Jade
Sound crashes back in like a wave.
Kieran’s yelling, but his words keep breaking apart in the wind before they reach me. Ropes snap and crack overhead. Thunder splits the air so close that my skull vibrates with it, and somewhere underneath all that noise, someone’s screaming, and I think it might be me.
Move. You need to move.
But my legs aren’t working. My brain isn’t working. Everything’s too loud and bright, and Logan’s standing three feet away from me, and he’s one of them. He’s been one of them this whole time—
Kieran’s blade flashes.
One second he’s standing on the other side of the deck, and the next steel’s arcing toward Logan’s throat in a blur of deadly intent.
I open my mouth to scream—to warn him—to do something—
The blade cuts through empty air where Logan’s neck was half a heartbeat ago, wind exploding from Logan’s palm in a concentrated blast that catches Kieran mid-swing.
Kieran slams into the mast with a crack that makes my teeth ache. Wood splinters behind him, and for one horrible second I think he’s dead, that Logan killed him, that we’ve gone from revelation to murder in the space of a heartbeat.
But Kieran’s struggling against the invisible force pinning him to the shattered wood, his feet dangling six inches off the deck.
This is what a Revenant can do. This is what Logan’s been hiding. This is what he’s capable of.
The realization hits me like a punch to the chest. Because according to the Geryon—who’s farther away now, watching us as if we’re everyday entertainment—Kieran’s the son of Ares. He’s a demigod. And Logan pinned him on the wall like a bug in a collection.
“Jade!” Evie screams through the chaos, and I spin toward her, and she’s looking at me like I’m the monster here.
She steps toward me, and heat rolls off her skin in waves. Flames flicker in her irises, and I remember how she almost killed me in the Fury Loop.
If she tries to kill me now, I might let her, because maybe I deserve it.
“You knew about Oliver.” The temperature around her keeps climbing, heatwaves rippling through the air. “And you didn’t tell me.”
Electricity crawls across my skin, sharp and prickling, and my eyes are burning with tears I can’t blink away fast enough. I owe her an answer, but every explanation I could give sounds like an excuse, and she deserves better than my excuses.
“That’s what I thought,” she says, colder now. “You’re just as bad as Logan.”
The words land like a slap.
Then there’s movement at the edge of my vision as Callie positions herself next to Logan, her chin raised in defiance.
“Nobody touches him,” she says, and I think she’s trying to stay steady, but her hands are shaking. “Not until we figure out what’s actually going on here.”
Kieran’s still pinned to the mast by Logan’s air magic, but his voice carries across the deck. “What’s going on is that your ex-boyfriend is a Revenant, and you’ve been feeding him your blood for months while the rest of us trusted him with our lives.”
Callie flinches, but the hardness returns to her expression a second later. “He’s still Logan.”
“He’s not.” Kieran’s eyes find mine, and the accusation in them makes me want to crawl out of my own skin. “Ask Jade if the thing that just kissed her felt human.”
Everyone looks at me, and I don’t know what to say.
Because that kiss didn’t feel human. It felt desperate and wrong, like pressing my lips against a beautiful lie. But it also felt like the person I love, even if I don’t know who that person is anymore.
“Let him down,” I say, steadier than I expected. “Logan, let Kieran down.”
“He’ll attack again the second I release him.”
“Maybe.” I meet his eyes. “But we need to figure out what happens next, and we can’t do that if you’re holding Kieran hostage.”
A muscle in Logan’s jaw twitches.
For one long, horrible second, I think he’s going to keep Kieran pinned there forever, because he can, because he’s a Revenant and apparently that means he can toss around demigods like ragdolls.
Or—even worse—that he’s going to kill him.
The scariest part is that I believe he can. That he would. That he might.
But then, and maybe it’s because I’m staring at him like I don’t recognize him anymore, he lowers his hand.
Kieran drops and lands in a crouch, blade in hand. I can practically see him calculating, trying to figure out if he can take Logan now that all the cards are on the table.
Based on what I just saw? The answer is probably no.
He rises and fixes Logan with a stare that promises violence. “This isn’t over.”
“If I wanted you dead, you’d already be dead,” Logan says, sharp and cold. It’s the voice of someone who’s been holding back for months… because he has been holding back for months. “I’ve had a thousand opportunities. I’ve saved your lives more times than you know. I’m not your enemy.”
“You’re a Revenant.” Kieran spits the word like poison. “You’re what we’re meant to destroy.”
“I am.” Logan’s eyes don’t leave Kieran’s face. “And Jade’s the one who’s destined to destroy me. Tempest chose her. Not you. Not anyone else. Her.”
No.
Don’t do this. Don’t put this on me.
“So until she decides to do what she was chosen for, you don’t get to do it for her,” he finishes.
Kieran’s grip tightens on his blade. “She’s compromised. She’s not thinking clearly.”
“I’m standing right here.” The words snap out of me, thunder rumbling overhead. “And I can make my own decisions.”
Kieran’s blade rises further.
Logan steps toward me.
“It’s her call.” Logan raises his hands, palms out. And then, slowly and deliberately, he goes to his knees on the deck, his eyes locked on mine the entire time.
What the hell is he doing?
“Whatever you decide, I’ll accept it,” he says quietly, and underneath the words is just… exhaustion. “Even if it means you kill me right here.”
The world goes silent.
Or maybe that’s just my brain short-circuiting. Because Logan Ashford—Logan the Revenant, Logan the monster, Logan who pinned a demigod to a mast with vampire magic—is kneeling in front of me like I’m his executioner.
And he means it.
The realization crashes through me, sucking all the air from my lungs at once. Because he actually means it. If I decide to kill him right now, he’ll let me.
Silver sparks race up my arms and dance between my fingers, the storm overhead rumbling again in response.
Kill him.
The thought surfaces, sharp and sudden and not entirely my own.
He’s been lying to you since the day you met. The love you thought you had was built on a corpse’s deception.
My electricity surges brighter, feeding on every broken thing inside me until the air reeks of ozone. Kieran steps back, and Evie’s heat shield flickers and thins, her flames shrinking away from my skin.
Logan just stays there, on his knees, those familiar gray eyes locked on mine.
Kill him and it’s over. Kill him and you’re free. Kill him and—
And what?
I lose the person who held me through the worst moments of my life? I become the weapon Tempest wants me to be? I murder someone who’s saved me, time and time again? Someone who I still love, even if I can’t bring myself to tell him yet?
My lightning wavers.
Because I’m looking at Logan—really looking—and I don’t see a monster.
I see a boy who lost his parents and made a terrible choice trying to get them back.
I see the person who counted me through soul fire and trained me in the Scorched Circles when everyone else thought I was hopeless.
I see a man who told me he loved me and that I was the only thing that made him feel alive.
I love you, Jade, his voice rings through my mind—a memory from the Crown, before we burned Thad and Oliver’s bodies, when I was no better than he was. Always. I need you to believe that, and to never forget it, no matter what.
Those final three words repeat in my mind.
No matter what.
No matter if he’s the man I fell in love with or the monster I’m destined to destroy, Logan loves me, and he always will. That’s what he was trying to tell me then. He wanted me to know that when this inevitable moment happened, his love was always real.
As long as that token never gets destroyed.
No. I won’t let my mind go there. The token is there, which means the person I love is there.
I’m going to hold onto that, even if I can’t wrap my head around it yet.
Because if I kill him now, I’m not just destroying a Revenant.
I’m destroying the person who loves me enough to die by my hand rather than fight back.
“I’m not killing him.” The lightning dies as quickly as it came, leaving me so tired I could collapse on the deck. “Not today.”
“No.” Kieran whirls on me, and for a second I think he’s going to attack me instead. “Tempest chose you to destroy creatures like him, and you’re going to—”
“I know what I was chosen for!” The words explode out of me, thunder cracking in their wake.
“Do you think I don’t know? Do you think I haven’t been running that through my head on repeat since the Geryon opened his mouth and laid our secrets bare so we could destroy ourselves before getting a chance to sail through the Pillars? ”
Kieran’s jaw tightens, but he doesn’t respond.
“Logan isn’t attacking anyone.” I force myself to take a breath. “He’s not our enemy right now. I’m not going to execute someone who handed me the weapon and told me to swing, and that’s my call to make. You said it yourself—it’s my call.”
The silence that follows is suffocating.
Logan’s still on his knees, and when our eyes meet, a crack splits his composure. Hope, relief, and the desperate gratitude of someone who expected to die and didn’t.
“This isn’t forgiveness,” I say, needing him to understand that. “It’s not trust. It’s just a stay of execution.”
Logan nods once and rises, keeping his eyes on mine the entire time.
“I understand.”
“Do you?” I ask, and it comes out sharper than I mean it to. “Because I don’t. All I know is that killing you would destroy me, and I’m not going to become a murderer because a goddess decided I should be.”
Logan’s expression doesn’t change, although the rigid line of his shoulders eases, just barely.
Evie cuts in before he can speak.
“I don’t care about any of this.” Flames are dancing at her fingertips, her face streaked with tears that evaporate before they can fall. “I don’t care about Revenants or fate or whatever twisted relationship you two have. I just want to know about Oliver.”
My stomach drops, and she continues.
“You both know what happened to him. So someone’s going to tell me the truth, or I swear to every god in existence that I’ll burn this boat to ash and everyone on it.”
Logan and I look at each other, and I realize we’re about to break what’s left of Evie’s heart.