Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
ABBY
“ A ny sign of him?” Quinn asks when Merrick reaches the bridge where we stand. It’s been four days since Jade left, and Merrick has spent a good portion of each and every one of them scouring the beach and sky for traces of him. The only place he hasn’t yet searched is the forest, though I don’t think anyone thinks Jade could hide there now. Not with what he’s become and the complications that have arisen from that.
“Not today,” Merrick sighs, rubbing his forehead. He has bags under his eyes that weren’t there before, so he’s likely been getting about as much sleep as I have—which is almost none at all. The dreams have only worsened since we woke Jade. Now it’s not just Void that plagues my nightmares—it’s Inferna, too.
The Goddess of the dragons, responsible for the destruction that birthed their land of fire. The story goes that in a vie for power, Inferna created a new race of humans that were strong and faster than the rest. Just as Tideus gave his people fins, Inferna gave hers wings. All my life I thought the legends of sirens and dragons were nothing but myth, but so much has changed in a year. Even I’m not what I thought I was.
“You’ll find him when he wants to be found.” That much I know to be true. If I was a betting woman, I’d say that Merrick has already crossed paths with Jade at least once and had no idea. Jade knows how not to be found, even when the person searching for him has heightened senses that rival his own.
Merrick says nothing, though he doesn’t seem to much like my answer. He’s not used to not getting his way, at least with his kin.
“I’ve been meaning to ask…” Quinn says, running a hand through his hair. It’s gotten longer over the last few weeks and desperately needs a cut. “This is probably a stupid question, but I need to know. We’re not cousins, right?”
Merrick laughs, and it’s more boisterous than I’ve ever heard from him. “Thank the Gods, no. No offence, but Jade is enough.” So Aurelia doesn’t have any other dragon offspring running around. Or if she does, at least we know Merrick isn’t one of them. Quinn has been wanting to broach this subject for a while, so I guess today is the day. I brace myself for what I already know is coming.
“You could have told me.” Quinn’s words are softer than I’d expected, more betrayed than angry. He’s toeing a fine line between the emotions and, depending on Merrick’s response, this can easily turn into an argument I don’t think either of them have the energy for. “You knew from the moment we met. Did Jade?”
“No. Aurelia may be his mother, but she never mothered him. As far as he knew, both his parents were dead. And as for not telling you, it would have only caused more trouble. You were better off not knowing.”
Oh, Quinn is definitely not going to like that answer.
“That wasn’t for you to decide.” The words come out as a growl, but I’m genuinely surprised he’s staying this calm. He’s been looking for someone to blame and even though that’s not really fair, I can’t hold it against him. I know what it’s like to be told too late that someone you knew shares your blood. If we knew they were family, that could have saved a lot of heartache.
Or maybe it would have made things so much worse.
“I told Aurelia to tell you herself. That was more than enough.” Merrick sounds equally annoyed now.
“Again, that isn’t for you to decide.”
Merrick rubs at his forehead again. “Forgive me, but I have enough to deal with. Your family drama does not concern me.”
He moves to walk away, but I can’t stop myself. Quinn’s disappointment mingles with mine and swirls into something a whole lot stronger. I’m supposed to be the voice of reason here. The peacemaker. But all I want to do is hurtle accusations of my own. “Are you even looking for Jade?”
Merrick stops in his tracks, his body tensing with even more frustration than he’d shown Quinn. He turns to face me, slowly, his eyes narrowed and jaw tight. “Of course I am.”
I really shouldn’t push this. “Then why haven’t you found him? Shouldn’t you know where he is? You’re the Regent.” Jade may know how to hide, but Merrick is the one person he shouldn’t be able to hide from.
“And he is a Chosen,” he barks. “No one wants to find him more than me.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Abby—” Quinn warns, but this is already happening. I hold up a hand to silence him, and he knows well enough not to push me. He got to say his peace. Now it’s my turn.
Before I can say something else I might regret, Merrick speaks. “Nuri and I are expecting a child.”
What? That was the last thing I was expecting him to say, and it throws me entirely. Maybe that was his intention. “I didn’t know you two were—”
“We’re not, but I needed an heir, and she volunteered. Jade cannot be trusted to lead if something happens to me and I cannot choose another. Our blood decides, and if that bloodline is severed, my kind will cease to exist. Jade is a threat to us all.”
“So you’re going to kill him?” A part of me had been worried about that since the first time Merrick went out looking for Jade. I feared he would return covered in blood, or, if Jade gave into his violent urges, not return at all.
“No, but I cannot allow him to wander unchecked. He is no longer compelled to obey my orders, yet he is still my heir. At least until my child is of age.” I’d ask how that works, but I’m certain he doesn’t know. Merrick is still very much the Regent, and he can still feel that Jade is next in line, yet Jade is immune to Merrick’s influence. I may not know everything about the dragons and how they’re blood magic words, but I know enough to know that this isn’t supposed to happen.
“You know why he left,” Quinn says, suddenly the reasonable one. “Maybe it’s better this way.”
I can’t help but agree with him. Jade was only with us two days before he disappeared. In that time, he destroyed one of the wooden shelters we’d constructed on the beach simply by touching it. One of Quinn’s people was inside at the time, and although Jade insists he was trying to get the man out before he ‘burned to a crisp’, the man claims he was uninjured until Jade grabbed his arm. He’ll live, but he’ll forever carry scars all along the left half of his body. He’s not even expected to leave the infirmary for at least another week.
And all it took was a single touch.
Out of whatever powers Jade gained from Inferna, this has to be the most concerning. Jade tried to control it, but more than once, that control slipped, and he set his clothes ablaze. He couldn’t so much as touch anyone or anything, except perhaps the fireproof dragons, without it bursting into flames.
Although he didn’t say it, I think that’s why he left. He’d already kept to himself, and in the rare moments I saw him, he was glowering at me. Whatever we awakened isn’t Jade. Not entirely. It’s as if the only part of him that came back was the anger and hatred that filled him before he allowed himself to be good, and without the curse forcing him to love me, I’m the biggest target for that hatred. Whatever Aurelia did to him may have calmed him, but it didn’t fix him. It didn’t bring back the parts of him that were lost.
“An unseen threat is far worse than a near one. I want him where I can keep tabs on him.”
“And what about what he wants?” I ask. He needs time to figure out what he’s become, and I can only hope that he’ll find himself in the process.
Merrick ignores my question. “Be careful out there, and if you find him, tell me.”
Quinn nods in quiet agreement, but I’m not so sure I want to. The odds of us finding him are small at best anyway, considering we’re not actually looking for him.
“Do me a favour while we’re gone,” Quinn says when Merrick tries to turn away again. “Keep an eye on my sister.”
“I think Rhett has that covered.”
I don’t need to see Quinn’s eye roll to know it happened. “You know what she is. She deserves her freedom before she becomes a prisoner to an empty throne.”
“We’ll do what we can.” Merrick doesn’t wait for a thanks before taking off at a sprint across the bridge towards the whirlpool.
With that settled, there’s no more reason to delay our journey. According to Aurelia, there’s a cave a bit of a walk from here that holds some information on Quinn’s lineage. With the shocking revelation that Jade is his cousin, I can’t blame him for wanting to eliminate the possibility of any other secrets just waiting to spring themselves on him when he least expects it. Judging by Aurelia’s expression after we told her of our plans to go there today, I’m convinced there’s still something she’s hiding.
I take Quinn’s hand in mine and begin walking in the direction she’d pointed out to us just a short while ago. It’s about a five-hour walk, and if we don’t hurry, we may not have time to explore the cave and set up camp for the night before the sun sets and the sky turns dark. This will be the first night we’ve spent away from our tower—and away from my view of the ever-growing shadows above Lunae.