Chapter 8
Esmyra
The Night Wraith groaned like a dying beast, its splintered onyx timbers creaking as they shifted against the rolling waves. It should’ve been at the bottom of the sea still, rotting away beneath the pressure of the water, but Esmyra had willed it back.
She dragged her ship up from the abyss like a ghost of vengeance. No wind filled its shredded sails, and no hands guided its wheel. It was only her power, coiling through the sea, that carried it forward.
She stood at the bow, her fingers curling over the splintered railing as the wind howled around her.
The ruined ship cut through the water like a phantom, moving with unnatural grace despite the gaping holes in its hull and the jagged remains of its masts.
It was dead, yet it sailed, mimicking the name it had always borne: The Night Wraith.
Esmyra felt similar to the vessel—like something torn between life and death, something hollowed out and rebuilt with nothing but sharp, jagged edges.
Her gaze burned toward the horizon, toward the kingdom that had taken everything from her. Her father’s blood had been spilled on Lephyrin’s soil, and their king’s hands were stained red with crimes he thought would go unpunished.
Esmyra wanted them to see her coming. Not only that, but she wanted to make a statement with the ghost of Blackwood’s ship while she was at it.
She imagined them all standing on the cliffs and the harbor walls, watching in dread as The Night Wraith cut through the waves.
She craved their panicked shouts, the sharp clang of bells ringing through the port as they realized what was approaching.
No flag, no oars dipping into the water, no living crew standing at the helm.
Only the wreck of a ship and the god who had raised it from the grave.
“You’re shaking,” Kaelypso said, her voice slithering through Esmyra’s mind. “Your heart beats like prey.”
“Because Draevyn broke my trust,” Esmyra whispered aloud, her voice trembling.
“Love is the sharpest of blades,” Kaelypso said. “It seems both Irah and his heir know exactly where to place its edge.”
Esmyra let out a hate-filled laugh that more resembled a huff. “How fucking poetic.”
Silence stretched for several moments before the goddess continued, “What is the outcome you wish for? You’re already what he made you, as I am what Irah made me. They carved out our hearts and left us bleeding on stone floors.”
Esmyra’s jaw clenched. “I want justice for what’s been done. I want—”
“No,” Kaelypso cut her off. “I know your heart. I’ve seen what lies in your soul.”
“And what’s that?” Esmyra’s lip curled in irritation.
“You want vengeance. You want them to suffer just as you have,” Kaelypso said simply.
Esmyra’s lips parted, loathing how easily the goddess read her. “And you don’t?”
“I want them to remember,” she admitted. “We will make them all pay for what they’ve done. For what they’ve forced the realm to forget. And if we burn, we burn together. They will answer to the Goddesses of the Depths.”
Goddesses. A sharp grin curled at the edges of her lips.
A thick mist unfurled around her, spilling out like grasping fingers as it bled into the sea. Esmyra felt betrayed in every sense of the word, and now the world would answer to Kaelypso. And, together, they would show them what it meant to truly drown.
After three long days at sea, Lephyrin came into view. Esmyra listened for the echoes, expecting the kingdom to be alive with the hum of merchants and nobles alike as it always was. But it was quiet.
The Night Wraith’s shadow loomed over the water, surrounded by fog. The ship didn’t dock, nor did it release its anchor. It simply waited, floating just beyond the harbor.
A feline smile pulled at her lips as the water began to stir.
Esmyra pulled herself onto the rail, balancing on her heel before taking a step over its ledge. She didn’t fall or plummet down to the sea but instead was gracefully lowered with the assistance of her magic.
Once she reached the water’s edge, the mist parted, revealing the still, dark surface of the sea. The reflection staring back at her was both foreign and familiar, something that would normally send her heart into a flutter of nerves, but she welcomed the change.
Blue-rooted silver hair cascaded past her shoulders, shimmering like liquid moonlight, moving as though it had a life of its own.
It framed her sharp features, her skin kissed with a faint iridescence, as if she had been sculpted from the very essence of the ocean itself.
Her tattoos swirled in the same silvery-blues, coiling around her arms.
And she knew that beneath those eyes—those serpentine, glacial eyes—Kaelypso was the one staring back at her through their reflection.
The dress she wore was a transparent onyx that revealed glimpses of skin before wrapping around her natural curves as her legs peeked out from the double slits.
Thanks to Kaelypso’s newfound power flowing through her, clothing would never be an issue again. Not only could she become anyone she desired, but she could cloak herself in whatever her mind conjured as well.
Esmyra bent down and skimmed her webbed fingers over the water, sending out ripples that distorted her reflection.
She had once been a pawn to men and their kingdoms. A feared monster of the depths. But now? Now, Esmyra was something else entirely—something so much worse.
Shouts rang out from the docks as guards rushed down the planks, finally noticing her presence. The fear in their voices sent a sharp satisfaction brewing through her chest.
Esmyra hovered just above the surface, her bare feet barely touching the waves. And as she willed it, the sea moved with her, lifting beneath her heels in a silent current. Tiny sparks of lightning leapt from her taloned fingertips, and she sent her power skittering across the water.
Screams tore through the port as she fully came into view.
Oh, they’re making this too easy. The cackle that erupted from her echoed, sounding as if it came from every direction as it carried out on the waves.
The air thickened with mist, tendrils of sea fog creeping over the docks, curling around the wooden beams and stone streets, reaching for anything it could hold in its grasp. Some people gathered and gawked at the sight while others screamed and fled.
Esmyra let them look at her. Let them see what had been reborn in the deepest depths of their world.
A gunshot cracked through the air, followed by several more, but she didn’t even flinch.
“Nothing can touch us here,” Kaelypso reminded her, and a vicious smirk formed. “The sea will always work to protect us, even if there is a time we cannot protect ourselves.”
Muskets flared in quick succession as the guards along the dock unleashed their volley. The bullets whistled toward her, but to Esmyra’s surprise, as they struck her skin, they flattened, falling uselessly into the sea below with a subtle splash.
Huh. That’s interesting.
She tilted her head, moonlit hair flowing around her shoulders before she lifted her stare back to the men, regarding them with something between amusement and disdain. It would take more than a few bullets to take down a god.
The guards hesitated. The ones who had fired first reloaded with shaking hands. Others gripped their swords tighter, their knuckles white as they lifted the blades above their heads. Their fear, however, was as thick as the salt in the air, stinging her nose.
“Now, now, boys…” Her voice echoed across the water. “Is that any way to welcome a guest?”
Esmyra lifted her taloned hand toward them all, and with a flick of her wrist, the sea obeyed.
Water surged upward like living serpents, twisting through the air before lashing out. The tendrils struck fast, wrapping around the throats of three of the men at the edge of the dock. They barely had time to scream before the ocean yanked them toward her, dragging them beneath the waves.
She felt them drown, felt as their struggle lessened with each second passed, until their lungs were filled with nothing but sea and salt.
Lifting her stare back to the docks, a silver glow cast from her eyes as she grinned. “Boo,” she whispered with a wink, and the remaining guards broke out in a frantic run.
Weapons clattered against the dock as they turned, shoving past one another in their desperate scramble to flee.
Some tripped over crates and piles of coiled rope, others stumbled onto their hands and knees once they reached the sand.
Their panicked cries and the ringing of warning bells erupted through the air as word spread through the harbor.
Esmyra didn’t stop them. She wouldn’t harm the innocents of their kingdom—only the man who sat upon the throne and those who served him.
And Draevyn fucking Rowe.
Her gaze swept across the chaos unfolding before her. Yet, among the scrambling guards and screaming townspeople, she didn’t see him.
Lephyrin’s Phoenix wasn’t here doing what he thought so highly of himself for. Draevyn was always the first to throw himself into danger, the first to stand in her way, playing the hero.
“Then why isn’t he here?” Kaelypso snapped.
A frown pulled at her lips as her brows furrowed. Disappointment brewed in her chest, quickly replaced by irritation.
Esmyra drifted forward, her bare feet finally reaching the damp sand of the shore as the tide licked at her heels, drawn toward her like a lover.
The air seemed to tremble around her, thick with the weight of the power coursing through her. “Where is he?” Her voice echoed.
The nearest guards, too foolish or too afraid to run, raised their swords, their arms trembling.
Esmyra tilted her head and smiled, knowingly. “Oh, he can’t hide forever.”
She lifted her arm, twirling it gracefully over her head as she squared her hips. The water at her feet surged upward in response, spiraling around her, twisting and lengthening until it formed the shape of a sea serpent.
Oh, I do like that.
“Then you’ll love this,” Kaelypso purred.
The creature coiled around Esmyra’s raised arm, translucent yet alive, its sleek body rippling like a current. Its head, draconic in form, lifted beside her shoulder, its liquid fangs gleaming as it hissed at the men before her.
Several of them took a step back.
One fired their gun.
BOOM.
The bullet streaked toward her, only to strike her bare skin and bounce off like a pebble skipping across the surface of a lake.
“Fool.”
“Indeed,” Esmyra growled.
Her eyes darkened, narrowing on the man who fired, and then the sea serpent lunged, wrapping around his neck until it snapped.
The tide surged forward, rising unnaturally high behind her before crashing down, sweeping several men off their feet. Water wrapped around their bodies, twisting up their legs, pinning them down as they thrashed and choked.
A few remained standing, watching in horror as the kingdom’s bells continued to ring. Screams could be heard in the distance as Lephyrin’s capital fell to her power within minutes.
Esmyra turned her gaze on them, her swirling tattoos casting a glow on their faces.
A pointed look sent a tendril of water lashing out, seizing the nearest guard by the throat as it lifted him.
His eyes went wide as he clawed at the force constricting his airway, his feet kicking helplessly above the sand.
“I won’t ask again,” she murmured, tilting her head as she glided up to him. Her eyes captured his as her serpentine pupils dilated.
Oh, how I’ve missed this. Esmyra reveled in the power as she used her compulsion for the first time since the merging.
Only the sensation was different now. What once before felt like a needle and thread puncturing the surface of her victim’s will, was now something else altogether. She could dig through it all, see it all. His life, plans, and thoughts.
He gasped as she rummaged through his mind, his face turning red while he struggled. But he was no match for her magic.
Nothing was.
“Now I think you’ll cooperate.” A smirk formed as her brows creased. “Where. Is. Draevyn. Rowe?”
“Th-the tithe,” he choked out. “The king and his sons are at the tithe. It’s being held at the castle.”
Her fingers twitched, and the water released him. He collapsed onto his hands and knees, coughing and sputtering, while she lifted her gaze to the castle set on the hill that overlooked its kingdom.
The tithe.
Of course. The king’s precious display of power and wealth; his yearly collection of gold and goods stolen from the people who suffered beneath his rule. No doubt he was seated on his gilded throne, basking in his own self-righteousness while the kingdom bled for him on their shores.
Esmyra’s jaw tightened, and she stepped past the fallen guards as they cowered away from her.
If Draevyn wouldn’t come to her, then she would bring the storm to him.