Chapter 29
Chapter
Twenty-Nine
Desperation.
Desire.
Duty.
“Augustus. Please hurry.”
Selene.
Trouble.
Augustus let his heart lead him over the side of the boat. He splashed into the water, ankles rolling on stones, every step a struggle between him and the weight of the water.
“Stop that!” Lili’s voice filtered through his mind like smoke. “What are you doing, you idiot? Get back in the boat.”
Roslyn had similar things to say.
Augustus didn’t care. He fought through the waves—he could get to the shore faster if he walked, surely. The boat was too slow.
Beside him, Oskar struggled through the water similarly. “I hear you. I’m coming.”
“You hear her, too?” How strange. He thought it was all in his head. His bond with Selene was so much stronger than he ever imagined.
Oskar pushed forward, his full attention on the path forward. The others, too…all the men. They rushed toward land. They loved Selene so much.
“Augustus, find me. I’m here.”
“I’m coming,” he said. “We’re all coming.”
Selene’s steps faltered at the sight of the throng of guards in their path. Tears burned the backs of her eyes. They’d gotten so far… This couldn’t be it. It couldn’t be the end.
Augustus. He’d never know what happened to her here. She’d vanish from the world like smoke.
The only solace was that they’d have another life. She could hold onto that, at least. Maybe they’d even come back here so she could give Aspasia a piece of her mind.
The line of guards closed in from the clearing ahead—
A thick line of fire burst toward the line of guards, and they scattered. Birds erupted into flight. Those nearest the blast caught fire and rolled to the ground, their screams piercing into the air.
A second line of fire joined the first, coming from the opposite direction.
Petrina seized Selene by the arm as they staggered away from the wall of immense heat. This must be what it felt like to stand on the doorstep of Idon’s realm.
“What’s going on?” Petrina asked. Her gaze flicked over every inch of the sky, seeking the origin of the danger.
A streak of iridescent blue and brown scales flew past Selene’s head, then circled overhead before coming down on her shoulder.
Selene laughed at the wide brown eyes and took the dronsian into her arms, holding him against her chest. “Hey, you. Hey…Gus.”
She laughed again. He finally picked a name.
Gus licked the underside of her chin.
Petrina shook her head. “Can you love on each other after we get out of here, please?”
Behind them, Turos torched the ground near several guards, his flames carefully avoiding the ancient trees.
Gus shot from her arms and soared ahead.
In the open field, raw sunlight scalded her eyes. Her heartbeat threatened to burst. The scent of roasting flesh turned Selene’s stomach, but she turned her mind against reality. She’d feel this later. She’d feel this from somewhere safe.
Selene and Petrina sprinted through a narrow patch of scorched earth between flailing, burnt bodies. Furious shouts followed after them, each one trembling with fresh rage. They wanted her blood. They wanted her death.
“Just run,” Petrina pushed. “Don’t listen to them. You can do this.”
Faced with the size of the wall, Selene wasn’t so sure. Was it taller than she was used to? It had to be.
“Don’t think,” Petrina shouted at her. “One step at a time.”
The wall drew closer, closer, closer—
Selene didn’t stop to breathe. She just ran.
And when the wall rose before her—
She leapt.
Augustus crawled onto the beach, fingers sinking into hot sand, and dragged himself upright against a sun-warmed boulder. His clothes were suctioned uncomfortably to his body.
“Augustus, hurry.”
Augustus nodded to his beloved’s whisper on the warm breeze.
Beside him, Oskar squinted toward the dense, shadowed forest, where no wind stirred and something ancient watched. “I’m here, Em. I’m coming.”
Em? Who was Em?
Selene. They had to find Selene.
One of the Blades staggered past them, calling a whole other name entirely. His words were clogged with tears. “Freya, hold on. I’m coming.”
“Augustus, please.” Selene was begging now.
Down the beach, Blaze stumbled between a pair of boulders. “I’m almost there, Augustus.”
What the…?
“Augustus!”
Augustus snapped to attention and dragged his feet forward. “I’m coming, i psychi mou. Just hold on.”
Plan for four.
Oskar’s instruction guided Selene like a hand. Her boot gripped the wall’s stone in a way wholly unlike the solid surfaces back home.
She didn’t think.
She stepped. She climbed. She scaled that wall as if a true and final death threatened.
Two steps.
Three.
Selene let out a roar of determination, reaching, pitting herself against the natural laws of the world—
Her boot came down a fourth time, and she gripped the ledge. Joy and surprise burst through her as she pulled her body up, up, up—
Petrina helped Selene the rest of the way, her brown hair plastered to her temples and flushed cheeks. “I’ve got you,” the assassin grunted.
The thick, round stone on the top dug into Selene’s knees and was hot against her palms, but those minor pains were second to her need for a full breath. Her lungs were on fire.
On the ground, the guards had reached them, and many of them sprinted up the stone with ease.
“Jump!” Petrina shouted, and they leapt into the forest.
The forest tried to stop Augustus with its roots and thick brush. The branches clawed at his face and tore at his chest.
But nothing would stop him. Nothing.
Nothing stood between him and the woman he loved.
Nothing.
Nothing.
Nothing.
Sunlight speared through the dense canopy, a guiding light.
“This way,” Selene said. “This way. I’m this way.”
“I’m coming.”
And every man trudging through the forest echoed his words. “I’m coming.”
They were all coming.
Heat struck Selene in the back, and the deafening rush of erupting flames filled the air, followed closely by bellowing screams.
Atop the wall, bodies, like wilting candlewicks, burned.
Turos weaved and dove and climbed through the air ahead, dancing. Celebrating.
Selene could almost taste his satisfaction.
Meanwhile, Gus hovered nearby and watched it all unfold. He wouldn’t join Turos in his elation over dead men, but he wouldn’t rally against it either. These beasts weren’t meant to be wielded or chained, and right now, all that mattered was their freedom.
All of them.
She and Petrina followed Turos and Gus into the forest.
Mother.
Wait.
Stay.
Wait.
No. Not here. Not now. Not again. Augustus was her home. Her breath. Her truth. And she would not be rewritten.
“I can’t tell where we are,” Petrina said. They slowed their pace now that they’d lost the guards. “We have to find our boat.”
Selene peered around. If she could figure out the direction of the waterfall they’d first found, then—
The world rippled like a song playing a chord too low to hear. No, not the world. The barrier of power around the island.
Michail.
Mother.
Wait.
Michail.
He’s home now.
Stay.
Selene’s breath caught.
Augustus.
From a branch high within the canopy, Gus whimpered. Turos sidled his black-scaled body up against Gus like a dense shadow.
“Why’d you stop?” Petrina asked, glancing over her shoulder.
Selene didn’t answer right away. “Augustus is here,” she said slowly. “I think.”
When the forest next spoke, it was with a single warning: She calls.
Gus flapped his wings so wildly that leaves broke off and fluttered to the ground. He stared through the forest, then his head swiveled to look at her. Fear resonated in those big brown eyes.
A sense of cold dread pooled in her stomach.
“Something’s wrong.”
Augustus felt dizzy and sick. The forest spun in tight circles, and he tripped more than not.
The men with him—the Blades, the Rangers, the pirates—all formed a haphazard line following the sound of her voice, everyone struggling across the hazardous floor.
What he didn’t understand, and what he didn’t have the energy to question, was why they were all hearing a different person.
One of the Blades heard his mother.
Felix, a brother who died years ago.
Blaze kept calling out to Augustus—the man was clearly blind. He was right here.
Oskar kept saying Emanouella’s name. Or Em. The dead queen?
“Augustus, hurry.”
Augustus could only nod.
He was so tired.
The forest blurred, and when it refocused, Lili was there holding him by the shoulders. “What’s with you, mate? What’s going on?”
Didn’t she know? Couldn’t she hear?
Further down, Roslyn slapped one of the Rangers in the face. Luc, maybe. Or Xavier. He couldn’t tell them apart, honestly, and he didn’t much like them anyway. They wanted to take Blaze away from him.
“Get a hold of yourself,” Roslyn was saying to the bald one. “Nia died a long time ago, remem— Oh gods.” Roslyn shot a wide-eyed look at Lili. “I know what this is. Fuck.”
“What?” Lili demanded.
Augustus didn’t have time for this. Selene needed him. He pushed Lili aside, but she only yanked him back by the arm. A growl rippled out of his throat.
She slapped a warm palm over his mouth. “Stop that, you stupid bastard.”
Roslyn pulled a pair of swords from the cross sheath on her back. “There might still be time. We have to find her and kill her before—”
Kill Selene?
Not while he still had breath in his body.
Augustus faced Lili, fingers curling into fists. He didn’t want to hurt her. But he would. If she got between him and Selene, he would. He’d kill her with his bare hands if he had to.
Beside him, Oskar glared down at the sailing master. “You’ll touch her over my dead body.”
Roslyn backed up a step, swords up, eyes darting between Luc, Xavier, and the two Blades closing in. “Now, now, boys.”
“Ros,” Lili said, eyeing the line of men stalking toward her, including Felix and Pavle. “Care to explain?”
“There’s a Nahrin on the island.”
“A what?”
Roslyn sighed. “A swamp siren.”
If Selene was a siren, so be it.
He would die for her.
Selene tamped down the exhaustion and sprinted after the two dronsian.