68. Princess Esemeray
PRINCESS ESEMERAY
While Killian untied Storm for their escape, Esemeray slithered toward Izara as a dravyn as planned. She could smell the musty lake and the earthy minerals of the sand. Esemeray knew dravyns were the most poisonous snake in Aldmoor, but she hadn’t realized how powerful their noses were.
Her smooth belly slid along the sandy shore, inching closer to Izara.
There would be no way to get past Izara without her mind being taken over.
Esemeray may not have the power to take over someone’s consciousness, but she had the power to become anything she wanted, and today she would beat Izara at her own game.
Her vision allowed her to move at a rapid speed as she tracked Izara’s figure traced in red, her fluttering heartbeat obvious through the shell of her body. Esemeray halted as Izara whipped toward her. Her silver snake eyes fell upon her. Esemeray looked away, focusing on her beating heart instead.
Unbothered, Izara crouched down and picked up Esemeray’s snake form, the palm of her warm hand a welcome relief from the damp mud. “Hello, my beautiful creature; what brings you here…?” Her head tilted. “I know you.”
Esemeray panicked, and without a second thought, she sank her teeth into Izara’s wrist, injecting her with poison.
Izara didn’t let go, not yet.
How long does it take?
Esemeray’s mouth went dry.
“You stupid bitch.” Izara chucked her, and before Esemeray hit the ground, black mist flooded her vision. Esemeray stood before Izara; a cool breeze caressing her skin. A heavy current rushed through her palms, her shadows curling around her fingertips.
“We want her,” the voices—the shadows whispered to Esemeray in harmony.
“I knew it was you.” Izara approached, her eyes dancing curiously. “What are you?”
Esemeray panted, her brows drawing inward, seeming to be unaffected by Izara’s power. “Where is Riggs?” Esemeray shouted, clenching her fists.
“How ironic, the Princess of Dagon has magic,” Izara spat, approaching closer, her hair floating above her.
“I’ll certainly have the most fun with you.
Too bad I have to kill you with my hands.
” She blew on her fingers. “I’d rather not break a nail…
oh, well, it will be worth smashing your pathetic face.
” She seethed, her eyes raking down Esemeray’s body. “You’re really not all that pretty…”
Esemeray trembled, taking a step back. “Tell me where he is?”
“About that…” Izara smiled quickly, her gaze darting to the lake. “He’s currently being torn to shreds as we speak.”
Her stomach plummeted. Palms curling, Esemeray shadows rolled through her like fog, heart thundering against her ribs.
“You liar!” In the corner of her eye, she spied Killian approaching Izara from behind, sword raised.
As if she sensed him, Izara craned her neck.
Esemeray’s pulse beat rapidly, her breath escaping.
She needed to do something.
Now!
“We want her!” The shadows spoke again, louder this time.
They had never asked for permission.
What changed?
Esemeray threw out her palms, and said to the voices in her mind, as you wish. They rushed through her, an otherworldly force enveloping her entire body. Shadows spiraled from her fingers, viciously pumping, and twisting behind her shoulders.
Esemeray’s lips curved as the shadows wrapped around Izara’s neck, her eyes flickering from emerald to silver as she clawed at her throat. “W-what are you?”
Her mother’s voice filled her mind. “You’re an abomination.”
And perhaps she was—she’d accept it, and she’d become it.
“I am who I am!” Esemeray screamed, allowing the darkness to pull her deeper into a trance. She could feel it all. Every fleeting heartbeat from Izara, the oxygen draining her lungs, Izara’s power suffocating with every passing second beneath her shadows.
Killian blindfolded Izara. “Let her go, now!”
Esemeray didn’t let go—she couldn’t—didn’t want to.
Her entire life, the darkness embraced her, and for the first time, she embraced it.
She wasn’t letting go, not until Izara dropped dead.
Eyes rolling back, Esemeray’s breathing steadied, sinking somewhere familiar and somewhere far away.
Drowning deeper into oblivion, warmth spread throughout her entire body, bathing her in a sweet silence.
She no longer heard Izara choking, no longer heard Killian yelling—nothing but emptiness, singing to her, soothing her. Esemeray sucked in a full breath, accepting who she was. I am who I am.
“We need to save Riggs!”
Esemeray blinked.
Riggs—
Her panic sobered her, pulling her back to reality.
“Release her,” she demanded the shadows, and they dissipated, disappearing as fast as they arrived.
“Yes, master.” The voices flooded her mind, chilling her blood.
Esemeray’s brows bunched. Master?
Killian knocked Izara to her knees, her head hanging, body falling to the sand. “Go Esemeray! I got the rest handled.”
Esemeray ran for the lake, shifting into a vicious water creature, known for its ability to see in the deepest, darkest waters. A beast that existed in the Emerald Sea.
If Killian’s suspicions were correct and Riggs was at the bottom of the lake with the Rouskla, Esemeray needed to become something more lethal, more feared than the dravyn. She saw sketches of the beast long ago and remembered her father speaking the creature’s name.
Something called a Laragorgen.