Chapter Twenty-Six
RIVEN
Poppy’s shuddering gasp wakes me from my sleep.
Something is wrong.
My eyelids blink hazily but take in snapshots of my surroundings rapidly like I was trained to do in times of war.
We’re on the patio still, having fallen asleep wrapped around one another on the chaise.
The night sky is littered with flashes of lightning that promise rain will come soon, but instead of the fresh scent of ozonic air, a musty rancid aroma litters the air around us.
Poppy shrinks deeper into my arms, face burrowed into my bicep. “Riven,” she whimpers, words shaking as her eyes remain glued to something to the left.
My shadows respond to the tremor in her voice, flooding in around us as my eyes adjust to the darkness to see shadows that don’t belong to me shuffling around.
“Well, isn’t this sweet?” a raspy voice asks mockingly, earning chuckles from at least four other men.
My heart stutters.
We are surrounded.
In a flash of lightning, I see a ship on the horizon and a dozen dingeys slowly making their way to shore.
Pirates.
I’m up and moving us across the deck before I think twice. The only thought in my brain is: Protect Poppy.
“She’s pleasing to the eye.” A pirate with an eyepatch and tattered clothes steps into the lantern light, a smile with missing teeth consuming his face. “Captain, can I keep that one?” Hot, acrid bile climbs up my throat. Over my dead body.
“No,” the captain, a tall, curly-haired male in all black, barks. “Kill them and raid the rooms. We have a dozen more rooms to hit, and you can’t steal a maiden from them all.”
“Not from them all, just this one.” His voice is begging.
“Fine, make it quick.” The captain’s consent sends the man stepping up to us, a chilling chuckle slipping from between his lips.
The pirate lunges at us, blades raised, but before he can strike, one of my shadows slips along the planks like spilled ink. His shipmates move in behind him, ready to back him in his mission.
Two knives vanish from the first pirate’s belt, lifted by nothing the naked eye could see, and without hesitation, I whip one through the air.
It strikes him square in the shoulder. He howls, stumbling forward, and in his fury, swings blindly, his fist connecting with empty air where my shadows had been.
The other stolen knife clatters loose across the deck.
Skidding to a stop at Poppy’s feet.
For half a heartbeat, she freezes, the world narrowing to the glint of steel and the sound of her own breath. Then something older than fear kicks in. She snatches the knife, spins, and throws just like I taught her at the Foxhole a few months ago.
The blade buries itself in the chest of the next pirate charging at us.
He drops.
I watch as the silence in her head detonates all at once. Poppy stares at the body crumpled on the deck, her hands shaking as the realization hits her like a wave.
“Oh coven—” Her voice cracks into a startled scream. “I—I killed him.”
In the pause of chaos—it seems everyone is shocked that she got one of them. I wipe a smear of blood from my lip where another pirate had clipped me. My gaze flicks from the fallen man to Poppy, something almost proud sparking behind the chaos in my chest. A crooked smirk tugs at my mouth.
“Told you,” I say, breathless but amused. “You’re stubborn enough to be dangerous.”
Poppy tries to smile back, but the expression trembles and collapses under the weight of it all. Her chest still heaves, heart pounding wildly.
“High praise,” she manages, the words thin and shaky as the rest of the angry pirates push in around us.
I hear Poppy whimper in fear behind me. In a split second, I see a nightmarish vision playing out in my mind.
The Foxhole without her laugh. My bed without her warmth.
My life without her. And my mind goes blank save for one lingering truth.
There is no version in this world where I survive losing her.
This truth slices clean through my soul and makes all the years I’ve spent denying it feel wasted. She was right there all along, and I’m seeing a world where that may no longer be true.
Here, amid the chaos of the attack, I become the version of me I’ve always tried to hide from her. Because that’s what she needs, and I’d rather her fear me, hate me, than befall any harm. All humor and jokes leave me as I lock into the monster war made me.
A dark smile contorts my face, my head tilting to the side as shadows wrap around my arms. “Try and take her. I promise, if you do, you’ll leave here without an appendage I assume is very dear to you.
” The pirates laugh, but the sound dies in their throats when my eyes blacken, and the shadows take on the form of two males, flanking each of my sides.
Despite their fear, one of them reaches for her, and I slam into them with a snarl that doesn’t even sound human. Another soon moves in, and my shadows pin him to the wall by his throat with a spectral forearm.
“Someone else try to touch her.” The violence is consuming me. At this point, I’d honestly like them to keep trying. It’s been too long since I let the beast within me run free. “See what happens.”
Another charges. I twist, grabbing a wooden spear from the belt of a fallen pirate, snapping the shaft over my knee, and wielding the jagged end like a blade.
“Riven,” Poppy whispers, her shaking voice and ethereal warmth the only things grounding me. The only thing stopping me from going full beast.
“Don’t look away.” My voice is dark and raspy, nearly unrecognizable. “I want you to know what I’d do for you.”
I fight the remaining men brutally. Efficiently using my long dormant training to morph into a terrifying soldier. Blood litters the deck, and the groans of fallen men fall deaf to the thundering sky.
The only thing that stops me mid-swing is another gasp from Poppy’s lips.
I turn, time standing nearly still as I see the smirking captain with his knife to Poppy’s neck.
I swallow my fear, smiling like a predator mocking its prey. “You must not like living very much.”
He laughs in the face of death. “She belongs to me now,” he hisses.
But my demented smile only deepens. “You’ve just made the last mistake you ever will.”
My shadows flood from me, cocooning Poppy and dissolving the knife in his hand. I didn’t know I could do that. Add it to the list of things my power can do when the one I love is in danger. The shadows carry her until she is behind me. Pressed between the wall of the bungalow and my heaving body.
My stance changes, shoulders squaring, body angled to shield her. I reach my hand behind me, finding hers without looking. I would find her in total darkness. Know her and protect her even if I could no longer remember my own name or from where I came.
My voice drops an octave, a sound both gentle and laced with lethality.
“Stay behind me.” This is the only circumstance in which I’d give her an order.
“But Riven, I—” I know what she wants to say. That she has magic that could help. That she could transport us out of here. That she could save herself.
But she doesn’t need to. Not while there is still breath in my lungs. “No arguing. Let me protect you.”
I whisper in the Midnight Tongue until my shadows begin to do my bidding. In a blink, they seize him. He freezes in place, eyes wide and unfocused, like he’s already forgotten how to blink unless my shadows within him will it.
They’re inside him now, curling into his ears, brushing his temples, and then slipping past his lips like smoke until his mind is consumed by them.
I tilt my head, mock curiosity filling my features. “Tell me,” I say softly, twisting my hand in an order for my shadows to caress his face. “Who does she belong to?”
The man’s mouth moves, miming the words I will him to, his voice no longer his own. He will say anything I want him to. “She is yours.”
“Fucking right she is.” I twist my hand, his neck snapping and light leaving his eyes. Shadows engulf him, and wooden boards creak as his remaining men move.
I step closer to Poppy, my hand defensively on her thigh, body coiled like a sprung trap. “Haven’t you men seen enough?” I laugh sadistically. “I will kill each and every one of you for even thinking about touching what’s mine.” Poppy shivers under my hold. I have to get her out of here. Soon.
“We have orders,” a blond peg-legged pirate shouts.
“No one orders you anymore.” I point to their corpse of a captain, and I eye the only exit off the deck. They move toward us again, ignoring me. “Try it. I dare you. Touch her, and you won’t touch anything again.”
“Why do you care about some bitch?” he spits back, the crew laughing.
The words are on my lips before I even think.
Because I love her. But I can’t say it, not without looking into her eyes and begging her to forgive my years of stupidity and ignorance immediately after.
Not in a moment of panic. So I ignore the question of the deranged pirate.
“Custodire,” Poppy whispers the command I taught her years ago, and my shadows press in around me.
“Gratias tibi.” Her thanks sounds like a prayer and something in me stirs to hear her use the Midnight Tongue with both ease and reverence.
She knew they would protect her. I whisper to my shadows once more, pushing the limits of my power to engulf everything in sight in my darkness.
Poppy gasps, clinging to me as her lifeline.
“Where did they go? I can’t see anything,” she whispers against my skin, sending a shiver down my spine.
“Don’t worry, love.” My answer is just as breathless as her question was.
“I can see. Just hold on.” Much like how they held her during the first trial, my shadows pick us up from the ground, carrying us over the cursing pirates that are attacking my shadows like blades could harm the wispy, undying beings I will be paired with until my final breath.
The shadows that chose me. The shadows that answer to Poppy’s emotions as well as mine.
Slowly, we’re lowered to the ground, tucked behind a pergola covered in wisteria in full bloom.
Exhausted, my powers wane, shadows dispersing except for those that cling to Poppy’s side now like a second skin.
I peel back a vine, watching from about a hundred yards away as our intruders stomp around on the deck where my entire life changed.
Where I finally allowed my heart’s truest desire to become known.
“Where did they go?” a pirate shouts, frustration clear in his voice.
“It doesn’t matter,” another bites. “Raid the room and move on to the next bungalow. We have our orders.”
I turn to her, breathing hard, and encase her cheeks in my hands, looking so deeply into her eyes I swear I can see her soul sparkle. In the distance, screams and cannons go off. It seems we aren’t the only ones who are under attack.
Poppy’s choking down air like a woman drowned. “Breathe, Poppy. You’re safe. I swear it.”
“Where did they come from?” she manages to get out, eyes wild with fear. “Why did the kraken not stop them?” Poppy is spiraling, her eyes darting around chaotically in search of danger.
“You’re shaking.” My fingers slide into her hair at the base of her neck, which is slick with sweat now. “Come here.”
In my chest, the rattling emotion is shifting from anger to fear and the grief of what almost was.
They nearly took her from me. The muscles in my throat tighten.
I don’t have time to freak out. Not now.
She needs me. “Are you hurt?” I pull back, lifting up her arms and looking through the rips in her clothes for blood.
Poppy doesn’t answer, and her breathing turns ragged once more.
“Sweetheart, talk to me.” My voice cracks. “Are you hurt?”
My desperation must pierce the veil of her panic because she finally looks at me, really looks at me, and answers, “No,” she breathes. “Not physically.”
I take the first full breath since I woke up and tug her into my chest, wrapping my arms around her like I could shield her from all the hurt and misery of this world. “Breathe with me, Pop. I’ve got you.”
Another cannon goes off, and Poppy’s whole body flinches.
I watch her eyes dart to the closest bungalow when the screams of another woman rip through the night air.
I know what she’s thinking. Her heart is too good and too pure, and she wants to help them.
But it’s not safe, and I’m far too selfish a bastard for that.
“No. Stay with me.” My hands are on her face once more, locking her gaze onto mine. “I can’t protect you over there.” My mouth goes dry, knowing my powers are almost wiped out for the night, and I can’t withstand another fight like we just faced. “If you get hurt, I will never forgive myself.”
Another scream. “We have to help them!” she whimpers helplessly, bottom lip trembling.
I shake my head. “Don’t make me choose between saving them and saving you.
You already know how that ends.” I pull her in and inhale deeply.
Warm vanilla and the smell I’ve always known was my home slows my racing heart.
“I thought I was going to lose you,” I whisper into her hair. “I’ve never been scared like that.”
She pulls back, golden eyes shimmering with unshed tears. “I knew you’d save me.”
“Damn right.” I kiss her hair. “And I always will.”
Her pupils dilate widely, and I can practically hear her racing thoughts as the adrenaline ebbs away and anxiety sets in.
“What is going to happen now? Where do we go? What about the Moirai? What about the Festival?” Her mind is spinning, focusing on trivial things even though we are not fully out of danger yet.
“I don’t care about the Festival. I care about you.” I tuck a lock of hair behind her ear, trying to emulate calmness for her, but my mind is racing too. Racing through plans on how to get us out of here.
“Tell a joke or something.” Her laugh sounds far off and manic. “I’m freaking out, and you’re acting very un-Riven-like.” No, I think this is the closest to the true me I’ve been in a long time.
“I don’t joke when it comes to you.”
Her bottom lip starts to shake again. “I’m scared.”
Me too. “If anyone else comes for you tonight, I won’t be gentle. I would burn the island to the ground to protect you.” My grip on her tightens. “You have nothing to be afraid of.”
She nods a couple of times, eyes falling to the side in thought. “If we die, I want you to know—this is your fault.”
A clipped laugh escapes me. “Now who’s the one telling jokes?”
Her eyes admonish me, a silent scolding. “Riven, just get me somewhere safe. You’re in charge here.” My eyes flick down to her lips for a fleeting moment before another cannon goes off. “Great idea. Put the man with limited impulse control in charge. No notes.” Where the hells are the Moirai?
“Riven, what’s happening?” The panic in her voice has my head snapping to the glowing sigil flashing on her palms. I hold my hand up beside hers, the same symbol glowing on my palm. The one we received when we won the first trial.
“I know where we can go.”