CHAPTER THIRTEEN #2
My side bumped into a solid, warm mass through the chaos at the exact moment a gurgled humph sounded. I turned to defend the crew member, only to find Calvin laid across the ground in a heap of blood. The Xemaari captain drew his sword from Calvin’s still chest.
A furious storm fused in me, threatening to break free and wreak havoc on the realms. Damn them all.
Blood pooled beneath my friend, his limp body swimming in it. A roar reverberated, deep and agonizing before everything erupted in flame.
My eyes couldn’t see past the fire, and somehow, it ran across my skin unburning, testing its ability to hurt me, then flickered away to find another target.
Pressure overwhelmed my body, taking me to the ground.
I couldn’t move, only able to see a sliver of the fire as it danced across the skin of my arm.
It all fell, as if ordered to dissipate into the air with a snap, obedient like the soulless guards we fought. With it, the Xemaari scattered across the sand, burnt to charred ash.
I blinked feverishly, attempting to gain my bearings. Noctis lifted himself off of me, a godly shield he had become. He was just as bewildered as I.
Jun was on fire.
It swirled around his body, as he crouched over Calvin, tears drenching his face. Glowing light poured from his hands and into Calvin’s chest. He teetered as he worked to heal like he was on the verge of unconsciousness himself.
We circled them, tears streaming down Zahara’s cheeks as she watched her boys break. As she witnessed the death of someone she considered a son. However, it looked as if she had really lost two sons that day as Jun poured all he could into Calvin. He shook violently, forcing his magic into him.
“You can have it all…” Jun’s deep, low voice cut in through the soundless area, vengeance and despair weaved into each syllable. “Take it… TAKE IT!”
Noctis kneeled beside him and placed a hand to Jun’s fumbling, jerking shoulder.
Magic hummed from the god’s palm and down Jun’s arm, the combination of their powers working to heal Calvin.
We stayed there for so long, praying for Calvin’s chest to rise and fall.
I begged Aetheron, the Shepherd of Souls, to spare his life.
He deserved to live.
Saving him from the capture was too easy.
Gods. It’s my fault. I should have watched our backs, knowing the damn skeletons would mend back together and hunt us down. Calvin would die because of me. How many more would be slain from my downfall?
Jun’s body slumped over Calvin’s chest until unconsciousness claimed them together. Noctis released Jun’s shoulder, slowly laying him on the ground. He placed two fingers along the protruding vein on Calvin’s neck.
“He’s alive,” he whispered, but the relief was palpable in his voice. “Barely, but his heart faintly beats.”
A sob escaped Zahara’s lips, her hand reaching to steady herself with my arm. I accepted it, shuffling closer to support her.
Noctis gently draped Jun over his shoulder and cradled Calvin in his arms. He stood with minimal strain.
“I can feel a god’s essence drawing near. We have to leave,” Noctis demanded softly, and he turned and trudged toward the tunnel connecting Shadeborne Bound with Terraguard Bound, carrying the weight of both men.
Noctis refused any help carrying Calvin and Jun, even as his knees buckled up the moldy staircase. Instead, he led us back to the tunnel that connected the realms in silence, his heavy breathing and slippery steps, the only noise bouncing off the moist stone.
The ship floated in the harbor port, splashing water along the dock. We didn’t mind its cool mist as we stepped back onto the presumed safety of the main deck.
Noctis laid Jun and Calvin along the two cots in their chamber of the remodeled map room, the walls fully decorated with odd trinkets and brightly tinted paintings, a sure collection of Calvin’s belongings.
The chaos of color in the room reminded me of him—loud, vivid, impossible to ignore.
His soul was still in the limp body laid before me.
Somewhere in the mess of dried blood, Calvin’s heart was under the surface fighting its way back to us.
And somehow the walls seemed to know it, too.
Zahara perched at their sides, wedged between each of the men’s cots. She swished a rag through a silver bucket of water and rubbed it on their foreheads. A mother who keeps busy through their pain is one who transforms her sorrow into strength.
Noctis and I silently returned to the main deck. I slumped to the floor, overlooking the sunset, and gestured for him to follow. His eyebrows rose.
“Is this you being nice to me?” he asked with a lilt.
“It’s me calling a truce.” I was done arguing. Done fighting. Done shielding.
“Love, a truce?” The name from his lips made my heart flutter. “You were never part of the fight. You’ve always been the reason I stayed in it. No truce… just stay.”
His words echoed through my mind, like a familiar warmth. I relished in it for far longer than I’d wanted to, far longer than needed.
“Thank you for what you did today. For saving Calvin… and Jun.” I tried to say more, but my throat constricted painfully.
“Careful, if you thank me too sweetly, I might start doing everything for you.” He never took his eyes off of my profile.
I worked to suppress the grin that threatened to pull at my lips, but he caught the slight movement, right before I burst into hysterics. The laugh that tore through me was raw… needed.
“I’ve seen oceans form, stars collide, even the first dawn rise over a newly born world. But your smile is the one thing that undoes me.”
Warmth seeped deep into my cheeks. My eyes studied the horizon as the sun cast an ethereal glow across the island.
“What if I never get my memories back?” I wanted to know our story, and I hated the Ocean Mother for taking what belonged to me.
“Then I’ll work every damn day earning back your heart. New experiences, new memories, new…”
“Us?” I asked, knowing it was how he intended to finish the sentence.
He looked at me with eyes full of unspoken dreams and quiet ache. His wings flickered and radiated against the sun’s rays, a scarlet hue projecting across the wood.
“I haven’t seen you fly with your wings, only your magic.” It was more of a question than a statement, but when his eyes scrunched, I wished I never said anything.
“My father clipped them when I was ten. Cleaved through the tendons with an axe. I’m lucky I still have them at all.”
I sucked in a breath. “Why… why would any parent do that?”
“Control.”
“Do you miss them?” I whispered, grave and solemn. A sad, pitying breath.
“I’ve made do with my magic, but there’s very little in this world better than flying with your wings. Feeling the wind blow between the feathers, the muscles work to propel you, the skill needed to send your body through the sky…”
“Your father should be killed.”
The god hummed in agreement.
“Do I have family in the depths?” I wasn’t sure why I longed to know, but the questions dug into me. It felt odd that the god might have known more of my own life than I did.
Noctis finally looked away from me. “None that are worth remembering.”
“Will you tell me what you know about them?”
He paused, contemplating the softest blow to land the information. “If I could make it down to the depths, I would murder them with my own hands. No powers. No godly intrigue or fear factor. Just brutal death.”
I gasped. “How could you say that? They’re my family.” The nerve of that man.
“You weren’t only sacrificed by the Ocean Mother.
You were prodded and tested by your father and mother first.” He faltered mid-sentence, as though the words struck him deep.
“When I found you on the shore of Remdigue, you were covered in bruises, sold to the Ocean Mother for a promise of power by your parents. You were nearly drained of blood already by their hands as they drank it like the Thirstlings. So, I have no problem saying that I would kill them if I saw them.”
A barrier in my mind cracked, pulling in a memory.
Two sets of familiar sea-blue eyes bore into me as I writhed against the magical bonds holding me to a flattened stone.
Protrusions dug deep into my back, splintering aches shooting through my body.
My father ignored my screams, brutally shoving the sharp blade through my arm’s skin and watching as the iridescent blood streamed through the water.
Gods, I writhed, jerked, shoved my tail out as hard as I could…
but he only chuckled when I couldn’t escape.
His dagger-toothed mouth overlapped the cut as he drew my blood into his body, fueling him.
He sucked hard, teeth piercing through the skin.
Sobs tore through me. Why didn’t they love me more than the addiction?
More than the blood? More than the power?
Then, it was my mother's turn. She hesitated slightly before slicing through my other arm, momentary hope bubbling in my chest, but my mother jittered as if she couldn’t live without the taste—as if the addiction alone would kill her if she did not feed from my blood.
I used to wish my blood carried poison. And that poison could free me.
My eyes frantically searched the room, begging my parents to set me free, to have pity on me. But when they finished slicing my arms, they quickly moved to ravage through my tail, peeling away scales one by one.
I snapped back, blinking away the memory, sweat slicking the nape of my neck.
“I remember…” I whispered, my eyes darting around and meeting back at Noctis. “Do they have other children? Please tell me I was the only one.”
He swallowed hard, his throat physically working.
No… no…
I had no words aside from the denial screaming in my head.
Tears pricked my eyes as a memory formed like dough, overwhelming my head with its influx.
The young merfolk girl with brown hair flowing through the ocean as she swam exuberantly through the water.
The freckles that marred her cheeks and nose at such a young age.
The protective feeling that I felt immediately after her birth.
I was only seven, but I still remember the fear when she was born.
The many days and nights I’d dedicated to being ripped open by our parents just to spare my seventeen-year-old sister's innocence.
“Evelyn…” I remembered her name. It bounced around in my mind as if I’d used it regularly.
Noctis continued. “It’s the reason you went back in for revenge. I tried to find her when I searched for you, but it’s like she was missing. And when I found her…”
“She was sacrificed to the Royal Vanguard in my stead.”