Chapter 26
Esmyra
The sea air brushed across Esmyra’s cheeks as the spires of Maerinys’s castle rose into view, sparkling against the dark sky. She stood at the helm, wind in her tangled hair, silent as The Night Wraith cut through the tide.
She turned and descended into the lower deck, where Elowynne had been kept for the entirety of the trip.
They hadn’t spoken since Esmyra returned to the ship after taunting Atlas in his bed chamber.
She had made her declaration of war and fled, eager to get his precious bride behind bars before he could snatch her back.
The narrow steps creaked beneath her boots, and she was greeted by damp, stale air as she stepped into the brig.
At the far end, behind a curved iron gate, Elowynne sat in chains, slumped and covered in filth.
Each of her hands was pinned next to her head on the wall above, making it impossible for her to remove the velsinyte ring.
Her hair was disheveled, her gown torn in several places, but still there was a steel in Elowynne’s stare when it locked with hers.
Esmyra smiled faintly and stepped closer. “Comfortable?”
She didn’t answer. Just watched her through those cold, narrowed eyes.
“Didn’t think so.” Esmyra leaned against the bars, studying her prisoner in the low teal merlights. “You’ve missed quite a bit while you’ve been down here. Shall I catch you up?”
Still silent.
“Your king is probably flipping every stone in that kingdom of his to find you,” Esmyra said flatly. “I paid him a little visit that night by the way.”
That got Elowynne’s attention.
“What did you do?” Her lip curled back.
“I didn’t do anything.” She shrugged. “I simply waltzed right into his bedchamber… wearing your skin.”
Elowynne’s eyes flared, her jaw dropping as she lunged at her. The chains clinked and rattled with her every move. “What have you done?!”
Esmyra sighed before dropping down to the floor, crossing her legs. She leaned back on her elbows, watching her. “Don’t worry, Wynnie. I didn’t fuck your husband.”
Her head bowed, posture slumping against the wall as relief washed over her features.
“I gave myself away before he could move his hands further up my skirt,” Esmyra finished with a wink.
Elowynne bared her teeth at her. “Why are you doing this?!” Her voice finally broke.
“What have we done that you didn’t already do ten times over?
If not to us, then to someone else.” She scoffed.
“For some reason I simply cannot comprehend, Draevyn seems to think you’re still reachable.
That he can save you from whatever the hells you’ve become.
” Elowynne looked her up and down, pure disgust all over her face.
“But if you ask me, you’re far beyond saving. ”
Esmyra’s body stiffened before she moved to stand. “Draevyn’s been trying to save me since the moment we locked eyes. Only the thing is… I never asked to be saved. One of these days, he’ll realize that.”
Elowynne’s brows furrowed.
“After all, he’s who pushed me to become this in the first place.” Esmyra turned to head back up the stairs.
“What do you have to gain from this? Have you not gotten your revenge?” Elowynne asked, her voice stronger now. “You killed King Rowe. You murdered the man who took your father’s life. On his throne. In front of his own sons.”
“Your point?” Esmyra snapped, turning back to face her, crossing her arms.
“My point is, when does it stop? Atlas and I have done nothing to you. We would’ve saved you that day on the beach too when we found Draevyn.”
Esmyra stormed up to the bars and slammed her hands into them. The ting sent a deafening rattle through the brig. “You know nothing.”
“I know quite a bit more than you believe,” Elowynne admitted. “Like how Draevyn feels—”
“Don’t you dare even finish that sentence,” Esmyra growled, pointing her finger through the bars as a single talon slipped out.
“Draevyn feels nothing for me. That’s why he left me there alone.
He fled from Maerinys. He fled from me. And the second I found a way out of that sunken kingdom for myself, a way out of my father’s curse, he took that away too. ”
Her chest heaved as the words rushed out of her like a rapid river.
“And you,” Esmyra dragged out the words, her lip curling back. “You forced me to relive it all over again in that throne room.” She lifted her chin high. “So, remind me again how innocent you are?”
Elowynne’s face dropped, a bit of sorrow in her eyes that Esmyra didn’t quite understand.
She licked her lips before saying, “I had to do something. You were going to kill Atlas. You might’ve killed Draevyn.
Someone had to stop you before you did something you regretted.
Something that changed the realm forever. ”
Something you regretted. Esmyra almost scoffed at her assumption. There was a ringing in her ears as she clenched her teeth, trying to shove down the ache in her chest.
“Believe what you want about Draevyn,” Elowynne continued. “Just know it’s not the truth. Not all was what it seemed down there. I don’t know the full story, but—”
“I saw what happened with my own eyes,” Esmyra cut her off.
She let out a lifeless laugh. “It would be a bit hard for him to lie his way out of that. Now, you asked me why I’m still doing this if I’ve already claimed my revenge.
But you see, Elowynne, the revenge has only just begun, but it’s not my vengeance that’s most dire. ”
Elowynne’s spine straightened. “Then whose revenge are you after?”
Grief stabbed at Esmyra as visions of a blood-stained sea and velsinyte-tipped blades flashed across her mind. Her skin began to shift into her goddess form, her hair elongating into brilliant silver locks.
The elven’s eyes flared as she pressed her back into the wall, but there was nowhere to go.
“Kaelypso’s,” Esmyra answered.
The Night Wraith’s masts groaned, and the hull of the ship gave a low, tired creak as it glided into Maerinys’s harbor.
Esmyra stood at the bow, still wearing the appearance of Kaelypso.
The more she got used to her newfound power, the more she was beginning to feel like that lonely little siren again.
She didn’t feel like Kaelypso had taken over her, but it didn’t necessarily feel like the monster coiling around her spine all her life had remained strictly there either.
She was in some strange limbo, no longer understanding her body or mind.
And now she had a goddess prying into her every thought.
“The sooner you accept us, the easier it will become. We could become so much more if we yielded to one another,” Kaelypso said, but she ignored her.
Because the truth was, she was tired. Esmyra was sick of the constant ache in her chest that nothing seemed to soothe. But mostly, she was tired of being so godsdamn alone.
Esmyra would give it all back—undo it all if she could just have one more day with her crew. There wasn’t a single ounce of her that wanted to become more, and it was why she dismissed Kaelypso as much as she could. She didn’t need yet another thing setting her apart from the rest of the world.
She was lost. So, so helpless and lost in her own mind that she didn’t know how to escape it. Esmyra sank deeper into her spiral, and she didn’t know how to stop it.
What am I even doing? Her fingers curled against the rail. She refused to speak the words aloud, because if she did, she might break. And this time, she knew there would be no one there to catch her if she fell.
Not Cyrus.
Not Jak.
Not even Draevyn fucking Rowe.
Esmyra thought revenge would feel like fire, like justice roaring through her veins in a blazing storm. Instead, it sat heavy on her shoulders, leaving her feeling somehow emptier than before.
She glanced down into the water and froze.
The woman staring back wasn’t her. Her glacial eyes were pale and far too cold. Her skin was void of any warmth, despite spending several lifetimes at sea. Her face was too composed to be anything but the mask it was. Esmyra’s reflection didn’t look like her, nor did it resemble a goddess.
It resembled nothing but a lifeless husk of what she once was.
Her gaze fixed on the shoreline, and she found Azarian waiting. He wore a gold chest plate for armor, one hand casually grasping the hilt of his spear. His face was stone hewn and vigilant as it typically was.
Shit. She hadn’t thought of the best way to handle him and Syrena once they realized she disobeyed their orders and left.
He gave a curt nod when she reached the dock.
“Welcome back to Maerinys, Kaelypso,” Azarian greeted. “Forgive us for not expecting you to leave so soon after your injuries.”
Esmyra’s initial reaction was to correct him.
While Syrena claimed she wanted to be addressed as Naerysa by Maerinys’s citizens, Esmyra didn’t feel the same way.
It was something she’d feared since finding out the truth of what they were.
She didn’t want to be known as someone she wasn’t.
She didn’t want to lose herself, but with every passing moment, she felt the fear was coming to life.
So, instead, she shifted back to her mortal form.
“Aye, well, I had unfinished business,” she replied coolly, motioning with a slight tilt of her chin. Elowynne lay bound behind her, knocked unconscious, all while her magic remained sealed due to the velsinyte ring.
Azarian didn’t smile. Truthfully, Esmyra wasn’t even sure if he knew how to. There was still much to the man she didn’t understand. Especially after discovering he held witch-like magic that stemmed from some dead, dark goddess.
“I’ve always disliked this ugly brute,” Kaelypso admitted.
Esmyra’s brows furrowed. “Didn’t he serve both you and Naerysa?”
“Hardly. I barely had anything to do with him. He’s always been Naerysa’s pet.” The goddess let out a huff. “As you said before, he turned his back on Irah and then Malya. Who’s to say we would be different? But Rysa is hard to deter once her mind is made up.”