CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO #2
Noctis went into a rage when the crew gathered to plan the Oceanwrought prison heist. Even being a god, he was incapable of surviving in the depths without gills, and it killed him to know it.
Instead of accepting that he couldn’t join Laziel and I, he simmered at my other side, forming his power into spheres of air-filled bubbles and launching himself inside.
When he shoved the bubble and himself into the ocean, he timed how long he could breathe underwater encased in the capsule until needing to come back up for air.
He never made it past twelve minutes.
I tried to ignore the soaking wet, laid out god as he panted for air, punching the sky in frustration. My main focus was retrieving the trident piece, returning, and using it to awaken the titan and bring safety to the realms.
Memories of the stories about the prison full of the ocean’s deadliest creatures surged in my mind slowly through the days, some dark, some gruesome, and all terrifying.
My eyes drifted closed, trying to visualize the monster that scared me the most as a child—the Carello’ka.
Many stories were told of how the Carello’ka would skin a merfolk alive, tear off each finger and toe nail, and then move to slowly tear away at their internal organs for massive feasts.
“Center yourself. Imagine what you need,” Laziel said as if he knew I was trying to trigger my body to fight the monster. “Find the well of power, and take what is yours.”
I breathed in, then slowly blew the air from my mouth. The creature stalked around in my mind, searching for my friends, my sister, even Noctis. But right when I felt my heart race and the buzzing against my bones, my outstretched palms expelled nothing.
I yelled out in frustration, and Noctis immediately fell at my side.
“Are you hurt?” he asked in a panic, assessing my face.
“I have no powers,” I answered, laying back on the warm sunbaked wooden planks.
“You were never given the chance to learn, to grow into them. You’re not broken. You’re just,” Noctis ran his hand down my arm, “delayed. That doesn’t mean they aren’t there. It just means they’ve been quiet, waiting. And that’s not your fault.”
“Calling someone ‘delayed’ isn’t a compliment.”
“Very well. Perhaps ‘delayed’ lacks charm.” He paused as if contemplating his next sentence. “Let us say your magic is simply… unhurried. Like tea steeping in freshly boiled water. The longer it waits, the stronger it becomes. A little more patience, and you’ll be even more unstoppable.”
“Let tea steep too long, and it becomes bitter,” Calvin quipped as he approached. “You’ve been alive for ages, and that’s the best you can come up with?”
I chuckled under my breath, but Noctis leveled Calvin with a glare.
“Raven…” he drawled.
Raven extended his feathers and bent down to launch.
“Wait, wait. No need for that,” Calvin stammered. “I only came over here to prepare us for docking into Brigg Isle. I’d like to make it there intact, if possible.”
A piercing shock tore through my face like a thread of fire stitched beneath the skin. I hissed through my teeth, refusing to cry out, but my hands fisted, cutting deep into my palms.
“No… no…” Noctis whispered, grasping my shoulders softly.
“Is she cursed?” Jun’s low, rich-toned voice caused everyone to turn quickly, even me through the dull ache that followed. “The same marks are all over you, too.”
“I’m fine,” I reassured again, but the pain seemed to fester stronger in my blood as the days passed. “Is Zahara okay?”
It was the first time Jun left her cabin in days. He refused to eat and refused to leave her side. He refused to do anything other than wait for his power to refuel and immediately drain himself to heal her more.
“She’s awake. And ordered me to bathe.”
Calvin laughed. “Tell her thank you. From everyone.”
Jun grinned, but it was barely noticeable behind his black hood that covered a majority of his face.
“She also told me to tell you all to leave her for the night. She is… acclimating to her loss,” Jun murmured.
We fell silent, and Jun cleared his throat, the sound too deliberate as if he were trying to reset the moment.
“Curse,” he said, the words lingering as if he was thinking. “Have you tried the Sunder Coin?”
“The Sunder Coin?” Noctis spurted, quick and sharp, as if the answer could not come quick enough.
“It’s a relic. One us healers studied briefly in the academy. It won’t heal you,” Jun gestured to Noctis, “but it should tear your bond apart enough to save her. At least give us time to cure it for you both.”
Silence followed as everyone tried to put together the pieces.
“So, it’ll sever our Blood Tie?” I questioned.
I used to loathe our connection, but now it lingered like something I couldn’t quite sever–quiet, constant, and impossible to ignore, steadying me in ways I didn’t want to admit, as if my emotions were no longer entirely my own but justified by what I could feel of him within me.
“It should. Its main job is to destroy the tether between two persons. Whatever the tie may be. In your case, the Blood Tie,” Jun answered, tripping over his words.
Noctis didn’t look away from him.
“Tell me how to retrieve it.”