Chapter Thirty-Seven
ELARA
When dawn broke, Elara was ready. There was a faint jangle of keys as Santi came downstairs, bowls of steaming porridge in hand.
‘Thank you,’ she said quietly, looking over to a still-sleeping Enzo. The quartermaster nodded.
‘Santi?’
‘Yes?’ She noticed he wouldn’t look at her.
‘I’m sorry.’
He blinked. ‘I wasn’t sure that a god, or whatever you are, had that word in their vocabulary.’
Elara laughed. ‘I don’t feel like one. Although, truth be told, I don’t feel like myself at all.
Santi, you have to understand that there have been people trying to kill me at every turn.
Stars hunting me. I didn’t want to put you, Adrian or the rest of the crew in danger by giving you more information than you needed to know. ’
Santi sighed, leaning against the timbers of the brig.
‘I just wanted to get to Altalune as quickly as possible to heal myself. And sort out the rest from there.’
She let her emotions, real and big as they were, come out. ‘I can’t even touch my soulmate,’ she said. Santi looked to where Enzo slept.
‘Soulmate,’ he said, giving a low whistle. ‘Apparently, it’s the best fuck of your life.’
He grinned, and Elara snorted. ‘Do you not have somebody waiting in Altalune? Someone you would do anything for? Even if that meant betraying yourself? Or others around you?’
Santi’s eyes went distant. ‘Not in Altalune, no,’ he said hoarsely. ‘But in Neptuna, yes.’
Elara sat up straighter. ‘Do you think she’s your soulmate?’
‘I feel that we’re tied, yes. She’s my shore, and I the helpless tide that is called back to her every time.’
‘What’s her name?’
‘Annabel.’
Elara raised her brows. ‘Adrian’s sister?’
Santi nodded, swallowing. ‘Nothing has happened with us,’ he said hurriedly. ‘Not even a kiss. But when I’m near her I feel—’
‘Whole,’ Elara supplied.
He nodded. ‘Yes, whole.’
Elara pushed her hand through the bars. ‘If she is suffering from whatever is causing my own magickal illness, I will find the cure. I promise. And when she’s well, you can finally be together. And find out what that soulmate-loving is like.’ She smirked.
Santi grinned, clasping her hand. ‘I’m going to speak to Adrian,’ he said. ‘It’s not right that you’re kept down here.’ He turned, then paused. ‘And I don’t think it, you know. That you’re the Dark. From what Adrian told me, you sound nothing like it.’
Elara gave a weak smile. ‘I hope you’re right.’
Just as the mysterious woman had predicted, a little while later Adrian appeared at the bottom of the stairs. When he looked at Elara, there were dark smudges under his eyes, as though he hadn’t slept.
‘It seems you’ve charmed my quartermaster,’ he said, crossing his arms.
Elara’s lips twitched. ‘He’s a good man.’
‘That he is. Too good to be around you all.’
‘Adrian, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.’
‘Santi already told me what you said.’
‘And?’
‘I saw what you did in Castor, Elara,’ he said softly.
‘I barely know anything about myself or my magick any more,’ she replied.
‘Please, Adrian, trust me on that. I knew I was the Moon. I knew Enzo was the Sun. But this Dark? I know nothing about it. The Stars didn’t once tell me; neither did the prophecies.
If it truly resides in me, then I want it out as much as you do. ’
Adrian studied her for a long time. ‘Fine,’ he said. ‘You can spend the last day above.’
‘Thank you,’ she said, and she meant it. Adrian had a good heart.
‘Thank the mermaid who told me not to hold a grudge,’ he muttered.
‘Yes,’ she said as he turned the key in the lock. ‘You glossed over the fact you’ve been rendezvousing with a mythas?’
‘She’s quite a creature.’
‘Well, you haven’t been turned to salt yet, so she can’t be that vicious a one.’
He chuckled. ‘No, I suppose she isn’t. Though I must say, I don’t mind a woman with a little edge.’
‘There’s more to you than meets the eye, isn’t there, Mereille?’
He grinned as he began to unwind her bindings. ‘You aren’t getting your weapons back, though.’
Elara heard a muffled curse from Leo in the next cell, then a grunt as though Merissa had shoved him. It seemed the two were awake and listening in.
Elara nodded. ‘I understand. But please—my dagger. It’s sentimental. When we part ways, please give it back to me.’
He sighed. ‘Fine. But not while you’re on my ship.’
She nodded.
‘You can stop pretending you’re asleep, by the way,’ he called to Enzo.
Enzo opened an eye. ‘Are you sure? I feared if I was awake, I might insult you and doom us all.’
Adrian laughed as he swung the door open. ‘Your freedom awaits.’