Chapter 37
Thirty - Seven
Shaye
Iwake up groggy and seasick. When my vision returns, I find Nyx across from me.
His arms are stretched wide and his wrists are shackled with iron.
His ankles are manacled to the wooden floorboards beneath him and his head is hanging.
His shirt is ripped up and his signature swords crisscrossed on his back are missing.
In horror, I realize I am also shackled similarly to him on the opposite side of our holding cell.
It smells rotten and the air is thick. The smell of iron from the blood spilled fills the humid dungeon of the ship. Other than my throbbing head, I check my body for injury but find I'm blemish free. I can't say the same for Nyx.
"Nyx," I whisper, my throat raw.
He doesn't immediately stir, the slight sway of his head and shallow breathing the only indicators that he's still alive. The blood pooled at his knees, staining his pants, prompts my heart to gallop. He's hurt. But that can't be right. Nyx regenerates. There's no way he –
A low groan hisses from his lips.
"Nyx," I whisper once more, hoping this time he'll glance my way and when he does, I instantly wish he hadn't.
He's been roughed up. His face is bruising and there's a gash stretching from his right temple down his jawline. His mischievous hazel eyes are bloodshot, and his left one is nearly swollen shut.
I gasp as a lump forms in my throat. "Nyx." A tear slips down my cheek as I swallow my screams.
A wicked laugh hums from my right, drawing my gaze.
Fury ignites in my feet and slowly rises through my body until I feel my fingertips throb.
I yank my chains to no avail. As much as I want to strangle her, there's no way I can free myself.
It's then I notice my hair hanging down my chest – it's brown. Realization crashes against me. Hard.
My eyes widen propelling Vesper to laugh louder, stalking toward me like I'm prey ripe for slaughter.
"I've been waiting a long time for this moment," Vesper coos and an unwelcome shiver crawls down my spine.
She lifts her dagger, stained with what I can only assume is Nyx's blood, and places the blade against my cheek.
I flinch, my stomach rolls in anticipation for the pain but she doesn't drag the knife down my face.
She tsks, anger flashing in her red-rimmed eyes.
"Fear not, little princess. Bastian forbade me from laying one harmful finger on you.
" Her sudden menacing grin causes my heart to race, pounding against my ribcage.
"He didn't say anything about your friend. "
She retrieves her dagger and drags her pointed fingernail down the center of my face. "You're probably wondering why your regenerating friend isn't healing."
"For the same reason my hair is now brown, and my magic is silent," I respond with care, not wanting to provoke her and she take her anger out on Nyx. "You have sugovan." The plant used in the tea to stunt my powers and change my appearance.
"You are quite clever." She nods, swiping jet black locks behind her ear.
"I know why you captured me," I attempt to redirect the conversation, hoping she will abandon her quest to further harm Nyx.
"It doesn't take a genius to know why," she hisses back, crossing toward him.
"If you are to inflict anymore harm, do so on me," I pull at my chains. Her sinister glare pins on me and her steps halt. "I'm the one who burned your arm." The one she still has wrapped. "I'm the one who angered you. Forced you to run around the kingdoms in pursuit of me. Punish me."
For a split second I believe she will. Wickedness flashes in her gaze of all the horrific ways she would torture me, but just as quickly as the thoughts tear into her sick and twisted mind, she purges them. Her face hardens and she shakes her head.
"Like I told you before," she stomps behind Nyx, raising her knife. "I was instructed not to harm one hair on your pretty little head." Her smile coils around my lungs and squeezes. "So, he will bear your punishment instead."
"No!"
Vesper slices her dagger from Nyx's left shoulder and down at an angle. He tosses his head back and grits his teeth, as if holding back unearthly howls.
Tears fall down my face and I tug and pull at my shackles in desperate attempts to save my friend. But I fail.
The Soul Eater lifts her dagger once she's made it across Nyx's back but she's not finished.
She digs the tip of her blade at Nyx's shoulder again but slightly lower and drags it slowly down his back.
This time Nyx can't bear the torture in forced silence.
His screams fill the brig and cleave my soul in two.
Vesper tears into his back a third and fourth time and makes her way to slice into him a fifth time.
She's going to shred his back until there's nothing left and there's nothing I can do to stop it.
This is all my fault.
His screams rip into me.
A fifth gash is added to his back. Nyx begins to tremble, his body going into shock.
"Stop!" I plead. "You're going to kill him! Stop!"
"I know." Vesper smiles. "I will do the same thing to your Trinkiti when I get my hands on him." She stabs her blade into Nyx's back a sixth time.
I barely register boots stomping down the stairs between my sobs and screams as I helplessly witness Nyx's suffer. I'm about to watch him die. I will bear his death upon my shoulders for the rest of my days. A guilt so heavy, I feel like dying, too.
"What the fuck is going on?" A male growls.
That voice. It haunts me in my sleep. I don't dare glance his way.
My nightmares flash in my mind.
Blood.
Screams.
Suffering.
It's playing out before my eyes and just like in my nightmares, there's nothing I can do to stop it.
My magic is gone. My weapons are gone. My dragon and even my friends don't know where I am.
And now Bastian is here.
"Answer me!" He bellows, his deep voice rumbles through the room.
Vesper rolls her red-rimmed eyes and pulls her knife from Nyx's back. More blood trickles into the puddle at his knees, soaking his torn pants.
"Don't fret, High General," Vesper coos, not bothering to wipe her blade clean before slipping it into the sheath alongside her hip. "I did not touch your precious princess." Her eyes zip to meet mine. "Not yet, at least."
"Go above deck. I will deal with you momentarily."
Vesper doesn't argue. As she makes her way to the stairs, she glances back at me and Nyx and grins before disappearing.
Bastian thunders toward me and I flinch when his hands cup my face. "Shaye? Shaye, are you all right?"
Despite the fear coursing through my body, horrified that if I look at his face, I'll see a beast instead of a man, I force myself to meet his line of sight.
But it's not what I expect to see. His normally clean-shaven face has scruff growing.
His bright ocean blue eyes that once brought me immeasurable joy are cloudy and bloodshot, as if he's not slept in weeks. I suppose that would make two of us.
"Are you all right?" He repeats his question, his brow knitting into one long line. "Did she hurt you?"
"Don't touch me!" I hiss and wrench myself free from his hands.
"Shaye, I swear I had no idea what she was doing down here. I didn't even know she had captured anyone other than you. She wasn't supposed to bring anyone else aboard – "
"Fuck you."
He recoils as if I've slapped him. It's language not befitting a princess, but I am not the prim and proper girl he once knew. I am ice. I am light. And I am filled with vengeful rage.
"Shaye," he pleads, a broken whisper. "No one was meant to be harmed – "
"Tell that to Nyx." Nyx. Panic rumbles through me. He hasn't moved or made a noise. "Nyx! Nyx!"
Bastian turns his attention to Nyx. He moves to stand behind him, and horror streaks across his face. It must be worse than I imagine.
"Is he alive?" I ask, my throat raw from screaming. I stare at Nyx's bloody and bruising body, waiting to see the slightest twinge from him breathing, but I don't see any sign of life. "Bastian!"
That seems to snap him from whatever daze he found himself in.
"Is he alive?" My voice cracks.
Bastian presses two fingers to Nyx's neck and we both wait.
I swallow hard. If Vesper killed him…
"I feel a faint pulse," Bastian reports, sounding just as relieved as me. "He's breathing."
"This is your fault."
His eyes flick up. There's a darkness there that nearly makes my heart stop.
"If he dies," I growl lowly, "I'll make you suffer."
"If you had come with me in Elowen, this could have been avoided," he barks, and I flinch.
He inhales deeply, as if trying to keep the beast clawing to escape at bay.
"I can't undo what Vesper has done. She will be dealt with.
I assure you. Her orders were to find you and you alone.
Bringing the Tronovian was not part of the plan and torturing him certainly wasn't approved by me. "
"I wish I could believe you."
"Believe me or do not. That is up to you. But I am a man of order. My soldiers are to listen to my voice."
"Yeah, I'm completely convinced you have them following your every command. Such dutiful dogs, heeding their master's call."
"Apparently my intimidation factor is lacking.
Otherwise, you would have obeyed me weeks ago and we'd be in Midori.
All this ugliness could have been avoided had you behaved.
" He marches to the staircase. "If the Tronovian survives the journey, and you don't give me any trouble, I will consider administering him medicine to help – "
"He could heal himself if your bitch hadn't drugged us!"
"Again, she was only supposed to force you to drink it. You gave me no other choice, Ilaria."
"I hate you."
He whips around, fire blazing in his eyes. "What did you say?"
"I said, I hate you! I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!" I shout, rattling the chains pinning my wrists and ankles. "I hope Atlas finds you. I hope he rips you limb from limb. I hope you die a slow and painful death. You've certainly earned it."
"Your threats are wasted on me," he says sadly. "Perhaps you should save them for someone who is easily intimidated."
"But you are afraid. I see it in your eyes." I poke. "How far you have fallen, Bastian Tarkin. I once looked at you and believed you were the epitome of good. How wrong I was."
"You think you are void of fear?" His voice slithers around my body like a snake.
"I hope this Atlas does come for me. I will force you to watch him beg me for his life, or rather, what's left of it.
When I finish with him, there will be no way of knowing if he was once a man or some unsightly beast cursed by the Celestials.
" He slides up next to me, our faces inches apart.
Months ago, I would have given anything for us to be this close, his lips a breath away from my own.
Instead of looking upon the face of a lover, I now look into the eyes of my enemy.
"All you had to do was listen," he whispers, the tips of his fingers caress my face.
Tears well in his tormented gaze. "Oh, Ilaria.
Sweet, naive, Ilaria. All of this could have been avoided, had you only listened. "
"My name is Aurelia Basilius-Sol. I am forged of ice and starlight. I am the daughter of House Basilius and House Sol. I do not bow to your whims or desires. Before this war is through, you will beg for death to claim you quickly. This I swear."
He retracts his hand, terror and confusion plastered across his face. Hardness sets in. His brows pinch into a frown. "You really mean that?"
I nod, my lips twisting into a snarl. "With all my heart."
Pain floods his face, a moment of clarity flashing in his tormented blue eyes. I've wounded him. Good. I wish I could stab the dagger he gave me deep in his blackened heart.
He snatches my left hand and stares at my engagement ring. His bottom lip trembles. "You're marrying him?" The question comes out whispered, broken.
"Yes," I say without hesitation. "I love him."
A rogue tear slips down his face. "You love him?" he says so lowly I almost miss it. His mind is whirling.
Although I expect him to be fueled with anger, transform into his beast form and do something horrible, he surprises me. He releases my hand and thumbs the tear from his cheek. "I will send someone down to take care of your friend."
"What?"
"I will save him," he says, eyes pinned on Nyx.
"Why?" I ask, grateful and confused he's suddenly willing to help.
But Bastian doesn't answer me. He turns on his heel and marches up the steps, his shoulders heavy and demeanor broken.
Within minutes, just as Bastian promised, a Soul Eater I've never seen before begins to clean the gashes and cuts Vesper inflicted on Nyx.
It takes hours, but the demon stops Nyx's bleeding.
He slaps ointments and salves on his wounds before bandaging his entire torso.
"That will stave off any infection," the demon announces, wiping his hands with the towel draped over his shoulder.
"Will he live?" My voice trembles.
His red-rimmed eyes meet mine. He nods. "He will live. For now."
"For now?" I croak. "What does that mean?"
The Soul Eater rises to his feet, packing his medical belongings in a satchel. He doesn't look my way when he says, "Soon, we will return to the portal. Once we use your blood to open it, you both will be at the mercy of our king."
Icy fear streaks through me. "You listen to Bastian."
The demon laughs, the hissing sound grating on my frayed nerves. "We only serve one master and that is not Bastian."
"What will your king do with Bastian once I've opened the portal?"
“Who knows?” He zips his bag and finally meets my eyes. "If I had to guess, Bastian will be given a choice. Serve the master. Or die with you and your friend."
"Does Bastian know?" Surely he doesn't. No way in Bastian's right mind would he agree to those terms. Not when he was so adamant about us ruling together. He's one to give orders, not take them.
The demon grins. "He will soon enough." Unwilling to listen to or answer any more of my questions, the Soul Eater trots up the stairs.
Fuck. Bastian is walking into a trap. But is he? Maybe he's willing to serve the Demon King. Maybe he already weighed his options and was determined to unleash chaos for a piece of the spoils as a loyal servant.
I swallow hard, glancing at Nyx with sorrow in my heart. One way or another, I'll have to figure out a way to save us before it's too late.