Chapter 31
Thirty-One
Relic
The mid-morning sun burnt my skin and made me slick with sweat as I squirmed away from the Commander in the saddle.
He hadn’t said a word the night before after returning from standing vigil in the courtyard.
I had feigned sleep to avoid questions about the tear stains on my cheeks, and if he had realized it was a ruse, he said nothing.
He hadn’t said much this morning either, aside from insisting that I find the next Relic. Never mind that I had no idea where they were.
“Like I have told you already, I don’t know where they are!”
Winston shifted beneath us restlessly as the Commander shoved the reins back into my hands.
“You do know.” He placed a large hand over my chest, and I stilled under his touch, hating the way heat washed over my skin.
“In here,” he grumbled, “follow it.”
I breathed out slowly, ignoring the heat tingling against my skin from his touch.
The ethereal woman had led me to the axe and perhaps she was still trying to lead me to another.
Every night since the storm, the same dream of her death…
my death had haunted me. The dream always ended the same way.
With the crown tumbling off the cliff into the crashing waves, just like it was written in Rythos’ journal.
What if the crown was the Relic? My chest ached at the thought, and I knew I was right. “It’s in the Dead Sea. I think I have been dreaming of the first time I was killed. In it, I see a crown made of shells.”
His hand still hadn’t moved, as if he was frozen. A moment passed and everything was still. Too still. His hand still rested heavily against my beating heart.
“Do you ever see who killed you?” he asked quietly.
“No, I don’t know what Rythos Draven looks like.” The answer was disappointing. Not knowing the face of the monster designed to kill me was unsettling. It could be anyone.
“You have started reading the journal, I take it,” he said, moving his hand away. My silence pressed down on him, stretching as Winston walked through the long swaying grass.
“Lead Umbra where your heart pulls you. Find your crown.”
I dug my heels in and flicked the reins; Winston took off in a gallop.
I refused to call him Umbra, but I had learnt a lot riding with the Commander.
It felt exhilarating holding the reins. We galloped for what felt like hours, the sun following us across the sky.
I couldn’t help eyeing it, wondering if Helion watched us through the rays of sunlight.
Something I had enjoyed so much when I had first gotten here now felt like a violation.
The smell of salt lingered on the breeze, making my skin tingle. We crested a small hill, and a gasp left me.
Blue. Endless blue devoured the horizon. The roar of waves crashing against the cliff sent a calming surge through my body.
I pulled on Winston’s reins, slowing him to a trot. Ahead, the cliff expanded to a grassy outlet and my blood chilled. There. That was where I died. I didn’t know how I knew. But I did.
The Commander slid off the saddle behind me, and I didn’t wait for him to help.
I slid off clumsily after him but caught myself before I fell.
The wind pulled at my hair as I walked to the edge of the cliff.
The waves crashed violently below, blue waves churning to white froth.
A coldness washed over my skin, and I knew she was there.
The unearthly woman stood next to me, tear-stained eyes trained on the water.
She looked at me, full lips tilting into a sad smile.
“Find the pieces,” she said before tipping over the edge. Her translucent dress fluttered in the breeze. I gasped, leaning over to watch her disappear into the waves. A thrill shot through me.
“Careful,” the Commander warned as I moved closer to the edge. He watched me tentatively, his eyebrows pushed together when I gave him a small smile. His shadows tore at his skin, digging into him.
Before he could react, I leapt into the open air.
The Commander cursed behind me before the wind swallowed all noise.
Whipping past me as I fell. My stomach dropped.
The waves crashed over me. The cool embrace of the water tingled against my skin.
I sank deeper into the depths, the saltwater pressing against me like a soothing balm.
Unlike Ascension, I could see around me.
Beams of sunlight pierced the sea. I tried to swim, but my boots dragged behind me. I kicked them off and kicked my legs.
The ghost of the Sea Goddess floated below me, leading me further into the deep.
The current pulled me with every churn of the waves above.
The aching feeling in my chest grew with every kick further into the deep.
The Relic was close; I could sense it, but I was so far away from the surface now.
My lungs clenched. The ache bloomed into a searing fire.
I couldn’t tell if it was stupidity or instinct that pushed me forward, but I kept going.
My chest convulsed. Air. I needed air. The sunlight was nothing more than a distant flicker above me. Too far. I would never reach it in time. My arms grew heavy. My vision dimmed at the edges. I was going to drown. Again. Would I die this time?
Water pressed against my mouth, begging for entrance.
I couldn’t fight the instinct any longer.
I inhaled. Water rushed into my lungs. I braced for the burning.
For the insufferable feeling of being smothered from the inside.
But it didn’t come. I gasped again, but there was no panic.
Only... strange clarity. My chest expanded easily. No burning. No choking.
A broken laugh shattered through me, turning the last of my air into a bubble that floated up towards the surface. Any doubt I had about being the Sea Goddess’s reincarnation drifted away with it.
My vision sharpened, and suddenly, the water was no longer murky.
The sunlight filtered through the water, casting rays of light that glittered over a crumbling castle below me.
It was carved from stone and coral, towers half-devoured by barnacles and time.
The windows were dark. Broken. It would have been beautiful once. Before the war.
Swimming along the ocean floor, my hand brushed through the glistening sand. I longed to explore the castle, to find its secrets. My secrets. But right now, I had to focus.
The Sea Goddess floated in front of me, tears flowing from her eyes into the ocean.
“Break his curse.” Her words floated to me, crashing into me more strongly than any wave. “The light is in the dark, and the dark will see light again. Do not let him see the light again.”
She rushed towards me, diving through my chest.
I gasped, frantically looking around. Glittering caught my eye amongst the coral growing from the sea floor.
The pulling in my chest turned to an urgent ache.
A crown lay half-buried in coral. My hand wrapped around the cold, ancient metal.
But it didn’t give. No matter how hard I tugged, the coral seemed to tighten.
I slipped, the coral slicing through my palm.
Black blood floated up like ribbons through the water.
My blood seeped into the crown and the coral reacted, cracking beneath my fingers before breaking apart.
Black metal twisted into points that turned into vibrant blue coral at the tips, small shells nestled against it like jewels.
I stared at it for a moment, enthralled by its beauty.
Then power radiated up my arm. A sharp, vibrating pain flooded my veins and tore through me as the Soul Relic poured itself into me.
My scream sent bubbles streaming to the surface.
Shapes rose from the depths in a frenzy. Ghostly figures flew past me, hair like liquid. Tails swishing through the water. Their bodies shimmered like fractured light. They were beautiful. Sirens.
“She is here...” one whispered, voice like a current in my mind. “The last one...”
“She has the crown...” They streamed through the water, circling me. I couldn’t move. My heart raced in my chest. One dove forward. I tried to move back, but I wasn’t quick enough. It was her. Me. The Sea Goddess.
She stopped an inch from my face. Gooseflesh broke out across my skin as her bright blue eyes bore into me. Her translucent hair floated like tendrils of ink, her dress gone and replaced by scales. She reached a translucent hand towards the crown, gesturing for me to place it on my head.
The Sirens paused to watch me.
I placed the crown on my head, the weight settling against my soul and the ghost of the Sea Goddess grinned.
Pain seared through my body. Crack.
I screamed, bubbles tearing from my mouth, hands reaching to cradle my leg, now jarred at the wrong angle. Crack. Crack. Crack.
My body contorted, pain overwhelmed my senses. I thrashed in the water. Was I being attacked? Was it the blood bargain? My bones snapped with a sickening crunch, twisting, tearing. Fire ripped through my veins, searing my flesh from the inside out.
My scream tore free— raw and animalistic.
A sob tore loose from my throat, raw and broken.
Another crack splintered through my legs, white-hot pain cutting off my cry.
I gasped through the torment, forcing water into my lungs.
The pain ebbed, leaving me hollow, and shaking.
I had sunk against the ocean floor, broken body heaped against the sand.
I looked down at my legs, expecting to see a mess of gore.
A gasp escaped my lips. Where my legs should have been, a tail shimmered in their place.
Turquoise, radiant, and impossibly alive.
Scales overlapped like facets of gemstone, each one catching the light and breaking it into ripples of blue and green that danced across my skin.