Chapter 38
SHE IS ME
ODELIA
The rock is wet and solid beneath my feet.
Water drips from my braid and clothes, darkening it in specks as we approach.
It’s quiet. Like we’ve stepped into another world.
The cavern is exactly as I remember—smooth stone peppered with pillars that reach towards the ceiling.
Nerves swirl in my gut, equal parts excitement and trepidation.
This is it. After everything, we’ve made it.
The door ahead is framed with stone, sealed tight, with an impression in the centre.
Rune slips the key from his pocket. The pieces had fit together easily once we had them all, each slipping onto the next.
It’s round, like a compass, with a pattern of waves on one side and the imprint of a nautilus shell on the back.
I let him take the lead as we approach. If there are connections to his history, his family, he deserves to find them.
He deserves everything. Island after island, we fought for this.
Saved each other’s lives for this. Went in by ourselves and only came back out again because of the trust that was forged in each trial.
I can hardly get enough air in as my heart picks up speed. I watch him, looking for the same tumultuous nerves. Only, he stops. I step to his side and find his brow pinched hard.
“What—” I follow his gaze, and realise the problem at the same moment he speaks.
“We’re missing something,” he says.
My stomach bottoms out. He’s right. The shape of the key is perfect, except the one cut out of the door has an extra line that protrudes from the centre. We’re missing a piece.
No.
“But that doesn’t make sense,” I say, a weight settling over my heart and shoulders even as I deny it. “We went to every island.”
Rune presses the key in the recess, to no avail. “You’re sure we addressed all the riddles?”
“I’m sure.”
He’s a calm, windless sea while I am rising panic. “You’re absolutely certain?”
“Yes!” I try to keep the bite out of my voice, but I know the riddles like I know the stars in the sky. “Can I look at it?”
I hold my hand out for the key, though I know it’s useless.
Rune hands it over without question. The metal is warm.
The wave pattern on the bottom matches the door.
It’s the right size. There’s no way we stumbled on the wrong island with a perfectly hidden, locked door. We’ve done everything we were meant to.
I run my thumb over the nautilus shell recess on the other side of the key. I hadn’t missed a riddle. There’s no way. But we’re definitely missing part of the picture.
“Maybe it’s another puzzle,” I say, but there’s nothing else in here, no scales to balance or accidentally slip through. If there are any secrets here, the cavern isn’t giving them up.
Rune sighs. “Let’s head up for now. Maybe the secret is somewhere else on the island. We can set up camp while we figure out what to do next. Check the map again.”
I almost object, as if staying here might change the fact that there’s no clear way forwards. We’re so close, but failure already tries to envelope me in its bitter weight, smothering even my frustration. This can’t have been all for nothing. Rune deserves to make it to the other side of that door.
I hand the key back to him and move to the water, my heart sinking with every step, my mind running though every flooded cavern and abandoned temple.
I shouldn’t have let this take me by surprise.
Nothing has been as straightforward as it seemed.
Rune scoops me up from behind, and I gasp, but settle my head against his chest as he cradles me close.
“We’ll figure it out,” he murmurs into my hair. For just a moment, I let his strength ground me. Warmth and the scent of salt cling to his skin, reminding me of the nights I’ve spent with him.
Then he slips us back in the water, and the sea stone hardly has time to activate before we’re on the other side again.
The chitter of insects follows us as we find the others and let them know we plan to stay a while. A few take the rowboats back to The Gilded Hart for equipment or supplies.
Tavi finds us hovering at the rise of the tree line, watching bodies weave back and forth on the shore setting up tents. Otto disembarks from one of the rowboats and drops an overstuffed bag, then begins to drag a massive pot towards a slowly growing stack of wood.
“Any update?” Tavi asks, her eyes caught on Soraya, who also limps through the chaos.
“We’re working on it,” Rune says.
“There’s a piece missing,” I clarify.
Rune shrugs. “We could have put it together wrong.”
I shake my head. We missed something. I can feel it.
“I’ll need to take another look at the map.
I know we hit every riddle, but maybe there’s something hidden that we didn’t know to look for before.
” My thoughts stray to the nautilus marking on the back.
It’s a common enough design, but it feels like a clue.
“If we end up leaving without the treasure, I’d rather leave no stone unturned. ”
A familiar foreboding ghosts over my body a breath before a rumbling voice speaks behind us in the trees, the sound like an unwelcome memory in the night. “Without the treasure?”
Alarm spears through my every limb, sending my body moving. I spin, dagger in hand, dread already having wrapped my chest in a tight fist. Rune is slower to react, but only by a moment. He hasn’t had years of muscle memory trained into avoiding that voice taking him by surprise.
The towering figure materializes as if from nowhere, only barely distinguishing itself from the trees.
“You mean we wasted all this time, for nothing?” He moves, his boots crashing through the underbrush.
Panic snakes up my spine, every pump of my heart fueling the icy chains that I can already feel tightening on my wrists, as if he’s already won.
He steps into a spear of light and stops.
Ivor.
The trees continue to move. The Vipers smirk as they flank him, their weapons already drawn.
It should be impossible; if they were tailing us we would have known. “How did you find us?” Somehow, my voice doesn’t shake. Beside me, Tavi’s knuckles are white on the grips of her swords. The very air is drawn tight around us, like the next fallen leaf might send blows flying.
Ivor crosses his arms. His massive sword is still secured to his back, his posture relaxed enough to keep mine tense.
“You think I wouldn't know you’d make your way back here? You’re my daughter.
I know you better than you know you. And a lot better than this guppy if he’s really allowing himself to be alone with you near a cache of treasure.
” Some of the Vipers laugh and cat call in the trees.
“Oh,” he goes on, as if in afterthought, “there’s also this. ”
One of the larger shadows behind him drags a gagged man forwards. His short, curly black hair is clumped with dirt and blood, but he straightens up on his knees, keeping his shoulders straight and proud.
“Killian,” Rune says, his voice pained.
“Killian!” Ivor guffaws, the giant expanse of his chest rumbling with laughter.
“That’s really your name, son? And yet you hardly put up a fight.
That’s a name you have to earn, not one worn by shitty spies.
” Ivor lifts a boot and plants it into Killian’s back, throwing the bound man face first into the dirt.
“Of course, even without him”—Ivor shifts to press his weight into Killian’s back—“I would have known, Nisse.” He gestures to the trees, and a pair of selbies swoop down, their bodies blurring and growing until they stand as a man and a woman with steel-grey hair and eyes.
Then there’s a jarring, familiar screech, and a larger bird swoops over our heads, morphing into a man on Killian’s other side.
I shuffle through memories, trying to remember if I’d seen the feathered stowaway with my own eyes, but all I remember is the hair-raising screech.
It takes too long for my mind to catch up.
“Garreth.” I look between him and the other shifters, and all at once I’m shocked by my own arrogance.
I thought I could get away. I thought I knew every move Ivor could have made.
But the whole time. . . “You made them stalk the ship. Too chicken to do it yourself?”
The hawk shifter spits. “Do you think I’m that stupid?”
I ignore him. “You used them to follow us.” The accusation is low, but I know Ivor hears me.
He grins, finally taking his boot off Killian’s back. “I didn’t have to follow you. I know you’d find a way to the treasure, clever girl. All I did was wait.”
His approval sits sour in my gut. I can feel Rune look to me but I don’t dare look back, afraid of what I might see on his face.
This is my fault. I led them all here. I thought I could get away.
But no one gets away. And now I’m dragging them all down with me.
I never wanted to be like Ivor, but I risked us all for a bit of coin.
Rolled the dice with lives on the line and still lost in the end.
My hands shake, but my shoulders are square as I unhook the bola from my side and step in front of Rune. I don’t need to ask what’s next. I don’t offer a bargain or beg. The rest of the Vipers have their eyes set on the shore behind us, watching the crew of The Gilded Hart with violent interest.
Ivor slowly pulls his sword from his back, making a show of widening his stance before beckoning me over.
I throw one apologetic look over my shoulder at Rune, hoping he can see the grief in my eyes.
He nods, looking so unphased it almost shocks me into a smile.
A sharp whistle pierces the air and I look to Tavi in surprise.
Her attention hasn’t moved from the Vipers in the trees, but I can hear shouting start up behind us.
It’s Elio, calling the others to arm themselves and find us.