Chapter 20
Chapter twenty
Jax
As I stepped into the pool of water, the treasure chest almost close enough to touch, I felt as though I was dreaming.
In an instant, that dream turned into a nightmare.
Sofie’s piercing scream nearly stopped my heart.
I whirled, drawing a dagger to fight an enemy I could not hit. Fool! The allure of the treasure had bested me again, distracting me while I left Sofie vulnerable behind me.
By the time I locked eyes on the vengeful spirit, it was too late. Sofie’s blood flew from a gaping wound, spattering the cave wall.
“No!” I shouted at the spirit, my senses returning. “Take me instead!”
With a skeletal grin, the spirit obliged, leaving Sofie in a heap on the cavern floor as it shuffled towards me in the tatters of a gown. This was her—the hag Aoki swore he had seen.
The Bride was meeting me face to face at last. Ready to end me and this tortured, cursed existence of mine after so many years of anguish and pain.
What had I done? If I died, everyone left in my crew would die with me. But I couldn’t think straight. Sofie’s scream still echoed in my ears, still pierced my heart.
The spirit loomed above me, growing impossibly tall, as if distending the vertebrae that had once made up her spine.
Clearly, I was still befuddled by the treasure’s siren-like call. For as the Bride’s claws wrapped around my throat, I finally understood what should’ve been obvious:
This was no spirit, but a creature of flesh and bone. A woman who had once lived.
A bride, still in her lace gown.
The heels of my boots left the thin layer of water on the pool’s edge as she hoisted me, my neck creaking and straining. Yet her hand was not so tight against my throat that it would prevent me from speaking. I could’ve gasped or begged, but I said nothing, did nothing.
This was the fate I deserved. The fate my crew and I all deserved for putting treasure above my brides’ lives. I had offered my life for Sofie’s and meant it.
And then I remembered how many adventures were ahead of me, how many fine nights drinking and singing with my crew in Starfall’s many fine establishments. And I remembered the blue eyes of the finest woman I’d ever beheld, pleading with me to make a different choice.
What a colossal fool I’d been. I could not take back what I’d done. But there was something I could still do for her.
I could fight for her.
Swinging one leg, I kicked at the revenant and connected with her knee.
Though it buckled, the Bride did not release her grasp—so I returned the favor.
Grabbing onto the scraggly strands that remained of her hair, I held tight, yanking her head back and to the side until the bones gave a satisfying snap.
The creature collapsed into the shallows of the pool.
Before I could even catch my breath, she was rising again, her eyes glowing with equal parts cold power and hatred for me.
What she did not see was Sofie doing the same behind her.
I watched as Sofie raised a trembling hand, and waited, waited, until the last possible second. Light bloomed in Sofie’s palm, then shot towards me, twisting until it became white-hot fire.
I threw myself down into the pool at the last possible moment, the ends of my beard hissing as I hit the water. Fire engulfed the cave, filling it, heating the water around me until it was almost unbearable and spots danced over my vision.
Then, at last, it sputtered out.
Sopping wet and gasping, I raised myself from the water, a broad grin already on my face as I beheld the charred remains of the vengeful Bride and the powerful woman left standing.
The cave smelled abominable—the worst thing I’d ever breathed in. But we were both still here. Both still alive.
Both with so many adventures ahead of us. Ones we could share together.
Sofie had done it. She’d broken the curse!
Though her dress was soaked with dark blood, Sofie remained on her feet, hand still extended, panting. As she lowered her arm at last, a shadow of pain flitted across her eyes.
I jumped over the ash pile that the creature had become and was at Sofie’s side in a moment, and that was none too soon. I arrived just in time to catch her.
Sofie was heavy in my arms, peering up at me through her red eyelashes as her lids half-closed. “That was no spirit,“ she whispered. “That was a draugr. And any northern islander worth her salt knows what to do with a draugr.”
“What?” I asked, the grin refusing to leave my face as I beheld my remarkable bride.
“Burn them.”
I could not help but laugh, giddy at finally being free. “You’ll need stitches.”
Sofie snorted. “I healed the wound enough. Turns out I’m not half bad at healing myself. But I’ve lost a great deal of blood. I feel…tired.”
Lifting her a touch higher, I rested my forehead against hers. “Rest now, dear Sofie. You did well.”
Her eyes closed.
I hoisted her into my arms, turning us both back toward the pool and the treasure that was finally mine.
“Do you still think so?” she asked, her voice barely more than a whisper.
As my eyes found the charred back wall of the cave, horror, then a wave of heat as if she used her magic again, washed over me.
Broken shards of stone and molten gold, still white hot, were all that remained of the chest. The gold had spread out into a pool, seeping into cracks in the floor and out the back of the cavern.
“No!”
In agony, I set Sofie down against the cave wall as gently as I could, then splashed through the pool just as the last of the molten metal disappeared into the earth.
Steam and smoke still rose from the remains, acrid and toxic.
I stood there anyway, hands hovering, as if I could put the shards of the enchanted astrolabe back together.
The Queen of the Sea was gone forever. I would never be Goldenbeard, King of the Pirates. I would never best Blackbeard.
All of this was for nothing. All my brides…
Their names rang through my head like mourning bells.
Amarylis.
Kalia.
Tira.
Nadia.
Cassia.
Vivienne.
Autumn.
Inek.
Eight names. Eight brides. Eight lives cut short.
Eight hopes dashed. Some I had loved, some were in it for the treasure I promised them, some had truly thought they’d be the one who would beat the curse.
Vivienne had believed in the power of true love’s kiss, and I, starry-eyed, had wanted to believe it was true.
Each had been taken by the creature or the curse she’d cast.
Each had broken my heart.
And I’d kept condemning them anyway, kept hoping, kept giving in to the treasure’s cursed allure.
“How could you?” I demanded, my back shaking. But how could I? What had I done? How could I have valued my life and that of my crew so far above theirs?
Sofie waited so long to speak that I turned, a stab of fear in my chest as I checked to see if she’d lost consciousness.
“I freed her,” she said. “I freed all of you. There is always another way.”
“Then my wives died for nothing,” I spat. “All of it was meaningless.”
Sofie’s eyes widened. “Are you just now figuring that out?”
I pointed. “That treasure would’ve saved lives. With the Queen of the Sea, even the Diam Sea would’ve been no obstacle. All of those poor magical creatures trying to get to Nox—Carabosse could’ve delivered them all.”
“And how many of your fellow pirates would you have killed in the process? What would you have plundered from the coast of the southern wolding, or taken from the northern isles once you were free to roam the sea however you wished? That power was locked away here for a reason, Jax. Now, can we get out of here, or would you like to keep breathing fumes?”
I was so furious that for a shameful moment, I thought of leaving the cavern without her. Chastened, I made my way back to her, skirting the pile of ash, and lifted her gruffly.
“You’ll have to walk through the mouth of the cave on your own,” I said, setting her on her feet.
She swayed, but stayed upon them. How she managed to appear haughty as she stumbled sidewise through the narrow passage is beyond me.
Sofie was extraordinary, alright. An extraordinary pain in my posterior.
She was also my wife.
What was I going to do with her now? Or the more pressing question, what was a sorceress with so much power she could melt enchanted objects going to do with me?