28. Everett #2
“That may be where you belong, but not me,” she snapped. “Not anymore.”
The words landed like a stone in my gut. Her forehead pinched before she schooled her features, bringing that armor back into place. The defensive posture, the sharp lines of her face, warding off anything that would make her feel.
But the one thing she could never change was those eyes. Eyes that bared her soul open to me like a scroll. She wasn’t unbreakable. She was scared. She was alone.
“I’m not leaving you, Vera,” I said. “It’s always been you and me.”
Her jaw twitched. “Everett, I—”
“What are you so afraid of?” I moved closer, and her defiant gaze dragged from my lips to my eyes. “That maybe I won’t let you walk away this time?”
She held my stare. “I’m not afraid.”
“Good,” I murmured. I closed the last inch of space between us, and her amber scent wrapped around me. “Then say yes. We won’t stop until he’s on his knees.”
She inhaled, her chest expanding and brushing mine. I couldn’t stop my eyes from flicking to her lips and back up again. Resistance crackled between us like lightning. For a moment, I forgot anyone else was in the room.
She didn’t say a word, but with a slow, precise movement, she nodded her head. My lips curved into a victorious grin, and I leaned in without thinking.
Starke’s voice ruptured our bubble. “V, you can’t be serious.”
She blinked rapidly, then backed away from me and turned to him. The motion stung like a cold knife scraping down my chest.
“You told me you’d help me fight,” she said to Starke. “Everett can, too. He wants the same thing I do.”
Starke’s icy blue eyes found mine. They measured me, tested me, weighed me. Fates, his feelings for her were so obvious. I wondered if he saw the same thing I did when I looked at him. A man in love with the woman between us.
His jaw ticked, but he gave her a single nod. “Fine. I guess we should tell them everything. I’ll go get Odessa.” With one last look back at us, Starke strode from the room, and the door shut with a click.
“You two don’t have to come with us,” I said to Tessa and Kieran. Kieran stood with his arms crossed, as put-together as ever even after the night we had. Tessa dropped into the nearest chair and put her feet up on the side table.
“Who are you kidding, Ev?” Tessa scoffed, twisting a strand of her black braids around a finger. “Things are finally getting good.”
“I believe what she means to say is that we’re not going to leave you unaccompanied with these people,” Kieran said.
“We have our duties to the empress, of course, but we can always fulfill those once we’ve found Mortep.
Our duty is first and foremost to one another.
” He inclined his head toward Vera. “To both of you. Through flame and ash.”
Vera’s face paled at the Ashen Order’s motto. She glanced between all of us, opening her mouth and then closing it. Finally, she cleared her throat. “Thank you,” she said, voice softer than I expected, then looked away. I started to move toward her when the door opened.
Starke walked back in with another young woman at his side. “Everyone, this is Odessa Velyn. She’s a close friend and historian for our harbormaster.”
The rest of us introduced ourselves. Odessa pushed a pair of wide spectacles up her nose and nodded at us.
A mass of dark brown curls was held back by a leather strap, but a few strands came loose and framed her face.
A pencil was stuck behind her ear, and a couple of books were tucked under her arm.
She held out her hand to shake mine and sent the books tumbling to the ground.
“Oh, I—I’m so sorry,” she said with a grimace, bending low to retrieve them.
To my surprise, Kieran stepped around me and crouched to the ground.
“Allow me.” He set both books back in her outstretched arms, his hand lingering on hers for a heartbeat too long.
Her cheeks darkened as they both rose, and she quickly looked away.
Kieran stood there, transfixed, still gazing at her until I coughed.
“I brought the map you asked for, Starke,” Odessa said, pulling a weathered piece of parchment from one of the books.
“What map?” I asked.
“It’s a long story,” Vera said. “You’re right—we have been looking for Mortep, and we might be getting close.” She glanced up at Starke. “Here’s where things get a little more…”
“Uncertain,” he offered, shifting closer to her.
I scowled. Didn’t love that. I tried not to think about the fact that Starke knew about Mortep.
That meant the two of them were close enough for Vera to tell him her story.
Vera didn’t trust easily, and those she did trust had typically earned it.
That should’ve comforted me, to know she had made at least one friend while off on her own.
But it didn’t stop my blood from boiling at the way Captain Starke casually sat on the arm of her chair, how they finished each other’s sentences, how her guard was more down for him than it was for me.
Tessa crossed her legs, pointedly kicking my shin in the process. I ran my tongue along my teeth and smoothed my features.
“A couple weeks ago, Starke and I were following a lead on Mortep. There was a rumor he’d been digging around in some caves on Twin Tides, and when we got there, we found a bad wreckage,” Vera started.
“It looked like it had been there for centuries. We recovered this phoenix crest and a torn map.” She pulled a long chain from her pocket and set it on top of the map.
I reached for it, my fingers brushing hers as she pulled away. Even that simple touch sent heat up my arm. I hastily gripped the map and chain, bringing them back to my seat for Tessa, Kieran, and me to peruse as Vera continued.
“We didn’t know what either of them meant. None of the maps we have access to match this one. But on that same trip, we came across the whirlpool for the first time, almost at the exact same coordinates as yesterday.
“Odessa and I did some research once we were back in Saltmourne, and it turns out, things like that have been happening around the same spot in the Imarian Sea for generations.” Vera spoke faster, a hint of the passionate girl I remembered breaking through.
“Always around springtime. Many of the reports led back to Shipwreck Cove, so that’s why we were out here—to scope out the island. And we found something.”
“Mortep?” I asked, leaning in.
“We’re getting closer,” Vera said with a nod. “People on the island have actually seen him. They said Mortep has been there multiple times, gathering followers for something. Spouting some ideology of a ‘better life’ and ‘lighting the eternal flame.’”
I blinked twice. This was all so much to take in. Why did Mortep need followers? Especially non-magic ones? What was he planning?
Tessa plopped her feet on the floor. “What’s the eternal flame bit about?”
Vera smirked. “That’s the best part.”
“We have very different definitions of the word ‘best,’” Starke shot back.
“Odessa?” Vera said, gesturing to the historian.
She adjusted her spectacles. “There’s a legend that’s been passed down for centuries, one my family came across on their travels.
A story of a lost kingdom created by the Fates long ago, who procreated with the humans and bore children who had the power of the Fates.
” Her voice was soft but strong as she told the tale.
“Eventually, the people became too powerful for their own good and tried to rebel against the Fates. They were then banished from existence as punishment, except for once a century, when the kingdom rises for twenty-four hours to try and break the enchantment before disappearing again.”
We all drank in her words. The cabin was quiet, save for the ocean lapping at the hull outside. Then Tessa said, “Listen, I’m going to be honest with you. That sounds ridiculous.”
Odessa adjusted her spectacles. “I know it’s difficult to believe, but—”
“Oh, no, I totally believe it,” Tessa said. “But it still sounds ridiculous.”