Chapter 17
Esmyra
Thick and suffocating darkness pressed against Esmyra, but flashes of light cut through. It was blinding, jagged shards of memory she couldn’t piece together.
Hands moved and voices whispered words that scraped at her mind like broken glass. Pain flared, clawing through her spine while dragging her deeper into a nightmare she couldn’t escape.
Agony pulsed like thunder in her veins, each beat echoing with raw, burning flames.
Esmyra gasped, but no air came. And then a sudden jolt ripped her from the shadows.
Her eyes snapped open, revealing soft light filtering through small windows as dust drifted lazily in the quiet chamber. The scent of herbs filled the air, mingling with the faint metallic tang of blood.
She lay still for a moment, blinking against the brightness as she tried to ground herself.
What was the last thing she remembered? After fleeing Lephyrin, she’d come back to Maerinys, where Syrena and Azarian were trying to remove the velsinyte curse from her bloodstream. But then, all she recalled was darkness.
This wasn’t the throne room or her ship. She seemed to be in some kind of healer’s quarters.
Her body felt heavy and unfamiliar, as if she’d been pulled apart and stitched back together in a way that didn’t quite fit. A dull ache throbbed relentlessly at her wrist, and every breath brought a subtle pain in her lungs.
What the hells is happening to me?
Suddenly, the door burst open, and Syrena appeared.
“Esmyra!” She swept into the room, her eyes wide with concern as her voice trembled. She rushed to Esmyra’s side, taking her hand. “Azarian, get in here!” she yelled over her shoulder.
Her guard rushed in a second later.
“Thank the tides, you’re awake,” Syrena breathed, fingers tightening softly around hers. “You’ve been out for days. We were all so worried.”
Confusion rapidly crept into Esmyra, and she didn’t understand why Syrena’s touch suddenly made her skin crawl.
“Something’s not right,” Kaelypso warned, and her stomach dropped.
“You’re back now, I see,” Esmyra answered. “That must be a good sign.”
“Hush and keep your wits, girl.”
Esmyra scoffed in her mind. “I don’t know who the fuck you think you’re talking to, but—”
“You’re safe now,” Syrena whispered, bringing her attention back. “We’re here to take care of you.”
Esmyra blinked, her throat dry and raw as she tried to gather her thoughts. “What… What happened to me? Why am I here?”
Syrena’s eyes softened, full of sorrow as she gently squeezed Esmyra’s hand. “It was worse than we thought,” she began slowly. “The velsinyte was deeper than we realized.”
Esmyra’s brows furrowed. “But Azarian said you could remove it.”
Syrena nodded, biting her lip. “We tried. Do you not remember?”
“The velsinyte locked me away,” Kaelypso admitted. “I saw nothing through your eyes. It was as if I no longer existed again until just now.”
Esmyra shook her head, bile climbing her throat.
“You collapsed in the throne room, and we tried to remove more, but it clung to you like the poison was rooted in your bones. I-I couldn’t get it all. You almost died, Esmi. We were all terrified we would lose you.”
As Syrena spoke, Esmyra’s gaze drifted, searching for any clue to make sense of the swirling haze in her mind.
A wave of frustration crashed over her, an odd sense of helplessness creeping in.
It was like she had become a prisoner trapped inside her own mind, held captive by shadows she couldn’t name.
Her chest tightened, a dull ache settling beneath her ribs. She wanted to scream, to demand answers, but her voice felt trapped in her throat.
“Don’t panic yet,” Kaelypso ordered. “Panic helps nothing and no one.”
“It’s your turn to hush,” Esmyra snapped at her.
Having another voice in her head was clearly the last thing she needed.
“I can’t remember.” Esmyra looked back at Syrena, her brows furrowing. “I don’t remember anything.”
Syrena’s expression softened, a flicker of sympathy shining through. “It’s okay. Perhaps you just need time.”
Esmyra felt the chill of doubt creeping in, and an odd sense of something that felt like fear radiated from Kaelypso within her.
“Did you do something to me?” The words slipped from her before she had the chance to stop them.
Her twin wouldn’t do something to her without her knowledge, would she?
Syrena hesitated, and the air grew heavy in the room as she looked to Azarian as if he was the one with the answers. Finally, her sister faced her once more. “Do you remember what I told you before you lost consciousness? About the cure for velsinyte?”
Esmyra’s eyes flared in confusion and alarm. “Your blood?”
“The blood of any god,” Azarian corrected. “But yes.”
Syrena nodded again, swallowing hard. “We assumed it would be able to neutralize the poison.”
“Assumed?” Esmyra rushed out, her pulse thrashing in her ears.
“But it didn’t work,” Syrena admitted, her voice breaking just a little. “The curse was rooted too deeply. We had waited too long for removal.”
Esmyra’s mind spun with a dizzying mix of hope and dread. Each word from Syrena felt like walking on a blade’s edge.
What could they have possibly done to me?
Syrena met her gaze. “So, we needed to try something else. Something more… desperate.”
“What do you mean?” Esmyra rushed out.
Syrena’s doe eyes softened, a storm of emotions swirling behind their depths. She took a shaky breath, as if what she was about to admit weighed heavily on her.
“I refused to lose you,” she said, her fingers trembling as they reached out to brush a stray lock of hair from Esmyra’s face. “Not again. After everything that’s happened… after all the pain and the darkness. I couldn’t imagine a life without you in it again.”
Her gaze flickered down for a moment, then back up, a raw kind of vulnerability shining through. “You were slipping away from us, and it was tearing me apart. And I knew I would do anything—anything—to keep you here, Esmi.”
A sob slipped from Syrena, a rush of tears falling past her cheeks. “I just got you back.”
Her hand lingered on Esmyra’s cheek, thumb tracing a gentle path as if to reassure both of them, but Esmyra found herself frozen in horror.
“But before I tell you what had to be done, I need you to know I wasn’t just fighting for you. But for the sea too. For everything we’ve lost, for the home we still have because you found your way back to us. Without you we could risk losing Maerinys again and our people.”
“Get up and leave. We must leave,” Kaelypso demanded, and Esmyra’s eyes widened as she pulled away from Syrena.
“No. I need to hear what she says.”
“If anything happens to either of us,” Syrena continued quietly, “this kingdom cannot fall. The sea cannot be left unguarded. We’re its guardians.
Its breath and wrath.” She lowered herself to sit at Esmyra’s side on the bed, her gaze unwavering.
“We’re gods, yes. But even gods bleed. We’ve seen it.
We’ve felt it. Our blood has soaked the stones of this palace. ”
“Just tell me,” Esmyra barked, her heart racing so violently she thought it might erupt.
“There’s an old rite. A sacrificial ritual that results in a tethering of lives, binding one’s fates.”
Silence filled Esmyra’s mind then. Even Kaelypso was speechless.
“Syrena, what have you done?”
Tears glimmered at the corners of her eyes. “I couldn’t stand the thought of losing you again. Not like this. So, I made a choice. The only choice.”
Syrena swallowed hard, voice cracking. “When Azarian told me there was one last chance… one last desperate thing we could try, I didn’t hesitate.
And now, should one of us fall, the other remains.
But more than that: our power stays intact.
Neither of us would truly die but live on within the other.
The surface and the depths would still be protected. ”
Flashes of memories tore through Esmyra’s mind, fragmented and chaotic.
She saw glimpses of flickering moonlight, a talon slicing through flesh as blood welled, and shadows moving just beyond her vision.
But each image slipped away before she could grasp its meaning, leaving only horrified confusion in its wake.
Her breath hitched from both frustration and fear as the memories tormented her.
Esmyra blinked rapidly, desperate to hold on to something, anything that would make sense of the storm inside her mind. But the pieces refused to come together.
Syrena searched her face, her voice barely a whisper when she said, “It was the only way to save you.”
Amid the haze of confusion and pain, Kaelypso stirred within Esmyra. It wasn’t necessarily a thought she was pushing through, but a primal feeling rising from the goddess within her. A fierce, unspoken whisper that screamed don’t trust her.
The warmth in Syrena’s eyes suddenly felt off. The softness in her voice echoed in her ears, but beneath it all lurked a tension, a hidden edge that set Esmyra’s skin prickling.
Her heart thudded unevenly, torn between wanting to believe Syrena and a stubborn, growing suspicion that gnawed at her from within.
“Please say something,” Syrena croaked out.
A cold resolve settled over Esmyra’s chest, and she swallowed before she met her sister’s stare. “Thank you for saving me.”
“I’ll play along until we figure out the full extent of what’s happening.” She wasn’t sure if she was more-so trying to convince Kaelypso or herself.
Syrena’s lips curved faintly, almost triumphantly, as she reached out and gently peeled back Esmyra’s sleeve. Her jaw fell open at the sight. She had grown used to the odd, swirling marks of Kaelypso in place of her runes, but now something entirely foreign marked the skin of her wrist.
Dark, intricate marks twisted, burned into her flesh like an onyx, silver, and gold brand. It depicted two intertwining sea serpents, one with its head above a crescent moon, and the other above a radiant sun.
Syrena lifted her arm, revealing a twin mark to match. “These are the brands of our soul bond,” she explained softly.
“They mark you both as bound,” Azarian interjected. “Your fates intertwined forever.”
Forever. Esmyra couldn’t breathe. This was absolute insanity.
“How?!” Kaelypso screamed in anger.
“How did you even do this?” The words left her in a whisper before she looked up at them both, gritting her teeth as the goddess’s anger pulsed through her. “How did you know how to do this? And what kind of magic even is this?”
A slow smile crept up Syrena’s lips. “We thought you might be curious about that.”