Chapter 39
Zephyr
The ice-cold water feels like a million small pinpricks when I’m engulfed in its depths.
I acted on pure instinct once I could finally get my legs to move toward Evangeline.
Watching her jump elicited a scream from me, drawing up raw emotions I didn’t think I was capable of.
Then, in an instant, Finnick appeared out of nowhere and followed after her.
There was no hesitation on his face. He simply jumped in, leaving me alone.
So, I followed them both down.
The water pulls me deeper, tighter, faster.
It’s not just wet—it’s suffocating and pulses with ancient magic I’ve never experienced.
It feels like being swallowed whole by everlasting sorrow.
My limbs feel weighted, my heartbeat slows, my magic wild and crackling under my skin like it doesn’t know whether to protect me or finish the job.
For the first time in my life, the icy coldness bothers me.
This is supposed to kill us. I know it. Lady Thalia spoke of what the well wants in return to save our lands. It’s what the curse demands. A sacrifice made with unselfish intent.
And gods help me, I’m ready. Because if she is going to die, I refuse to let her go alone.
Not her. Not my Evangeline.
And not Finnick either. Fuck that pesky pixie and his need to save Evangeline.
In a span of less than a minute, Niko has lost everyone he has ever loved.
I mourn for my mate, but he will understand why I couldn’t let Evangeline die alone.
Why I needed to be right by her side. If there is an afterlife, then I will wait for Niko.
We all will, and one day, we will be together again.
It’s just not going to be in this realm.
The pressure builds around my chest until my ribs threaten to snap. I open my mouth to scream, and the water rushes in like punishment. I flail ungracefully until I find Evangeline and pull her into my arms. She feels like dead weight, her eyes closed. Has she already been lost to us?
I grab for Finnick next, pulling him near us. His eyes are open, but they don’t seem to register what is happening around us. I fear I may have lost him too. I’m alone, without my brother-in-law, and the woman I love but never told, waiting for the darkness to swallow me up.
Except it never comes. Something pulses like a heartbeat around us, growing stronger and stronger until…light. It doesn’t glow. It blazes, growing bright like an inferno. White-hot and blinding, it explodes behind my eyes.
Magic pulses through my veins, battling with the ice flowing through me. My body jolts at the weird sensation of hot and cold colliding, seized by something bigger than us. Something that feels ancient and holy, like the well is no longer devouring but judging, and it has reached its final verdict.
Then, in a blink of an eye, everything releases.
I’m weightless. Floating between here and there.
In my body and out. Magic courses through me, but it’s foreign and not my own.
The power overwhelms me, and my body is unable to contain it.
And suddenly everything explodes around me, and I’m not in the water anymore.
I’m thrown onto solid ground, like the earth itself has spit me out in rejection or mercy—I can’t tell which yet.
I choke and cough, sucking in sweet air that tastes like honeysuckle and life.
My lungs burn, desperate to fill up with oxygen.
My vision swims, unable to make out anything other than blurry shapes and fast-moving colors.
And then I hear her laugh. A sweet, melodic sound I didn’t think I would ever hear again.
Evangeline.
At first, I think I’m dreaming, but then her laughter bubbles up through the chaos like sunlight cutting through storm clouds.
It borders on hysteria, which is appropriate for the situation we’re in.
Still, there’s never been a more beautiful sound.
I lift my head—barely able to move—but there she is.
Alive. Breathless and wide-eyed, but alive.
I know she’s alive because my body hurts, and if this is the afterlife, I would hope I wouldn’t feel pain.
Her wet hair is plastered to her face, eyes red from crying, and still fucking radiant.
“I thought we were dead.” Her voice shakes as she half laughs, half sobs. “Or is this death? Tell me we’re alive. Zephyr? Finnick?”
“I…” Finnick sputters, choking on water before spitting it out. “If this is death, it really sucks,” he mumbles.
I try to speak, but the only thing that escapes is her name.
“Evangeline…” My arm lifts on instinct, shaky and slow, and my fingers brush her damp cheek.
She’s shivering—soaked to the bone from the well’s cursed water, but I have no warmth to offer her.
Only the cold that’s always lived beneath my skin.
Ice in my veins. But she’s here. Real. Breathing. And so am I.
We’re alive.
It shouldn’t be possible. Jumping into the well should’ve killed us. It was meant to. A sacrifice for our people to end the curse, and yet… here we are. Very much alive. Something must’ve gone wrong. Or maybe…
Maybe Lady Thalia was wrong.
But just as that thought begins to form, Evangeline turns to me, her expression crumbling into something raw and full of wonder. There are tears in her eyes, but I don’t think they are those of sadness. “Of course,” she whispers. Then louder, “A true act of selflessness.”
Evangeline struggles to stand up, but she manages to right herself, and I scramble to my feet. She then picks up Finnick from the sand, dusting him off the best she can. She’s crying now but also laughing.
She stumbles toward me like her legs barely remember how to work, and when she crashes into my chest, I catch her without thinking, and we topple back.
My arms wrap around her, needing to feel her against me, and for a moment, we’re the only two people in existence.
Just her. Just me. Just this unbearable, overwhelming relief.
Until Finnick groans, and small hands press against my chest, reminding me we aren’t alone. “Let go of her, you walnut.”
Evangeline ignores him as she pulls back to look in my eyes with admiration I don’t deserve.
I acted as a coward, not wanting to be left alone, when she showed true strength.
“You showed an act of true selflessness and were prepared to sacrifice yourself for me,” she whispers into my neck. “You saved us, Zephyr.”
I want to deny it. Want to tell her I didn’t do anything—that I followed her, that I was ready to die just to be near her, that I’m not the hero she thinks I am.
I’m not the hero type. Never have been. Everything I did was out of pure selfishness and desperation.
I wanted Evangeline and didn’t want her dying alone.
Fuck, I didn’t want her dying period, so I did the only thing that felt right in the moment.
I followed her in. I would follow this woman to the ends of the earth if it kept her safe. Apparently, so would Finnick.
“That’s really great, Zeph. Really great,” Finnick interjects. “Especially the part where you jumped in after me. So, I think I performed the selfless act, thank you very much.” He rests his hands on his small hips, taking on a haughty attitude.
“Why did you jump, Finnick? You weren’t supposed to,” Evangeline chastises, but her expression is full of gratitude. It was clear she had been worried about Finnick but touched by the act.
For the first time ever, Finnick blushes, looking down at the wet sand below us. He just shrugs. “You’re my best friend, Eva. I wasn’t going to let you die without me. I didn’t want you to be alone.”
Now Evangeline cries in earnest. She pulls Finnick closer, holding him to her chest. “You’re my best friend too,” she manages to say between sobs.
As they console one another, I can’t help but feel Evangeline is wrong.
Neither Finnick nor I are the ones who made the sacrifice today.
It has always been Evangeline, since the moment she got here.
Giving up everything she knew to love a kingdom she didn’t grow up in.
Saving people she didn’t know. Jumping into the well was just another sacrifice she made for everyone, and whether or not she will admit it, I’ll always know the truth and carry it with me until the day I die.
Thankfully, I don’t think it’ll be today.
Before I have the chance to tell her any of this, though, she moves in front of me, wrapping her arms around me, and her lips find mine. The kiss isn’t tentative. It’s not sweet.
It’s alive.
Her lips crash into mine like she’s trying to brand her soul onto me.
I kiss her back with the same urgency she’s showing me, anchoring myself in the taste of her, the feel of her, the life in her.
Her fingers run through my hair like she’s afraid I’ll slip away.
And I grip her hips like I won’t let her, because I won’t.
Never again. I’m seizing my chance at happiness, never going to waste another precious second again.
She breaks the kiss with a shaky breath, and I lie there in the sand, stunned, dazed, and completely in love with a woman I didn’t think I deserved or could have. Then, slowly, all around us, the land begins to change.
Where the ground beyond the sand was once dark and poisoned, vibrant grass pushes up through the dirt.
Color returns to the world like someone painted it back in with a careful hand, splashing watercolors across the canvas.
Trees, once wilted and gray, bloom with golden leaves.
I feel it deep in my bones—something old has been lifted.
The curse is broken, or at least I think it is. A weight feels lifted off my shoulders. For the first time in a long time, I breathe easily, inhaling the woodsy scent of the forest and not just death and decay.