Chapter 33
“No, no, no!”
His voice already sounded far away, like he was on the other side of an endless chasm in the Abyssal Deep. Pain shot through my aching chest with every labored breath I managed as he lowered me to the ground. Wet warmth spread across my chest and soaked my leathers.
“Slow your bleeding,” Reiven hissed. “Do it!”
My lips twitched. I wanted to smile, but I didn't have the energy, so I settled for blinking up at his blurry, distressed face.
He took my hand and rested it against my wound. “Try. Please, Zephra. I can't—I can't lose both of you!”
I did try. But using my fading energy to slow my own bleeding was like running barefoot on knives to escape a rolling boulder. I wouldn't be able to keep it up for long.
A commotion drew my languid eyes to watch Shaddan slam into the far wall, thrown like a child’s toy by the Sirensteel creature.
Ribbons of blood painted his armor, but he tried to get up almost immediately.
At least he was alive. And now that he was out of the way, nothing stopped the creature from springing towards Reiven with a ghastly screech.
He had to have seen the panic in my eyes.
Fiery orange light emanated from his hands, erasing the markings that kept his power bound, but there was no relief in his expression, only more pain than I'd ever seen before.
Rei shot to his feet, whirling to face the creature as the glow of flames intensified around his hands.
He let out a scream of effort and anguish and shoved his palms towards it.
A wall of pure flame that stretched as high as the ceiling manifested before him.
Waves of scorching heat blasted me in the face, but I expended the energy to keep my eyes half open. I had to know if he was alright.
The creature shrieked in agony as Reiven manipulated the wall of fire towards it, flinging drops of melted Sirensteel across the stone chamber.
The wall curved into a circular tunnel that surrounded the monster, and with a clench of Rei’s fist, the flames closed in.
A towering pillar of pure, burning power melted the creature into puddles of glimmering silver metal.
He had so much power inside him…It’s incredible.
The flames dissipated into thin air after a moment, leaving nothing but smoke and the tang of steel. Rei dropped to his knees beside me and snatched the Voidtome from where I had dropped it. He flung it open and flipped through the pages like he was a living, breathing hurricane.
Darkness crept around my vision. I could hear his hysterical, panting breaths. “Please,” he said. “Please, she has to live. I can’t let her die!”
It’s just like Ash said…It’s better this way.
Of course, I felt terrible for leaving Reiven alone. But at least I didn’t have to live with the guilt of being the only one of us to leave Hell alive. Three lives were better than one—if only I had saved Ash, too…
Right when I thought he was going to give up and burn the Tome to ashes in frustration, Reiven froze and stared at a particular page. He whispered something I could barely hear.
“Rectify the transgression…”
Running his finger over a line on the page, Reiven began to speak in a language I couldn't understand, eyes focused on the paper before him. His incoherent murmuring bordered on maniacal, until he stopped with a gasp.
An empty, circular space had cut its way into existence above the pool of water, silent and black as ink.
A female form, made entirely of flowing water, stepped out of it and daintily made her way across the pool that rippled beneath her.
Her dripping body left a trail of darkened stone in her wake.
She fixed her glowing, pupil-less eyes on Reiven, tossing the water that formed her hair over her shoulder.
“Well?” she asked, her voice impossibly smooth, like the glassiest lake on a windless day. “Why would a Mourner possibly want to summon me?”
Reiven wasted no time, jabbing a finger at me. “She's one of yours. Save her, now.”
The Spirit took one look at me and said, “Nothing I can do for her, I'm afraid. She's going to die.”
Hearing it so plainly, that there was simply nothing to be done, almost calmed me. I didn't have to keep struggling to slow down the blood gushing out of my wound—or maybe I would, but only long enough for me to say goodbye to Rei.
But he wasn't satisfied with the Spirit's answer. “No, the Voidtome let me summon you for a reason. It has to be that you can save her.”
“And why do you want to save her? Aren't Sirens and Mourners mortal enemies?”
Reiven straightened up and leveled a glare at the Spirit. “I love her.”
I thought the Water Spirit smiled, though it was difficult to tell. She gave an amused, airy chuckle and began to circle Reiven and I. “Do you, now? Really?”
“Yes, I really do, and she's running out of time.”
The Water Spirit’s laughter bubbled like a fountain. “Time, time, time. All of our creations have an obsession with time. There simply is not enough of it to go around for you, is there? Well, I am no master of time, Mourner, so I'm afraid—”
“Save her. I'll do anything.”
The Spirit went as still as possible despite the flow of water that formed her body. She regarded Reiven with disdain, before glancing my way with the same look about her, until her eyes fell on the Voidtome on the ground beside us.
Her face split into a grin, though it didn't seem entirely friendly.
“Well, I suppose anything is possible when one is willing to pay the price.
I'll make a deal with you, Mourner. I'll keep the Siren alive while you return the Voidtome where it belongs.
Do this, and she'll live. Fail, and neither of you will.
A Mourner stole the Tome, after all, so it's only right that a Mourner returns it.”
No. That’s impossible.
“Deal.” Reiven was already nodding and scooping up the Voidtome, as if she had merely asked him to walk it across the room, not leagues below the sea. He knelt beside me and brushed some hair out of my face.
“Don’t,” I squeaked. “You’ll drown—”
He gave me a calm smile and brushed his lips against mine in the most rushed goodbye. “Sorry, I’m going to need this. Just hang in there, alright?”
Even with a Siren’s gift, he’s only going to be able to breathe for a few hours. He won’t have enough time to make it back up.
“No,” I mumbled, grabbing for his arm, but he dodged my clumsy attempt easily.
Rei stood before the pool of water for a moment before diving in and disappearing, Voidtome in hand.
He’s not going to come back…He’s going to drown trying to save me.
The Water Spirit watched silently, and she somehow stopped my bleeding without even looking at me, but I was far too weak to move much. The water didn’t stir or ripple for hours.
She sent him to his death, and she knows it. She’s just watching him struggle needlessly.
I had no idea the Water Spirit would be so malicious.
“He’s not struggling, not yet,” she said, focused on the pool.
What, did she read my mind?
“I’ve been watching you for a while now…A Siren who, even after years of being trapped on land, was still foolish enough to befriend a Human and fall in love with a Mourner. Honestly, it goes against everything the world taught you.”
I’m tired of stewing in hatred and distrust just because of where someone was born or what they are. Ash, Rei, Calinia, even Shaddan…We all worked together in some ways to get this far.
The Water Spirit actually smiled. “Isn’t that lovely? And just how the Spirits and the god of time always intended our world to be.”
Shaddan and Calinia finally woke up around the fourth hour of waiting. They settled for quietly conversing, leaning against the cave wall to regain some of their energy. I didn't have the strength to look at them, but I was glad they were alive.
The Water Spirit began to sing. Her voice was ancient, ethereal, like meeting the smoothest river in the midst of a silent wood, letting the refreshing coolness run over one’s fingers.
It almost sent me drifting away into a blissful darkness, but I forced myself to stay awake.
Focusing on the tiny rocks digging into my back helped a bit.
Somewhere off in the distance, the song of dripping water melded with the Spirit’s voice to become a comforting balm to my soul, as I willed Reiven to come back to me.
Still, not a single ripple broke the tension of the water’s surface. It had been several hours, around the time when Reiven’s gift would wear off, when the Water Spirit stopped singing. “My my. Isn’t he full of surprises?”
When she had first spoken with Reiven, she came off as cold, almost joyful at our misery. But now…there was a twinge of pride, and a color of gratefulness to her voice.
The fuzziness in my mind slowly cleared, dark spots of confusion fading into clarity. That dull pain in my chest disappeared as if it had never been there. I managed to sit up, bewildered at the sudden lack of a stab wound in my chest.
Did he do it?
If Rei was at the bottom of the ocean, in the depths of the Abyssal Deep, it would only be a matter of time—
“Do all mortals like to play with time, whether that power belongs to you or not?” the Spirit asked coolly.
I ignored her, dragging my pathetically weak body towards the pool. I dipped my hand into the water and murmured his name. If I mustered enough strength to force myself over the edge, then down into the water, maybe I could save him.
But the Spirit motioned for me to wait, watching by my side with a surprisingly pleased look on her face. “Don’t interfere. You trust your lover to make it back to you alive, don’t you?”
Was she mocking me? I trusted Reiven with my whole heart, but it simply wasn’t possible for him to still be trying to return. We waited, and at some point I began to wonder when she was going to admit to me that he was gone. The pain in my heart would rebound with an unbearable vengeance.
“I’m angry at him, you know,” I muttered.
The Spirit tried to look barely interested. “Is that so?”
“Yes.” My eyes burned with tears. “If he wasn’t such a selfish prick, he’d probably already be walking out of this place with the Voidtome. He didn’t even give a damn that I’d rather die so he could live, and he just had to make an unattainable deal with a Spirit to save me.”
“It sounds to me that you both are equal parts selfish.”
Out of nowhere, the pool rippled. I craned my neck to find the source of the disturbance, perhaps a stray droplet of water falling from the ceiling, but the ripples grew and multiplied.
A hand, black as coal, broke the surface and grabbed for dry land. Soon, the rest of him followed, as Reiven dragged himself out of the water, panting like a dog.
I seized his arm and helped him out, pulling him into a suffocating hug, gaping in disbelief that he was there.
His chest heaved against mine through the clothing he had been wearing beneath his armor.
Water dripped from his hair into his eyes, so I pushed his bangs out of his face and cupped his cheeks.
“How?” I whispered, pure relief rushing through me.
“How did you make it? My gift should have only lasted a few hours!”
Rei gave me a pained smile and lifted his hand to show me the ring glowing silver around his finger. It shattered in a poof of glittery dust. His voice trembled. “Ash saved us again. He always saves us, even when he’s not here, doesn’t he?”
My emotions couldn’t decide how to absorb what he said, that he had actually made it to the Abyssal Deep and used Ash’s ring to pause time around him to keep my gift from expiring. I flung my arms around him, forgoing all pretense and letting my tears flow freely.
When we pulled away to let each other have space to breathe, the Water Spirit was nowhere in sight, but the wall beyond the pool of water split open with a booming crack of sound. The fresh crevice let sunlight flood into the dim chamber, scattering sparkles across the pool.
After my eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness, I focused on the black stones that formed the castle in the distance, the gray smear of the wall against the dark blue ocean. Heat from the surface-dweller sun beat down onto me, and for once, I found the warmth wonderful.