I look down and frown at the hilt of my dagger now poking out the top, then slowly lift my gaze to his eyes.
He had my blade this entire time?
But why?
Something slashes within the depths of his eyes like a whip of blades. “Because I didn’t trust you to wake up with it, Milaje. For good reason.”
My heart stills.
He thought I’d—
I drop my stare, recalling the moment his voice struck and stilled my feet.
Stopped me from going …
“The boy’s fine, Orlaith.”
Frowning, I look up into his obsidian stare. “What?”
“I saw Baze pull him from the water,” he says, tone softer than it was before. “He’s fine.”
Realization strikes, widening my eyes.
My mouth falls open as Rhordynspins, prowling through the jungle while my pulse roars in my ears. While the trees seem to sway with my tipping perception.
Zane’s okay …
Della didn’t lose another child.
My knees buckle, hand slapping out to brace myself against a tree as I cup the words he just gifted me and pull them close to my chest. Smooth them into a shell I use to cradle my broken heart.
Baze saved Zane.
I shake my head, whimpering.
Rhordyn’s alive. The people who were caged in the burrow are free and hopefully partway to Ocruth by now. The rest of the ships are hopefullyalsosailing to Ocruth …
It feels too good to be true.
Another whimper, and I clap my hand over my mouth to catch the whittled sound of relief, because itistoo good to be true.
If I let myself fall into this feeling, my walls will crumble.
My guard will drop.
I still havedeathcoiled within the chasm inside my chest, hunting every step I take.
Hunting the ones I love.
I may have missed Rhordyn’s heart, but that sizzling darkness … It took my own flesh and blood.
No.
I pinch the vine of relief threatening to stitch me whole again, and pick it free of my heart one plucked loop at a time—the messy lumps of flesh falling away from each other in devastating increments. I rip it out at the roots, wincing from the sharp pain that almost makes me gag, then tuck it in a bundle at the base of my chest.
I forge a dome—just one—setting it atop the bloody corpse before turning my attention toward the forest of emotions crammed within my chest. So much wild collateral I have no idea where to begin untangling it all without making a bigger mess. Without potentially disturbing that strange, macabre creature I hatched back on the pier—the one I can sense hiding down there somewhere amidst the painful clutter.
Perhaps if I just …back away? Ignore it all?
