CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
The Pantheorn Sea was a kaleidoscope of hues in yellow and orange as the sun laid to rest below the horizon.
Brigg Isle had already erupted in chaos as Laziel and I looked across the land above the surface, floating in the vastness of the ocean.
To the left, evacuated villagers used the Aeltharyn Peninsula as a bridge toward safer regions, away from the advancing Oceanwrought armies.
Zahara’s ship hurled in the waves in the distant port, tied to the wooden pier in the temporary safety over the strip of land.
However, the crew rushed people and assisted carrying belongings over for the displaced inhabitants.
A gentle comfort settled deep within me watching my friends risk themselves for the innocent.
I did not believe it was mere coincidence I washed up on their ship.
I needed the crew much more than the crew would ever need me.
Maybe there were gods who really did listen and care.
We swam to the shore, our tails shimmering as they transformed back to our leg forms. I gripped my shoulder, hands fisted as blood dripped to the sand. Queasiness hit me hard as my body worked to hold myself upright outside of the water.
A cool sea breeze drifted through my soaked clothing and chopped, uneven hair. Chills ran down my body, tiny bumps prickling across my skin at the chilly difference between the two Bounds.
“You need to get to the ship. To rest,” Laziel coaxed with quiet insistence, cutting through the beating ocean waves against the shore.
“No. Not until they’re all across.”
I trudged toward the villagers as fast as my wobbling legs would allow, knees buckling under me with each step.
Ripping a strip in my tunic’s arm, I packed the blade wound, hissing as my fingers slid into the bloody gash in my shoulder.
The agony shot through me with each inch of material I shoved into the open wound.
The gray fabric drank the blood almost instantly, darkening in spreading blooms. My feet kept moving, driven forward by determination that refused to be swallowed with it.
“Miles distance them, Caelyn.” Laziel’s gentle grip on my shoulder spun me. “You need to rest.” He emphasized the last sentence.
Fury burned within me. My mouth opened to spew a rebuttal, but a shadow cast over us both. Laziel’s gaze slowly shifted over my head, eyes widening as he took a step back, his hand falling from my uninjured shoulder.
“Do you always defy a lady’s orders? Because she’s the only command I’ll never disobey.”
Noctis hovered above, asserting his dominance over the mer male.
“She’s hurt,” Laziel said, as confident as his nerves would allow.
Noctis’s gaze tore away from him and snapped to me as he rushed around to face me, urgency driving every movement.
His hands lifted to my face, trailing over my cheeks in frantic, trembling passes as though he needed to feel for himself that I was truly still there.
They wavered through my shortened hair, each wet clump falling back across my bloodied shoulder.
“Do you like it? One of the prisoners had the same cut, and I thought––” I tried to diminish the past events, but Noctis saw right through it.
His hands drifted to my fists, cupping them gently as his thumb rubbed the skin.
I bristled under the touch, the gruesome sensory feeling sending me on edge, reminding me of the exposed nail beds of my fingers.
He raised my clenched hand to his face and carefully pulled the fingers from my palm.
His eyes widened at my gnarled nail beds, the blood that pooled along my skin, the nails that were missing. He pulled the other hand up to see the same damage. Then, his attention caught at the bloody packing of the wound along my shoulder.
“You were trusted to keep her safe,” Noctis seethed through gritted teeth. The redness in his rage-filled face nearly matched his fiery hair and feathered wings.
He shot his palm around his back, a blast of air encompassing Laziel like a rope. The mer did not fight the binds. Instead, his lip trembled.
“Noctis,” I tried, but the god stormed toward the mer, fists ready to defend.
Noctis met Laziel eye to eye, the mer holding his head up high while the god snarled down at him. He reached over his head and unsheathed the longsword from his back, readying it to drive through Laziel’s neck. It glinted in the sun and swung downward in a flash.
The sword abruptly halted right before it slashed through the tip of my head as I jumped between my Blood Tie and the mer at my back.
“Noctis,” I breathed, labored as if it were a fight just to draw air.
His features softened as his eyes met mine. Then, they hardened when he looked back at Laziel, an internal fight he struggled through to protect me.
“The three of us escaped because of him.”
“Three?” Noctis’s fingers felt their way back through my matted hair, a delicious tremor dancing along my skin at that touch.
I relayed the past few hour’s events while the god stood in contemplating silence. His seething stare kept tracing back to the bound mer, but he stayed still, listening as I told him everything.
Single-handedly, he scooped me underneath the knees and lifted me off the ground. I would have yelped, but the exhaustion weighed me down, soaking into my body and mind.
We took off into the air, the breeze now a nice reprieve to the flame that burned throughout me.
“I should have been there…” His words trembled as he spoke, each syllable sounding like it hurt to force out.
“You couldn’t have been.”
“I would have drained the entire ocean to be at your side.”
I huffed. “Now that would have ruined our cover.” A grin threatened to curve at my lips until I looked up at him.
Silver lined the god’s eyes, even as the wind whipped through them.
“You smell,” I couldn’t help the words that flew from my mouth.
“You’d think I was a madman myself if I told you what I just went through to find this.” He shuffled me to reach into his front vest pocket and pulled out a coin.
“Is that—”
“The Sunder Coin.” He couldn’t look at me.
His lips pulled downward, barely controlled. Tears lined his eyes, unblinking, held back with effort that made his voice shake as he spoke of the relic. The coin would sever the Blood Tie he treasured above all else.
“And what if I told you it was a waste of your time?”
“I’d damn my own soul if it meant you’d breathe another hour… whatever it costs. Don’t think I won’t fight you in order to fight for you.”
Verbal words became too difficult with the blood loss, so I wanted to show my gratitude in another way. I reached into my mind, searching for the tether between us. I imagined fingers gliding along the strand, caressing our bond softly.
Noctis’s eyes fluttered. He felt me. A low, guttural growl rumbled in his chest.
Then, we fight together. Not against each other, I sent through the bond.
His eyes shot open, searching my face and then softening.
Took you long enough to realize I make a damn good ally.
I huffed, my eyes flitting closed. I couldn’t force them open anymore. Darkness coerced me, gripping and yanking me down, but I raged against unconsciousness.
Noctis shot one more thing down to my mind. No more walls. Promise me.
I weakly lowered my head in answer, right before we hit the ground and heavy, quick footsteps approached.
Jun’s deep voice echoed in my ears as he worked on me, lightning heat radiating through my body and shaking my bones to the core. The contents of my stomach gurgled as if about to come up, but I clamped my eyes tighter and focused on keeping my insides inside.
“She’s in rough shape,” Calvin whispered to my left.
I knew my body was giving up on me slowly. I could feel the way my mind couldn’t focus clearly, how I couldn’t move when I told my limbs to, how I kept seeing a faint glow in the distance although my eyes sealed shut.
Was that the light of the afterlife?
A gentle hand rubbed my forehead, brushing the strands of hair from my face. Zahara. She shushed me, calming my nerves as Jun worked to heal. My heart lurched at the female’s touch, mind traveling to the little boy that deserved to feel that same touch.
“Get me a bucket with cool water. She’s on fire,” Zahara demanded.
Seconds later, a cold rag pressed against my head. My body trembled uncontrollably as the raging fever seized me. I convulsed, fully conscious, but out of control of the movements.
When I finally stilled, I could breathe again. My lungs filled with enough air. My hands and arms, although still caked in flaking blood, did not scream in agony.
I peeked my eyes open slowly, realizing Noctis still cradled me, staring back in relief. Lines etched his features as if the day wore him down physically and emotionally.
“Too soon to forge the trident and storm into battle?” I croaked, but my throat still ached from screaming in the depths.
On the narrow peninsula, the crew gathered around me in the grass—everyone except Laziel, who we had left behind in the sea.
“Remember when you came on board for the first time, and I said you look like you went rounds with a hurricane and lost?” Calvin asked, slightly worried. “Well, I lied then. Now you look like you lost.”
“That’s not true,” I snapped back.
“Oh, it is. I’ll take shears to straighten your hair later when it’s clean, but those hands? Yikes. I don’t think Noctis is going to want to—”
Raven cawed loudly in warning, and Calvin quit talking.
“At least I don’t smell like Noctis,” I quipped jokingly, hoping he would chuckle, and he did. It was forced, but his face lit up at my ease of movement.
I sat up, scooting myself out of the comfort of his arms, the lush grass a nice bed in the open field.
A slight ache jolted through me, but it was a reprieve to the agony I was in prior.
I hid my fingers within the grass. Out of sight, out of mind.
But the nails did not heal back over the beds, and although the pain only twinged slightly, the sensation was enough to make me feel ill.
Herds of villagers still trudged over the peninsula, carrying as many belongings as possible. Their entire lives were being disheveled.
“Thank you all,” I murmured to the crew. It wasn’t much, but it was all I could offer my friends.
I reached to my side and removed the last trident piece from the satchel.
They watched in silence, staring at the final bladed end of the powerful weapon.
Like their life, pain, and work was coming to fruition, but collecting the pieces would be the easiest of the journey to ensuring safety in the Bounds.
The trek back to the ship that evening was quiet, as if we all pondered on the upcoming war and advancing troops. I worked with them to finish getting the island inhabitants off Brigg Isle, limping around and guiding the humans to new makeshift tents.
Waves crashed into the wooden siding of the ship, rocking it in the port.
We all sat around the main deck, exhausted from the day’s work, Laziel jumping back on board from the ocean.
Dried meat, cheeses, and tea sat in the center, along with the four separate trident pieces.
Chomping on the scarce food, we sailed away east toward Yundantan Island, the supposed location of the sleeping titan.
“We could play cards again,” Calvin tried.
“No,” we all replied in unison, Noctis’s answer louder than the rest.
Night began to make its appearance, blanketing the Bound in darkness that brought comfort to me. Raven snuggled against my legs, his golden fur shedding across my black trousers.
When Noctis threw his last slice of dried meat into his mouth, he scooted over to the trident pieces.
He took in a deep breath and gripped the long handle piece and first blade of the trident within his hands.
His eyes scrunched as he stared at the relic, focusing to direct his power.
His hands glowed a luminous blue, forging together the two pieces before us all.
I felt the rush of magic through my own veins and bones, the electrifying surge through my body that sent my nerves on edge.
He did the same with the other two shards until the trident was one piece.
A beacon of blue shined through the vast, empty ocean atop the ship, the trident humming softly before it exploded in radiance.
Light erupted across us all, and I was instantly tackled and covered by Noctis, his hand cupping my head and lower back to protect me from crashing into the deck.
The trident was whole again. One relic to stop it all. Our only saving grace.