Chapter 46
Esmyra
The wooden floorboards creaked softly beneath her as torches were posted along the deck, their flames barely holding the darkness at bay.
Esmyra couldn’t get Jak’s confession from earlier out of her mind. It was practically eating her alive. Not only that, but also how the velsinyte still somehow had a hold on her. They managed to wrap her wrist in hopes it would begin to heal, but without her powers, she assumed it would take weeks.
Just like a fucking mortal. She scoffed.
Regardless of her broken wrist, her entire body ached. She wasn’t even sure if that was the right word for it. But the longer the pain lingered in her, the deeper it burrowed.
It crawled into her bones, perhaps even into the marrow itself. Every joint screamed, every muscle burned, and the pain threaded through her nerves like fire under her skin.
It wasn’t stabbing or searing, but heavy and endless. It began at her spine and pulsed with every heartbeat. It was as though something in her was breaking and knitting itself back together, only to break again.
Esmyra wanted to claw it out, but it was everywhere. It was her.
Sleep. Maybe she just needed to rest to get her mind right.
As she reached the steps leading below deck, a faint glow caught her eye in the captain’s office. She paused mid-step, her eyes narrowing toward the door. The curtains on the small window swayed just enough to let the flame’s flickering light spill out, beckoning her closer.
Her pulse quickened, sensing who was behind that door.
Esmyra was quickly beginning to realize that she’d always been able to feel his presence. It was like a comforting warmth she constantly craved.
Without really thinking, she changed course, her boots a whisper against the deck as she headed for the captain’s quarters.
The door opened with a subtle creak as she stepped inside without a word.
The glow of the candle flames painted the room in swaths of gold and shadow, the flickers catching against the sharp lines of Draevyn’s shoulders.
He stood motionless, his back facing her as he stared up at the map that was hung on the farthest wall.
Esmyra lingered in the doorway, watching him and noting that every muscle in his body seemed coiled tight.
When she finally stepped inside and closed the door, the soft click echoed. But Draevyn didn’t turn, he didn’t even flinch.
What’s going on in that head of yours? she thought, almost frustrated at how much she wanted to know. He’d come for her, fought for her, burned for her, apparently. But in this quiet, he felt impossibly distant. Truthfully, she just didn’t even know where to begin with him.
“You know,” he said without turning, “you’ve got this adorable habit of trying to sneak up on me while hiding in the shadows.”
Her breath caught at the sound of his voice. He always seemed to know when she was there, as if some invisible thread connected them.
Then Draevyn finally tilted his head just enough to glance over his shoulder. “But you should know by now… I’ll always find you, Wildfire.”
Did he sense her, just as she always did him?
Heat flushed through her chest, heart fluttering at his nickname for her. She knew his words were partly a joke, but also something else entirely.
Esmyra pushed off the door, wearing a sly grin. “You should know…one day my sneakiness will work. And you’ll never see it coming.”
“Doubtful.” He let out a quiet chuckle, his eyes flickering with amusement. “But I’d like to see you try.”
“Oh?” She stepped up beside him, tilting her head back to take in the map pinned to the wall. “Pretty bold of you to think you’re untouchable, Draevyn Rowe.”
Silence filled the room, and for a moment, she wondered if she’d said the wrong thing.
“I’m far from untouchable,” he finally said, his voice dropping lower. “And it’s safe to say the realm now knows my one, true weakness.”
All words slipped from her mind at that. She felt the heat of him flicker against her skin, mingling with the warmth rising in her chest.
Esmyra lifted her fingers and brushed the edge of the map. “You’ve been staring at this map all night?”
“Not all night,” he said softly, finally turning to her. His eyes burned with the same intensity as the flames dancing on the candles’ wicks. “Do you ever think about what’s beyond our realm?”
Her head cocked to the side, intrigued.
“There has to be more than just Rymelle,” he continued. “Other lands, or worlds. Maybe even places we can’t imagine.”
She thought about Lia, the female she met in the tavern back in Anchorage Cove, and how she said she and her companions were from another realm.
Esmyra let out a breath. “You know, I’ve spent centuries chasing every edge of this map, and yet it feels like we’re still trapped inside an invisible cage.”
A half-smile played on his lips. “If there’s something beyond our world, I’d like to be the one to find it.” He paused, and her pulse began to race. “With you. If you’re up for the adventure, that is.”
The words lingered between them. She shifted on her feet, their shoulders almost touching as she stared at the map alongside him.
“Then maybe we just need to sail far enough to fall off the edge.”
His smirk deepened. “Or find out the edge was only the beginning.”
Draevyn wanted to sail off into the sunset together and never look back. It was the most love-sick thing she’d ever heard. Something she would mock others for without a second thought.
But the thought of it now…with Draevyn?
It should’ve been the kind of thing that made her heart soar, that made the walls she’d built around herself crumble for him once again.
But instead, it twisted inside her. Because he meant it.
She could hear it in his voice—see it in the way he looked at her like there was no wicked deed she could cast that would scare him away.
Esmyra didn’t deserve the hope in his words, or the promise in his eyes.
She tried to swallow it down, to smirk and tease like she always did, but her voice cracked when she finally asked, “Why?”
He blinked, seeming to be caught off guard. “Why what?”
“Why did you come after me?” she whispered, the words almost torn from her. “After everything I’ve done, everything I’ve—” She shook her head, unable to meet his gaze. “You should’ve let me go, Draevyn.”
There was a beat of silence, filled only by the sound of the waves slapping against the hull beyond the windows. She felt him looking at her, searching the side of her face.
“I couldn’t,” he said simply, but the weight in his voice was enough to crack her open. “I won’t. I refuse to give up on you. Not until you tell me to. Not until you say it in a way where even I believe you.”
Esmyra dared to glance at him then, and what she saw in his whiskey gaze was almost enough to make her believe she wasn’t the monster she knew she’d finally become.
“Draevyn, I—”
He stepped in front of her, closing the distance she was desperate to keep between them.
She took a few steps back as he advanced, his presence overwhelming, until the edge of the captain’s desk dug into her hips.
Her breath caught, heart pounding, but before she could react, his hands were at her waist.
With effortless strength, he lifted her and set her on the desk, the wood cool beneath her palms as she gripped the edge for balance. Draevyn stepped in close, standing between her legs as his gaze burned into hers.
The ship swayed with the waves, but all she could feel was him. The heat of him being so close, the intensity radiating from him, and the sheer refusal to let her slip away.
Draevyn placed his hands on the edge of the desk, his knuckles turning white as if holding himself back. “You think I didn’t know what you were going to do the moment you set foot in Lephyrin? You think I didn’t want you to?”
Tears stung at the back of her eyes, but she blinked them away, clenching her jaw.
His tone softened, though the fire in his gaze never dimmed. “And yes, you murdered a king, destroying my relationship with my brother. There’s no denying that…” He blew out a breath. “But do you know what I felt watching you do it?”
Esmyra’s lip trembled, the veins in her neck tightening to the point of pain as she tried to keep her emotions in.
“Pride,” he finally said. “Because for once, they didn’t win. You did. The wicked men of this world who sit on these polished thrones think they can take and take and take, and you took it back like the fucking goddess you are.”
Her chest ached, torn between wanting to collapse into him and flee as far as the sea would carry her.
“And still, I’m convinced you only took back a sliver of what you’re owed,” he said. “And I would lose everything a thousand times over if it meant seeing you claim it.”
The room spun, her turmoil raging like a storming sea. Esmyra wanted to tell him he was wrong, that she was unworthy of that kind of devotion. But when she opened her mouth, the words tangled in her throat, swallowed by the look in his eyes.
It was a look no one had ever given her. Not truly. Not in a way she ever believed it.
Worlds will burn before he lets anything happen to you again. Jak’s words from earlier echoed in her mind.
“I freed your crew, burning my own men in the process. In Anchorage Cove, I had us follow whispers and shadows, anything that might lead me back to you.”
“But why?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
His hand reached out, almost hesitant, before brushing the back of his fingers along her cheek. “Because, if nothing else, I had to give you the truth. The truth of what Syrena had done. Of why I wasn’t there after, and of what happened to your father.”
“When you returned to your kingdom…” Esmyra’s gaze went distant. “Did your king believe you? About there being no treasure in Maerinys?”
Draevyn’s eyes slowly roamed over her. “Not all treasure is made of gold.”
Her lips parted at the words.