Chapter 40
Chapter
Forty
Stars like a thousand diamonds littered the sky.
Cold, shallow water lapped against Erinna’s ankles. Each ripple clawed at her skin as she scanned the open pool. The glade of her nightmares.
Tall evergreens stretched their shadows across the water. A nightshade forest steeped in perpetual darkness.
There was a difference in the air that sent Erinna’s hackles up.
A distant sob drifted through the air. She was coming. The Weeping Queen.
Terror spread through Erinna, threatening to freeze her joints in place, but she knew better.
She needed to run.
She needed to hide.
Erinna darted to the trees. She didn’t know if it would be safer, but the distant sobs would only get closer the longer she stayed still.
Still was death.
A flitter of shadow in the distance. Whispers from new voices. She had to get to safety fast, or the Weeping Queen would find her.
Tall pines rose to meet her, feet still slapping against shallow water. The pool stretched far into the forest, like it was the soil itself.
The Weeping Queen’s sobs echoed closer.
Mother Goddess spare me. Erinna scanned for anywhere to hide. Nothing but the trees, water, and the stars above.
She pushed through the forest, willing her sleeping mind to wake.
Movement flickered in her periphery.
Erinna froze.
The faint silver of starlight danced across the bark, catching her eyes. On closer inspection, Erinna realized it wasn’t wood at all.
Not all of it.
A body lay encased in the trunk.
It was the woman from the market. Erinna’s gaze snapped to the next tree. Then the next.
The woman’s children, entombed beside her.
No. Erinna summoned the courage to run. She searched the trees, darting through the forest, eyes scanning the number of slumbering souls. There were dozens trapped in this nightmare.
The sobs grew louder. Erinna pushed faster. Lungs burning as she swallowed cold, stale air in ragged puffs.
If the woman from the market was there, that meant…
She stumbled to a halt in front of a massive, towering pine.
There he was, stuck in this forest like the rest.
“Dad.” Erinna choked. Hot tears spilled down her cheeks. She reached out to stroke his face. The stubble along his jaw tickled her palm, but there was no warmth in his body. No sign of life.
Erinna tried to pull at her Talent. She coaxed the power, but it wouldn’t wake. She had spent too much of it already. Had nothing left to give.
Sharp nails dug into her legs, pulling her beneath the surface before Erinna had time to scream.
Down.
Down.
Down she fell, dragged far below the surface.
Erinna thrashed against the hands that pulled her deeper, trying desperately to swim up. But the surface faded far off in the distance.
A small thread of Talent finally fluttered to life. A weak, dull pull at her fingertips. The faint sinews of arcanum brushed at her hand. She grabbed at the invisible force and pulled.
The Weeping Queen wailed at the disturbance. As if Erinna had hurt her somehow.
She tried again, her body screaming from lack of air, numb from the cold of the water.
Even with the queen’s hold gone, Erinna was far too deep to surface.
Her lungs gave up before her body did, her last breath gone as she reflexively choked in water.
She clawed upward, reaching blindly in the water until her hand brushed something warm. Solid.
A tether.
Erinna grabbed at it with everything she had and pulled.
The room spun in her vision as she tried to blink away the haze and splitting headache. The air was thick with firelight and the faint smell of herbs. Erinna’s breath came out ragged and tight. Her hand pressed against something—someone.
Hard. Warm. Safe.
She moved closer, her body stiff and aching.
Erinna yearned for the heat, anything to ward off the chill in her veins.
Her mind floated in that liminal space between dreams and waking, and the connection—simple, steady—was everything.
The touch grounded her. She wanted to hold on longer.
There was a pulse under her palm, and she could feel the tether between them. Steady and strong.
She reached for it again, desperate for something real.
Gods, did she crave it.
Him.
A callused hand cupped her cheek and gently moved her head from side to side. Finally, the world stopped spinning, and the room came into focus.
She knew where she was. Had helped her father with enough blueprints.
It was the captain’s quarters on the Hellish Rebuke. A comfortably sized room, and decorated with well-appointed furniture. Beneath her, the mattress was soft and the sheets of decent quality. She wanted to burrow into them and sleep for a month.
She looked up and met Kane’s amber eyes. Her hand clutched at his chest.
He held her hand in his, the other pressed against her cheek.
Kane’s face was ragged, drawn with worry.
He opened his mouth to speak, but she pulled away sharply.
The memories of before rushing back with painful clarity.
The feel of Damien’s blood on her hands, the way it felt when his life threatened to slip away.
The heat of the fire that nearly killed him.
“Don’t.” Her voice came out cracked and raw. “Don’t touch me.”
He stumbled back as if her words burned him. Inez fluttered into view, piling more blankets on top of Erinna. “You left,” she whispered, tucking Erinna beneath the new quilts. Her eyes were red, as if she’d been crying. Guilt seized Erinna.
“I…I’m fine,” she stuttered, attempting to sit up, but the movement still made her dizzy. Shivers wracked her body.
“Inez, go get Serg.” Kane grabbed the rest of the blankets from Inez’s hands. “Now.”
Inez darted out of the room in a blur, leaving Erinna alone with the captain. Nausea roiled in her stomach, and her body trembled violently against a cold that refused to leave her bones.
“Whattt ha…happened?” Erinna asked through chattering teeth, bunching the comforters tighter around her.
“You overexerted yourself. Afton said it could be a kind of burnout.”
Erinna would have felt dread if her entire body wasn’t already numb. “You could h…have l…left me.”
Kane shook his head and stepped closer, worry lined every part of his face. “Wouldn’t dream of it.” He knelt beside the bed, pulling her hand into his palm. “You’re freezing.”
“I said don’t—” Her protest died as her teeth chattered harder against the cold. Whatever was inside her was unnatural, and no amount of blankets would help her warm. Erinna stared at Kane, her stomach winding even tighter.
He would have left her friend to rot.
Even if the rational part of her brain couldn’t blame him for what he did, there was no room for forgiveness. She couldn’t bring herself to it.
And yet, she desperately wanted what he offered. She could feel the heat he promised, craved even an ounce of the fire that danced within his veins.
He was right. She was freezing.
Kane didn’t wait. He climbed in beside her, wrapping her in his arms, and pulled her into his lap.
She tensed at first, fighting the impulse to resist, but the warmth was all too welcome.
He wrapped her in a tight embrace, and she slumped into him, burrowing as close as she could. The cold slowly started to creep away.
“You killed him,” she whispered.
Kane tensed. “I did what needed to be done. To protect the ship and to protect you.”
The nausea was more than Erinna could bear; it coiled sickeningly in her stomach and threatened to come up. The heat of illness flushed her skin as someone knocked on the door.
Inez slipped into the room with Serg just behind. Erinna would have been embarrassed to be seen in such an intimate embrace with Kane, if she wasn’t too busy trying to keep the contents of her stomach down.
Somehow Kane knew. “Bucket,” he barked.
Serg was quick on the draw. When the pail was placed in her lap, Erinna knew she’d lost the battle.
She retched black ichor, something from the other place that had come back with her.
Inez held out a cup of warm water when her convulsions stopped. “This should help you settle.”
Erinna wiped the corner of her mouth, black stained her hand, and the sight made her want to throw up even more. What in all the hells was happening to her?
Kane gently disentangled himself once it seemed her body was soothed enough and no longer shivering. Serg dragged over a chair to settle himself by the bed, his medicine bag already open.
“May I?” He gestured to her hand.
Erinna would feel embarrassed if she weren’t battling with everything else: pain, guilt, fear, and fury.
Serg wiped the substance with a white cloth and offered Erinna another to dab at her mouth.
She peered at Kane from beneath her lashes.
He hovered over the doctor, eyes wide and lips set in a thin line.
Kane was practically breathing down Serg’s neck, as if he could do anything other than warm things for her.
Serg seemed completely unfazed by his captain. “Are you comfortable telling me what happened?” he asked, pressing two fingers to both wrists before moving to the pulse in her neck. His calm was a welcome reprieve from the lurking Kane and pacing Inez.
“I was drowning.” Erinna hoped that was enough. Maybe she should tell him everything. He was a doctor after all, but some habits were hard to break.
“Did something drag you under?”
Erinna’s breath hitched, and she took a sip of warm water in response. That was all the answer Serg needed. “Mmhhhmm,” the doctor mumbled and started to dig in his medicine bag.
“What is it?” asked Kane, eyes darting from Serg to Erinna.
“I think you already know, Captain.”
Erinna could see Kane’s jaw clench. Obviously, that was not the answer he wanted to hear, but now it was Erinna’s turn to worry.
“What is it? What do you mean he knows?”