Chapter 3 #2
Ashkade gave a mellow nod, like he didn't want to let Reiven egg him into some kind of brotherly verbal boxing match when he should be focused on me.
“I-I know I'm not all that impressive, but…” His eyes sparkled with intelligence, reflecting the sheen of gold from my choker. “I aim to help people however I can, and that includes you, ma’am. May I?” Ash gestured at the necklace.
I leaned forward to let him inspect it, and it was far too strange to be close to such a young Human.
Nightwhisper Lounge was for adults only, after all.
Spirits, his seaglass-green eyes were so innocent when he looked back up at me after a few seconds of examining it.
“Ah… Wait, I think I read about something like this.”
He whirled and shooed Reiven away from his worktable so he could dig through the various stacks of books.
Muttering to himself, the younger boy seized one notebook, scrawled with terribly handwritten notes, and ran his finger down the page.
A tower of books beside him toppled when he gasped and slammed his hand on the table. “This ain’t good.”
“Wh-what?” I asked.
“It’s an enchantment meant for bindin’, I think. The Druinn that put it on you intended to chain you to him…” He grimaced and hesitated, like the words burned his tongue. “It’s like a magical collar and leash of sorts.”
The boy’s words sunk in slowly, like a coin dropped in the ocean to fall all the way to the Abyssal Deep. Worse than being held behind glass walls, Shaddan intended to drag me around like a pet. Heat flushed through my body.
His pale brows knit together. “If completed properly, the enchantment shoulda forced you to stay within a certain distance from him. But you’re here.”
“I interrupted him while he was chanting, so like I told you, I think it’s fine,” Reiven said.
“You…interrupted?”
Oh, I did not like the way it seemed Ashkade was performing long division in his head as his eyes darted between us.
He pursed his lips. “Uh, I dunno how to tell y’all this…
” Rather than just explaining himself outright, he reached for the collar around my neck.
After waiting for me to give him a reluctant nod, Ashkade brushed his fingers against it—and that glowing golden chain once again appeared between Reiven and I, connecting the collar to the translucent shackle that materialized around his wrist. “I don’t think you just interrupted him, Rei.
I think when you interfered, the enchantment redirected itself and… bound her to you.”
Silence spread as wide and deep as the ocean itself. That pull towards him I felt at the banquet returned with a frustrating insistence I refused to heed. Once the chain and shackle faded away, we finally found words and spoke in unison, glaring at Ashkade.
“Remove it!”
“I dunno if I can,” Ash said, paling when his bodyguard seized the front of his collar and shook him roughly, like a killer whale thrashing its prey to death.
“Then you’d better figure out how to. I didn’t agree to have a fucking Siren bound to me!”
I wrapped my arms around myself, scowling at the back of his head.
As if I asked for any of this, to be chained to anyone.
All I wanted was a quick escape and a helping of revenge.
The thought of being helplessly bound to this infuriating man made the walls loom higher and closer.
I raised a shaking finger and pointed at Ashkade, twisting the fear taking hold of me into a desperate accusation that probably wouldn’t help my situation at all.
“This was planned, wasn’t it? Somehow you—you meant for this to happen! ”
While Reiven threw a glower at me over his shoulder, I blinked and Ashkade disappeared right out of his grip.
I didn’t see him move, he just…appeared on the other side of the worktable, holding a different book than he had been when I closed my eyes.
My lips parted in surprise, then he disappeared for a split second and materialized right beside me, examining the Druinnic collar again.
I leaped away from him. “What the—”
“Ash!” Reiven snapped. “You know I don’t like when you pause time like that! What if you break time again and I’m unable to help you?”
Alright. Fine. Either I’m losing my mind, or this boy does have some kind of strange power.
The Timebreaker kept thumbing through the book in his hands, but he gave Reiven a lopsided grin.
“I’m bein’ real careful, I swear. I don’t wanna break time again, either.
‘Sides, I think I found what I was lookin’ for.
” His gaze locked with mine for a split second, dropping away quickly to focus on the page before him.
“It’s bad news. Only way to dispel the enchantment is to have Rei say the right word in Druinnic.
Problem is, there’s no way to know what that word is, so, at least for now… y’all are stuck.”
“Fuck me,” Reiven said.
Fuck you, indeed. This is your fault.
Ashkade tapped at his chin thoughtfully and murmured that he might have an idea. Every part of me knew I’d hate whatever it was he’d say next. Still, I listened. I was too desperate to do anything else.
“The Voidtome…I did some research. It can nullify magic. Right?”
According to the songs passed down by my ancestors, with the Voidtome, even the most unmagical Human could leave the world in utter oblivion.
Natural magic waned in the face of its power.
Anyone could use it to tear apart reality in favor of pure, empty space.
The Water Spirit had gifted the Voidtome to Sirens at their creation, in the same way the Fire and Terran Spirits bestowed powerful artifacts on the Druinns and Mourners.
The scales of power were mostly balanced, each relic designed to overrule the lesser natural magic of the Druinns, Sirens, and Mourners.
“So,” Ash continued. “Maybe it can help. Your message said you’d offer information leading to it, and I’ve been searchin’ for it for a while now. Since you’re stuck with Rei, we could just find it together and let it nullify the enchantment between you.”
A path slowly emerged from the shadowed despair that had clouded my mind since arriving in the country of the Humans.
Escape Arvensis, use the Tome to negate the binding enchantment, and let the suspiciously kind teenager and his prick of a bodyguard die in Hell.
Then I could wreak all the havoc I wanted against the Humans and return to my home.
Not as perfect as being free right away, but sometimes a Siren had to allow the undertow to drag her as it would.
“Fine.”
“Sound like a plan, Rei?” Ashkade asked.
“Sounds more like I don’t have a choice,” Reiven said. “How do we know she’s not going to stab us in the back?”
I allowed a frigid smile to crack my stony expression. “I would never.”
“Well, if you die, the binding will kill her too, so you don’t have to worry, Rei,” Ash said. A helpful bit of information that derailed those pretty visions I saw of stabbing or drowning Reiven, damn it.
The icy steel of his cutlass brushed the side of my neck, but he was careful not to cut into my skin.
More of a gently lethal warning. He lowered his voice.
“Sirens are treacherous, deadly creatures. I don't care what the limitations of this binding are, you don’t get a weapon, and you’ll stay out of the water. ”
Who put you in charge here?
“And don’t ever touch me like you did in the alley again. In fact, I'd prefer you don't touch me or Ash at all.”
I rolled my eyes. “And what if I do? You going to kill me?”
“Something tells me you’d just slap death in the face and come back to life out of spite.”
Aw, somebody’s upset I got a hit in earlier.
The pink marks my hand left on his cheek had faded, sadly. I pretended to examine his features, pursing my lips with fake pity. “Speaking of, how’s your face?”
He jerked his cutlass away from me, using the flat end as a mirror. “Still effortlessly handsome.”
“Ashkade, you may need to find yourself a new bodyguard. A blind one won’t do you much good.”
“We’re getting off topic,” Reiven said, which meant I won our little exchange. “Those are my terms for having to tolerate you.” Without breaking eye contact, he shoved his cutlass into the scratched leather sheath tied at his hip.
He was the insufferable one, but he had to tolerate me? Well, just from our conversation I could tell it would be exceptionally fun to mock him at every opportunity, so this unfortunate binding may not be so bad.
Ashkade laughed nervously and stepped between us. “‘Kay, now that that’s settled, Zephra, would you tell us where we’re headin’?”