Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
LYVIA
The Messenger requires a host.
Lyvia – The Hydra, Atrulean Sea
Kellan’s throat bobbed as he waited, the air between us going taught.
“Mm-hmm,” I murmured, my voice trapped as I wrapped my arms around myself.
We hadn’t talked. Not really. Not since Tynan’s Hell. Not since I’d felt that strand of power connecting us in the Abyss and followed it to him. Not since we’d somehow jumped into each other’s minds and endured each other’s hell before swimming out of the Abyss.
Not since he’d seen, since he’d experienced, all that I’d done. All the sinful acts that had darkened the shadow of my soul. Not since I’d made him suffer. Not since I flew us out of that hellish realm and back into our own. Not since he’d said those words to Bayne in the Onyx Tower’s throne room…
My stomach dipped as he nodded. His eyes darted to the column of my throat and back up. He turned on his heel and led me to the captain’s quarters.
Golden light flitted against the warm wooden walls of his office, casting flickering shadows against the line of weapons displayed.
He strode behind his desk and paused. His hand slid against the black wood.
My eyes landed where his hand did, and memories of hot skin and desperate breaths surged forward as our shared dream threatened to explode in my mind.
I tore my eyes away from the desk to find Kellan’s pinned on mine. His gaze darkened by the second as if he were thinking about exactly what had transpired here in our minds. Heat crept up my neck, and I blew a hard breath through my lips before reaching for the chair.
Kellan tore his gaze away and shook his head. He reached for a key resting on top of a map of Votruvia before turning toward the adjacent wall.
“This way,” he said, his voice rough.
He murmured words beneath his breath as he placed his hand on the sharp edge of a long, curved blade hanging on the wall. Its plain golden hilt was dull and dingy. A soft hiss blew through his lips, and I started as a long line of blood dripped down its edge.
The blood halted at the dingy hilt, and a click sounded as the broad panel connecting to the blade sank into the wall. Kellan stepped back, his hand splayed wide against the wood panel as he pressed the hidden door open and stepped to the side. His head dipped as his eyes locked on mine.
“After you, Bonscaíh,” he said softly.
My brows knit, curiosity piqued, as I took a lit taper holder off the desk and strode into the secret room onboard the Hydra.
I inhaled the sweet yet musty scent of books as I stopped in the center of the library. The walls were lined from floor to ceiling with what had to be hundreds of old tomes. I turned in place, eyes wide, scanning the magnificent space, and my heart sighed in the presence of the wealth of knowledge.
“What is this place?” I asked, my voice barely a whisper.
Kellan’s cedar and leather scent washed over me, mingling perfectly with the old scent of books and scrolls as he approached from behind and moved to the corner.
“My library,” he answered, plucking a thick, red tome from the uppermost shelf.
“Is that the Gristiary?” I asked, stepping forward in eagerness.
Kellan paused, his lips twitching as he nodded and handed me the ancient book.
“This book has been lost for a very long time,” I murmured, arching a suspicious eyebrow at the pirate lord.
Kellan smirked, the sight sending snowflakes dancing in my belly.
“What can I say?” he said, crossing his arms and leaning against the stack behind him. “The Lords of Marisarma are renowned treasure hunters.”
I carefully closed the book and slid it back into its place.
“This is what you’ve been hunting for? Knowledge? Who knew the People of the Stars were such bookworms?”
Kellan dipped his chin in confirmation, and his eyes brightened. I turned and waited for him to confirm what we all assumed, based on what Dark King Daimos had claimed in the final battle.
“Indeed,” he murmured, keeping his eyes locked on mine. “Though I have the Conduit ability, I’m merely a descendant of the demigods.”
His eyes darted to my hands, and the phantom spark of his power popped at my palms. The strong column of his neck worked as he swallowed.
“And a descendant of him,” I finished for him, searching his dark eyes, tracing the marbled gray that occasionally sparkled like the silver of a star.
Kellan stared at me for a moment before nodding.
“Sintarrak,” he confirmed, and his honesty hit me like a blast of air.
Silence hung heavily between us, and though I felt my pulse beneath the skin of my neck, my heart continued a steady, sure beat.
“Sintarrak,” I echoed. “The Embodied that has been watching me. The one who started this all, thousands of years ago. The one here for the other powers. The one who plans to rule them all.”
Kellan’s gaze held mine for several moments, taking long breaths as if to quell some hidden anxiety…as if waiting for me to look away. I didn’t.
“You’re not afraid,” he finally said, his voice dropping. He took a slow step toward me, and his stare drifted from my eyes to my lips before tracing the column of my exposed neck.
“Neither are you,” I breathed, my voice coming out raw as his eyes traced the darkness beneath my skin.
Kellan dragged his gaze to meet my own as he took another step.
My pulse banged against my neck, and the tiniest sliver of intrusive doubt slipped into my chest. It was as if a mountainous expanse suddenly appeared before my heart, a star sparkling at the opposite edge.
It was a massive fissure in the ground separating me from hope, from possibility, yet I wasn’t sure I was ready to clear it—wasn’t sure I’d survive if I took the leap and didn’t make it to what lay at the other side.
My heart had unfurled in Kellan’s presence, reaching out a tendril of possibility when the damning flood of the hell I’d reaped upon myself had drowned him in a torrent of pain and misery in the Abyss.
What nightmares did those memories bear? Was he haunted by the feel of me wrapping the fortissa around his neck? Was he plagued by the feel of my dark serpents constricting his breath in Mount Telum? How could he not be?
This was why I had avoided him. Why I needed space after we had returned to the Realm of Vael. I couldn’t bear to face what I’d done to him. What I’d forced him to endure.
Yet he looked at me without an ounce of fear.
I sucked in a quick breath and blew it through my nose as I took a step back and rubbed a hand at the base of my sweaty neck.
“Your ancestors brought the Bellator powers here, to the Realm of Vael, when they escaped the wrath of the Embodied,” I finally said, turning our attention back to the subject at hand.
Kellan blinked, but he nodded and cracked his neck, his brows furrowing. “If the stories are to be believed, yes. Though I lost my copy of the tales last year.”
“The People of the Stars bred with humans and elves, which is why the elves inherited some of this power.”
Kellan’s arms crossed in front of his chest as I continued.
“And when the Embodied finally discovered a way into our world the first time, Lelyth, the Starling queen, broke the gate and convinced most of the Bellators to hide their powers in the bones. To dull their forces.”
“Yes,” he murmured.
“The bone you’ve been searching for was hers,” I continued. “The Celestyn.”
Kellan nodded once, and I turned to scan the wealth of knowledge hidden in the floating library.
“But you’ve said, more than once, that it’s not for you. Why don’t you think you could harness it?” I asked, my fingers slipping along the spines of his books.
Kellan chuckled, and I turned to find a soft smirk dancing on his lips. My stomach flipped at the sight.
“Weren’t you the one who implied I couldn’t be a noble Bellator?” he asked, placing a hand to his heart.
The corners of my lips twitched as I replayed our walk through the bottom of the lake in the Death Dunes last summer. A ripple of amusement bubbled up at my hatred of the man. I turned back to scan the ancient books as I waited for his reply.
“The Celestyn Bone will only answer to a woman,” he finally said.
I stopped and turned toward him, my head cocked. He shrugged and shook his head softly.
“How do you know this?”
“A rock,” he explained, crossing his arms in front of his chest.
I blinked. “A rock?”
He jerked his head once in confirmation. “It has an engraving on it. Been passed down from generation to generation.”
“May I see it?” I asked, looking around the small library.
“Mm-hmm,” he answered, the sound rumbling up his chest in a deep vibrato and curling my toes in my boots. “It’s not here, though.” He motioned to the ship we stood in.
“So, you think a female family member will harness it once we find it?”
His brows pinched, and a flicker of pain cut across his gaze, but he nodded. “My mother, perhaps. She is the only one left.”
Something softened in my chest. A mother. Kellan had a mother. Why did that feel so…precious?
I nodded, and my brows pinched as I scanned Kellan’s face. He tore his gaze away from mine and stepped toward me.
“I brought you here to show you this.” He changed the subject and reached above my head for an ancient-looking book. The old caramel pages were nearly falling from it.
“Careful—” I warned, reaching out as he brought the book down and placed it on the small table.
His eyes brightened in amusement, and he gently flipped through the dried-leaf pages.
“This,” he began, ringed fingers hovering over the crinkled pages, “contains the instructions on how to land on the Arx.”
I leaned forward, my arm brushing against the pirate’s coat.
“I don’t understand,” I murmured. “Isn’t it just an island at the center of Votruvia?” My mind spun through the countless maps I’d seen of Morwyn’s place of birth. Six islands, five inhabited, the one in the center deserted for reasons I didn’t know.
“It is a floating island, Bonscaíh. And you may only enter,” he said, tracing the words with his finger, “with magic.”
“Has Isla seen this?”
Kellan shook his head as he straightened. “Not yet. I wanted to show you first.”
“Why is that?” I whispered, turning toward him but keeping my eyes locked on the pages of the book. “You don’t owe me anything. Our air oath is broken.”
The oath had died with the pirate lord, and my chest clenched as if I could still feel the air slip off the tips of my fingers. Kellan’s eyes sparked, and he took a step toward me.
“You know why,” he breathed.
My heart squeezed as the air around me stilled, and that little tendril of power connecting us seemed to tighten.
“Do I?”
Kellan’s lips parted, but his eyes focused on something behind me. His dark brows narrowed. My body rotated, following his as he stepped past me and reached for a thin, bone-white book from the back shelf.
“Speaking of the People of the Stars,” he breathed, pulling the book free from the shelf. “I thought I’d lost this.”
My mouth fell open, but my breathing stopped as my eyes landed on the bone-white book that had appeared in the stacks of the Living Library last summer. He opened the familiar edition of Fabia’s Fables.