CHAPTER THIRTY
Rippling sails cut through the gloom of silence. I sat with my legs dangling from the foremast overlooking the approaching marketing harbor. We needed to stop for supplies after donating a majority to the displaced inhabitants of Brigg Isle four days prior, running extremely low on consumables.
“You did well in the depths,” Laziel said as he climbed up to sit beside me. He glanced around, only to find the god fixed on him with an uncomfortably direct stare, as if the tension hung between them both.
“You as well,” I responded softly. I’d spent the days trying to purge the memories from my mind, but they still seemed to attack in the worst times. Funny how the memories you beg to stay fade like morning mist, while the ones you’d trade anything to forget cling like lurking demons.
I worked so hard to keep my distance from Laziel, yet somehow, his attention still lingered, making the past day’s events hard to ignore.
If no one gave it words, maybe it would loosen its grip on me.
Maybe it would stay buried where it belonged, quiet and still, as long as we didn’t dig it up with words.
Laziel scanned the ocean, his eyes trained ahead in thought.
“I'm leaving soon,” he continued, “but I wanted to say thank you.” He turned to climb himself back down, the conversation short and to the point.
There was something in the way he thanked me, so sincere it almost felt misplaced.
If anything, I was the one in his debt. Laziel earned his spot as an honorary member of the crew—his jumping before Raoku to protect me, his seafolk cure to save Zahara, the assistance in the prison heist for the final trident piece.
And still, Noctis glared upwards, his hands trimming the mainsail sheet to steer us toward the ports.
“Leave? Why so soon?”
The mer joined us to see the Royal Vanguard dismounted, and we were so close to making it a reality.
“I’m going to find my brother,” Laziel murmured. “Before all of this goes to shit. I’m not much of a fighter.”
“He will get over his insecurities about you,” I gestured to the brooding god below, but the mer did not look away from the waves.
“I doubt it.”
“I forgive you for the prison, Laziel. And the hit.” The bruise still marred my face, stretching inky black and blue across my cheekbone.
It spread like a fault line, as if my flesh were starting to crack beneath the degenerative curse.
“And you did an honorable job helping us find the trident pieces to forge. We wouldn’t have been able to do it without you. ”
Laziel hummed in response. “You’re good, Caelyn. Very good.” He took another step down. “Sometimes too good.” And he descended down the mast to the main deck.
Wind whipped across my body, a welcoming reprieve.
Grunting sounded below, catching my attention. It didn’t take much anymore to startle me, but when my eyes caught the source of the sounds, all attempts to look away were unsuccessful.
Noctis circled Jun, long swords in each hand. His shirt was thrown to the ship's railing, the black tunic of thin fabric stripped off his body. Jun lunged first, his blade meeting a barrier of metal as Noctis shielded the hit. They went back and forth, lunging, striking, dodging.
Jun moved like lightning, swiftly flipping through the air, his motions smooth as freshly spun silk.
He dove sideways, the sword slicing right before Noctis’s chest—a distraction—his legs wiping across the god’s ankles.
Noctis hit the deck with a crash that rattled the entire ship, seagulls flying off startled.
I snorted, attempting to hold in the laugh, but the look of utter despair on his face made me crack.
You’re supposed to stay vertical in combat. Not horizontal, I sent down the bond, amusement making its way back to me.
Would you care to show me?
Even in my mind, Noctis’s voice held poignant, the stature of royalty that made my stomach flutter.
I needed the distraction—anything to steer my mind from the impending danger we retreated from.
Guilt settled into me, haunting my thoughts in every silent moment.
We sailed the opposite direction of the advancing Oceanwrought troops, on our way to awaken the titan with the forged trident that was stored in the locked chest inside the captain’s quarters.
Although I knew we were useless in battle without the titan, the faces of the innocent villagers escaping would not leave my mind.
It’s what keeps me motivated, I kept telling myself, even when I saw their bodies scattered dead across battlefields in my nightmares.
Noctis jumped to his feet instantly, shuffling around the hooded assassin. His back faced me, and I gasped. Inky blue peppered his skin, from the nape of his neck to the waistline. The same marks that covered my face.
You're covered in bruises.
As are you. Is that worry I sense?
Jun attempted a fake attack, swinging the sword over his head and shoving his foot toward the god’s torso, but Noctis caught on too soon. He snatched the kicked ankle with his free hand and twisted, shoving Jun face first into the wooden deck.
Well, that wasn’t very nice.
Noctis huffed down the bond. Neither was him knocking me on my ass in front of such a beautiful woman.
I spun and descended the foremast, determined to spar. Delight flitted across the bond from Noctis.
Have you ever been bested by one? I couldn’t contain the comment as I reached him. Our eyes met, and Jun looked between us both.
“Are you mind talking to each other?” he asked uncomfortably.
“No,” I quipped.
“Yes,” Noctis said at the same time.
Jun’s eyes narrowed.
“I’m… going to clean up now,” he muttered and walked away, returning his blade across his back.
I unsheathed the dagger from my thigh, the absence of the blade given to Torvryn weighing on me, and crouched in a ready position.
Noctis followed, a smirk curving at his lips.
Gods, I could get lost in the lilt of his mouth, the way his features melted when he looked at me as if his world began and ended with me.
He moved. And I was barely ready. I crossed my daggers above my head to block the onslaught of his blade. The clash rang, shaking my eyes at impact. With a shove, his weapon dropped to my side as I jumped out of its path.
What the hell?
He set the tone, so I would match it.
I lunged next, kicking out my foot and ramming my dagger into his blade. I shoved my shoulder into his abdomen, knocking the breath from his lungs with a whoosh.
Taking my breath away is supposed to be figurative, he said, caressing my mind.
He worked to draw in air as we circled each other, both crouched low, eyeing our opponent.
“Steady your left knee, but do not lock it,” he advised, pointing the tip of his longsword at the joint.
I did as he instructed and jumped to knock him off balance.
My dagger hilt knocked into his shoulder, the other blocking his advancing blade.
Noctis’s eyes trailed the curve of my lips, then slowly traced back to meet my gaze.
Our noses met, heat seeping into my body.
His head cocked slightly, eyes crinkling along their edges.
“You could easily best me. I’m distracted in your presence,” he breathed.
He shoved into me gently, enough to separate us. His absence turned the air cold, and something in me reached for what was gone.
His blade swung, and I speared to the right, narrowly missing it.
“Are you trying to kill me?” I spat.
“Quite opposite, actually.”
Memories of our training resurfaced in my mind—the sandy shore under our bare feet, the hours spent focusing on stance alone, the advantage I learned in the process. If I could—
He must have seen the memories replay in my mind, because he shot his arm out and gripped my wrist.
“It seems you are distracted as well, darling.”
I drove the hilt of my dagger into his stomach, my arms freeing before I tackled him into the deck around his waist.
My body rested atop his, both of us breathing heavily. The dagger scraped along the lump in his throat. He swallowed, the motion not unnoticed. My eyes trailed over his neck, pride in both of our faces.
“You leave your torso unguarded. Always have.”
Noctis’s eyes widened at the admittance.
“You remember…” his voice trailed off, eyebrows lifting.
I remembered only some parts of our past—the parts that weren’t lost to the Ocean Mother’s poison. I wanted to relive every one, though, not just remember them, but know them personally.
His hands raised, rubbing against the back of my neck, fisting gently into my hair. His gaze was frantic, searching mine for an answer to a question I wasn’t sure I could form into words. My face lowered, our noses nearly touching, and Noctis’s breathing quickened even more.
Water poured over us, thrown from the side of the moving ship, drenching us in a shock.
“Mmm…” a smooth voice cut through the air.
Noctis and I jumped up, Duscharne appearing before us, his Thirstling canines peeking out through his wry smile. Glimmering particles like dust glittered around him as he formed from thin air. Picking at his black lapel, he continued.
“The doe has fallen for the serpent. Except in this case, which is which?” He paced sideways dreadfully slow. “The one who left his realm to perish, or the one who shares blood with the goddess storming the Bounds?”
I growled, remembering the agony the Varaxis caused for Zahara—the pain she will have to live with forever due to the missing appendage. Our blood may not have come from the same source, but the crew was my family.
I lifted my daggers, my hands begging to propel it through the heart of Duscharne.
“Uh, uh, uh…” the Varaxis warned. His pacing halted. “I tried to do this the easy way, but you all refused.”
Footsteps approached, and I glanced over to see Zahara, Calvin, and Jun at my side, matching snarls upturning their lips.
“What do you want?” Noctis spat, his tone sharp and feral.
“I told you what I wanted, God of the Forsaken. A way in. Blood. However, you denied me and my kind that. So, I had to go by… other means to get what I needed.”
“Which is?” Calvin asked from my right.
A wide smile split Duscharne’s face. He snapped his fingers, and it echoed through the air.
“Oh, I am still getting blood.”
Three of his beasts soared from hiding along the side of the ship, one carrying a large mass. Brown hair and bronzed skin sat comfortably in the claws of one of the beasts, but it wasn’t what immediately caught my attention.
The creature cradled a smirking Laziel as it fled, reverent as a mourner, while the trident glinted from his grasp, gleaming with something far from holy.
Zahara threw a throwing star for the Varaxis, but he dodged it, readjusting his black trenchcoat over his squared shoulders. It seemed too easy for him to move, like he floated across the deck on light feet.
Fury burned through me, both from my own emotions and the god’s, who shook with rage beside me.
Go get the trident, I rushed into Noctis’s mind.
I will not leave your side, his words rumbled.
You will, because that relic is our only hope.
And you are my only salvation.
Noctis lunged sloppily, orchestrated on pure anger. His blade swiped across Duscharne from shoulder down, but the weapon went through the Varaxis as if only an image. It struck the deck and split the wood, splinters flying in all directions on impact.
Duscharne laughed. It was raspy, yet somehow charming, as if he had spent his entire life getting what he wanted with his words. His other two beasts surrounded him from above.
“Don’t take it personally. He’s been with us for months, trying to save his brother. Genius, isn’t it? Gained your trust only to signal to me when the trident was forged? It was his idea, too.”
Noctis worked to release his sword when a hidden fourth of the feline, winged creatures swooped from the shadows behind.
Claws closed around my abdomen before I even realized I was dragged into the air, the ship dropping away in a violent blur.
I yelped, my arms bound beneath the claws of the beast. The grip tightened unforgivingly, and panic quickly flooded in me.
I might as well have been drowning, even in the sky.
We soared through the sky, ripping through the clouds in a breath I wished I could take.
The crew fought off the other two attacking creatures, but Noctis tore through the sky, ravenous, chasing after me.
He shot power toward the beast, but we flipped, my stomach dropping with the aerobatics.
A raw bellow ripped from his throat. One second, I saw my Blood Tie reaching for me through the clouds, and in the next, I dissipated and reappeared in absolute darkness.