Chapter 45
Pain arced through Dominic’s back, fire shooting through his aching muscles.
He hissed through clenched teeth, nails digging into the wood of the chair, arms crossed over the backrest he faced.
Exhausted, his head drooped to rest on his arms, looking out at the vast ocean through the porthole of the captain’s quarters.
“Sorry,” Ace murmured behind him, carefully peeling away the layers upon layers of bandages on his back. Dominic sucked in a sharp breath.
They’d all made quick travel back to Lykrios and boarded their ship, eager to get to Andreilia.
Dominic was grateful they could finally go home and take some time to heal—not only from their physical injuries but from the mental fatigue of these journeys—before they hatched a plan to find the shadow steel and dragon scale, the only two remaining relics.
“Your magic is dwindling again . . . ” Ace trailed off with a sigh.
Even with Ace standing at his back to restitch one of the lacerations that had torn open and rebandage his wounds, Dominic could still sense the shake of his second’s head, the scolding in his tone.
“You have to stop exerting yourself so much.”
A prick of the needle, followed by a wince.
Dominic’s labored breathing filled the silence yawning between them, interrupted only by the soft groan of the ship as it rocked against the waves.
So many tears in his skin, deep and agonizing, layered over scars that still ached sometimes.
Each sting of that whip had hurt more than the last. Striking again and again, over layers and layers of scar tissue, over each new laceration.
How Adara or Ace could stand to look at the bloodied tissue and ruined skin without hurling, Dominic didn’t know.
“You have to finish this soon,” Ace said as he continued stitching, occasionally wiping away drops of blood.
“Finish what?” Dominic replied, his tone taking a sharp edge, noting the inquiry in Ace’s words. He knew exactly what his second was referring to, but did not want to discuss such matters with him, with anyone.
A pause from the sting of the needle. Then it struck again, piercing his skin, pulling the edges of his cuts closed.
Dominic bit the inside of his cheek to keep from wincing.
“Need I remind you,” Ace said through clenched teeth, “that we don’t know what happens to the island, which is tied to your life, if you die?
If you don’t find another key, another life, in time? ”
There was a hint of worry in his voice, but Dominic couldn’t fathom why. Surely Ace, of all people, should have the confidence that he would win.
“I’m working on it,” Dominic hissed. Adara was harder to break than the others. Her heart may have shields that he could crumble, but her mind was an impenetrable fortress, and Adara had always been one to rely on her head.
“It doesn’t seem like your tactics are succeeding this time,” Ace stated blandly, finishing placing the last dressing on his back.
Dominic let out a disgruntled noise from the back of his throat, a warning that Ace did not heed.
“Please tell me you are not falling for the one girl in this world that you cannot have because your survival depends on her death. And because she has made it clear she will kill you if she wins.”
Dominic stood abruptly, the chair falling over as he whirled on Ace. “I am not falling for her,” he said through gritted teeth, a lethal calm settling into his bones.
Crossing his arms over his chest, Ace cocked his head to the side, brows raised.
“I see the way you look at her, Dominic.” His brown eyes went soft, all fight draining away, replaced with hopelessness.
“Like she is the sun, the center of your universe, and you are the earth, where there is no life without her.”
Dominic inhaled, fists clenched at his sides. As much as he wanted to strangle Ace, he couldn’t deny it. “That’s entirely besides the point,” he countered.
“You’re right,” Ace shot back quickly, like he wouldn’t get a word in if he hesitated, ire flaring in his eyes once more. “The point is you can’t be screwing around with some Pherra you know nothing about! Not again! Not with your key on the line!”
Rage filled Dominic. Warmth trickled down his palms, the bite of his nails stinging against his palms, imagining Ace’s neck in his fist instead. How dare Ace order him around, knowing how easily, how barbarically Dominic could end him right there. How dare he bring her up.
That Pherra, whose name Dominic had forgotten over all these years.
A girl who, long ago, when he first came to the island, had almost killed him because he had made the mistake of falling in love with her as he played her into giving up her key.
The girl he almost died for because he didn’t have it in him to take her power from the key—almost.
He’d killed her anyway, claiming his first key. He loved her . . . and he killed her anyway.
“I know all about Adara!” Dominic countered, slamming a hand on his desk, causing the pocket watch sitting atop scattered maps to rattle.
Ace shot him an incredulous scowl. “Do you?”
Dominic firmly nodded his head, all logic leaving him as he fought to prove a point.
“I know she is from a continent called Blemythia, which no one has ever heard of because it has been wiped from existence. I know she needs the Realm Fracturer to return. I know she is a princess, an heir to the throne, and prophesied to be her home’s salvation or destruction.
I know she is a Flamecarrier, descended from the Goddess of Fire and Courage.
I know she was captured by the Shadow Empire, tortured for years, honed into a weapon they planned to utilize to destroy her own kingdom.
I know she escaped, and her friends were slaughtered.
I know that she was the reason I carved out my heart and wiped my memories—”
Ace’s jaw dropped. “What?” He snapped his mouth shut, features hardening. “She is the reason you threw away your heart and your memories?”
Dominic’s lips parted, nothing but air leaving as his throat constricted. What the Hel was he thinking? He clamped his mouth closed, mortified at all he’d revealed to defend his feelings toward Adara.
“She is the reason for all that pain,” Ace seethed, fists clenching at his sides.
Dominic remained silent.
“That only makes her all the more dangerous!”
“Don’t you think I know that?” Dominic snapped, throwing his hands up in the air.
He had to fix this. He could not lose. He could not love Adara again.
Getting to know her was simply a way to show his false care for her, to worm his way into her heart.
At least that’s what he tried convincing himself.
“Do you really believe I would put my key, my life—possibly all our lives—on the line for some stupid girl?”
Ace sighed and shook his head, understanding replacing the irritation in his eyes.
“No,” he admitted quietly, shoulders slumping, all the fight draining from him.
“You’re too cunning for that. But, like I said, I see the way you look at her, and it seems like there’s something more.
The one person you finally decide to open up to is the one who wants to kill you. ”
“It’s all part of the plan. I have to make her believe that I’m falling for her if I ever want a shot at her loving me,” Dominic said impassively. “I’m not falling in love, Ace. And even if I was, you have nothing to worry about. Everything I love surely dies.”