Chapter 62 Nerina
Nerina
Covenant Ship
The world tilted. Water tore from my lungs as I broke the surface, choking on smoke and salt. Hands caught me before I could sink again. Hard wood slammed into my ribs as I collapsed onto a deck slick with blood.
The roar of battle thundered around me—steel striking steel, men screaming, canvas snapping wild in the wind. The scent of smoke tangled with brine and iron.
“Easy.” A voice cut through it. Low. Commanding. “I’ve got you.”
Veyrion.
He hauled me upright against him, one arm braced solid around my back as the deck heaved beneath us. His armor was cold. Solid. Real.
His glacial eyes swept over me.
And stilled.
I followed his gaze.
My veins still shimmered faintly beneath my skin—silver and violet pulsing weak and uneven, like a dying star struggling to hold its shape.
But my arm—
Black veins radiated from the puncture at my forearm, crawling outward in branching lines. Not shadow.
Rot.
They spread slowly, deliberately, staining the celestial glow wherever they touched. Silver dulled at the edges. Violet flickered. The wound throbbed with every heartbeat.
Something dark shifted behind Veyrion’s eyes.
“What did they do to you?”
I tried to answer.
Salt scraped my throat raw. “I—” The word dissolved into a cough.
Stars, I didn’t know. Only that whatever Calder had put inside me was still there. Coiled. Patient.
The poison pulsed once beneath my skin. The black veins deepened.
Veyrion tightened his grip instantly, anchoring me to him as though sheer force could hold me together. “Stay with me, Neri.”
The command cracked at the edges. Not a warlord now. Not a rival. Just a man trying not to lose someone.
My vision blurred. The edges darkened.
The battle dulled to distant thunder.
Through the haze, I caught flashes—
Bodies strewn across the deck. Torn sails whipping like wounded wings. Fire licking greedily up splintered wood.
“Look at me, Neri,” he said, voice rough as winter wind, fingers bracing my jaw until my eyes found his. “I will drag you back from whatever abyss dares claim you.”
The words felt far away. The poison pulsed again. This time colder.
My body went heavy in his arms.
The last thing I saw—
Not the fire. Not the blood. Not the broken sails.
But Veyrion’s eyes.
Not shocked.
Not afraid.
Certain.
As if this was the girl he had been speaking to all along.
Not the one who doubted.
Not the one who hesitated.
But this one.
The one who burned.
And the truth in his eyes made me understand something that frightened me more than the power and poison tearing through my veins—
He had never been trying to change me.
He had been waiting for me to stop holding myself back.