“I will always come when you need me,” I replied.
She smiled up at me. Lara was calling to us from the boat. She screamed that they were being pursued. Ember took my hand, and we raced for the boat. There would be time for catching up later. Now, we had work to finish.
CHAPTER 42
EMBER
It might takethe rest of my eternal life to understand what had happened on the shore of the Erydanos. Or perhaps I would never understand, would never be able to put all the pieces of what had happened together in the right order. All I knew was that I had my sword back, and the people I loved most in the world were all right.
As we sped away from shore, a tear slipped from Lara’s eyes. First, I pressed a kiss to Ares’ hand and then went to Lara, pulling Rhiannon in as I went. The three of us clung to one another.
“We have her,” Rhiannon murmured into her earpiece. “She’s alive…”
I brought my lips to Rhi’s ear, so that Briony could hear me. “I killed Cromvale, and destroyed the thrysos, I think… I mean, I sent it into what looked kind of like a mini black hole. You might want to run a search of some kind to find out if that’s gonna turn out okay.”
Faintly, I heard the teenager talking excitedly in the earpiece. Rhiannon shook her head. There was no relief on her face, though she and Lara looked significantly more relaxedthan I’d seen them in hundreds of years. Both stood taller, their swords resting deep within them, as did mine.
Rhi and I kept an eye on our pursuers. They followed at almost the same pace as our boat. Gaining on us, but little by little. Their boats were certainly powerful enough to overtake ours. They were military grade. Stuff only the Authority had access to, though if the Authority followed us, they’d have overtaken us by now.
Something else was going on. I remembered, faintly, Ares telling me that Eli had said there were other players on the board. I had a feeling we were about to find out just how complex things actually were. On top of the night I’d already had, that seemed like a lot to take in.
Bird by bird. That was how we were going to get through this. I glanced back at Ares, who talked quietly with his brother and Avaline. He was making sure they were all right, just as I was with my people.
“How do you feel?” I asked Rhiannon, pulling her close to steal some of her heat.
“Good,” Rhiannon breathed. “Not one hundred percent yet, but once Sera has her sword that should resolve itself.”
Lara nodded as she glanced over at us. “Hopefully, anyway.”
None of us knew if we could regain our full powers, given the situation with Max. Nothing like this had ever happened before, but at the very least, we were better off than we had been this morning.
I hugged them both again, careful not to distract Lara from driving the boat, but not wanting to let go. “Head for the Inland Sea,” I said. “We’ll face them at the delta.”
Lara nodded. “Get seated so I can go full speed.”
I took a seat in the bow between Ares and across from Rhiannon, who sat pressed against Eryx Necroline in a way that was just slightly more than friendly. For Rhi, that was practically the equivalent of public sex. I fought to keep thesmirk off my face. Ares pulled on my braid, turning my face to his.
“Eyes on me, gorgeous,” he whispered as his mouth met mine. I would take the reward, and the respite of his kiss, however brief.
When we reached the delta, Lara spun the boat so that we faced our pursuers. As the two fiberglass speedboats pulled up alongside us, my heart raced. I recognized the Maere inside.
Not only did they have Max and Sera with them, but about a dozen familiar faces. None of them had been reincarnated. Each was exactly as they had been on the island. Exactly as they had been when we were children. None of them even appeared to have aged much.What were they doing here?
A hopeful part of me thought they were here to help, that the island had taken my warnings seriously. But no one on the boat smiled. None raised a hand in greeting as a tall figure stepped forward, moving to the closest edge of their boat.
“Myrine,” I breathed at the same time as Lara asked, “You’reMother?”
I glanced at Lara, who nodded toward the pin on Myrine’s coat. “The only time I met with Mother, she wore a mask, and that pin.”
The broach was a distinctive design, a cluster of silver dahlias, set with onyx centers. Ares stared at them as well. “Betrayal or commitment?” he whispered, obviously referencing his interest in floriography.
Myrine smiled. “Both, I suppose, depending on how you look at things.”
A snarl caught in my throat as I saw that Max and Sera were bound. If Myrine was Mother, why were her peoplebehaving as though they were our enemies? My heart sank. This was not what I’d hoped at all.
This was something I did not yet have words for.
I moved slowly to the edge of the boat, crossing my arms over my chest, feeling my sword’s presence, snug against my spine. That at least was a reassurance of a kind. The storm clouds cleared above us, giving us a sliver of the moon. “Why have you restrained my people?”
