Jade
Circe moves back to her loom, her fingers brushing the damaged threads.
“Since you have so many unanswered questions, I’ll be kind and warn you about what lies ahead,” she tells me. “Soon, you’ll need to navigate the strait of Scylla and Charybdis.”
The names tickle my memory. Greek mythology. A rock and a hard place. A whirlpool and a cave monster.
“Let me guess.” I cross my arms. “They’re also way deadlier than the myths suggest?”
“In this case, the myths are fairly accurate.” Circe’s expression shifts, and she gazes back out the window to her gardens.
“Charybdis is a whirlpool that devours ships whole. Scylla...” She pauses and takes a deep breath.
“She’s a creature with six heads, each one capable of snatching a sailor from a passing vessel. ”
“Great. More monsters. Just what we needed.”
“Scylla wasn’t always a monster,” Circe says, soft and distant. “Once, she was a beautiful nymph, and I was young and in love with the sea-god Glaucus.”
I blink. “You were in love?”
“Even immortals have hearts that can break.” Her gaze drifts past me, unfocused. “Glaucus preferred Scylla to me. So, I poisoned the water where she bathed, transforming her into a monster that matched the ugliness I believed was in her soul.”
Holy shit. Circe created Scylla out of jealousy.
“I’m not proud of what I did.” The sorceress finally meets my eyes. “But Scylla’s rage has had millennia to fester, and she cannot be reasoned with. She can only be survived.”
“How?”
“Sacrifice.” The word is heavy and final. “You cannot pass through Scylla’s strait without loss. She will demand flesh and lives, and she alone decides what she takes. That is the price of my ancient cruelty, because survival often requires losses you can’t prevent.”
Deidre’s face flashes behind my eyes, and suddenly I’m back in the cave, watching her weave her defensive formations, the shield falling, and the hellhound breaking through.
A loss I couldn’t prevent.
Five loops, and she died every single time, and I don’t know how to carry that.
How am I supposed to survive another horror waiting for us in this nightmare sea? I knew we’d likely have to fight more monsters, but now that they have faces and names, it feels more real than ever.
Unfortunately, standing here drowning in dread won’t change what’s coming. So, I force myself to breathe, focus, and be grateful for the warnings instead of letting them crush me.
“Thank you,” I say, although the words feel inadequate. “For the information about the Revenants and the star touched, and the warnings about Geryon and Scylla.”
Circe’s lips curve into what could almost be a smile. “Go, Storm’s Champion. Your companions are waiting. And your thread...” She glances at the loom. “I suspect the answer to why it burns lies not in my weaving, but in the journey ahead.”
Cryptic. Very helpful. Thanks so much, ancient sorceress who turns sailors into animal servants.
But I don’t say that. I just reach for my fire and let its warmth build in my chest.
“Good luck, Jade Harrington.” Circe’s voice follows me as the flames rise and the palace disappears.
I rematerialize on the beach, my boots sinking slightly in the sand. The animals that greeted us earlier are gone, probably following Evie and Kieran on their futile search.
Logan and Callie are on the deck, their heads bent together over a book or a map. Callie’s shoulder is maybe an inch from Logan’s. Possibly less.
Heat flares in my chest.
Stop it. You have bigger problems than Callie Bennett’s inability to respect personal space.
I force down the jealousy and climb aboard.
Logan’s head snaps up the second my boots hit the wood. The shadows that have been carved under his eyes for days are softer now, his posture is straighter, and his gaze sharper.
“What happened?” he asks. “Where are the others?”
“Evie and Kieran are searching the island for Oliver and Thad.” I move to them, my legs suddenly heavy. “Circe said they won’t find them, but Evie insisted on trying.”
Callie shifts slightly, putting a more respectable distance between herself and my boyfriend. “What else did Circe tell you? You were gone for a while.”
I sink onto one of the benches, exhausted.
“A lot.” I twist my bracelet again, and again.
Logan comes over and sits next to me. “Start from the beginning.”
So, I stop twisting my bracelet and tell them about Ambrogio, Selene, the Revenants, and the Blood Coven.
Logan’s eyes sharpen as he listens, but he says nothing.
“That’s terrifying.” Callie’s eyes are wide, her face pale. “If the Blood Coven succeeds in creating an army of Revenants, it could be catastrophic.”
“It gets crazier.” I stare at my hands, at the silver light that’s always humming beneath my skin. “The cosmic goddesses can’t directly interfere in mortal affairs. So, they chose champions. Women they gifted with pieces of their magic. Circe called us star touched.”
Logan goes still beside me.
“There are four of us,” I continue. “Ruby has moon magic, Amber has sun magic, and Sapphire has star magic. And now, there’s me, with storm magic. Lightning magic.”
Callie leans forward, one hand pressed to her temple like she’s fighting a headache. “You’re saying that Tempest gave you storm magic so you can help stop these Revenants.”
“Not just to stop them. To destroy them.”
It sounds insane when I say it, but that doesn’t make it less true.
Logan’s hand finds mine, anchoring me, as he always tends to do. His thumb traces the inside of my wrist, finding my pulse, and my heartbeat quickens like it’s answering a question that exists only between the two of us.
From the corner of my eye, I catch Callie watching the place where our hands are joined. Her expression doesn’t change, but her fingers curl into her palm, and she looks away a beat too late for it to be casual.
Logan’s thumb stills against my pulse. His gaze flicks to Callie for half a second, and his thumb resumes its trace along my wrist, as if daring her to comment on the location of his hands.
When he speaks again, it’s in the controlled, mission-focused tone that means the soft version of him is gone.
“Does Circe know where the Blood Coven’s operating?” he asks.
I shake my head. “She hasn’t had visitors from the outside world in months.
The last people who came to her island were Sapphire and her.
.. boyfriend, I guess? A winter prince. They were there in the spring and told her that Ambrogio hasn’t turned any Revenants yet.
She doesn’t know what’s happened since.”
“And Constance warned you about Revenants at the academy.” Logan’s jaw tightens as he puts it together.
“Which means they could be anywhere,” Callie continues, and my stomach twists at how easily she finishes Logan’s thoughts. “Are there ways to detect them? There must be markers. Physical tells of some sort.”
“Circe didn’t say.” I shrug, too tired for academic theorizing. “She just said they’re dangerous, and that it’s my job to stop them.”
No one speaks for a few seconds.
“Jade,” Logan says softly, in that tone reserved only for me. “How are you feeling about all this?”
“Overwhelmed.” The word comes out quiet. “I don’t understand why Tempest chose me. The other champions have won victories. They’ve saved people. And I’m just me.” I gesture at myself. “I couldn’t even get into college. How am I supposed to save the world from an army of superpowered vampires?”
He wraps his arm around my shoulders, and my magic hums beneath my skin as I lean into him.
“You’re not just anything,” he tells me. “And you’re not facing this alone. Whatever comes next, I’m here with you. Always.”
Always.
The anxiety is still tight in my chest, but Logan’s steady presence beside me helps.
Callie, per usual, ruins the moment.
“I don’t understand the mechanics,” she says. “Vampires are created with venom that burns away all magic but theirs. If supernaturals turned into Revenants retain their natural affinities, the process would need an additional component that preserves the magical core instead of overwriting it.”
“Circe said only Ambrogio can create Revenants,” I offer. “Maybe it’s unique to his venom, because of the god-curses running through it.”
“Possibly.” Callie starts pacing, although she quickly moves to lean against the forward mast. “If Ambrogio’s the source of all vampire bloodlines, his venom could have properties that later generations lost. A magical purity that allows for preservation instead of replacement.
” She pauses, steadying herself. “Can you imagine the research opportunities? If we could study a Revenant to understand how the dual magic systems coexist...”
“Callie.” Logan says her name like a warning. “Maybe don’t sound so excited about conducting scientific experiments on the enemy.”
“I’m curious. Not excited.” She glares at him and sits down.
“There are a few more things,” I say, running through all of it in my mind. “Scylla, Charybdis, and someone called Geryon who guards the Pillars of Hercules, which we have to go through to get home.”
Logan drags a hand down his face. “Is there anything on this route that isn’t trying to kill us?”
“Doesn’t seem like it.” I huff and sit back on the bench.
He pulls me close again. “We’ll handle it,” he says, steady and sure. “One monster at a time.”
I stare out at the trees that line the beach, where somewhere beyond, Evie’s searching for a brother she’ll never find.
Yeah. One monster at a time.
Starting with the one that lives in my soul.