Chapter 22 #2
His mouth went dry, heart thundering in his chest as their eyes remained locked.
“You just kissed me?” The words left him in a confused whisper as he tried to make sense of the last several minutes.
“Actually, I bit you. Don’t flatter yourself.”
Shadows surged from the corners of the room, spiraling around her wrists, her ankles, and then her throat. Her smile never faltered as the darkness tightened around her neck.
“I should kill you,” Atlas growled, still beneath her. The temperature of the room dropped as his fury slipped free. “You came here to what? Trick me into thinking you’re my queen and slit my throat while I slept?”
“Now, now,” she purred, her voice ragged but amused. “Is that any way to get your precious Elowynne back?”
His breath stilled in his chest, the shadows loosening their hold as his magic wavered. “What did you say?”
She tilted her head, her expression calm. “You think I came here without a plan?” Her voice dropped. “Don’t worry, princeling. She’s still breathing… for now. However, if I die, she’s getting dragged down to one of the hells with me. That I can assure you.”
His mind emptied, heart cracking in his chest. “You’re lying.”
What the fuck was he going to do? The sea witch, the woman who shattered his brother’s heart and murdered his king, was straddling him. Mocking him as she dangled the life of his betrothed in front of him.
Esmyra’s grin widened. “Am I?” She leaned down toward him as much as the shadows allowed. “You remember what I am. You’ve seen the power I hold. How I can bend it. Fill a person’s lungs until they beg for death.” The last few words were a whisper. “The sea is tied to her throat like a leash.”
His shadows shuddered, tightening. “Where. Is. My. Wife?”
“Does it matter?” she asked softly, her eyes narrowing. “You’re never going to get to her.”
“You’re a monster,” he whispered.
Her smile faltered, but the cruelty stayed. “You have your father to thank for that.” She shrugged. “And perhaps my own.”
Atlas’s face fell, his shadows loosening their hold completely on her as he realized he could lose Elowynne forever if he didn’t play by Esmyra’s rules.
She rolled her shoulders back, cracking her neck in a casual stretch before leaping off of him and the bed.
He leaned up on his elbows as he watched her. “Why are you doing this?”
Esmyra halted at the fireplace. “Isn’t it obvious?”
Atlas stood from the bed, shadows swirling around his shoulders.
She scoffed as she lifted a trinket from the mantel and twirled it in her hands before tossing it into the flames. “I want you to know how it feels to have everything you love ripped from you.” She winked. “Where’s Draevyn?”
“You wretched fucking bitc—”
Esmyra lifted a finger and tsked, cutting him off. “Easy now, princeling. That mouth of yours could cost you greatly.”
Atlas desperately worked to steady his racing heart, but it was no use.
“Now, if you won’t tell me where your brother is, that’s fine. I’ll find him eventually. But velsinyte…” Her evil smile was back. “Where do you mine it?”
Oh, she had a lot of nerve.
“And why would I ever fucking tell you that?”
Esmyra lifted a brow. “Oh, I don’t know, to get your pretty little elven back?”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. What am I going to do?
“I don’t know,” he said, hands flexing at his sides.
“Oh, I don’t believe that for a second, Atlas.”
The way she carelessly said his name sent a shudder through him. No titles. No mocking nicknames… It was too personal.
“It’s true,” he bit out, lying. “My father’s death wasn’t exactly expected. He didn’t pass down the knowledge.”
“You just said to me you plan to mine more.”
“If I ever find it,” he countered.
She watched him through narrowed eyes. He suppressed the shiver that ached to roil through him as her gaze climbed him up and down.
Esmyra clicked her tongue and waltzed back up to him, but he refused to take even a single step back. Her head was just beneath his chin as she looked up at him, an infuriating smirk playing across her lips.
Gods, how could Draevyn love someone so vicious?
“No matter, then. I’ll find your secrets eventually. But in the meantime, now that I have your wife, I’ve come to let you know we’re declaring war.”
His head reared back. “War?”
“Aye.” She winked before turning from him.
In a subtle shimmer, her form twisted once more.
The goddess shape shifting was unlike anything he’d ever seen.
She could take any form, be anyone at any time she desired.
It was unnerving. Esmyra now stood before him as Kaelypso, her silver hair reflecting the moonlight that peered in from his balcony windows.
“Don’t worry, though. ‘Tis not a war against you…”
Atlas cleared his throat with barely restrained fury. “Well by all means, Esmyra, I’m at the edge of my seat. If you’re not here to declare war against Lephyrin, then who?”
“Naerysa and Kaelypso declare war upon the God of Rage and War himself,” she answered, as if it wasn’t the most absurd thing he’d ever heard.
“Irah?! You’re declaring war on our god?” he boomed. “He doesn’t even walk among the realm anymore. He hasn’t in a thousand years. That’s impossible.”
“Is it?” she challenged, her blue and silver tattoos swirling with a subtle glow of power. “I’m a god, and I stand before you here and now.”
“That’s different,” he growled. “How do you expect this to happen?”
“Oh, it’s quite simple really. If we can’t punish Irah for his sins and betrayal, we’ll simply punish his subjects.”
Atlas’s mind emptied, his jaw hanging open. His chest heaved as he desperately tried to derive a plan. “It’s not as if I can just call upon my god and expect him to answer.”
Esmyra—or Kaelypso—cocked her head to the side. “Do you not have temples to pray to?”
His jaw locked. “It’s forbidden in Lephyrin.”
“And who set that law into place?” she challenged.
My father, that’s who. Perhaps he could undo it.
“And”—she dragged out the word—“do you and your fire-wielding brother not share a piece of Irah’s soul?” Esmyra grinned. “I’m sure you can reach him somehow.”
His shadows lashed out then as his anger finally slipped. They enveloped her, tightening around her throat once more. Esmyra tilted her head back and laughed, a low, unhinged sound. The torches along the walls flickered violently as if recoiling from it—from her.
It was then Atlas finally realized she allowed him to do it. It was all a godsdamn game to her.
“You think your little tricks of darkness can hold me?”
Water seeped in. It wasn’t from the windows or cracks, but from the very air. The thickening mist clung to his skin. With a violent snap, a tendril of water formed over her shoulder and lashed out, slicing through the shadow binds like ribbons of smoke.
Atlas’s jaw fell open as Esmyra’s eyes cast a silver glow. Her body began to lift, hovering before him a few feet above the stone floor, her hair whipping around her like strands of silver lightning.
Siren. Goddess. Nightmare.
Kaelypso was a nightmare incarnate.
“Your father drowned screaming. Your queen is next,” she hissed, voice echoing. “And when I come back, it will not be to threaten you, princeling. Unlike your brother, I keep my promises.”
A gust of sea-salt wind slammed the balcony doors open behind her with a deafening crash. Maroon curtains whipped in the air, the fire in the hearth snuffing out in a breath.
Atlas was frozen where he stood as she lowered herself to the ground and strode to the terrace.
Glancing over her shoulder, Esmyra gripped the balcony’s railing. “War isn’t coming, Atlas. It’s already at your gates.”
He blinked, and then she was gone.