks splintering up the walls.
Esmyra hissed, clutching her arm where the bullet grazed her skin. Blood trickled between her fingers, the lightning in her veins sputtering out.
“What the fuck?” she whispered, eyes wide as she stared at her wound. A bullet had grazed her, somehow tearing through her skin. And then several tiny web-like black markings formed before dissolving.
Velsinyte.
“Atlas, no!” Draevyn’s voice echoed.
Esmyra’s gaze snapped toward the prince, who was still sprawled on the ground, a pistol aimed at her in hand as smoke evaporated before its barrel.
For a moment, everything stilled. Her vision blurred at the edges as something dangerously close to doubt crept in. Pain raged through her body, burning through every nerve and breath as her godly power channeled all its energy to healing.
Her eyes widened as she watched the wound expel the onyx curse from her veins and quickly mend itself closed.
That’s new.
“It’s a shallow cut,” Kaelypso said, her voice faint. “If the velsinyte isn’t immediately expunged from our body, we cannot fully heal.”
“You just did that?!” Esmyra shrieked. “What else are you able to do without me knowing?”
“Never mind that now. We were lucky. We must leave.”
“Not yet.” She needed to finish this.
“You play dirty, princeling.” Esmyra’s voice was a lethal calm as she turned to Atlas, her spine straightening.
Shadows grabbed her by the wrists, holding her in place as if she were bolted to the floor. Her power felt distant, like trying to grasp smoke with broken fingers, but it was still there. Buried beneath the pain, sluggish and unresponsive.
Draevyn turned his back to her and ran toward his brother.
A ragged growl tore from her throat as she fought against the weight dragging her down like an anchor. Kaelypso’s magic lived inside her, in her bones, her blood, her every breath. It was who she was, and right now, it was the only thing keeping her from dying in this godsforsaken place.
She recalled what she learned in Maerinys: A velsinyte-inflicted wound was fatal to a being of magic, but only to a god if it struck their heart.
If that bullet tore through her chest, she would’ve dropped dead right here.
Panic gripped her by the throat as Atlas lifted the gun. “Say goodbye, you bitch.”
Esmyra tried to summon all the power she could, uncaring if she took herself out along with them, but she went unanswered. And then she could’ve sworn she heard Draevyn’s voice screaming for her, but everything around her fizzled away.
There was an odd sensation in her mind, like talons dragging down the edges of it.
She attempted to send a bolt of her power through Lephyrin’s heir, but motion caught her eye on the dais.
Her stomach dropped at the sight.
No longer was King Rowe’s body there, slumped over in his own drool and waste.
Draevyn now sat upon his father’s throne, a golden crown entangled in his dark hair. But that wasn’t what had bile crawling up her throat.
Syrena sat in his lap, wearing the same ethereal, see-through dress Esmyra had when she arrived in Lephyrin. Both Syrena and Draevyn’s eyes were locked on her. Her sister’s legs were spread wide by Draevyn’s knees, his arm curling over her thigh as his fingers slid into her.
Syrena’s back arched, and she leaned into his chest, her legs somehow spreading wider as his fingers glistened in the low light every time they pulled out of her. She let out a moan, her head falling back against his shoulder.
Draevyn’s lips turned upward in a feral grin, his eyes still locked on Esmyra. “How could you have ever thought it would be you? The only thing you’re good for is ruin.” His voice was edged with a cruelty she’d never heard from him before, and it seemed to echo all around her.
Esmyra was going to vomit. Her heart slammed against her ribs, pulse thundering in her ears so loudly she thought she would go deaf. The entire room was spinning; everything around her was nothing but a blur aside from the scene of them on the throne.
She thought her body would burst into flames as unrelenting wrath seared her from the inside out.
“You motherfucker!” Esmyra bellowed.
She moved to take a step forward, ready to force every ounce of magic she had left at him, hoping it was enough to kill him.
But her step was cut short, her eyes flaring.
Standing before her now, blood seeping through his fingers as he clutched his chest, was Cyrus Blackwood. Her father stood in the middle of the throne room with a blade protruding from his heart.
Her lips parted in disbelief, a single tear slipping from her lower lashes. “Father?” The word was a whisper. A choked breath left her lips at the sight of him.
“My Esmi.”
Her blood turned to ice.
“You let me die.” His words were labored as crimson continued to pour onto the floor at his feet. “How could you?”
Esmyra shook her head wildly, stumbling away from him, from his words, from the weight of his gaze. “No, I tried—”
“And failed.” His voice was stern, thick with grief and disappointment. It wasn’t the voice of her father but of her captain. “You should’ve fought harder. You let yourself become distracted. And by a man, no less.”
The accusation was like a knife through her heart. “I—” Her voice faltered, knees buckling.
Something deep inside of her shattered. She didn’t even think there was anything left to break, but she had been wrong. So very wrong.
Cyrus took a step closer, reaching out a hand. “Make this right.”
All the rage, the grief, the hunger for vengeance—suddenly, it was too much. The weight of it, the sheer, crushing force, pressed down on her like the deepest depths of the sea, drowning her in something she couldn’t fight or escape.
“I didn’t mean to fail you,” she whispered.
Cyrus sighed. “I’m not the only one you failed. Where is the crew of The Night Wraith now? Where is our home?”
Esmyra fell to her knees.
Her breath came in short, shuddering gasps, her talons digging into the cold marble beneath her as she stared up at her father.
Her lips parted, but no words came. Because he was right. She’d failed in every way that mattered. Esmyra found what she’d searched for her entire life, but in the end, she lost everything that mattered to her most.
A scream echoed through the room, but it wasn’t her own.
Her head snapped up just as the world around her cracked, her vision fracturing like shattered glass.
Her father’s face twisted, flickering like a mirage before erupting into a black mist.
The throne, her sister, Draevyn’s betrayal—gone.
Movement caught her eye in a blur of fire, seeing that Draevyn had tackled his brother back down to the ground. The gun skidded across the floor.
“Atlas, don’t!” Draevyn roared, wrestling his brother’s arm down as his other hand burned with barely restrained fire. His gaze snapped up in Esmyra’s direction, but he seemed to look through her. “Elowynne. Drop your hold on her. NOW!”
His voice was raw, filled with both authority and desperation.
Atlas snarled beneath him. “Elowynne, don’t!”
Esmyra whirled in the direction the brothers were staring, and then she saw her.
A woman. Or was she a witch? Her skin was a rich russet brown that seemed to illuminate her gold eyes, while her dark braids were tucked behind a pointed ear.
She was an elven.
Elvens were able to tap into the minds of others, often known for making them see their greatest fears.
A growl built in Esmyra’s throat.
The female—Elowynne—stood frozen, her eyes glowing a faint gold, arms extended toward Esmyra. She could feel the wisps of the elven’s mind running along her own, looking for a crack, a way to get back in.
Esmyra was furious. She felt violated.
The echoes of the vision still clung to her mind, twisting through her thoughts like venomous snakes. She could still see it. It felt so real. The betrayal and heartache continued to burn, even though she knew it was a lie. In that moment, anyway.
But the worst part? For a moment, she had believed it.
Her breath was ragged as her power churned inside her, violent and desperate to be unleashed. She’d been played—controlled like a puppet on invisible strings. It made her stomach twist with something dangerously close to fear. Fear for what else they could make her see and believe.
Riven was the only elven of her crew, and they had a strict rule that he was never to use the magic on anyone aboard The Night Wraith unless directed by Esmyra or Cyrus themselves.
“You.” Esmyra pointed a taloned finger at the elven woman.
The word burned through her skull, but before she could move, before she could end this, the sound of his roar cut through her haze
“I said let her go!” Draevyn’s voice echoed.
The heat of his voice sent a shudder through her, tearing open an old wound.
“Don’t you fucking tell my wife what to do!” Atlas bellowed in Draevyn’s face as he continued to struggle beneath him.
Wife.
Esmyra turned to face the woman, and a sly grin crept up her face. “Elowynne, is it?”
“Wynne, finish her!” Atlas screamed between grunts.
The elven hesitated, her magic flickering as it continued to dance along the corners of Esmyra’s mind.
Esmyra shook her head and tsked. “Oh, you’re not getting back in there, pretty girl. Your element of surprise is lost.” She took a threatening step closer. “It’s my turn now.”
“You attacked my betrothed. You attacked my family and kingdom!” Elowynne screamed as she forced her mind-magic toward Esmyra once again.
Esmyra merely lifted a brow. “You’re fighting for a Rowe? Let me save you the heartache. You can do better.”
“Don’t listen to her!” Atlas screamed. “Listen to me! Hurry!”
The moment Esmyra stalked forward, Elowynne stumbled back, eyes widening as she realized the distractions had cost her.
Water wrapped around Esmyra’s arms, circling like twin serpents. It was difficult now, calling on her power after being wounded, but she thrust every ounce of energy she had left into it.
And then the doors to the throne room burst open.